In New York state, to manage atmospheric carbon dioxide and convert the gas into a useful product, Cornell scientists have dusted off an archaic—now 120 years old—electrochemical equation. The group aims to thwart the consequences of global warming and climate change by applying this long-forgotten idea in a new way. The calculation—named the Cottrell equation […]
In New York state, Cornell-led collaboration is turning DNA from organic matter—such as onions, fish and algae—into biodegradable gels and plastics. The resulting materials could be used to create everyday plastic objects, unusually strong adhesives, multifunctional composites and more effective methods for drug delivery, without harming the environment the way petrochemical-based materials do. The team’s […]
In New York state, the U.S. Department of Energy has awarded an interdisciplinary team of Cornell researchers $2 million to study the combination of inorganic semiconductor nanoparticles and bacterial cells for more efficient bioenergy conversion. The Cornell project was one of six selected by the DOE’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research to explore microscopic […]
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 New York state, researchers from Cornell University’s Boyce Thompson Institute and Texas A&M University report in Plant Direct exciting new technology that may revolutionize the search for the perfect algal strain: Algal droplet bioreactors on a chip. A single algal cell is captured in a tiny droplet of water encapsulated by oil – imagine […]
In New York state, researchers at Cornell are combining hydrothermal liquefaction with anaerobic digestion in order to boost the energy production while reducing the processing time for treating food waste. The FAO estimates 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted or lost every year. The hydrothermal liquefaction produces a biocrude in just a few minutes […]
In New York state, to unravel how intricate waste biomass converts to biofuels, a Cornell professor studied the bacterium Clostridium acetobutylicum to decipher its metabolism. Understanding the bacterium’s sugar-processing complexities may lead to improved biofuel yields. She used an emerging biochemical approach, called metabolomics, to track different sugar carbon atoms inside the bacterial cells and […]
In New York state, to answer the challenge of producing renewable, sustainable alternative fuels, researchers aren’t just looking at developing candidate bioenergy crops but are also reviewing other natural sources of energy-dense oils such as fungi. To learn more about how bacteria interact with fungi in a symbiotic relationship to support the biochemistries that could […]
The Cornell Marine Algal Biofuels Consortium includes Cornell, Duke, Cellana, SOEST, San Francisco State, the University of Nordland, the University of Southern Mississippi, GIFAS and the Sahara Forest Project. The overall project aimed for productivity of 1,500 gal/acre/yr algal oil by Q4 2014 and productivity of 2,500 gal/acre/yr algal oil by Q4 2018. The goal? […]
In New York, a $910,000 grant from the DOE was awarded to a Cornell research team working on an algae project aimed at redesigning a bioreactor that delivers light efficiently. The “optofluidic reactor” will deliver light to algae growing on low-cost sheets and then collect fuel through porous tubes; the reactor will be able to […]
