In France, researchers reporting in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering have found that microbes from the guts of certain termite species can help break down lignin, a particularly tough polymer in straw. In previous research, they showed that gut microbes from four termite species could degrade lignin in anaerobic bioreactors. Now they wanted to take […]
In California, researchers from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have achieved unprecedented success in modifying a microbe to efficiently produce a compound of interest using a computational model and CRISPR-based gene editing. Their approach could dramatically speed up the research and development phase for new biomanufacturing processes, and get cutting-edge bio-based products such as […]
In Tennessee, Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists have modified a single microbe to simultaneously digest five of the most abundant components of lignocellulosic biomass. This is a big step forward in the development of a cost-effective biochemical conversion process to turn plants into renewable fuels and chemicals. With support from the U.S. Department of Energy […]
In Massachusetts, microbial species that grow in environments where carbon is mainly available as lignin are promising for finding new ways of removing lignin that protects cellulose for improved conversion of lignin to fuel precursors. One candidate species that can use lignin for growth in the absence of oxygen is Enterobacter lignolyticus SCF1, a bacterium […]
The US Department of Energy is supporting projects to investigate and recommend promising pathways for advanced biological upgrading of biomass sugars and lignin to hydrocarbons (HC) and co-products to support the DOE BETO 2022 goal of enabling advanced HC fuels at $3/GGE. In this project, a NREL-led research team is investigating the engineering of Zymomonasfor […]
In Massachusetts, microbiologists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst report that they have discovered a new type of natural wire produced by bacteria that could greatly accelerate the researchers’ goal of developing sustainable “green” conducting materials for the electronics industry. The study by Derek Lovley and colleagues appears this week in mBio, the American Society […]
In Missouri, the BioAg Alliance, Novozymes’ and Monsanto’s collaboration to improve crop harvests through naturally-occurring microbes, announced results from its 2015 field trial program. Those results included a corn inoculant product, which increased yields by an average of 4 bushels per acre in U.S. field tests. The product is based on a fungus found in […]
In Wisconsin, new analysis by researchers at the University of Wisconsin of a group of bacteria called Streptomyces reveals the way some strains of the microbe developed advanced abilities to tear up cellulose, and points out more efficient ways we might mimic those abilities to make fuel from otherwise unusable plant material. Streptomyces were long […]
In Taiwan, the country will phase out its B2 mandate over the next three months after the policy failed. The low sulfur level in diesel fuels mixed with the country’s humid weather led to microbes clogging fuel tanks. In October 2013 alone, 100 motorists complained about the clogged fuel tanks. The 2% biodiesel content was […]
