Bio Fuels

The international biofuels industry has found an unlikely ally in the waste management sector. A heightened global urgency to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) is incentivizing renewable fuels production like never before, but the International Energy Agency (IEA) recently warned of an impending feedstock shortage for biodiesel, renewable diesel and biojet (aviation fuel) production, estimated to last through 2027 if …

Emily Newton is the Editor-in-Chief of Revolutionized Magazine, an online publication that explores innovations in science and technology.   Renewable energy sources are slowly becoming more popular and some, like biomass power, could change the energy sector forever. Biomass is one of the main renewable energy sources available to us today, though it tends to get overlooked in favor of …

Blue Biofuels, Inc. (PINK: BIOF). (the “Company” or “BIOF”) is pleased to announce that it has achieved full conversion ( 99% + ) of king grass cellulosic material to water soluble sugars on a repeatable basis. This conversion occurs with a reaction time of under one minute.This achievement was accomplished with the Company’s upgraded 4th generation CTS 2.0 (Cellulose to …

Experiments in growing algae without sunlight Algae could compete with petroleum as the fuel of the future if only the process of growing it was more efficient. Thanks to a fellowship from the Link Foundation, it soon could be.   Experimental laboratory-grown algae beakers. (Elizabeth Hann/UCR) Elizabeth Hann, a doctoral student in plant biology at UC Riverside, is using the two-year, …

The development of biofuels has plenty of research and success behind it, which is good news for the transportation industry as well as the health of the planet. Transportation is a major contributor to climate change, accounting for 29% of total anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the U.S. as of 2017, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). That …

In a consumer society, large commercial trucks are a fact of life. We see them on the interstate daily, bringing goods to market. What are some ways that truck owners and operators can minimize their environmental footprint? Fuel Efficiency Is Key Historically, commercial trucks have gotten terrible fuel mileage – as low as four or five miles per gallon in …

Energy Commission Approves Biomass System in Shasta County and Zero-Percent Loan for Solar System in Soledad Schools New energy standards approved for Lancaster SACRAMENTO – The California Energy Commission today approved a $1.5 million grant to demonstrate a containerized biomass-to-energy system in Shasta County as part of the state’s effort at creating economic drivers to support renewable energy that also benefits California’s forest health crisis. The Berkeley-based …

USDA Announces $2.9 Million Available for Biorefinery Research WASHINGTON, Jan. 6, 2017 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) today announced the availability of $2.9 million in funding for research to improve biorefinery technologies. The Integrated Biorefinery Optimization program is coordinated and co-funded jointly between NIFA and the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) …

West Fraser’s 2×13 MW biomass power plants operating commercially since beginning of 2015. Maine Wood Pellet’s 8 MW power unit to start up early in 2016 in the United States.   Brescia, October 7th, 2015 – Turboden, a group company of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), leader in Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) power systems for distributed generation from renewable sources and …

Researchers in the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin have used a combination of metabolic engineering and directed evolution to develop a new, mutant yeast strain that could lead to a more efficient biofuel production process that would make biofuels more economically competitive with conventional fuels. Their findings were published online in the journal Metabolic …

MADISON, Wis. — In a study published March 9 in Nature Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison chemistry Professor Kyoung-Shin Choi presents a new approach to combine solar energy conversion and biomass conversion, two important research areas for renewable energy. For decades, scientists have been working to harness the energy from sunlight to drive chemical reactions to form fuels such as hydrogen, …

By Robert Sanders, Media Relations | February 9, 2015 BERKELEY —Generating electricity from biomass, such as urban waste and sustainably-sourced forest and crop residues, is one strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, because it is carbon-neutral: it produces as much carbon as the plants suck out of the atmosphere. A carbon dioxide injection well in Australia. (Photo courtesy of CO2CRC) …

AORA TO PROVIDE FIRST SOLAR-BIOGAS HYBRID POWER SOLUTION FOR OFF-GRID COMMUNITIES IN AFRICA   Ethiopian Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Energy Meets with AORA Solar Ahead of Deployment of its Tulip™ Technology   ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia & REHOVOT, Israel – AORA Solar (www.aora-solar.com), a leading developer of solar-biogas hybrid power technology, today announced it has met with the Ministry of Water, Irrigation and …

What if we could take all that carbon dioxide that we have too much of and turn it into a clean energy source? Sound far-fetched? Well, it isn’t really. After all, plants do it every day. That is much of the rationale behind biofuels. Let the plants store the solar energy as sugars, starches, etc., which we then convert into …

New Worldwatch Institute analysis examines the trends in global biofuel production In 2012, the combined global production of ethanol and biodiesel fell for the first time since 2000, down 0.4 percent from the figure in 2011. Global ethanol production declined slightly for the second year in a row, to 83.1 billion liters, while biodiesel output rose fractionally, from 22.4 billion …

Image Caption: By placing colonies of E. coli engineered to produce pinene into test tubes containing glucose, researchers were able to determine which enzyme combinations produced the hydrocarbon most efficiently. Credit: Georgia Tech/Rob Felt John Toon, Georgia Institute of Technology Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Joint BioEnergy Institute have engineered a bacterium to synthesize pinene, a hydrocarbon produced …

Gasoline-like fuels can be made from cellulosic materials such as farm and forestry waste using a new process invented by chemists at the University of California, Davis. The process could open up new markets for plant-based fuels, beyond existing diesel substitutes. “What’s exciting is that there are lots of processes to make linear hydrocarbons, but until now nobody has been …

USDA Grant Aims to Convert Beetle-Killed Trees into Biofuel The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced today that it has awarded nearly $10 million to an academic, industry, and government consortium led by Colorado State University to study the major challenges limiting the use of insect-killed trees in the Rockies as a sustainable feedstock for bioenergy. The award was made …

Crafting a better enzyme cocktail to turn plants into fuel faster Tapping fungus to unlock energy Scientists looking to create a potent blend of enzymes to transform materials like corn stalks and wood chips into fuels have developed a test that should turbocharge their efforts. The new research, published in October in the journal Molecular BioSystems, is part of a worldwide …

Heightened Investment in Advanced Technologies and Co-Products The latest annual ethanol industry report, compiled by Christianson & Associates, PLLP (C&A), has been released. The Biofuels Benchmarking 2012-13 Annual Industry Report provides analysis of changes and trends for a broad cross-section of the ethanol industry over the most recent six calendar quarters (January 2012-June 2013). The information in the report is gleaned from …