(Colorado School of Mines)  Nanette Boyle, assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering at Colorado School of Mines, has been awarded funding through the U.S. Department of Energy’s Early Career Research Program.
Boyle will receive $750,000 over five …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  …In today’s Digest, wool without the sheep, fuels from water and C)2, bacteria-powered solar cells, spectral imagery in the sky, artificial intelligence in the crop field, sugar-based straws and more, ready …

(Algae Industry Magazine)  Have some of the final engineering limitations of microalgae been overcome? Can microalgae be hosts for genetic engineering as powerful as bacteria and yeast? A promising new technique for gene design seems …

(iGEM Foundation)  A pioneer in engineering biology.  —  The iGEM Foundation is an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of synthetic biology, education and competition, and the development of an open community and collaboration. This …

(Science Foundation Ireland)  … The Spoke research teams will collaborate in developing technologies capable of converting a wide variety of residues and by-products to homogenous energy carriers and optimising performance of internal combustion engines using advanced …

(National Renewable Energy Laboratory/Biomass Magazine)  Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the University of Georgia developed a new genetic engineering technique to dramatically improve an enzyme’s ability to break down …

(Appalachian State University/Biomass Magazine)  Thanks to a $98,599 grant from the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (NCDA&CS), a team of professors in Appalachian State University’s Department of Sustainable Technology and the Built Environment, along with …

(University of Michigan)  University of Michigan scientists grew various combinations of freshwater algal species in 80 artificial ponds at U-M’s E.S. George Reserve near Pinckney, Michigan in the first large-scale, controlled experiment to test the widely …

(Oak Ridge National Laboratory)  Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are using neutrons to understand why certain hydrocarbons produced by blue-green algae are important to their biology, so new strains can be engineered to sustainably …

(Yale University)  Our Center hosted a student video competition at the 22nd Green Chemistry & Engineering conference in Portland, Oregon. The competition is part of the bigger Yale-UNIDO initiative, which aims to increase the general global …

by Helena Tavares Kennedy (Biofuels Digest)  In Arizona, Arizona State University researcher Kevin Redding is working on biological, light-driven energy extraction. Redding, a biochemist who leads the Center for Bioenergy and Photosynthesis at ASU, is producing hydrogen …

by Tom Rickey (Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory/Phys.Org)  Last month a rocket thundered off a NASA launch pad in Virginia, destined for the International Space Station. Nestled among the 7,400 lbs. of supplies was a handful of …

(University of Portsmouth)  A new family of enzymes has been discovered which paves the way to convert plant waste into sustainable and high-value products such as nylon, plastics, chemicals, and fuels.
The discovery was led by members …

by Maegan Murray  (Washington State University-Tri-Cities)  Efforts to create an environmentally friendly catalyst that will lower the cost and increase the efficiency in producing bio-based jet fuels has netted Washington State University researchers a $500,000 grant from the …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  The meanest, nastiest, ornierest, heat-seeking organism ever found that munches biomass and other microbes that got a booster via the DOE’s $40M grants for advanced microbes R&D. And aromatics without the …

(U.S. Department of Energy)  The U.S. Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO)-funded Algae Technology Educational Consortium (ATEC) is proud to announce its first graduates from the algal certificate program at Santa Fe Community College in Santa Fe, …

(EurekAlert!/University of Science and Technology of China)  Liquid multi-carbon alcohols such as ethanol and n-propanol are desired as renewable transportation fuels. They offer high energy densities, ease of long-range transport, and direct drop-in usage in existing …

by Caroline Brogan (Imperial College London)   Imperial scientists have enhanced the process of using biology to make products such as fuels, plastics, medicines, and cosmetics.  —  This could lead to cheaper and more environmentally friendly biofuel production and …

(Hood College)  The United States Department of Agriculture has awarded Hood College Professor of Biology Craig Laufer $100,000 over an 18-month period to fund research and development of cost-effective biofuels. Successful completion of this project would …

(Planet Forward)  Join Planet Forward staff for a trip to California or Rome for one of our fall storytelling expeditions! Travel and lodging is covered by sponsors for this trip and students are expected to contribute a …

(Forest Concepts/EIN Presswire)  Forest Concepts LLC has been awarded a $1.8 million cooperative agreement from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Technologies Office (https://www.energy.gov/eere/bioenergy) to address the critical issues of poor flowability, high friction, and …

by Maegan Murray (Washington State University Tri-Cities)  WSU Tri-Cities associate professor Xiao Zhang is targeting the use of lignin — a common material that makes the cell walls of plants rigid — to create affordable biofuels …

(Algae Industry Magazine)  Hayley Dunning writes from the Imperial College of London that a new discovery has changed our understanding of the basic mechanism of photosynthesis and should rewrite the textbooks. It will also tailor …

(University of Minnesota)  Process Converts Scum to Biodiesel  —  A new waste remediation process converts scum from waste water treatment plants (WWTPs) into ASTM compliant biodiesel. The six-step method begins with a filtration step that separates water/oil/solid …

by David Fridley and Richard Heinberg  (Renewable Energy World)  The headline of this article was composed simply by rephrasing the title of a popular recent piece in The Atlantic — “Climate Change Can Be Stopped by Turning Air into …

(Science Daily/Queensland University of Technology)  Waste oil from orange, tea tree and eucalyptus essential oil production mixed with diesel provides a sweet-smelling biofuel blend with comparable performance to diesel-only fuel.
QUT PhD researcher Ashrafur Rahman tested each …

by Steven Taylor (Yellow Hammer)  … But for a moment, let’s reexamine biofuels, as they can still play an important role in our state’s energy production and economic development. According to the Energy Institute of Alabama, our state …

by Amit Jha (Crazy Engineers)  Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore have found a novel approach to produce energy by using sunlight and carbon dioxide. By using a collection of quantum dots made up of …

(Purdue University Research Foundation News)  Purdue University researchers have developed a series of engineered proteins that could improve biomanufacturing processes for the production of biofuels, pharmaceuticals and commodity chemicals.
The buildup of toxic materials during the production process …

(University of Idaho/Ethanol Producer Magazine)  University of Idaho College of Natural Resources Assistant Professor Tara Hudiburg was awarded $750,000 to study the sustainability of biofuels. The grant, award by the Department of Energy, is part of a $104 million …

by Bob Yirka (Phys.org)   A team of researchers with members from institutions in Singapore, China and the U.K. has found a way to improve electron transfer in enzymatic biofuel cells. In their paper published in …

(SCIAD Newswire/Open Cell)  Open Cell has joined forces with regeneration specialist, U+I, and the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and SynbiCITE to launch a biolab to offer affordable spaces at the Old Laundry Yard in Shepherd’s …

Come learn from top digestion operations experts to increase biogas production, digestate quality, revenue and avoid costly, time-consuming and smelly mistakes for your digester.  The American Biogas Council and UW-Oshkosh have put together a first …

(University of Florida) University of Florida scientists wondered how cheaply fuel ethanol can be made from inedible plant material – called biomass – using currently available technology.
Their goal is to make this form of ethanol less …

(Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences)  The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) has signed a strategic partnership agreement with Stora Enso. Through the agreement SLU and Stora Enso intend to establish a long-term collaboration in research …

(Bioenergy Insight)  A problem facing biorefinery operations is the flow of biomass into and throughout facilities. Lignocellulosic biomass, often made up of post-harvest agricultural materials such as corn stover and soybean hulls, often accumulates and compacts …

(EurekAlert!/Lund University)  The EU biofuel regulation does not guarantee a reduced climate impact – nor does it address the core issue of substantially reducing transport emissions, according to a new doctoral thesis from Lund University in …

(SCG Chemicals) SCG ChemicalsTeams up with TRF and Chulalongkorn University to Develop Catalyst-Based Technology for Biodiesel and Bioethanol Industries to Strengthen Thailand’s Competitiveness towards Sustainable Growth
SCG Chemicals led by Dr. Suracha Udomsak, R&D Director and …

(Yle)  In order to avoid unwanted attention from industrial spies, the biofuel – which could replace gasoline and diesel – was developed in secret.  —  A professor at Turku’s Åbo Akademi and Sweden’s Umeå University says he …

(Tribune News Service)  The Bioincubators Nurturing Entrepreneurship for Scaling Technologies (BioNEST), Panjab University (PU), has got a grant of Rs 2.57 crore for projects in food and agriculture processing.“The government wants us to suggest ways of …

by Igor Houwat, Eric Poliner (MSU-DOE Plant Research Laboratory)  Eric Poliner and a team of MSU scientists in the Farre and Benning labs have released a new genetic engineering toolkit for the alga Nannochloropsis. The alga …

by Emma Lowry (University of Nottingham/Phys.Org)  Engineers at the University of Nottingham Malaysia have developed new technology to help the global palm oil processing industry reduce CO2 emissions and create renewable energy from its waste.
…
Some 400 …

by George Poikayil (Indian Express)  The “path-breaking” findings were published in the prestigious peer-reviewed journal Plant Physiology in May.  —  A team of 14 scientists from Korea, Spain and India discovered a key to increase biofuel from …

by Leyla Battista* (Advanced Biofuels USA) The Consortium for Advanced Bioeconomy Leadership and Education (CABLE) grant was established by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to prepare the next generation of leaders and integrate them …

The CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) and the Climate Smart Agriculture Youth Network (CSAYN) are organizing an online discussion on partnerships, innovations and financing opportunities available for young people …

(Unidad de Cultura Científica y de la Innovación (UCCi))  Several University of Cordoba research teams have created a new system to predict the sound from these engines depending on the chemical physical composition of the biofuel  …

by Carrie Muhlling (Energy.AgWired.com)  Ethanol plant employees will have the opportunity to further their education this summer with two courses from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension Partnership.
The Process Control Essential Short Course is a two-day offering held …

(São Paulo Research Foundation/EurekAlert)  Protein encoded by gene found in microorganisms living in Amazon lake could boost efficiency on the sugarcane bagasse saccharification process, which makes for up to 50% of the global costs of cellulosic …

(National Council for Science and the Environment) The NCSE EnvironMentors Program provides mentoring, college preparation, and additional opportunities to high school students underrepresented in STEM fields.
EnvironMentors is NCSE’s youth mentoring and college preparation program for underrepresented …

by Helena Tavares Kennedy (Biofuels Digest) In the Philippines, researchers from University of the Philippines and Hiroshima University in Japan conducted a study that focused on ethanol production from macroalgae using only enzymatic treatment for saccharification of algal …

(U.S. Department of Energy) Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced up to $3 million in funding for advanced biofuels, bioenergy, and biobased products available through the Biomass Research and Development Initiative (BRDI). DOE …

(Bioenergy Insight)  Biomass company LC Energy has partnered with Berkshire College of Agriculture and Thames Valley Berkshire Local Enterprise Partnership to deliver the facility. The collaboration is an effort to address the nationwide skills shortage in …

by Paul Johnl (Times of India)   Sugarcanemolasses-based distilleries in India are not only water guzzlers but purge a highly toxic residue— spent-wash or vinasse. This unusually viscous dark brown coloured pungent liquid after recovery of alcohol.
If let out untreated, …

(News 18)  Gadkari suggested that institutions engaged in agricultural research take up topics such as biofuel to reduce dependency on oil imports.  —  Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said that his ministry has accorded permission to automakers Bajaj …

(Pennsylvania State University)  A $1 million investment by HERO BX, an Erie-based biodiesel company, will create research opportunities for students and faculty members in the School of Science at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College. Much …

(New Castle Herald/Muswellbrook Chronicle) Muswellbrook will soon be home to a $30 million purpose-built biofuel facility, following a $4.6 million investment from the NSW Government.
The funding allows the construction of the Hunter Pilot Biorefinery (HPB) to …

(University of Bristol)  Researchers in the Schools of Biochemistry and Chemistry are working to boost cellular productivity of biofuels at a fundamentally scientific level in order to create innovative, sustainable solutions to our global energy needs.
…
Collaborating …

(Bioenergy Insight)  New research is suggesting that advanced anaerobic digestion and reverse osmosis filtration in agriculture could be leaving behind ‘concerning levels’ of antibiotic residues.
…
 When farmers repurpose animal manure as fertiliser or bedding, traces of antibiotics …

by Krista Eastman (Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center)  In an article published last summer in Science, researchers at the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) reported on ten years of work assessing the potential climate benefit of producing …

by Mark E. Griffin (Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center)  Zymomonas mobilis is a creature of habit, a bacterial species that loves to eat simple sugars and produce ethanol, but shows little interest in anything else.
…
But TerAvest (Michaela TerAvest, …

by Joanna McWilliams (Colorado State University)  A Colorado State University project to grow and harvest ocean macroalgae for biofuel production has received support from the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E).
ARPA-E has poured over $22 million …

(Growth Energy)  Today, Growth Energy announced a new partnership initiative between its American Ethanol program and Universal Technical Institute (UTI), the nation’s leading provider of technical training for automotive, diesel, collision repair, motorcycle and marine …

(VTT)  A joint study by the University of Turku and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has shown that the ability of photosynthesising microbial cells to produce biohydrogen from solar energy can be markedly improved by …

(Bioenergy Insight) A project called Biogo-for-Production has developed new nanocatalysts to create an integrated modular and highly efficient process for producing fuels from renewable energy sources.
The researchers focused on the development of advanced nanocatalysts, coupled with advanced reactor …

by D’lyn Ford (North Carolina State University/Phys.Org)  A new systems biology model that mimics the process of wood formation allows scientists to predict the effects of switching on and off 21 pathway genes involved in producing …

(Brookhaven National Laboratory/Biodiesel Magazine)  Scientists studying plant biochemistry at the U.S. DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have discovered new details about biomolecules that put the brakes on oil production. The findings suggest that disabling these biomolecular brakes …

by Cindy Zimmerman (Energy.AgWired.com)  A former co-chair of the Next Generation Scientists for Biodiesel has been selected to participate in the World Energy Council’s Future Energy Leaders (NGSB) program. Deval Pandya, who is a Data Scientist in Advanced Analytics at Shell, will …

(Massachusetts Institute of Technology/EurekAlert!)  Several different carbon-pricing approaches would help reduce emissions, and some would be fair as well, researchers report  —  Putting a price on carbon, in the form of a fee or tax on the …

(FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO/EurekAlert!)  The study focused three fungi species which produce enzymes with application in biomass degradation; scientists in Brazil reveal how these substances are regulated and how they …

(Phys.Org/Colorado State University)  A Colorado State University project to grow and harvest ocean macroalgae for biofuel production has received support from the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). 
ARPA-E has poured over $22 million into …

(National Wooden Pallet & Container Association/PR Newswire)   Preliminary results of a research project conducted by Virginia Tech on the disposal of wood pallets at landfill sites reveal that 95% of wooden pallets are being recycled.  

The landfill avoidance …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Sometimes, what an engine needs to roar to life is a spark. Or a SPARC, as in this case.
As in the Southeastern Partnership for Advanced Renewables from Carinata (SPARC), a consortium consisting of …

(Algae Industry Magazine)  The University of Hawaii at Hilo announced that in affiliation with Duke and Cornell Universities, researchers have authored a study that suggests making croplands more efficient through algae production could unlock an important …

by Joey Aguilar (Gulf Times)  The Sustainable Development Centre (SDC) at Qatar University’s College of Arts and Sciences (QU-CAS) is now developing the techniques to produce bio-crude oil through its Qatar Biofuel Project, it was announced …

by James Coulter (The Daily Ridge) Can the algae growing within Polk County’s lakes be used to fuel our gas tanks in the near future?
Students at Florida Polytechnic University (FPU) have been researching this question for …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) … Er, what are AHB, SUBI, BANR, SBAR, NARA, CENUSA, SPARC, IBSS and NEWBIO?
You’d be forgiven if you mistook Ahb Subi Banr-Sbar for a well-placed official in the Iranian government — but, in fact, it’s a 9-project …

(Green Car Congress) Benzene, an aromatic hydrocarbon, is a natural component of crude oil and is one of the elementary petrochemicals. It is used as a precursor to the manufacture of more complex chemicals, and, with …

by Lauren Quinn  (University of Illinois)  Growing in its native Australia, the unobtrusive perennial vine Glycine tomentella could easily be overlooked. But the distant relative of soybean contains genetic resources that can substantially increase soybean yield, according to …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) The pace of invention and change is just too strong, we’ve realized, to highlight annual or even quarterly or monthly rankings and summaries of significant product and service advances. For now, …

(Green Car Congress)  A team of engineers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) recently discovered that a naturally occurring bacterium, Thermoanaerobacterium thermosaccharolyticum TG57, isolated from waste generated after harvesting mushrooms, is capable of directly converting cellulose to biobutanol.
In an …

(Univeristy of Illinois)  The USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture has announced a grant for $1 million to support research led by a University of Illinois scientist. The research will address the need for …

by Kai Chen, Xiongyi Huang, S. B. Jennifer Kan, Ruijie K. Zhang, Frances H. Arnold (Science Magazine)  Double rings made with heme  —  Cyclic organic structures with adjacent three-carbon rings—bicyclobutanes—are useful starting materials for chemical and materials …

(Graduate School VLAG)  The 1st Summer School on waste biorefineries in the context of bioeconomy, with a focus on valorization of recalcitrant side streams. A panel of specialists in the biorefinery field will provide an up-to-date …

by Sharon Gaudin (Worcester Polytechnic Institute/Biomass Magazine)  Funded by a U.S. Department of Energy grant, a team of researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute is creating a better way to convert waste food into biofuels that are …

(Ethanol Producer Magazine/Tufts University)  Researchers at Tufts University have created a genetically modified yeast that can more efficiently consume a novel nutrient, xylose, enabling the yeast to grow faster and to higher cell densities, raising the …

(Minnesota Bio-Fuels Association)  Thirty-five students from Ridgewater College toured the Chippewa Valley Ethanol Company (CVEC) plant in Benson on March 28 to get a closer look at how home-grown renewable energy is produced.
The students, from the …

(Algae Industry Magazine) Sunup’s ultimate goal is to clean up wastewater in Oklahoma to a level that it can be recycled or reused for crop irrigation. See how they do it. WATCH VIDEO

by Katie Worth (Frontline/The Groundtruth Project)  Last spring, science teachers across the nation began receiving unsolicited packages containing classroom materials from a libertarian group that rejects the scientific consensus on climate change.
This spring, some of …

(Phys.Org/Pennsylvania State University)  A comprehensive look at how plants build cellulose, the primary building block of the walls of most plant cells that is used in a wide variety of manmade materials, could have important implications …

The Science & SciLifeLab Prize for Young Scientists is now open for entries! This is the sixth year that Science and SciLifeLab will present this award, which offers four recent PhD graduates a life-changing opportunity.
Recent …

by Martin Høj (ScienceNordic/Phys.Org)  … The biological processes that transform biomass to alcohol yield a relatively low amount of energy, around 35 per cent of the potential energy stored within the biomass. So we are certainly not using this …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  “What would industrial progress be without natural rubber?” asks Rubber Journal Asia. “It’s hardly imaginable.” Listed as one of our four most important natural resources (the others being air, water, and …

by Michael Torrice (Chemical & Engineering News)   Finding a way to reuse the element could help lower nutrient pollution  —  … When industrial plants process corn grains to make the fuel, or even food products such as …

by Lonnie Shekhtman (Princeton University)  … In a series of experiments, they used light to control genetically modified yeast and increase its output of commercially valuable chemicals. The results offer scientists a powerful new tool to probe …

(Algae Industry Magazine)  Diversified Technologies, Inc. (DTI) has received a Phase II SBIR for the USDA NFIA to use pulsed electric field (PEF) processing for algal extraction and predator control. Working with the Arizona Center for …

by Ron Kotrba (Biodiesel Magazine)  Researchers from Nanjing Tech University in China have published a paper in Biotechnology for Biofuels on their method to increase lipid content and reduce peroxidation in Schizochytrium sp., a marine microalgae rich in docosahexaenoic acid …

(University of Waterloo/Biomass Magazine)  Farm manure could be a viable source of renewable energy to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming.
Researchers at the University of Waterloo are developing technology to produce renewable natural …

by Matt McDowell (The Battalion)  Texas A&M professor’s green energy research is helping turn bio waste into useful chemicals and fuels.  — … The MixAlco process, a term originally coined by Mark Holtzapple, chemical engineering professor, …

by Krista Eastman (University of Wisconsin-Madison/Phys.Org)  Behind the successful conversion of biomass to a better biofuel or a new green chemical, there is a carefully chosen solvent. The right solvent not only dissolves biomass but also …

(Muscat Daily)  The wastepaper which accounts for more than 35 per cent of the total lignocellulosic waste of the municipal solid waste could be a potential feedstock for value-added products due to its rich cellulose …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Sustainable Bioeconomy for Arid Regions (SBAR) is a multi-level research project that will cultivate two desert-dwelling crops, guayule and guar, for a sustainable bioeconomy. Combined, guayule (perennial) and guar (annual) feedstocks …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  We have a breakthrough in pyrolysis to report today that could reduce the estimated cost of producing fuel from $3.27 per gallon to $2.58 per gallon.
And no one quite understands how …

by Mary Guiden (Colorado State University) … A study from Colorado State University finds new promise for biofuels produced from switchgrass, a non-edible native grass that grows in many parts of North America. Scientists used modeling …

(The Roslin Institute)  Meat and milk production from cattle could one day be boosted, thanks to analysis of microbes in cows’ stomachs.  —  Beef and dairy cattle, and other milk-producing ruminants, provide food and nutrition to billions …

(Minnesota Bio-Fuels Association)  A group of graduate students from the University of Minnesota toured Guardian Energy in Janesville yesterday to get a deeper understanding of ethanol production.
The students, from the university’s Renewable Energy Technologies and Food …

by Betsy Lillian (NGT News)  The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced $4 million to support three new cost-shared research projects focused on medium- and heavy-duty, on-road natural gas engines, as well as $3 million to support …

(National Biodiesel Board) National Biodiesel Board releases field of “Elite Eight”  —  March Madness kicks off next week, showcasing the very best of college basketball. In that spirit, the National Biodiesel Board (NBB) has released its own …

by Emma Nobel (ABC Central Victoria News)  Environmental microbiologist and science champion Marianne Haines hopes her work converting bacteria into biofuel will lead to more sustainable outcomes, and more women studying science at the postgraduate level.
Growing up …

by Lisa Friedman (New York Times)  As the Republican Party struggles to find its footing with the next generation of voters, several conservative college groups have banded together to champion something anathema to the party: a carbon …

(University of Wisconsin – Madison/Ethanol Producer Magazine)  Advances in biofuels research tend to involve reduced costs, greater reagent stability, more diverse and valuable end products, or faster reactions, which often increase product yields as well.
But to …

by Joanne Ivancic* (Advanced Biofuels USA)  Leyla Battista, a senior biosystems engineering student at Auburn University, took advantage of an extraordinary opportunity to attend and speak at the Advanced Bioeconomy Leadership Conference (ABLC) Friday in …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  The DOE is supporting a project to develop engineered clostridia strains and fermentation process that can directly utilize cellulose and fix CO2 for n-butanol production from lignocellulosic biomass. The engineered strains can …

by Katarina Zimmer (The Scientist)  The finding could lead to a new way of producing “green” alternatives to fossil fuels.  — … Green Fuel  — Finding enzymes in nature that convert plant oils into fossil fuel–like hydrocarbons …

by Richard A. Lovett (Cosmos)  Could green microorganisms be the geoengineering fix the world’s needs?   —  … Not only can these fast-growing single-celled plants provide biomass for carbon-neutral fuels, they can provide animal feeds and high-quality protein …

(ARKA News)  The Innovation Center for Microbiological Biotechnology and Biofuel has opened today at the Faculty of Biology of Yerevan State University (YSU). A YSU press release says the new center is equipped with unique equipment, …

(University of Illinois, Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology/Biomass Magazine)  The U.S. Department of Energy awarded the University of Illinois a $10.6 million, five-year grant to transform two of the most productive crops in America …

by Joanne Ivancic* (Advanced Biofuels USA)  Advanced Biofuels USA joined 14 other exhibitors at the University of Maryland College Park recently to bring education about biofuels to students, faculty and businesses interested in sustainability and …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  … In the United Kingdom, researchers at the University of York found that the ability of some insects to efficiently digest cellulose could be exploited for industrial processes, such as the production of …

(Algae Industry Magazine)  A new online course in algae basics has just been made available by Coursera for anyone interested in learning the fundamentals of algae. The Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), Introduction to Algae, was …

(Phys.Org/University of York)  An international team of researchers, including scientists from the University of York, has discovered a set of enzymes found in fungi that are capable of breaking down one of the main components of …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) We’ve been covering some important movements in the design and performance of yeast in recent weeks, including the arrival of Novozymes’ Innova drive strains. Most of the activity has been focused …

(Biofuels International)  The Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) based out of the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison) is moving from the development of crop-based ethanol to creating fuels and chemicals that are fungible with their petroleum-based …

(Phys.Org/Karolinska Institutet)  Researchers from Karolinska Institutet have developed a quick and non-destructive method to map the carbohydrates of plant matter. By making composition analysis more easy and accessible, this method will help to understand where inefficiencies …

(Agencia Brasil/South America Times)  Petrobras has been working on the development of pioneering technology for the production of biodiesel from microalgae-an alternative to oil-derived fuels used in cars or any other diesel-powered vehicles.
In an interview granted …

by Maqsood Maniyar (Times of Oman)  Oman has a great potential to provide algae for synthesis of biofuel, observers in the field of biology have stated. The Sultanate, with its wadis and seas, is an excellent source …

by Michael Eggleston* (Advanced Biofuels USA)  “If we do not break the lock-in effect of our dominant fuel sources, we may in fact facilitate mother nature in breaking the lock-out of her dominant species,” wrote …

(University of Georgia/Biomass Magazine)  A research team led by the University of Georgia has discovered that manipulation of the same gene in poplar trees and switchgrass produced plants that grow better and are more efficiently converted …

(Vermont Law School)  SHAPE ENERGY POLICY–Learn how to use the law to shape policies that encourage energy efficiency, advance renewable energy, and promote energy security and justice.
The legal system will critically affect how humanity meets the …

(University of Iowa Our philosophy is simple:  the technologies that will save the planet are being developed, but they’ll only be deployed in sufficient scale to make a difference if they are financially viable.   The …

Understanding the complexity of current energy transformation in Europe and worlwide
1 language (English)
2 places (Nice and Berlin)
A one-year programme (three terms: October-June)
60 ECTS
A unique programme – at the crossroads of theory and practice
The Master in …

(South Dakota State University/Biomass Magazine)  Can farmers produce at least 1 billion tons of biomass per year that can be used as biofuels feedstock? That’s the question that researchers are trying to answer, according to North Central …

by Ron Kotrba (Biodiesel Magazine)  Young scientists presented their ongoing biodiesel research projects during a panel at the National Biodiesel Conference & Expo last week in Fort Worth, Texas. The students are part of the Next …

(Phys.Org/University of Rochester)   In order to power entire communities with clean energy, such as solar and wind power, a reliable backup storage system is needed to provide energy when the sun isn’t shining and the …

(University of Maryland IBBR/Ethanol Producer Magazine)  The Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research has been awarded a $1.1 million U.S. Department of Energy grant to elucidate the mechanism of rust pathogenesis in poplar in an effort to engineer …

(WIREs Authors/Advanced Science News)  To confront global warming, climate changes and a potential energy shortage, biodiesel received increasing interest as a substitute for diesel fuels in efforts towards sustainable development. Microalgae-derived biodiesel is a promising energy source.
The …

by Zoya Teirstein (Grist)   …The University Climate Change Coalition, dubbed UC3, is writing a roadmap for university-level action on climate change. Janet Napolitano, president of the University of California and former Homeland Security secretary under Barack Obama, announced the …

by Kevin Hardy (Des Moines Register)  … Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory unintentionally uncovered a process that uses tiny bits of carbon and copper to convert the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into ethanol fuel.
While the research remains in …

T V Jayannew (The Hindu Business Line)  India’s efforts to enhance biofuel production may get a boost from a work being done at a research laboratory in New Delhi.
Researchers at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering …

(Biofuels International)  Newly published research explains for the first time how plants switch from photoprojection to photosynthesis when transitioning from darkness to daylight. The authors of the study, from the University of Sheffield, claim that the …

byJulie Wurth  (News Gazette)  A Midwest crop of the future: grasses and other plants that produce their own oils to be used as fuel or byproducts.
That’s the vision behind a new bioenergy research center being launched …

(WesTech Engineering/Biomass Magazine)  The Utah Science Technology and Research initiative, a technology-based economic development program funded by the state of Utah, has awarded a $175,320 grant for development of a commercial algal application in the removal …

(Algae Industry Magazine) Scientists at Swansea University are taking the lead on a €5.5 Million eco-innovative project developing new technology to clean up waste. The ALG-AD project could potentially result in a circular economy solution …

(Phys.Org/University of Calgary)  Researchers have found a way to produce a higher quality, more stable fuel from biowaste, such as sewage, that is simpler and cleaner than existing methods.
“This puts biofuel closer to being a good …

Meghan Sapp (Biofuels Digest)  In Massachusetts, a new report from MIT Sloan professor John Sterman supports the growing argument that burning wood pellets for power is worse for the climate than burning coal, because of the short-term effects …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  A team of researchers from Iowa State led by Robert Brown and supported by the DOE’s Biomass Technologies Office is aiming to demonstrate the liquefaction of forest biomass for hydrocarbon fuels, as …

by Richard Perrin (University of Nebraska IANR News)  A team at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln is exploring sweet sorghum ethanol as a future income source for dryland agriculture in western Nebraska.
Sweet sorghum is a cultivar of …

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest)  Can you build a catalytic process to produce alpha, omega diols from lignocellulosic biomass? Such a process, using inorganic catalysts for conversion of biomass into 1.5 pentanediol (PDO) and 1,6 hexanediols …

(Algae Industry Magazine) A new design of algae-powered fuel cells that is five times more efficient than existing plant and algal models, as well as being potentially more cost-effective to produce and practical to use, has …

(Science Daily/Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL))  A new EU regulation aims to shrink the environmental footprint of biofuels starting in 2021. But a scientist thinks we should go one step further and take into account …

by Wiriya Thongsomboon, Diego O. Serra, Alexandra Possling, Chris Hadjineophytou, Regine Hengge, Lynette Cegelski (Science Magazine)  Cellulose is the most abundant biopolymer on Earth and an important component of bacterial biofilms. Thongsomboon et al. used solid-state nuclear magnetic …