North Carolina budget cuts to hit nitrogen research, Chemtex?

In North Carolina, state budget cuts continue to shut down research opportunities as the North Carolina Biofuels Center prepares to close by October 1. The North Carolina Department of Energy will take over some of the responsibilities of the research center, but more than two dozen projects stand to lose funding, including a project to discover how much nitrogen crops such as miscanthus can absorb in spray-fields.

Chemtex/Beta Renewables said that cuts will not affect their North Carolina project directly; however, two-thirds of the land projected to be utilized in the project will be spray fields. To date, the project’s primary feedstock, arundo donax, has not yet been shown to absorb enough nitrogen in order to plant in spray fields.

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