The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has released a new report, “Brazil’s Agricultural Land Use and Trade: Effects of Changes in Oil Prices and Ethanol Demand“. The study looked at the issue of land-use changes in Brazil as westward expansion of agriculture, especially in the Cerrados Savannah region, continues in an effort to grow more food and produce more fuels …
Brookhaven Nat’l Lab Engineers Plants with Less Lignin
Brookhaven National Laboratory is working on the challenge of converting lignin into biofuels and other bioproducts. A research team is looking at the possibility of engineering plants with less lignin. The idea is not new – other research teams have tried but their work resulted in weaker plants and stunted growth, reducing the plants ability to be used as a …
Developing the Road to Faster Biomass Breakdown
A major challenge of using biomass for bioenergy is the breaking down of biomass into cellulose that can be used as the basis for biomaterials. One researcher is trying to overcome this barrier when using perennial plants for renewable energy. Feng Wang, associate professor of physical chemistry at University of Arkansas, has been awarded $400,000 from the National Science Foundation …
.@Novozymes Joe Jump Developing Better DDGs
Joe Jump is an organic chemist who has been working for Novozymes for 15 years. However, for the last six years he has worked in Research & Development making new enzymes applications and yeast applications for biofuels. Jump presented a session during this year’s Fuel Ethanol Workshop (FEW) that focused on applications for ethanol producers who are producing dried distillers …
Report: Crop-Based #Biofuels Don’t Impact Food Supply
A recently released report finds that biofuels from crops do not harm food supplies. “Reconciling food security and bioenergy: priorities for action,” was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and the World Bank along with several other international organizations. According to the findings, “The high-profile expansion of ethanol production in the United States and Brazil, in tandem with a …
#Ethanol Research Director to Testify at Hearing
The Executive Director of the National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center (NCERC) in Illinois will be at the EPA hearing on the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) in Kansas City today to repeat the same comments he has made at the last several hearings on the subject. “Ironically, they are very similar to the comments I presented in 2015, in 2014 and in …
RIT & Synergy Biogas Partner on #Algae Project
A new project will be kicking off with partners Rochester Institute of Technology and Synergy Biogas to explore using microalgae to make biofuels as well as clean agricultural wastewater. The pilot program is headed up by Jeff Lodge, associate professor in RIT’s Thomas Gosnell School of Life Sciences, who will be utilizing a anaerobic digester located on Synergy Farms in …
Wild Sorghum Shows Potential as Biofuel Crop
A variety of wild sorghum that grows on the roadside in northern Australia is showing great potential as a biofuel crop. Researchers from the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Cell Walls at the University of Adelaide have discovered that the sorghum variety Arun has the potential to yield over 10,000 liters of bioethanol per hectare per year. Scientists looked …
U of Guelph Discovers Key to Increasing Biomass
University of Guelph researchers may have found the key to increasing food and fuel (#Biofuel) production. By modifying a plant’s genetic profile, researchers doubled the plant’s growth and increased seed production by more than 400 percent. The findings were published in the March 2016 issue of Plant Biotechnology Journal. Using Arabidopsis, a small flowering plant that has similar characteristics to …
Advanced #Biofuel Production in One-Pot
A strain of bacteria, Escherichia coli (E. coli), engineered by researchers at Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory enables a “one-pot” method for producing advanced biofuels from a slurry of pre-treated plant material. The bacteria is able to tolerate the liquid salt used to break down plant biomass into sugar-based polymers. However, the salt solvent, called ionic liquids, interferes with later stages …