In Italy, oil prices, not ethanol, were the main drivers of grain prices in a new study from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). While ethanol moves in line with oil in the long term, the relationship between ethanol and oil prices between 1980 and 2012 has been nonlinear in the short term. The […]
In Brazil, the Sao Paolo Research Foundation FAPESP and Peugeot Citroën approved a proposal for the creation of a Research and Engineering Center focused on the development of biofuel-powered combustion engines.The center will bring together researchers at the Mechanical Engineering School of the University of Campinas (Unicamp), the Polytechnic School of the University of São […]
In Georgia, the U.S. Patent Office has awarded Siemens Water Technologies a patent for a system and method to control biofouling of filters used as a first stage of treating ballast water in its SeaCURE(TM) Ballast Water Management System. The patent, entitled “Method and System for Biofouling Control of Shipboard Components” (U.S. patent no. 8,591,740 B2), […]
In Germany, successful trials using additives to help biodiesel survive long-term storage, even during cold months, have been completed by the national biodiesel standards body AGQM. Testing took place under ideal conditions as well as real conditions, monitoring oxidation stability, acid and peroxide numbers, as well as water content in monthly intervals. Using additives appears […]
Authors: M. G. Kalyuzhnaya, S. Yang, O. N. Rozova, N. E. Smalley, J. Clubb, A. Lamb, G. A. Nagana Gowda, D. Raftery, Y. Fu, F. Bringel, S. Vuilleumier, D. A. C. Beck, Y. A. Trotsenko, V. N. Khmelenina & M. E. Lidstrom Abstract: Methane is an essential component of the global carbon cycle and one […]
In Indonesia, the Indonesian-Swedish Initiative for Sustainable Energy Solutions has been launched at the Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, the result of an MOU between Indonesia’s National Energy Council (DEN) and the Energy Agency of Sweden (SEA). The focus of the institute will be on the development of sustainable biodiesel that will reduce negative impacts […]
In Oregon, researchers at Oregon State University have discovered a master regulator gene in a common fungus, which expands access to new compounds that could have use in industrial biofuels. Scientists succeeded in flipping a genetic switc, activating more then 2000 genes in the fungus. “Our studies will open the door to future precise ‘epigenetic […]
In Illinois, researchers from the University of Illinois show that in the country’s first long-term studies into miscanthus that even though production slips after five years, biomass production is still double that of switchgrass. The results in the US are even more promising than those from studies done in Europe. Miscanthus was grown in seven […]
In the UK, Robert Gordon University and University of St Andrews have been awarded $1.88 million for a four-year project seeking a way to make biofuels from waste using solar energy economically viable. Straw and recycled paper waste will be the main feedstock for the research funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
In California, researchers from Bio Architecture Lab published in the journal Nature an alginate monomer transporter they discovered that will help to significantly boost the efficiency of cellulosic ethanol production from brown macroalgaes. Using fermentation, the researchers were able to achieve 83% theoretical yield from the sugars.
