In Wisconsin, researchers at the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center and the Wisconsin Energy Institute have developed a strategy for employing the bacterium N. aromaticivorans to turn lignin into a more valuable commodity. This can help turn woody plants into a replacement for petroleum in the production of fuels, plastics and other chemicals. The bacterium, […]
In Wisconsin, a study from researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center compared two processes for producing biofuels from corn stover: biological conversion to ethanol (BCE) and catalytic conversion to alkenes (CCA) and found that carbon efficiency isn’t the only factor for determining promising strategies for the production of […]
In Wisconsin, for researchers at the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC), the central role of solvents in converting non-food biomass to biofuels and bioproducts means they’re ripe for optimization. Better use of solvents could improve the economics of biorefineries, push a range of new and more sustainable biofuels and bioproducts to market, and provide […]
In Washington, U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry today announced $40 million in Department of Energy awards for the establishment of four DOE Bioenergy Research Centers (BRCs), which will provide the scientific breakthroughs for a new generation of sustainable, cost-effective bioproducts and bioenergy. The following centers were selected based on an open competition using outside peer […]
In Wisconsin, scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) have found a way to nearly double the efficiency with which a commonly used industrial yeast strain converts plant sugars to biofuel. The newly engineered “super yeast” could boost the economics of making ethanol, specialty biofuels and bioproducts. Though […]
In Michigan, an assistant research specialist at the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) has designed a new strain of yeast that could improve the efficiency of making fuel from cellulosic biomass such as switchgrass. Both the yeast strain and the method of its design could help overcome a significant bottleneck in the biofuels pipeline — namely, […]
In Wisconsin, a six-year Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) study on the viability of different bioenergy feedstocks recently demonstrated that perennial cropping systems such as switchgrass, giant miscanthus, poplar, native grasses, and prairie can yield as much biomass as corn stover. The study is significant for beginning to address one of the biofuel industry’s […]
In Wisconsin, the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) at UW-Madison has teamed with a local high school on a bioprospecting project that is teaching students how to discover new potential production pathways for biofuels. Students have collected potentially yeast-bearing materials from around their campus to try to identify the right yeast to boost production […]
In Wisconsin, the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC), one of the Department of Energy’s three bioenergy research centers, has celebrated the filing of its 100th patent application. Since 2011, GLBRC has reported inventions at a rate that exceeds expectations for a university entity of its size and funding level by 50 percent. Reflective of […]
In New Mexico, the Los Alamos National Laboratory has published a paper on the binding of enzymes to cellulose polymers, and how oftentimes, increased binding does not lead to faster breakdown into simple sugars. The team, led by Shishir Chundawat of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, has been using biomass pretreatments to convert cellulose […]
