In New York state, researchers from Cornell University say engineered electroactive microbes borrowing an electron from solar or wind electricity and using the energy to break apart carbon dioxide molecules from the air can then take the carbon atoms to make biofuels, such as isobutanol or propanol. These synthetic or non-biological electrically engineered elements could […]
In Washington, DC, the American Chemical Society is exploring studies that look at how microbes are becoming a concern for airlines and fleet operators who use biofuels. Operators are noticing contamination of microbes in biodiesel blends that wasn’t an issue before and scientists are looking into how to rectify the issue. A recent scientific study […]
With the XXIII Olympic Winter Games starting and a record-breaking 102 gold medals up for grabs this year, it got us thinking about medals…and metals in general. With so many uses from giving them as awards for super athletes, to using them in currency, trade markets, and more recently, electronics, it seems like the demand […]
In Canada, scientists in Ottawa with Agriculture Canada are looking at how pandas digest bamboo to better understand the fungi and microbes that help them digest the branches and twigs. This builds on another recent study about how beavers digest trees and how the enzymes in their gut help break down the material to get […]
In Massachusetts, biotech company KnipBio completed the last phase in producing its new aquaculture feed, KnipBio Feed and is now looking to partner with biofuel industry leaders to get to commercial scale fermentation. As reported in Biofuels Digest before, KnipBio developed a series of naturally occurring microbes that convert low-cost feedstock into premium, nutritious, single-cell […]
In Germany, microbes are already used on a wide scale for the production of fuels and base chemicals, but for this most of them have to be “fed” with sugar. However, since sugar-based biotechnology finds itself in competition with food production, it is faced with increasingly fierce criticism. Carbon dioxide has meanwhile become the focus […]
In New York state, Cornell University biological engineers have deciphered the cellular strategy to make the biofuel ethanol, using an anaerobic microbe feeding on carbon monoxide. To make biofuel from inorganic, gaseous industrial rubbish, the researchers learned that the bacterium Clostridium ljungdahlii responds thermodynamically – rather than genetically – in the process of tuning favorable […]
In France, researchers from the Laboratoire de Chimie-Physique at the Universite Paris-Sud have demonstrated the use of Streptomyces, a soil bacterium known for making antibiotics, for producing biofuels. The researchers used atomic force microscopy combined with infrared spectroscopy, a method that could be used by others to determine other microbes for biofuel production.
In California, The global consumption of Biofuels is projected to reach 135 billion gallons by the year 2018, according to a new report from Global Industry Analysts. ” Biofuels are fast growing to become a prominent alternative energy resource, driven mainly by the growing environmental concerns with regard to the usage of fossil fuels,” the […]
In California, researchers from Stanford and Pennsylvania State universities say microbes that convert electricity into methane gas could become an important source of renewable energy. Researchers at both campuses are raising colonies of microorganisms, called methanogens, which have the remarkable ability to turn electrical energy into pure methane.
