The U.S. Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Technologies Office is hosting a conference on expanding commercialization of products incorporating mutualistic microbes in order to increase biomass production. The conference will be held on June 20–21, 2013, …

(University of Illinois/Ethanol Producer Magazine) Two University of Illinois scientists have developed an environmentally friendly and more economical way of pretreating miscanthus in the biofuel production process.
“We pretreat the biomass with switchable butadiene sulfone in the …

(United Sorghum Checkoff Program)  The Sorghum Checkoff in collaboration with the NCERC at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (formerly the National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center) is pleased to announce a successful bench-scale evaluation of sweet sorghum juice …

(Algae Industry Magazine)   An algae research proposal from Oklahoma State University’s Robert M. Kerr Food & Agricultural Products Center (FAPC) was ranked No. 1 of 28 plant-related research projects, resulting in $100,000 in funding …

by Adam Wilmoth  (News OK)  OSU researcher Gerald Schoenknecht and his team recently completed genome sequencing for an algae that thrives inside active volcanoes. The researchers hope to use their findings to help make tough …

(Enerkem/PR NewsWire)  Enerkem Inc. (www.enerkem.com), a waste-to-biofuels and renewable chemicals company, announces the launch of a new research project with the Government of Canada. The objective of the project is to develop new catalytic processes for …

by Matthew Landau (Aquatic Biosystems) In 2010, Qatar University initiated an algal biofuel project funded by Qatar Airways, and Qatar Science and Technology Park with a 3-year budget of USD 12 million. Completion of the first …

(Algae Industry Magazine)  A Johns Hopkins University student team is working with a starter grant of $15,000 from the EPA to see if algae can consume nutrients from wastewater and produce clean bio-fuels and fish food. …

(American Chemical Society)  Scientists today reported a discovery that could speed an emerging effort to replace ethanol in gasoline with a substantially better fuel additive called butanol, which some experts regard as “the gasoline of …

(North Dakota State University Extension/Farm & Ranch Guide)  …At North Dakota State University, the feasibility of using new sugarbeet varieties, known as energy beets, for ethanol production is under study. Energy beets have characteristics very …

(Algae Industry Magazine)  The Japan News reports that in Miyagino Ward, Sendai, a project has started at a sewage treatment facility to extract a biofuel ingredient from wastewater using algae. This first of its kind …

by Russ White (MLive)  … Michigan State University leads research of bioenergies and biofuels through AgBioResearch and the Kellogg Biological Station and partnerships with coalitions such as the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center and the Global …

by Kim McDonald   (University of California at San Diego)  New discoveries of the way plants transport important substances across their biological membranes to resist toxic metals and pests, increase salt and drought tolerance, control water loss …

by Tim Radford  (The Daily Climate)  Charcoal and other forms of black carbon do not, as previously thought, stay where they are buried. They migrate to the oceans and recirculate the carbon they contain.
Climate scientists …

(Algae Industry Magazine)  Nutrients PLUS (NP), a company headquartered in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and Old Dominion University (ODU), in Norfolk, Virginia, have applied for a patent on recent discoveries they’ve made related to the use …

(American Chemical Society)  The search for a less-expensive, sustainable source of biomass, or plant material, for producing gasoline, diesel and jet fuel has led scientists to duckweed, that fast-growing floating plant that turns ponds and …

SUBJECT: Biomass to Biofuels course: 4 credits Fall 2013 starting August 26th
Biomass to Biofuels course, 2013 Fall Semester, University of Vermont
- a complete Bio Renewable Energy Program
4 Credits, August 26, 2013 to December 4, 2013 …

(PorkNetwork)   Iowa State University is conducting a nationwide survey of livestock producers’ use of feed-related coproducts from ethanol production. … Livestock producers are invited to take the survey online until June 19 at:  http://humansciences.ethanolcoproducts.sgizmo.com/s3/   READ MORE and MORE (Ethanol …

by Ben Messenger  (Waste Management World)  A method of using oxygen to convert lignin, a byproduct of biofuel production, into a form that could replace fossil fuels as a source of renewable chemical feedstocks has …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) …It used to be that the outskirts of Honolulu had the dual scent of diesel and pineapple processing — but now, all you really smell is the diesel. Sugarcane and …

(Kansas City Star/Associated Press)  A St. Louis-based rental car company has announced a $2 million gift to the University of Missouri.
The donation from Enterprise Holdings Foundation, the philanthropic arm of St. Louis-based Enterprise car-rental company, …

(Algae Industry Magazine)  One of the major roadblocks to mass-producing algae for biofuels, observes researchers at the University of Michigan College of Engineering, is the need for fertilizer. Although algae have trouble reusing the nitrogen …

(Algae Industry Magazine)  Researchers at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA) and the Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM-CSIC), in Spain, have analyzed the potential of different species of microalgae for producing biodiesel, comparing …

by Chris Hanson (Ethanol Producer Magazine) Researchers from U.K.’s University of Bristol reported the development of new catalysts that are able to convert ethanol to butanol at the national meeting and exposition of the American Chemical …

by Susanne Retka Schill (Ethanol Producer Magazine) A team of Virginia Tech researchers have adapted existing technologies to make a new product, transforming cellulose into amylose. One target market for the amylose would be functional foods, said …

(Algae Industry Magazine)  lgae Testbed Public-Private Partnership (ATP3) members from across the U.S. gathered at the Arizona State University Polytechnic campus April 15-18 for their national kickoff meetings to discuss strategies for advancing research and …

by Vince Stricherz (University of Washington)  Hydrogen sulfide, the pungent stuff often referred to as sewer gas, is a deadly substance implicated in several mass extinctions, including one at the end of the Permian period …

(Algae Industry Magazine) A new map of the algae industry published online by the Algae Biomass Organization (ABO) shows algae production facilities and research projects stretching from coast to coast, illustrating a nationwide opportunity for a new and growing industry …

(Science Daily)  Stepping into unexplored territory in efforts to use corn stalks, grass and other non-food plants to make biofuels, scientists have described the discovery of a potential treasure-trove of candidate enzymes in fungi thriving …

by Anneli Waara (Algae Industry Magazine)   …However, a group of researchers at Sweden’s Uppsala University, led by Senior Lecturer Fikret Mamedov and Professor Stenbjörn Styring, have just announced a discovery that changes the view on …

(Algae Industry Magazine)  Premier of Queensland, Australia, Campbell Newman, has cut the ribbon on an advanced solar biofuels pilot plant designed to develop microalgae-based systems as a source of clean fuel and animal feeds.
The $3.5 …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …. And surprisingly, a research team from the University of California, Davis has not only catalogued the impacts of treating microalgae with 83 different compounds. They’ve found that common antioxidants …

(EnvironmentalResearchWeb.org)  Scientists in Brazil have found that nitrous-oxide emissions from sugarcane fields vary depending on the nitrogen source employed as a fertilizer. Ammonium nitrate results in higher nitrous-oxide emissions than urea, they discovered. With around …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …You’ve probably seen it, in some way, for years — a local pond seems suddenly crowded with algae — or there’s news of a “red tide” blooming at sea — …

by Tom Marshall (Planet Earth Online)  Adding charcoal to land used to grow bioenergy crops can greatly increase their overall benefit in helping cut our greenhouse-gas emissions, scientists have shown.
Applying so-called ‘biochar’ before planting energy …

by Emily Pickrell (FuelFix)  On Jan. 1, Congress made algae-based fuel production eligible for a $1.01-per-gallon cellulosic biofuel production federal tax credit.
Cellulosic biofuels typically are made from woody, non-food material such as grasses or wood …

by David Wogan (Scientific American)  The idea is straightforward: grow algae in large quantities and harvest the energy dense byproducts as an alternative to fossil fuels. Like larger plants, microalgae use solar energy to fix …

(EurekAlert!/American Chemical Society)  Genes from the family of bacteria that produce vinegar, Kombucha tea and nata de coco have become stars in a project — which scientists today said has reached an advanced stage — …

(Biofuels Center of North Carolina)  The Biofuels Center of North Carolina recently awarded $684,058 for six projects to accelerate the renewable fuels industry in western North Carolina. Awards are made through the 2012-2013 targeted biofuels …

(Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute/PR NewsWire)  The $100K ACC Clean Energy Challenge, a business plan competition supported by the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) encouraging students from universities in the southeastern United …

(Virginia Tech News)  A team of Virginia Tech researchers has discovered a way to extract large quantities of hydrogen from any plant, a breakthrough that has the potential to bring a low-cost, environmentally friendly fuel …

by Brandon Howell (MLive) Michigan State University and the University of Wisconsin will continue their partnered research of advanced biofuels thanks to $125 million from the U.S. Department of Energy.
The Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, …

(Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona/Biodiesel Magazine)  Dinoflagellate microalgae could be used as a raw material to obtain biodiesel easily and profitably. This is the conclusion of a study led by Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) scientists, …

The ‘Energy 101’ project collaborators are hosting a webinar detailing the newly released Energy 101 curricular framework.
This webinar is for educators, administrators, and other interested parties who would like to learn about the Energy 101 …

(Green Car Congress)  A new spatially-explicit life cycle assessment of five different “sun-to-wheels” conversion pathways—ethanol from corn or switchgrass for internal combustion vehicles (ICVs); electricity from corn or switchgrass for battery-electric vehicles (BEVs); and photovoltaic …

(Lund University)  …The ash is what is left when rubbish has been burnt in thermal power stations. A researcher from Lund University in Sweden has now developed a technique to use the ash to produce …

by Jim McMahon (Biodiesel Digest)  Since 2008, the San Diego Center for Algal Biotechnology (SD-CAB) has been conducting research into algal applications for biofuel. This has been a joint collaboration between several departments of the …

by Ron Kotrba (Biodiesel Magazine)  For biodiesel fans in the Washington, D.C., area, American University is the place to be April 2 as the Greater Washington Region Clean Cities Coalition co-hosts an engagement highlighting American …

by Solrun Dregelid  (University of Bergen) The marine animal tunicate can be used both as biofuel and fish food, according to prize-winning research at UiB and Uni Research.
On the ocean floor, under the pier, and …

by James Hataway  (University of Georgia)  Excess carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere created by the widespread burning of fossil fuels is the major driving force of global climate change, and researchers the world over …

(Biological Sciences Curriculum Study)  Teacher-collaborators will field test a 3-credit, online, graduate-level course designed to enhance teachers’ knowledge and practice related to energy concepts. The course is titled Energy: A Multidisciplinary Approach for Teachers (EMAT). Teacher-collaborators and …

by Joanna Schroeder (DomesticFuel.com)  In the heart of Wisconsin, a project is underway to produce energy from a resource that is in little danger of running low: cow manure, or “brown gold.” Thanks to a …

by Jessica Nelson  (Auburn University)  Maobing Tu, an assistant professor in the School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, has received a $401,155 National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Award for his research in biofuels …

This workshop covers the fundamentals of managing microalgae cultures, culturing techniques, measuring biomass, high-value natural products, harvesting and processing technologies, as well as life cycle analysis and operation at the commercial scale. Topics presented are …

by Dr. Hector Hernandez (The National)  …One area of particular interest is the energy potential of algae that live in the desert’s saltflats – known as sabkha.
Algae is one of the many forms of plant …

(University of Sheffield/Biodiesel Magazine)  It may be better to tolerate lower oil content in algae grown for biodiesel to boost growth and overall productivity, according to research from the University of Sheffield. The research shows …

by Chris Bagley (Triangle Business Journal)  Universities and other state government agencies have cut their use of fossil fuels by 19.9 percent since 2004, according to an analysis by the Clean Transportation Program at N.C. State University’s Solar Center.
…Much of …

(AMEInfo.com)  Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, an independent, research-driven graduate-level university focused on advanced energy and sustainable technologies announced it presented details on the UAE’s growth and export potential in the biofuels-from-algae sector to …

(Vermont Bioenergy)  Vermont researchers and entrepreneurs demonstrate their innovations in algae to biofuel R&D in the Northeast  WATCH VIDEO

by Stuart Radnedge  (GasWorld)  Air Liquide, in a joint project with the Karlsruhe Institute for Technology (KIT) in Germany, has successfully completed the second stage of a second generation biofuels pilot unit at Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe.
This pilot …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Fast pyrolysis developer plans to rapidly expand green benzene and toluene production in 2013 for downstream product development purposes.   Opens new pilot plant, R&D facility in New York; green …

by Skip Derra (Arizona State University)  Conversion of large swaths of Brazilian land for sugar plantations will help the country meet its needs for producing cane-derived ethanol but it also could lead to important regional climate …

by Molly Craig (Iowa State Daily)  In the spring of 2012, Tyler Cain had an idea. A year later, his idea has grown into his passion project: the REV club.
REV stands for Renewable Energy Vehicle. …

by Richard C. Baliban, Josephine A. Elia, Christodoulos A. Floudas, Xin Xiao, Zhijian Zhang , Jie Li , Hongbin Cao, Jiong Ma §, Yong Qiao, and Xuteng Hu (Industrial Engineering and Chemistry Research)  Duckweed biomass is …

by Joanna Schroeder (DomesticFuel.com)  A Virginia Tech researcher, along with several others, have offered a way to ensure that plants grown for biofuels do not become an invasive weed. According to Jacob Barney, an assistance …

(PHYCO2/Biodiesel Magazine)  …The partnership will demonstrate the patent-pending PHYCO2-developed technology to sequester CO2, reclaim water and continuously grow multiple types of algae at an accelerated rate without sunlight. The goal of the demonstration project is …

(Science Daily)  With projections of 9.5 billion people by 2050, humankind faces the challenge of feeding modern diets to additional mouths while using the same amounts of water, fertilizer and arable land as today.
Cornell researchers …

(California Economic Summit)  … But as the Cali-Baja Mega-Region Initiative, as it’s now called, celebrates its fifth year in existence next month, it has become clear these three distinct regions can not only overcome their differences—they’ve …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Algae, drop-in fuels get a kick-start from $3.2 billion ARENA funds
In Australia, two key projects focused on algae biofuels and drop-in fuels from wood biomass and residues took major steps …

(BusinessWire)  Dr. Kenneth Hudnell, one of the foremost experts on harmful algal blooms, cyanobacteria, their toxins, and their effects on health and aquatic ecosystems is calling for a significant shift in government regulatory policy and remediation …

(Science Daily)  Fat worms confirm that researchers from Michigan State University have successfully engineered a plant with oily leaves ­- a feat that could enhance biofuel production as well as lead to improved animal feeds.
The …

The essential course to prepare professionals to work in the expanding field of corporate social responsibility and sustainable development
McGill University’s Institute for the Study of International Development and the law firm of Fasken Martineau are …

by Dr Andreas Henschel (The National)  …The UAE, recognising the potential of biofuel, is now looking to discover its own plant-based sources of energy. And it is trying to mitigate some of the challenges posed …

by Lidija Grozdanic   (Inhabitat.com) …Scientists Daniel Bond, Zarath Summers and Jeffrey Gralnick of the University of Minnesota’s BioTechnology Institute used the co-called electrochemical cultivation to grow iron-oxidizing bacteria without any presence of iron. By adding …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Could a switch to biofuels make super-dense JP-10 military aviation fuels affordable? Could F18A Super Hornets add payload or extend range?
Currently reserved for tactical missiles because of cost, biofuels could …

by Tina Casey (Clean Technica)  As pressure on the Obama Administration to approve the Keystone XL Pipeline ramps up, algae biofuel is emerging as yet another domestic energy source that undercuts every argument for the …

by Sepp Jannotta (Bozeman Daily Chronicle)  A Bozeman biofuels startup is partnering with Montana State University to turn a fungus discovered in the highly acidic hot springs of Yellowstone National Park into sustainable energy.
The discovery …

(Michigan State University)  In our ongoing quest for alternative energy sources, researchers are looking more to plants that grow in the wild for use in biofuels, plants such as switchgrass.
However, attempts to “domesticate” wild-growing plants …

by Helen Tunnicliffe (TCE Today)  Moving process to mitochondria ups production 260%
Chemical engineers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have engineered yeast to increase production of isobutanol, a promising biofuel, by 260%.
Isobutanol, a heavy alcohol, contains more …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  22 projects around the world show the multi-faceted promise of algae.  Concrete, polyurethane, bioplastics, cosmetics and, oh, fuels — so many big things to make from algae, it’s become a …

(Brown University)  Digesting lignin, a highly stable polymer that accounts for up to a third of biomass, is a limiting step to producing a variety of biofuels. Researchers at Brown have figured out the microscopic …

(Biofuels Center of North Carolina)  East Carolina University associate professor Baohong Zhang is currently working on cutting-edge approaches to increasing feedstock yields of Switchgrass for biofuels. Dr. Zhang and his collaborators have found that Switchgrass …

(Great Lakes Biodiesel/BusinessWire)  World Class Niagara-based Educational Institutions Provide Companies Like Great Lakes Biodiesel with Access to Top Notch R&D Facilities and Highly Trained Job Ready Graduates
Great Lakes Biodiesel (GLB) in Welland has partnered with …

by Aino Siirala (Advanced Biofuels USA)  Aalto University School of Chemical Technology, Finland,  organized a biofuel seminar February 2,2013, where Finland’s leading companies in this field introduced their expertise and recent projects.
The EU has set …

by James Hataway (University of Georgia)  When Li Tan approached his colleagues at the University of Georgia with some unusual data he had collected, they initially seemed convinced that his experiment had become contaminated; what …

(University of Minnesota)  Innovative print and online magazine and event series showcases solutions to Earth’s biggest environmental challenges
In response to a growing demand for trusted, solution-focused communication about environmental topics, the University of Minnesota today …

by W.M.J. Achten, A. Trabucco, W.H. Maes, L.V. Verchot, R. Aerts, E. Mathijs, P. Vantomme, V.P. Singh, B. Muys  (ScienceDirect.com/Journal of Arid Environments)  Biofuels are considered as a climate-friendly energy alternative. However, their environmental sustainability is …

(Ohio State University) OARDC has received a $6.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Energy to test and expand OARDC-developed technology that can produce biogas from a variety …

by Li Jiao (SciDev.net)  Deep inside insects’ guts may lie the key to one of the biofuel industry’s great challenges: how to cost-effectively turn tough plant waste into profit-making fuel.
About 50 million tonnes of lignin …

(Algae Industry Magazine)  West Virginia-based Touchstone Research Laboratory, is experimenting with three new technologies at their raceway farm testing center built around four 30-by-200-foot ponds in Wooster, Ohio. Funded by close to $7 million in …

by Holly Jessen  (Biodiesel Magazine)  A two-year research project aims to crack the lignin question by engineering a microbe to break down the byproduct into a lipid, or fat, and then into biodiesel. The research …

by Joanna Schroeder (DomesticFuel.com)  According to a new study performed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, corn grown using no-till methods may sequester larger amounts of carbon than previously believed. The study was published in …

by Mark Kinver (BBC News)  Scientists have identified willow trees that yield five times as much sugar as ordinary varieties, “drastically reducing” the impact of biofuels.
UK researchers found that if the trees grew at an angle, …

by Nina Chestney (Reuters)  British scientists seeking to tap more efficient forms of solar power are exploring how to mimic the way plants transform sunlight into energy and produce hydrogen to fuel vehicles.
They will join other …

(FIS)  A Cornell University team has used the Monte Carlo approach to quantify the role of uncertainty associated with process parameters in life cycle analysis (LCA) of algae-to-biofuel schemes for determining metrics such as Energy …

(Science Daily)  The mainly EU-funded DISCO project coordinated by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has developed powerful enzymes, which accelerate plant biomass conversion into sugars and further into products such as bioethanol. The project’s …

(University of Massachusetts-Amherst NewsWise)  Paul J. Dauenhauer, a chemical engineer at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has received a five-year, $400,000 grant from the National Science Foundation’s CAREER program to conduct basic research on the …

by Scott Irwin and Darrel Good  (University of Illinois/Farm Doc Daily)  In a post on January 10, 2013 we examined the relative profitability of meeting the RFS for advanced biofuels with domestically produced biodiesel and imported Brazilian …

by Ilya Gelfand, Ritvik Sahajpal, Xuesong Zhang, R. César Izaurralde, Katherine L. Gross & G. Philip Robertson (Nature)  …An alternative is to grow lignocellulosic (cellulosic) crops on ‘marginal’ lands9. Cellulosic feedstocks can have positive environmental …

by Zarina Khan (The National)  A simple suggestion during a standard orientation presentation led to one student’s discovery of a potential alternative energy source available in the open deserts of his home emirate of Abu Dhabi.
“Dr …