In Finland, VTT and UPM announced that the tests they’ve been performing on UPM’s renewable diesel since last May have shown that the fuel works just as well as fossil diesel. The tests used a 20% blend of UPM’s BioVerno on four Volkswagen Golf 1.6 TDI cars that traveled 20,000 km each during the course […]
In Michigan, a multi-institutional team reports that it can increase sugarcane’s geographic range, boost its photosynthetic rate by 30 percent and turn it into an oil-producing crop for biodiesel production. Working first with the laboratory-friendly plant Arabidopsis and later with sugarcane, the team introduced genes that boost natural oil production in the plant. They increased […]
In Finland, the first fleet tests of UPM’s renewable diesel proved that UPM BioVerno works in cars just as well as regular diesel. The fleet tests, conducted through last year, focused on investigating UPM’s renewable diesel in terms of fuel functionality in engine and fuel consumption. At a 20% blend level, fuel consumption matched that […]
In Michigan, a team of Michigan State University scientists has invented a new technology that increases the odds of helping algae-based biofuels cross that gap and come closer to reality. The current issue of Algal Research showcases the team’s invention — the environmental photobioreactor. The ePBR system is the world’s first standard algae growing platform, one […]
In France, researchers from the Laboratoire de Chimie-Physique at the Universite Paris-Sud have demonstrated the use of Streptomyces, a soil bacterium known for making antibiotics, for producing biofuels. The researchers used atomic force microscopy combined with infrared spectroscopy, a method that could be used by others to determine other microbes for biofuel production.
In the UK, Rothamsted Research scientists, who receive strategic funding from the BBSRC, have demonstrated that a by-product of the biodiesel industry shows potential to reduce nitrate leaching and so improve agricultural sustainability. The study is published at the journal Water Air and Soil Pollution. A criticism of biofuel production from oil crops is the […]
In Denmark, researchers from Southern Denmark University with colleagues from the University of Baghdad and Al-Muthanna University in Iraq have developed an acid called RHSO3H made on the basis of rice husks that help to produce second-generation ethanol without the need for expensive enzymes.
In Germany, UFOP determined that rapeseed oil is the most important raw material of the biodiesel component in diesel fuel, comprising 89% of the content based on investigation of the raw material composition of diesel fuel at public filling stations commissioned by UFOP. Palm kernel oil comprised 6% and palm and soya oil comprised 4 […]
In the UK, bright pink-orange microalgae found in salt lakes and coastal waters could become a renewable source of food, plastics, health products and fuel as a result of new research announced this week. The University of Greenwich is leading a EUR10 million international project to develop the microalga Dunaliella as a sustainable raw material that […]
In Virginia, researchers from Virginia Tech, Berkeley and other institutions have discovered that a process that turns on photosynthesis in plants likely developed on Earth in ancient microbes 2.5 billion years ago, long before oxygen became available. The research offers new perspective on evolutionary biology, microbiology, and the production of natural gas, and may shed […]
