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New Method to Improve Fuel Production from Biomass Fermented by Yeast

Researchers with the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI), a partnership that includes the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley, have found a way to increase the production of fuels and other chemicals from biomass fermented by yeast. By introducing new metabolic pathways into the yeast, they enable the microbes to efficiently ferment cellulose and hemicellulose, the two major families of sugar found in the plant cell wall, without the need of environmentally harsh pre-treatments or expensive enzyme cocktails.

6 Mar 2015

Biomass Electricity Production Combined with Carbon Capture and Sequestration Could Contribute to Zero-Carbon Future

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.

10 Feb 2015

DEINOVE Reaches First Milestone in ADEME-Funded DEINOCHEM Green Chemistry Program

DEINOVE, an industrial biotech company developing innovative processes for producing biofuels and bio-based compounds from Deinococcus bacteria, today announced it has reached the first milestone of its DEINOCHEM green chemistry program, funded by the ADEME (French Environment and Energy Management Agency) in the framework of the French government initiative "Investing for the Future".

22 Jan 2015

Reliable Methane Production Feasible from Fluctuating Amounts of Green Electricity

Pilot Plant Demonstrates that Fluctuating Amounts of Green Electricity Can Be Used Reliably by the Methanation of Biogenous Gases

12 Jan 2015

Genetic Advance May Help Manipulate Polymer-Forming Processes to Improve Biofuel Production

Plant geneticists including Sam Hazen at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Siobhan Brady at the University of California, Davis, have sorted out the gene regulatory networks that control cell wall thickening by the synthesis of the three polymers, cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin.

5 Jan 2015

Novel Catalytic Process Converts Biomass Waste into High-Value Chemical Products

A new catalytic process is able to convert what was once considered biomass waste into lucrative chemical products that can be used in fragrances, flavorings or to create high-octane fuel for racecars and jets.

19 Dec 2014

Bacteria from Guts of Waxworm Can Degrade Common Plastic

Plastic is well-known for sticking around in the environment for years without breaking down, contributing significantly to litter and landfills. But scientists have now discovered that bacteria from the guts of a worm known to munch on food packaging can degrade polyethylene, the most common plastic.

4 Dec 2014

DTE Biomass Energy Completes 9.6MW Landfill Gas-to-Energy Project in Mt. Gilead

DTE Biomass Energy today celebrated the completion of its 9.6-megawatt landfill gas-to-energy project at the Uwharrie Environmental Landfill in Mt. Gilead.

25 Oct 2014

Variant Straw Plants Can Improve Biofuel Production

Manufacturing biofuels from food crop by-products such as straw could be made quicker and cheaper thanks to the work of scientists in the UK and France.

23 Sep 2014

Scientists Develop Novel Process to Deal with Agricultural and Plastic Waste Problems

Your chairs, synthetic rugs and plastic bags could one day be made out of cocoa, rice and vegetable waste rather than petroleum, scientists are now reporting. The novel process they developed and their results, which could help the world deal with its agricultural and plastic waste problems, appear in the ACS journal Macromolecules.

22 Aug 2014