USDA has released a new report, “Federal Activities Report on the Bioeconomy.” According to Dr. Catherine Woteki, the report was developed to create awareness of federal agency activities that are helping to develop and support the bioeconomy. The “bioeconomy” is an emerging part of the U.S. economy, says Woteki, that utilizes renewable biological resources to produce fuels, power and biobased …
Goat’s Guts Lead to Better Biofuels
New research finds that some day your gas tanks could be filled up by horses, sheep and goat’s guts. Researchers looked at how the anaerobic gut fungi, as compared to engineered fungi, were able to convert plant material into sugars that could be converted into advanced biofuels and other biobased materials. Fungi found in the guts of goats, horses and …
Comet Biorefining to Build Biomass to Sugar Plant
TransAlta Energy Park located in Sarnia, Ontario will be the new home of a commercial scale biomass to sugar facility operated by Comet Biorefining. The facility is expected to be operational by 2018 and will produce 60 million pounds per year of dextrose sugar from locally sourced corn stover and wheat straw. Comet, using its proprietary patented process, coverts the …
New BIO-Yeast Could Improve Biofuels Production
Quinn Dickinson, research specialist at the University of Madison’s Wisconsin Energy Institute who also works with the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC), has helped to design a new strain of yeast that he believes holds great promise in improving the efficiency of making biofuel from biomass such as switchgrass. Dickinson’s goal is to solve a problem in the biomass …
Dupont, ADM Make Long Sought-After Biochemical
DuPont Industrial Biosciences and ADM have teamed up to develop a process to make a long sought-after molecule important for renewable biochemicals. This news release from DuPont says the technology has applications in packaging, textiles, engineering plastics and many other industries. The companies have developed a method for producing furan dicarboxylic methyl ester (FDME) from fructose. FDME is a high-purity …
IA’s Biofuels Industries Could Help Biochem Industry
The lessons Iowa has learned in making ethanol and biodiesel could serve the state well in an effort to make bio-based chemicals. This article from the Des Moines Register says, though, a new report indicates a state tax credit is needed to help the Hawkeye state take a slice of the country’s $250 billion chemical market with greener replacements. “If …
Iowa Corn Receives Bio-Based Process Patent
The Iowa Corn Promotion Board (ICPB) has received a U.S. patent (U.S. 2015/0329449) for a production method using corn in the industrial manufacturing of a raw material called monoethylene glycol (MEG). The product can be used as a replacement of fossil-fuel-based chemicals used in products such as plastics and helps the product to biodegrade. “Patenting this research will lead to …
BIO Applauds Renewable Chemicals Act Bill
Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Chris Coon (D-DE) and Al Franken have introduced a new bill, S. 2271 the Renewable Chemicals Act of 2015. If passed, the legislation would amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide credits for the production of renewable chemicals and investments in renewable chemical production facilities. The companion bill in the House is H.R. 3390. …
Alliance BioEnergy Converts Coastal Hay to Sugar
Ek Laboratories, located in Longwood, Florida, has achieved a 63 percent conversion of Coastal Hay, at commercial scale, into fermentable sugars in less than 30 minutes. The Alliance BioEnergy Plus subsidiary used it licensed and patented mechanical/chemical CTS (Cellulose to Sugar) process. According to Ek Laboratories, unlike most cellulose to sugar technologies, their CTS process does not use liquid acids, …
U of W Research Converts Poplar Trees to Biofuels
New research from the University of Washington is laying the foundation to use woody biomass from poplar trees into sustainably produced biofuels and biochemicals. A five-year $40 million dollar study funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is in its last year and results will seed a wood-based cellulosic ethanol production facility. ZeaChem, one of the industry partners in …