Biomass

Microgrids are a Key to Grid Resiliency

The aging energy grid is being pushed to the breaking point. Power outages from extreme weather alone cost anywhere from $2 billion to $77 billion per year. And some isolated communities still rely...

Extracting Bioproducts from Plants for Biofuels

Biofuels can achieve cost parity with petroleum fuels.

'Artificial Leaf' Produces Clean Gas

This method of producing clean syngas could be used to develop a sustainable liquid fuel alternative to gasoline.

Open-Source Software Analyzes Economics of Biofuels and Bioproducts

This fast, flexible tool allows researchers to quickly compare and prioritize strategies for converting biomass to fuels and products.

Green Jet Fuel Additive Made from Acetone Plus Light

The additive creates fuel from biomass while improving engine performance.

One-Pot Bioconversion of Distiller’s Grains to Advanced Biofuels

Increase in bioethanol production throughout the US has led to an increase in the process coproduct — distiller’s grains with solubles (DGS). DGS can be used to feed...

High-Speed Jet Mixer Efficiently Turns Algae into Fuel

A new technology may lead to a more mainstream use of algal biofuels.

From Trash to Treasure: How to Convert ‘Fatberg’ Waste into Biofuel

Have you heard of "fatbergs?" Researcher Asha Srinivasan explains how her team is turning masses of fat, oil, and grease into biofuel.

Funding Opportunity: Develop Advanced Biomass Supply Chain Technologies

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...

Sensor System Spurs Biofuel Production

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...

Funding for Biomass R&D Initiative

Projects funded through the Biomass Research and Development Initiative (BRDI) — a joint program through the USDA and the DOE — will help develop economically and environmentally sustainable...

New Genome Map Speeds Biofuel Development

Researchers at University of Georgia's Plant Genome Mapping Laboratory have mapped the genomes of two originator cells of Miscanthus x giganteus - a large perennial grass with promise as a source...

Breeding Grasses With Better Properties for Bioenergy

Researchers with the UK's Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) Sustainable Bioenergy Center (BSBEC) have discovered a family of genes that could help breed...

Atlas Maps Renewable Energy Resources

A new geospatial application developed by the DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) allows users to map potential renewable energy resources in the United States. The interactive tool is...

Bacteria Engineered to Eat Switchgrass and Make Transportation Fuels

Researchers with DOE’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) have engineered the first strains of Escherichia coli bacteria that can digest switchgrass biomass and...

Super Yeast Turns Pine into Ethanol

A research team from the University of Georgia has developed a "super strain" of yeast that can efficiently ferment ethanol from pretreated pine - one of the most common species of trees in the U.S. Their...

Fighting the War on Trash

In partnership with the Office of Naval Research, Marines at Camp Smith, Hawaii are testing a trash disposal system called the Micro Auto Gasification System (MAGS) that can reduce a standard 50-gallon bag of waste...

Jet Fuel of the Future

With the DOE, Virent, Inc., and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) working together, planes may soon take to the skies using less petroleum. In June, DOE announced an award of up to $13.4 million dollars...

Photosynthesis Helper Protein Discovered

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...

Novel Catalyst Helps Turn Carbon Dioxide Into Fuel

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...

Self-Igniting Fungi Promising for Biomass-Based Fuels

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...

Cheap Sugars for Sustainable Biofuel Production

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...

Discovery Could Streamline Production of Biofuels

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...

Making Biomass Economically Viable

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...

Virginia Tech Wins EcoCAR Competition

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...

Researchers Counteract Biofuel Toxicity in Microbes

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,...

Looking to Cow Rumen for Better Biofuels Enzymes

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...

A Trip to the WEEC

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...