ScienceDaily.com broke a story today about an article that will published in the May 22, 2009 issue of Science. The article focuses on what is more efficient – converting biomass to fuel or converting biomass to electricity? The study authors wrote in the online edition of the journal that the best bet is to convert the biomass to electricity rather …
“Super-Organism” Leads to Cellulosic Breakthrough
The golden dream may have become reality today as Mascoma Corporation announced a major technological breakthrough in the process strategy for production of biofuels from cellulosic biomass known as consolidated bioprocessing, or CBP. The major advantage of CBP is that is significantly reduces the cost to produce cellulosic ethanol by combining several steps into one through the use of a …
Ethanol Nameplate to Run at 67% Through 2010
The ethanol industry received some negative news today compliments of the newly released Soyatech Biofuels Monitor, a publication from HighQuest Partners. The study projects that for First Quarter 2009 the U.S. ethanol industry will operate at 67 percent of nameplate capacity through 2010. The study authors, in part, based their predications on data from the USDA Planting Intentions report that …
Ethanol, Corn Not Culprit in Rising Food Prices
The American Farm Bureau Federation, Growth Energy, National Farmers Union, and National Corn Growers Association joined together today to host a media call to applaud the recently released report from the Congressional Budget Office, “The Impact of Ethanol Use on Food Prices and Greenhouse-Gas Emissions.” The report concluded that from April 2007-April 2008 ethanol did have a slight impact on …
New Study Rates Ethanol Water Usage by State
Water usage for ethanol production varies dramatically depending on the state, according to a new University of Minnesota study. The study, published in this week’s edition of the journal Environmental Science and Technology, is the first to compare water use in corn-ethanol production on a state-by-state basis. The authors used agricultural and geologic data from 2006-2008 to develop a ratio …
E20 Study Finds No Performance Problems
A new study has found no performance problems with doubling the amount of ethanol allowed in motor fuel. According to the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, research conducted by the Minnesota Center for Automotive Research at Minnesota State University found that increasing the amount of ethanol blended into gasoline from 10 percent to 20 percent “causes no significant change in performance …
North Carolina Funds Biofuels Projects
The Biofuels Center of North Carolina is giving the emerging biofuels sector in the state a $2.77 million jolt. The Center has approved a total of 18 grants to accelerate the technologies and feedstocks needed to develop the state’s biofuels sector. “The Midwest has corn and Brazil has sugarcane. North Carolina needs to develop conversion technologies for the types of …
Two Steps to Turn Biomass into Biofuel
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have reportedly developed a two-step method to convert the cellulose in raw biomass into biofuel. The process, published in a recent Journal of the American Chemical Society issue, uses untreated, inedible biomass as the starting material. According to a story from the University of Wisconsin, the first step in the process is the conversion …
Catalyst Could Jump Start Ethanol Fuel Cells
Researchers have developed a new catalyst that could make ethanol-powered fuel cells feasible. The research was done by a team of scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, in collaboration with researchers from the University of Delaware and Yeshiva University, and was published online in the January 25 edition of Nature Materials. According to the researchers, the …