In the Netherlands, Dyadic International announced today that its research and development center in the Netherlands is a member of the Bio-Mimetic Project, a new multidisciplinary research consortium that has been awarded a EUR 3.5 million grant from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) of the European Community for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration Activities. The European consortium is commencing […]
In Wisconsin, UW-Madison assistant professor Brian Pfleger received a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award, from the National Science Foundation, that will assist in his research on metabolic pathways in bacteria that can be used for drop-in advanced biofuels. Specifically, his research focuses on microbes convert levulinic acid into free fatty acids that can be […]
In Washington, the US Energy Information Administration released its Annual Energy Outlook for 2012. Among changes in this year’s Outlook, an updated Reference case was included as part of this complete report, to incorporate modeling changes and reflect new legislation or regulation that was not available when the Early Release Overview version of the Reference […]
In Thailand, ASEAN is urging the nation to team up with Malaysia and Indonesia on biofuels to reduce its oil import bill. “We should get more serious about joint development of biofuels, as in the future the oil price will definitely increase,” Khunying Thongtip Ratnarat, former executive director of the Petroleum Institute of Thailand and […]
In India, the Sugarcane Breeding Institute based in Coimbatore has begun research intro transgenic sugarcane though it expects it will take several years before it is able to release a BT sugarcane variety for commercial use. SBI has been working on energy canes with two varieties already released. More on the story.
In the UK, researchers at the University of London, Queen Mary, are investigating the biological electrical “switches” in cyanobacteria whose manipulation could lead to better biofuels production from solar power. More on the story.
In India, the Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI) at Chennai, a unit of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), has successfully developed a biorefinery to produce biodiesel, bioethanol, biohydrogen and biomethane from tannery solid waste. Tanneries across the country have been a major cause of environmental pollution and ground water contamination. Ground water […]
In Indiana, an article regarding the Midwest’s capability for producing grain sorghum was published in the journal Biofuels, Bioproducts, & Biorefining by researchers from Purdue, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and the University of Illinois. The article argued that sorghum is more attractive to midwestern farmers for a number of reasons: the infrastructure and grain elevators […]
In Washington, writing in The Scientist, Carnegie Institution of Washington’s Wolf Frommer and Tom Brutnell of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center said that a 10-year, $100 billion investment in food and energy science is required, in order to address the planet’s long term fuel and food needs. The authors note a 2012 FAO estimate […]
In New York, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory show that ramping up the microbes’ overall metabolism by feeding them more carbon increases oil production as the organisms continue to grow. More on the story.
