A pair of three-year National Science Foundation grants will help the St. Louis-based Donald Danforth Plant Science Center continue its biofuel research.
This press release says one of the awards is a $550,000 grant awarded through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act that will support research that explores regulation of plant metabolism, an important part of biofuel research:
Dr. Oliver Yu, associate member, Danforth Plant Science Center will serve as the principal investigator on the project.
Yu’s research aims to increase understanding of the synthesis of lignins and flavonoids which together account for up to 30 per cent of plant biomass. These compounds play essential roles in plant growth and development. Lignins are major components of plant cell walls while flavonoids are precursors of lignins and function during a plant’s response to stresses such as drought and disease.
Yu will investigate how enzyme interactions in a metabolic process direct the flow of plant resources in the metabolic pathway that leads to production of lignins. For example, when plants are under attack by pathogens, specific enzyme interactions may direct simple molecules (in this case, monomers derived from phenol) to polymerize into lignins that re-enforce cell walls to prevent further invasions by the pathogen. However, under strong ultraviolet light irradiation, the plant uses the same pathway to establish new enzyme interactions that would produce flavonoids (a group of UV protectants) from the same phenolic monomers. Yu and his team of researchers hope to identify how enzyme interactions are established under various conditions and how these interactions alter the direction and flow of a particular pathway, leading to production of various compounds from a common starting molecule.
Dr. Dilip Shah, associate research member at the Danforth Center, picked up the other NSF grant worth $500,000 and a two-year $271,000 award from the Consortium of Plant Biotechnology Research, for his research aimed at learning more about fungal pathogens and how to control the diseases that they cause.
The work is seen as important for feedstocks, such as corn and soybeans.
The Canadian government is putting more than $72 million into a biodiesel plant in Ontario.
The news was also welcomed by the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association (CRFA):
The recent American Coalition for Ethanol’s 22nd Ethanol Conference & Trade Show in Milwaukee saw an exploration of an issue that remains a hot issue in the biofuels biz: Indirect Land Use.
The concept that the growth of some biofuels feedstocks in the United States, especially corn and soybeans, could cause the cutting down of the rain forests in other parts of the world… and would disqualify some of the green fuels from being part of the proposed Renewable Fuels Standard.
The latest discussion featured energy economist from Purdue University Wally Tyner and Air Improvement Resource President Tom Darlington, who talked about how studies that blamed corn-based ethanol for deforestation ended up being wrong and how the most common economic models used to figure the amount of Indirect Land Use vary too much and don’t consider things like dry distillers grains.
The city of Gary, Indiana plans to replace 120 cars and trucks in its aging auto fleet this year with new flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs) paid for with a $3 million grant from the Federal Highway Administration.
As the company moves closer to the commercial development phase for cellulosic ethanol, 
With just four races left in the current racing season, Volkswagen Motorsports has announced next year’s SCCA Pro Racing Volkswagen Jetta TDI Cup schedule… a series that features clean-burning B5 biodiesel in its cars.
In what is being characterized by the company as a major breakthrough in algae technology to be turned into biodiesel, California-based Aurora Biofuels has optimized algae strains that more than double their intake of carbon dioxide… important for producing the oil that is eventually turned into biodiesel.
Researchers will be gathering in St. Louis next week for the “Algae-to-Energy Research and Development in the South” meeting.
The Center for Evergreen Energy in conjunction with The Southern Growth Policies Board and The Southern Agriculture and Forestry Resource Alliance (SAFER) is hosting the meeting of southern algae researchers on August 26th at the Regional Chamber and Growth Association’s office in St. Louis at One Metropolitan Square, Suite 1300:
“Algae-to-Energy Research and Development in the South,” [is] a gathering of scientists and stakeholders in the southern United States who are researching effective and innovative ways to convert algae to biofuels. This gathering will be the first of several events related to algae biofuel research and development that the Center for Evergreen Energy will host. 
Stancil Oil Company has recently broken ground to open a Marathon-branded E85 station in January 2010. The station will be the first in Smithfield, North Carolina to carry the renewable fuel.