In Norway, a spin-off of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) known as MemfoACT has secured $4.1 million to commercialize its carbon membrane can transform low-grade biogas into valuble biofuel that can be used in cars, buses and trucks. The technology will first be used to upgrade units that produce biomethane from biogas. […]
In Missouri, the Mine Safety Health Administration has released a report showing how the use of biodiesel in mines significantly improves the air quality in mines. Hutchinson Salt Company in Kansas was the first mine of any kind to use B99 biodiesel (a 99 percent biodiesel fuel mix). Since 2003, the company has used between […]
In the UK, British Airways, Rolls-Royce, Finnair, Gatwick Airport and IATA Airbus announced that they will form a research consortium with Cranfield University to support the university’s efforts to produce algal-based aviation biofuels. The group has established a pilot project for growing and harvesting biomass on the Cranfield campus, and expects to move to an […]
Peachtree Media Advisors released its latest 2010 report, and reported that in the first eight months of 2010, there were 206 greentech mergers, acquisitions, and capital raises totaling $10.2 billion in reported deal value. While the 206 transactions were only slightly more than the 183 recorded during the same period in 2009, deal value grew […]
In Texas, Glycos Biotechnologies it has created the first ever microbial platform for the efficient synthesis of biofuels and biochemicals from fatty acids. This revolutionary advancement builds on GlycosBio’s microorganism platform and further diversifies the set of feedstocks and co-products the company offers enabling greater cost savings and product flexibility for producers. This research was […]
In Tennessee, researchers from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Georgia Tech, using a small-angle neutron scattering technique, have described the crystalline morphing of switchgrass under hot sulphuric acid pretreatment. The researchers found that the crystal length of cellulose fibrils doubles during pretreatment and that lignin redistributes to form droplets that are 30 to 40 […]
In California, researchers at the University of Cambridge have studied Arabidopsis plants that lack two of the enzymes that build xylan, one of the main factors that makes lignocellulose rigid and difficult to break down. The next step in the research is to work with miscanthus and other bioenergy crop breeders to see if they […]
By Direct special correspondent Sam A. Rushing Perhaps the newfound trend with respect to carbon dioxide (CO2) will be various forms of recycling of this greenhouse gas and gas commodity. There has been a great deal of press associated with new start up companies which propose using CO2 from virtually all source types for the […]
Algal biofuels were proposed last year as an answer to the stalled Filene’s construction site at Downtown Crossing in Boston. The Eco-Pod, as designed, is a vertical algae bioreactor built with custom prefabricated modules. According to Höweler + Yoon, the proposed pods would serve as biofuel sources and as micro-incubators for other research and development […]
Though dollars for commercializing biofuels are as scarce as water on Mars, two projects have found R&D funding to look at opportunities for growing biofuels in space. Last August, we covered a group at NASA’s Ames Research Center who are working to convert space-based plant residues, from plants grown by astronauts to provide food and […]
