In Botswana, the Japan International Cooperation Agency has donated $233,200 in equipment for a five-year research study looking to produced jatropha-based biodiesel in the country. The donation include a portable Photosynthesis and Fluorescence System, a Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis machine (DGGE), and Weather Station. The country is experimenting with jatropha despite the fact that its […]
In New Mexico, New Mexico State University has received a $5 million grant from the DOE to boost its algae-based drop-in fuel technologies, including boosting yields and improving oil content. NMSU is collaborating with Los Alamos, Argonne and Pacific Northwest national laboratories, Washington State and Michigan State universities and four companies on the project.
In Spain, the EU-funded All-Gas research project has harvested its first crop of algae biomass grown using wastewater. The biomass will then be digested and turned into biogas for use in vehicles. Methane production from the algae is expected to produce 200-300 liters of gas per kilogram of biomass processed. If the country’s entire wastewater […]
In New Hampshire, a Dartmouth-led team has discovered a group of stress-related proteins that explains how plants avoid sunburn in intense light, a finding that one day could help biotechnologists to develop crops that can better cope with hotter, drier conditions occurring in climate change. In this study, Professor Hou-Sung Jung and his colleagues showed […]
In Colorado, the Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is working with Ecopetrol, the largest oil company in Colombia, to process the residue from sugar cane and palm oil harvesting into fuel ethanol for blending with gasoline. The Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) between NREL and Ecopetrol aims to optimize the conversion process […]
In California, UCLA MAE Ph.D. student Wei Yu raised $1.6 million series A venture capital for Lyxia Corporation, a biofuel startup based on research from UCLA MAE Professor Chih-Ming Ho’s Micro System Laboratories. Preceeding this, in July 2012, Lyxia Corporation was founded by Wei, and acquired exclusive rights to use new UCLA technology that increases […]
In Minnesota, researchers at the University of Minnesota have discovered that DDGS don’t have the antibiotic content originally assumed because they are either deactivated or reduced to extremely low levels during the production process. Presence of antibiotics in DDGS has been a major concern by livestock producers who use the ethanol byproduct as animal feed.
Carbon capture: much talked-about, less seen. Could biocatalysts and biofuels provide the kicker needed to make this class of technologies feasible? New news and data from Akermin suggests that bio may be just the ticket. In Missouri this week, Akermin, a biocatalyst company developing technology to improve the removal of carbon dioxide from industrial gas […]
In China, researchers from Tianjin University Research and Development Center for Petrochemical Technology found that one particular device has the potential to make a highly pure ethylene product from ethanol with high efficiency and low cost. The device, called a fluidized bed reactor, works by suspending the chemicals needed to make ethylene inside the walls […]
Today, we look at the 10 Hottest Waste to fuels companies, their prospects and their projects. So you’ve heard the bad news: climate change is here. The economy is too weak to do anything about it, they say. Natural gas is transformationally cheap, but try filling your car with it. Meanwhile, temperatures are rising, storms […]
