In Massachusetts, MIT chemical engineers are working to develop a smaller-scale alternative, which they envision could be used to locally produce fertilizer for farmers in remote, rural areas, such as sub-Saharan Africa. Fertilizer is often hard to obtain in such areas because of the cost of transporting it from large manufacturing facilities. In a step […]
In Massachusetts, Sweetwater Energy has been selected to become part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s STEX25 accelerator program for growth-stage companies. STEX25 is a business development accelerator within the MIT Startup Exchange. STEX25 is a business development accelerator within the MIT Startup Exchange, of which Sweetwater is a member, featuring 25 industry-ready ventures that […]
In Massachusetts, heavy-duty trucks, such as the 18-wheelers that transport many of the world’s goods from farm or factory to market, are virtually all powered by diesel engines. They account for a significant portion of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions, but little has been done so far to curb their climate-change-inducing exhaust. Now, researchers at MIT […]
In Massachusetts, a new report from MIT Sloan professor John Sterman supports the growing argument that burning wood pellets for power is worse for the climate than burning coal, because of the short-term effects and the “potentially irreversible impacts that may arise before the long-run benefits are realized.” “Because combustion and processing efficiencies for wood […]
In Massachusetts, photosynthesis, which allows energy from the sun to be converted into life-sustaining sugars, can also be hazardous to green plants. If they absorb too much sunlight, the extra energy destroys their tissue. To combat this, green plants have developed a defense mechanism known as photoprotection, which allows them to dissipate the extra energy. […]
In Massachusetts, MIT engineers have genetically reprogrammed a strain of yeast so that it converts sugars to fats much more efficiently, an advance that could make possible the renewable production of high-energy fuels such as diesel. The researchers modified the metabolic pathways of yeast that naturally produce large quantities of lipids, to make them about […]
In Massachusetts, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are working with torrefaction to help small farmers be able to use the technology to produce fuel. Their project is a reactor that uses torrefaction to densify biomass, making it transportable and increasing its shelf life. Torrefaction technology has been used at the industrial scale for […]
In Massachusetts, MIT engineers have genetically reprogrammed a strain of yeast so that it converts sugars to fats much more efficiently, an advance that could make possible the renewable production of high-energy fuels such as diesel. The researchers modified the metabolic pathways of yeast that naturally produce large quantities of lipids, to make them about […]
In Massachusetts, researchers at MIT and the Cambridge startup Novogy describe a new technique that gives producer microbes the upper hand against unwanted invaders, eliminating the need for such expensive and potentially harmful sterilization methods. The researchers engineered microbes, such as Escherichia coli, with the ability to extract nitrogen and phosphorous—two vital nutrients needed for […]
In Massachusetts, new research from the Stephanopoulos group at MIT reports engineered microorganisms that can generate sustainable biofuel from carbon dioxide emissions. Their research was recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This conversion process starts with mixtures of carbon dioxide and either carbon monoxide or hydrogen, The gas is bubbled into […]
