Articles in Feedstock
(Algae Industry Magazine) Jonathan Trent, of the OMEGA Global Initiative, explains to a CNBC reporter at the recent Myriad Conference, in Brisbane, Australia, how his efforts to study the possibility of living on Mars paved …
by James Temple (MIT Technology Review) In the closing weeks of 2008, the US Department of Energy invited politicians and press to a dedication ceremony for the Joint BioEnergy Institute in Emeryville, California. The state-of-the-art lab, …
by Sarah Tan (WCAI) Kelp farming is on the rise around the Cape and Islands, as more growers are finding reasons to love this ocean crop. From researchers like Scott Lindell at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute who …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Aemetis owns and operates 110 million gallons per year of ethanol and biodiesel facilities in the US and India, and is upgrading the plants using patented technology to produce lower carbon, …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s chief scientific in-house research agency. ARS conducts research to develop and transfer solutions to agricultural problems of high national priority and provide …
(Solutions from the Land) U.S. agricultural producers have long understood that healthy soil is a critical requirement for the production of our nation’s food supply. They also know that as the world’s population grows by more …
(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 …
by Rebecca Gasper and Tim Searchinger (World Resources Institute) The production of renewable natural gas (RNG, also known as biomethane or upgraded biogas) is an emerging strategy to turn organic waste into a low carbon fuel for use in …
(Chempolis) The biorefining technology company Chempolis, the Finnish energy company Fortum, and Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL), a state-owned Indian oil company, have formed a joint venture to construct a biorefinery in the state of Assam in …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) The U.S. Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Technologies Office establishes partnerships with key public and private stakeholders to develop technologies for producing cost-competitive advanced biofuels from non-food biomass resources, including cellulosic biomass, …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In California, Greenbelt Resources Corporation and Duckweed DAYS commenced their inaugural Duckweed Project to commercialize the duckweed model developed by the Andrew J. Young Foundation. Tests conducted during a pilot program indicated that …
(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.
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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 Agnes Walton (Vice News) The Department of Energy is trying to turn a lake in the California desert called the Salton Sea into a farm for renewable fuels — and clean its infamously polluted water …
by Meghan Sapp (Biofuels Digest) In Mexico, researchers from the National Institute of Forestry, Agriculture and Livestock Research are making headway on the production of biodiesel from pine nuts with three high oil yielding varieties have been selected …
by Susanne Retka Schill (Ethanol Producer Magazine) Technologies for feed coproducts are evolving, pumping out high-protein ingredient alternatives. Experts assure the market is ripe. — The pile of distillers grains at nearly a dozen plants is about …
by Tom Callis (Hawaii Tribune-Herald) … The state’s Agribusiness Development Corp. is proposing to build a $1.5 million facility at the Shipman Business Park that would grow algae from leftover produce, in particular, papaya. The algae …
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 …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) ABLC 2018 wrapped up with the ABLC Wolfpack including James Iademarco from Strategic Avalanche, David Dodds with Dodds & Associates, Ron Cascone from NEXANT, independent consultant Paul Bryan, and Joel Stone from ConVergince. While they …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) … For those newer to the field, one of the problems of using biomass to make a fuel is that a carbohydrate contains around 53% oxygen by weight and needs about …
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 …
by Tim Albrecht (Ethanol Producer Magazine) The ethanol industry has polished its coproduction of distillers grains. Now, a handful of companies have found different uses for DDGS, or ethanol itself, that can provide new value-added coproducts …
(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 …
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 …
by Helena Tavares Kennedy (Biofuels Digest) With 195 countries on the planet today, an impressive 53 countries are Commonwealth countries, including countries in Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe and the Pacific. They include large, rich countries …
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 Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Gevo has two proprietary technologies that combine to make it possible to retrofit existing ethanol plants to produce isobutanol, a four carbon alcohol which serves as a hydrocarbon platform molecule. They …
by Sevil Erkuş (Hurryiet Daily News) A project initiated by Turkish experts to turn olive mill wastewater from olive production into industrial raw materials and products such as biodiesel and animal feed has received the support of …
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 …
by Hanh Ngoc Thi Le, Kiyoshi Imamura, Masakazu Furuta, Luu Van Boi, Yasuaki Maeda (Energy Today) … The authors evaluated the use of the non-edible oil derived from Vernicia montana Lour found in Laos and Vietnam for the production …
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 Chris Lee (Ars Technica) Future biofuel production requires new catalysts—or better training for stubborn enzymes. … I thought New Zealand would offer some chemistry-minded contrast. The country makes a lot of money on timber exports, but this profit is …
(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 Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) The production of Agrisoma’s Resonance Carinata is being expanded to multiple locations globally to provide a supply of sustainable, non-food oils for meeting the demand for sustainable biofuels. Resonance Carinata is …
(International Energy Agency) IEA Bioenergy has started to make a collection of success stories in the field of bioenergy. This is not intended to be a comprehensive exercise, but to provide a number of examples with …
(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
(Advanced Biofuel Center/AltEnergyMag.com) With introduction of Camelina and Castor Bean crops with MOMAX3 Moringa, as much as 1450 gallon of oil can be produced per year from a well developed, properly cared and efficiently managed Moringa …
(Algae Industry Magazine/Science Trends) enguang Zhou writes in Sciencetrends.com about work recently published in the journal Bioresource Technology regarding why Hydrothermal Liquefaction (HTL) of microalgae — a bio-oil technology which does not require dewatering and drying of algal biomass — …
(Greenbelt Resources) Greenbelt Resources Corporation (OTC: GRCO) (Greenbelt), the developer of a sustainable ECOsystem model that transforms waste into revenue generating bioproducts, today announced that it has signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with Georgia-based Duckweed DAYS, LLC.
Duckweed …
(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 Adele Peters (Fast Company) The country’s growing almond habit means that there are lots of shells and hulls to put to good use. These government scientists are working hard to find the best options.
… “For every …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Algae has been reinvented in recent years as a Sustainable New Crop for Food, Feed, Fuel and other products. Part of an international effort to expand Agricultural Production and productive land, and keeping …
by John Abraham (The Guardian) Biofuels can help solve climate change, especially with a carbon tax — We’re not yet optimizing biofuel production for both economic and environmental factors
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These are great starts but we will still need some …
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 …
TREATED sewage water is being used to irrigate paddocks of crops that can be used for biofuels in a trial at Cloncurry.
Sorghum, soy beans, sun hemp and leucaena are being irrigated with the treated sewage …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Algenol is a global, industrial biotechnology company that is commercializing its patented algae technology platform for production of ethanol and other biofuels, chemicals and biobased materials.
Formed in 2006, and headquartered in …
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 …
by Bradley J. Fikes (San Diego Union Tribune) Advancing work under a collaboration established a decade ago, ExxonMobil and La Jolla’s Synthetic Genomics said they will begin outdoor growth of naturally occurring algae for biofuel.
The research could …
by Helena Tavares Kennedy (Biofuels Digest) In Missouri, researchers from Donald Danforth Plant Science Center studied the earliest stages the evolution of male and female sexes in a group of freshwater photosynthetic protists called volvocine green algae, which …
by Jessie Stolark (Enviromental and Energy Study Institute) Two recently announced major joint ventures from ethanol producers – one in the cellulosic and another in the first-generation space – are aimed at selling biofuels in California, …
(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 Adele Peters (Fast Company) The oil and gas giant says it could be making 10,000 barrels a day within a few years–a small drop in the amount of oil it produces, but a huge boost …
(Algae Industry Magazine) The “Microalgae cultivation for treatment of process emissions from the metals industry” project, which is being financed by the Swedish Energy Agency, started recently and will run for two years at Boliden …
by José Roberto Gomes (Reuters) Brazilian sugar mills looking to grow the world’s first variety of genetically modified (GM) sugarcane have planted an initial area of 400 hectares (988 acres), according to the research firm …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Does 1+1=3? That’s the premise of this ABLC 2018 presentation from LEC’s John Forcier which looks at the challenges and opportunities in anaerobic digesters.
There’s a significant energy gain (3 to 10 times …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Why characterize biomass? Lignocellulosic biomass is a complex biopolymer and its properties vary depending on its species, growth environments and conversion processes. Characteristics of biomass provide valuable insights for biomass utilization. Diverse characterization methods have been …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Source Integration has developed a technology that creates a 12x surface area for a 12x algae harvest and expects expects an optimized production of 8 – 10 times plain algae raceway for …
by Jennifer M. DeBruyn, et al (Global Change Biology Bioenergy) Cell wall recalcitrance poses a major challenge on cellulosic biofuel production from feedstocks such as switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.). As lignin is a known contributor of recalcitrance, …
by Jennifer Michalowski (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) Scientists have figured out how to triple the number of grains that the sorghum plant produces: by lowering the level of a key hormone, generating more flowers and more …
by Joanne Ivancic* (Advanced Biofuels USA) The ABLC 2018 conference began at the US Department of Agriculture headquarters with a focus on feedstock. Jordan Solomon, Managing Director & CEO Ecostrat Inc.. kicked off the event …
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 …
(U.S. Department of Energy) Last spring, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) conducted its seventh biennial external review of its research, development, and communications portfolio. More than 40 external subject matter …
(International Energy Agency Bioenergy Task 41) The fourth IEA Bioenergy Task 41 workshop on Bio-CC(U)S was organized in Brussels 16 January 2018. The topic of the workshop was Market and regulatory issues related to Bio-CCUS. The workshop was …
(International Energy Agency) IEA Bioenergy has produced a brief on the question ‘Is energy from woody biomass positive for the climate?’
The brief provides background and a number of concise arguments on this question. Overall, energy from …
(International Fachagentur Nachwachsende Rohstoffe e. V) The project greenGain was funded by the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme of the European Union for research, technological development and demonstration under Grant Agreement No 646443. Eight institutions from …
(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 Igor Houwat (Algae Industry Magazine) A collaboration between the Benning and Kramer labs is revealing how algae’s internal solar panels constantly grow and shrink in size to adjust to changes in their environments, a crucial system that ensures their hosts …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Chloroplasts are in the news this week because St. Louis-based TechAccel made a science advancement investment with Plastomics, a biotechnology startup making better crops through chloroplast engineering.
Here’s the key
Chloroplast engineering is …
by Julie Harker (Brownfield Ag News) Mixed prairie grasses that are used in Conservation Reserve Program lands did not live up to their potential as biomass crops for cellulosic biofuel production, in an eight-year study. D.K. Lee, …
(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 Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) DSM and Evonik have given a name to their joint venture to produce omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA from natural marine algae for animal nutrition — something that’s been traditionally …
(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 …
(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 …
(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 …
(U.S. Department of Energy) The U.S. Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) hosted the 2017 Project Peer Review on March 6–9, 2017, in Denver, Colorado. During the event, approximately 192 projects in BETO’s research, …
(Union for the Promotion of Oil and Protein Plants (UFOP) (Google translation)) Global standard values overestimate nitrous oxide emissions in rapeseed cultivation — A network of eight partners under the coordination of the Thünen Institute (TI) for …
(World Agroforestry Centre) While India has a world-first national policy for agroforestry, aka trees on farms, farmers in different agro-climatic zones need help with which trees to grow. A new book is now here to help.
“With …
(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 …
(Enviva/Biomass Magazine) Enviva, the world’s largest producer of industrial wood pellets, has released its latest Track & Trace sourcing data, marking one year of public reporting and two years of tracking the company’s sustainable sourcing practices. …
(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 …
by Brian Goodall (First Garden City Consulting/Lee Enterprises Consulting/Biofuels Digest) … (I)n the case of microalgae the oil has to coaxed out of the whole plant (typically single cells) using chemical or physical means to …
(Bangkok Post) OPG Tech Co, a local palm oil trader, is gearing up for oil palm plantation and biodiesel production in Laos after seeing limited business opportunities in Thailand. OPG plans to develop the plantation on …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) … The world’s first dedicated biofuel flight between the United States and Australia, QF96 from Los Angeles to Melbourne, has departed from LAX and arrives roughly at Digest press time.
The trans-Pacific …
(CTV Ottawa) … Gatineau’s Agrisoma is powering the world’s first ever transpacific flight from the United States to Australia using jet fuel from a renewable source. On Sunday, Australia’s Qantas Airline will depart on a 15-hour …
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 Alison Goss Eng (U.S. Department of Energy) … One approach is through using domestic biomass resources, such as agricultural and forestry residues, grasses, and municipal solid waste. But, how do these biological materials make it from …
(Agragen) Agragen, LLC, a Cincinnati-based plant sciences company, predicts that the recent surge in oil prices will soon permit biofuels derived camelina oil to be on parity with petroleum derived fuels in costs.
Sam Huttenbauer Jr., CEO …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) The 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. Scale up to profitable production, however, requires …
(National Biodiesel Board) Argonne National Laboratory, US Dept. of Agriculture, and Purdue University affirm impressive emissions reductions — A new study on biodiesel’s lifecycle energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission effects updates and reaffirms the long-understood benefits …
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 …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) To date, North America is the most active of all regions in terms of deploying advanced technology — whether it is cellulosic ethanol, isobutanol for fuels and chemicals, or renewable chemical …
(University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences/Science Daily) A new report provides practical agronomic data for five cellulosic feedstocks, which could improve adoption and increase production across the country. — … “Early yield estimates …
by Akshatha M. (Economic Times) The fat and oil substances that enter some of Bengaluru’s lakes through the city’s broken sewage system may transform into biodiesel if a pilot project taken up at the Bellandur lake …
by Eric Barker (ABC Rural) With about a megalitre of sewage flowing from the toilets of Cloncurry every day, the local council has built a new trial site for biofuel plants.
An assortment of crops, including sun …
(Phys.Org/Rothamsted Research) … But now a multinational team of researchers, from the UK, Brazil and the US, has pinpointed a gene involved in the stiffening of cell walls whose suppression increased the release of sugars by …
by Katie Nichols (Alabama Extension Daily) Alabama growers are sowing the seeds of a new biofuel oil crop this winter. Brassica carinata, informally known as carinata, is similar to canola (Brassica napus L.)—a crop many producers introduced to rotations several …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Byogy has developed a catalytic platform that converts any source of ethanol, butanol, mixed alcohols, or related olefins, into full replacement, and cost competitive biofuels including gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. …
by Cassie McClure and Suzanne Michaels (KRWG) Over the past decade, New Mexico State University (NMSU) College of Engineering Professor Nagamany Nirmalakhandan (known as Dr. Khandan) has investigated how algae – yes, that simple green stuff …
(North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services/Ethanol Producer Magazine) The N.C. Bioenergy Research Initiative recently awarded $1 million in grants for 11 research projects to boost bioenergy opportunities and production in the state.
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Below is a …
(Algae Industry Magazine) How can the construction industry do its share to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases connected to global warming? In the urgent search for answers, Votorantim Cimentos and Pond Technologies are taking part …
(Algae Industry Magazine) … In September, the US Department of Energy (DOE) awarded $22 million in grants to fund projects for marine biomass farming for production of commercial products, including feedstock for domestic transportation fuels. The …
(Feedstock-Conversion Interface Consortium/Ethanol Producer Magazine) To accelerate innovation and adoption of new practices and technologies to determine the root cause of biomass handling failures and designing solutions, the Feedstock-Conversion Interface Consortium is overseeing a directed funding …
by Deepak Kumar; Stephen P. Long; Vijay Singh (The Conversation/Inverse Innovation) Airlines look to biomass-derived jet fuels to reduce their carbon footprint.
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Bio-jet fuel can be produced from various plant materials, including oil crops, sugar crops, starchy …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In December, we reported that Cargill and Calysta will co-create the world’s largest gas fermentation facility in Memphis, Tennessee to produce Calysta’s FeedKind protein, a family of sustainable, traceable nutritional ingredients for …
(New Indian Express) After initiating the move to set up a second generation ethanol plant in Bargarh district with an investment of `750 crore, the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) has partnered with Odisha University …
by Tamara Scully (Country Folks) The next big thing in alternative energy may be pretty small. Algae, which are aquatic, single-celled organisms, produce oxygen while consuming carbon dioxide. Nitrogen, phosphorous and other nutrients which can degrade …
by Helena Tavares Kennedy (Biofuels Digest) 2017 was a roller coaster year. There was a paradigm shift in biofuels, technology advancements, innovations abounded, politics chaotic. Some companies shut down and disappeared like the Hobo vanishing in …
Pius Rugonzibwa In Mwanza (Daily News) The production of cassava in the country has received a major boost after the government recently signed a deal with a Chinese firm worth over 2.5trl/- aimed at commercialising its …
(University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences/Newswise) … Although sorghum is a source for table syrup, scientists see a future in which we convert sorghum to biofuel, rather than relying on fossil fuel. That …
(General Automation Lab Technologies/PR Newswire) New $1.5 million DOE grant will utilize GALT’s novel high throughput microbiome research platform to improve algal biofuel growth through microbiome engineering — Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has been awarded a …
(Biofuels International) An innovative gene editing technique could allow algae to produce ‘vast’ quantities of renewable fuels, new research claims.
The method, developed by scientists at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, could lead to cheap ways …
by Sarah Boden (WESA) The number of acres permitted to grow industrial hemp in Pennsylvania is going to increase 100-fold in 2018, from less than 50 to possibly more than 5,000.
This year was the first since …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) The Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies is working with bioenergy industries and leaders to assist them in the sustainable development of bioenergy that includes our fish and wildlife resources, in …
(Algae Industry Magazine) Stelco Algae Holdings Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Stelco Inc., one of Canada’s leading integrated steel companies, and algal cultivation specialists Pond Technologies Inc., of Markham, Ontario, Canada, have announced their collaboration for …
by Emma Cosgrove (AgFunder News) … Tom Schenck of TerViva, an agtech startup working with citrus growers in Florida, says the disease has changed the face of the sunshine state.
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Startups are also looking to provide Florida citrus …
(Department of Energy/Ethanol Producer Magazine) The U.S. Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Technologies Office is proud to announce the establishment of the Feedstock-Conversion Interface Consortium—a research and development consortium dedicated to identifying and overcoming technical uncertainty in research …
by Anne Ju (Cornell Chronicle) A Cornell research team has received a $910,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to work toward revolutionizing how biofuels are produced from algae.
David Erickson, associate professor of mechanical and …
by Sarah Loftus (Nanowerk News/Duke University) … Although biofuels made from algae provide numerous environmental benefits, they will not win market share until they can compete economically with cheap fossil fuels.
Algae require tremendous volumes of water …
( São Paulo Research Foundation – FAPESP/EurekAlert!) Expansion of sugarcane cultivation for biofuel in areas not under environmental protection or reserved for food production could also reduce global emissions of carbon dioxide by up to 5.6%, …
by Carol Spaeth-Bauer (Wisconsin State Farmer) A University of Wisconsin-Madison study released on Nov. 15 has officials in the ethanol industry frustrated, disputing the methodology of the study saying the claims of the study are not supported by fact.
The …
(University of Hohenheim) Until now, acreage was designated for either photovoltaics or photosynthesis, that is, to generate electricity or grow crops. An agrophotovoltaics (APV) pilot project near Lake Constance, however, has now demonstrated that both uses …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Could a biotechnology succeed in reducing pests and the resultant damage to crops they bring — by making it nearly impossible for them to find mates and produce future pest generations?
Provivi’s …
(Safran Group) Safran, which is already involved in the development of biofuels for aeronautics, is supporting an initiative led by the Masdar Institute’s Sustainable Bioenergy Research Consortium (SBRC) in the Abu Dhabi desert to produce a …
by Mohsen Soleymani and Kurt A. Rosentrater (Bioengineering) A techno-economic evaluation of bioenergy production from macroalgae was carried out in this study. Six different scenarios were examined for the production of different energy products and by-products. …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) The promise is this: Manta could one day skim algae right off of the Chesapeake Bay and convert it into oil, simultaneously cleaning up deadly algae blooms and providing the precursor …
by Meghan Sapp (Biofuels Digest) In the Netherlands, a team of scientists charted greenhouse gas emissions resulting from biofuel production, presenting them as global maps. Dedicated crops grown on grasslands, savannahs and abandoned agricultural lands could provide around …
(Associated Press/U.S. News and World Report) Researchers in Kansas and China are using mathematical modeling to improve the process of converting wheat straw into pellets for the production of ethanol. Wheat straw, the plant residue left after …
by Michelle Ma (Phys.Org/University of Washington) In the quest to produce affordable biofuels, poplar trees are one of the Pacific Northwest’s best bets—the trees are abundant, fast-growing, adaptable to many terrains and their wood can be …
by Mark R. Edwards (Algae Industry Magazine) he new report, Industrial Algae Measurements 8.0, was released by the ABO Technical Standards Committee at the 11th Algae Biomass Summit (ABS) in Salt Lake City this month. The IAM 8.0collaboration …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In Australia, Qantas will operate the world’s first biofuel flight between the United States and Australiaearly in the new year in collaboration with World Fuel Services and Altair Fuels. Qantas’ new Dreamliner …
by Thin Lei Win (Reuters) Improving soil health in farmlands could capture extra carbon equivalent to the planet-warming emissions generated by the transport sector, one of the world’s most polluting industries, experts said Tuesday.
Soil naturally absorbs …
(SciDev.Net) Brazilian awarded prize for method that reduces emissions from cane cultivation; Nitrous oxide emissions cut by 95 per cent through use of inhibitors in fertiliser; Work could contribute to meeting Brazil’s Paris climate agreement targets
A Brazilian scientist …
by Tom Schenk (Terviva/Biofuels Digest) … Directly and indirectly, Florida’s citrus industry creates almost 45,000 jobs which translate to almost a $9 billion contribution into Florida’s economy. Today’s citrus industry has shrunk by well over half …
by Christian Ong (Cornell Daily Sun) … Using metabolic engineering, Prof. David Stern, plant biology, managed to transfer the metabolic pathway of Botryococcus, a species of algae that produces large quantities of usable oil, into another species …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Last week, DowDuPont said it was exiting the cellulosic biofuels business and you’d think that the company just burned down the warehouse with the original text of the Renewable Fuels Standard …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) … 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 network to facilitate the development of regionally-based …
by Michael Eggleston* (Advanced Biofuels USA) Since 2012, Energiegenossenschaft (energy cooperative) Starkenburg e.G. (ES) has been serving the Starkenburg region as independent non-partisan citizens’ cooperative supporting Germany’s grassroots movement by promoting renewable energy projects to …
(Advanced Biofuels USA) Advanced Biofuels USA has added a summary of the findings of its USDA-funded feasibility study based on 2016 energy beet project at University of Maryland Eastern Shore. New charts and graphs based …
by Lisa Gibson (Ethanol Producer Magazine) A massive expansion of land use for sugar cane growth in Brazil, and a subsequent increase in ethanol production with the feedstock could reduce global carbon dioxide emissions in the …
by Yukako Ono (Nikkei Asian Review) IHI will conduct large-scale verification experiments in Thailand on a process for producing jet fuel from the oil extracted from cultured microalgae.
The goal is to have a practical technology ready …
(Algae Industry Magazine) The Algae Biomass Summit (ABS) has transitioned from algae biofuels to higher value algae bioproducts. Most of the excitement in the 2017 version focused on nutrition for plants, animals and people, and …
by Ali Sundermier and Evan Lerner (Penn News) … The lustrous cells on the surface of the clam scatter bright sunlight, which typically runs the risk of causing fatal damage to the cell, but the clams efficiently …
