In Indiana, researchers at Purdue University are exploring the use of tapioca pearls as an environmentally friendly way to dehydrate ethanol, rather than using corn grits to absorb water or molecular sieves to remove water molecules. The study showed that tapioca pearls absorbed about 34% more water than corn grits. In addition, tapioca can be […]
In Texas, AlgEternal will soon open a facility in the J.J. Pickles Research Campus at the University of Texas, Austin, where algae will be cultivated using a vertical method involving glass tubes. The research partnership between UT’s Electromechanical department, UTEX Culture Collection of Algae and AlgEternal will produce algae for biodiesel as well as cosmetics […]
In Iowa, researchers at Iowa State University have run the numbers and have discovered that since May, the net return on biodiesel production has been 50 cents a gallon—the highest in four years. The return to profitability is a combination of biodiesel, soybean oil, methanol and natural gas prices all in the right place. Production […]
In Texas, the Southwest Research Institute launched a collaborative effort to assist clients to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and to address governmental mandates for alternative fuel production and tightened emissions standards. SwRI’s new International Alternative Fuel Technology Center (IAFTC) will maximize the Institute’s decades-long expertise in fuels and fluids. SwRI laboratories are outfitted with […]
In Texas, John Fleming of SilverEagles Energy and Jim Maxwell with Texas Tech University report that they are working up a process to produce ammonia as fuel. If successful, their system can be installed at local filling stations where it will produce hydrogen by electrolysis and then pull nitrogen from the atmosphere by way of […]
In the UK, researchers at the Newcastle Institute for Research on Sustainability (NIReS) are looking to position the North East as a global center for the development of gasification and carbon capture and storage technologies capable of significantly reducing emissions from the region’s carbon-intensive heavy industries. NIReS is currently working on several complementary research projects […]
In the UK, a new €14 million (US$19.7 million) initiative was announced which will gather experts from across North West Europe to develop the potential of algae as a source of sustainable energy. Several leading European organisations, including the UK’s National Centre for Biorenewable Energy, Fuels and Materials (NNFCC) will be involved in a four […]
In Tanzania, the Mlingano Agriculture Research Institute will begin a sisal characterization program aimed to develop a protocol for the production of ethanol and citric acid from liquid effluents. The program comes under the proposed ten-year Sisal Crop Development Plan (2011-2020) to characterize available sisal species and document their potential for various by-products. The government […]
In England, University of York researchers, working with other researchers in the U.S. and Europe have a identified the molecular mechanism behind an enzyme found in fungi which can degrade the cellulose chains of plant cell walls to release shorter sugars for biofuels. They found a way of initiating effective oxidative degeneration of cellulose using […]
In the UK, Green Biologics and Songyuan Laihe Chemical announced a collaborative development and licensing agreement in China. Under the terms of the agreement GBL and Laihe will collaborate to improve the economics of Laihe’s biobutanol plant by optimising GBLs fermentation technology using sugars derived using Laihe cellulosic pre-treatment process. It is anticipated that the […]
