biofuel

Microorganisms once reigned supreme on the Earth, thriving by filling every nook and cranny of the environment billions of years before humans first arrived on the scene. Now, this ability of microorganisms to grow from an almost infinite variety of food sources may play a significant role in bailing out society from its current energy […]

A process used to roast coffee beans could give Britain’s biomass a power boost, increasing the energy content of some of the UK’s leading energy crops by up to 20 per cent.
The study, carried out by engineers from the University of Leeds, examined the combustion behaviour of crops grown specifically for energy creation when put […]

A spidery fungus with a voracious appetite for military uniforms and canvas tents could hold the key to improvements in the production of biofuels, a team of government, academic and industry researchers has announced.
In a paper published today in Nature Biotechnology, researchers led by Los Alamos National Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy Joint […]

A newly created microbe produces cellulose that can be turned into ethanol and other biofuels, report scientists from The University of Texas at Austin who say the microbe could provide a significant portion of the nation’s transportation fuel if production can be scaled up.
Along with cellulose, the cyanobacteria developed by Professor R. Malcolm Brown Jr. […]

A new Nature Conservancy study finds that converting land for biofuel crops results in major carbon emissions, actually worsening the problem of global warming instead of mitigating it.
The first-of-its-kind study will be published in Science later this month.
“This research examines the conversion of land for biofuels and asks the question ‘Is it worth it?’ Does […]

The bio-crude oil can be used to produce high value chemicals and biofuels, including both petrol and diesel replacement fuels.
“By making changes to the chemical process, we’ve been able to create a concentrated bio-crude which is much more stable than that achieved elsewhere in the world,” says Dr Steven Loffler of CSIRO Forest Biosciences.
“This makes […]

Drivers can’t pump algal fuel into their gas tanks yet, but Keith Cooksey said the idea holds promise. He felt that way 20 years ago. He feels that way today.
“We would be there now if people then hadn’t been so short-sighted,” Cooksey said.
Cooksey is one of many U.S. scientists who studied the feasibility of turning […]

Let’s say a fuel derived from biomass produces too much soot when it’s burned in a combustion chamber designed for fossil fuels.
How can an engineer find the source of the problem? It originates, after all, in the flame zone of a highly turbulent combustion chamber. That’s not exactly an easy place for an engineer to […]