Biomass

Virginia Tech researchers have created hydrogen fuel using abundantly available corn stover – the stalks, cobs, and husks.

The development could support the arrival of inexpensive hydrogen-powered vehicles.

Unlike other hydrogen fuel production methods that rely on highly...

The Department of Energy has announced about $6 million in funding for projects that will develop and demonstrate supply chain technologies to deliver commercial-scale lignocellulosic biomass feedstocks to biorefineries across the country.

University of California, Berkeley researchers have developed a genetic sensor that enables bacteria to adjust their gene expression in response to varying levels of key intermediates for making biodiesel. As a result, the microbes produced three times as much fuel. The sensor-regulator system could...

Photosynthesis is less efficient in plants than it could be. Red algae, in contrast, use a slightly different mechanism and are thus more productive. Scientists from Germany's Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry (MPIB) have now identified a helper protein for photosynthesis in red algae.

Artificial photosynthesis is the process of converting carbon dioxide gas into useful carbon-based chemicals - most notably fuel or other compounds usually derived from petroleum - as an alternative to extracting them from biomass. An Illinois research team has produced a catalyst that improves...

The complete genetic makeup of two heat-loving fungi often found in composts that self-ignite without flame or spark has been decoded by an international team of scientists. Their findings may lead to the faster and greener development of biomass-based fuels, chemicals, and other industrial...

Researchers at Iowa State University think that fast pyrolysis - quickly heating biomass such as corn stalks or wood chips without oxygen to produce liquid or gas products - could be a new way to make inexpensive sugars from biomass.

A team of researchers at the Department of Energy’s BioEnergy Science Center (BESC) have pinpointed the gene that controls ethanol production capacity in a microorganism. This discovery could be the missing link in developing biomass crops that produce higher concentrations of ethanol at lower...

Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory and Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center have found a potential key for unlocking the energy potential from non-edible biomass materials such as corn leaves and stalks, or switch grass.

A team of students from Virginia Tech University won EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge after designing and building an extended-range electric vehicle (EREV) using E85 (ethanol). Virginia Tech competed against 15 other universities to take home the top prize of the three-year competition.

Advanced biofuels are highly touted as potential replacements for gasoline, diesel, and jet fuels. Equally touted is the synthesis of these fuels through the use of microbes. However, many of the best candidate compounds for advanced biofuels are toxic to microbes, which presents a...

A cow's digestive system allows it to eat more than 150 pounds of plant matter every day. Now researchers report that they have found dozens of previously unknown microbial enzymes in the bovine rumen – the cow's primary grass-digestion chamber – that contribute to the breakdown of...

Last Thursday, I left New York for DC to check out the World Energy Engineering Congress (WEEC) held at the Washington Convention Center. Though my Amtrak train was a little slow in getting there, the show flew by in a flash.

Renewable energy comes out of an electricity socket, but to get there it has to travel a long journey – from wind turbines out at sea or regional solar, wind, and biogas power plants. On the way to the consumer much energy is lost, but new electronic components will change things in...

University of Massachusetts Amherst chemical engineers have developed a way to produce high-volume chemical feedstocks including benzene, toluene, xylenes, and olefins from pyrolytic bio-oils - the cheapest liquid fuels available today derived from biomass.

Purdue University researchers have developed a facility aimed at learning precisely how coal and biomass are broken down in reactors called gasifiers as part of a project to strengthen the scientific foundations of the synthetic fuel economy.

Desmond Lun, an associate professor of computer science at Rutgers University–Camden, is researching how to alter the genetic makeup of E. coli to produce biodiesel fuel derived from fatty acids.

By producing biochar - a charcoal-like substance made from plants and other organic materials - up to 12 percent of the world's human-caused greenhouse gas emissions could be sustainably offset, which is more than what could be offset if the same plants and materials were burned to generate...

By planting switchgrass and using certain agronomic practices, farmers can significantly reduce the amount of nitrogen and nitrates that leach into the soil, according to Iowa State University research.

In just the last few years, innovation in alternative-energy technologies have gained significant footholds in product development lifecycles and are rapidly changing our individual roles as energy consumers and producers. Out of the box thinking and breakthrough discoveries are on the...