A research team led by Hans van Leeuwen, an Iowa State University professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering, has been awarded a 2008 R&D 100 Award from R&D Magazine. The researchers are using fungi to clean up and improve the dry-grind ethanol production process. This is the 30th R&D 100 Award presented to researchers affiliated with Iowa State.
Sol Invictus, Iowa State University's latest student-designed and student-built solar race car, will compete in the North American Solar Challenge July 13-22. The challenge will take 24 university and college teams 2,400 miles from Plano, Texas, to Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Research by two Kansas State University scientists could help with the large-scale cultivation and manufacturing of oil-rich algae in oceans for biofuel.
Biométhodes, a French biotechnology company in Evry, has signed an exclusive and worldwide option-to-license agreement with Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties Inc. (VTIP) for multiple technologies for converting biomass to bioethanol and biohydrogen.
Researchers have developed the first detailed chemical analysis revealing what processing is needed to transform pig manure derived 'crude oil' into fuel for vehicles or heating. Mass production of this type of biofuel could help consume a waste product overflowing at U.S. farms, but it will require a lot of refining.
Diesel fuel prices approaching $5 a gallon "“ and the resulting economic impact on products transported by truck "“ have created renewed interest in fuel-saving technologies developed during the past decade at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI).
A team of researchers from Iowa State University and the University of Hawai'i are developing a process that cleans up and improves the dry-grind ethanol production process. The process uses fungus to reduce energy costs, allow more water recycling and improve a co-product that's used as livestock feed. The American Academy of Environmental Engineers recently awarded the project its 2008 Grand Prize for University Research.
Two students from the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business recently started a business that supplies electricity to rural villages in India by burning the rice husks that are a waste product of rice milling. So far, two rice husk generators are providing power to about 10,000 rural Indians, but the business plan calls for a rapid expansion that will put the miniature power plants in hundreds more villages within a few years.
DOE photovoltaic funding for years has gone to programs that promise more efficient conversion of sunlight to electricity, or in aiding solar start-up companies. It's called "technology push." Now for something different. In the past year, an unusually innovative DOE program called Solar America Cities has focused on reaching out to formerly ignored, sometimes low-profile city decision makers who administer large chunks of urban real estate. It's called "technology pull."
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.
Engineering students at Rowan University (Glassboro, N.J.) are researching the merits of cooking oil as an alternative fuel.
A new method called catalytic fast pyrolysis turns plant biomass such as wood and grasses into "green gasoline" using one simple step. The process significantly reduces the cost and production time associated with making gasoline-range biofuels.
As gas prices continue to soar to record highs, motorists are crying out for an alternative that won't cramp their pocketbooks. Scientists at U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory are answering that call by working to chemically manipulate algae for production of the next generation of renewable fuels "“ hydrogen gas.
Iowa State University, ConocoPhillips and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory have agreed to cooperate on research projects designed to advance the conversion of cellulosic biomass into biofuels. The collaboration is expected to produce an initial report by next January.
A team of Iowa State University researchers led by Victor Lin, a professor of chemistry and director of the Center for Catalysis, is developing a system of thermochemical and catalytic technologies to produce ethanol from plant biomass. Lin has already worked on his catalyst for a year and has filed a patent application.
Key to Northwest biofuels may include waste among biomass resources.
A growing number of plug-in hybrid electric cars and trucks could require major new power generation resources or none at all"” depending on when people recharge their automobiles. A recent ORNL study examined how an expected increase in ownership of hybrid electric cars and trucks will affect the power grid depending on what time of day or night the vehicles are charged.
University of Maryland research that started with bacteria from the Chesapeake Bay has led to a process that may be able to convert large volumes of all kinds of plant products, from leftover brewer's mash to paper trash, into ethanol and other biofuel alternatives to gasoline.
Latin American nations could become important suppliers of ethanol for world markets in coming decades, according to an Oak Ridge National Laboratory study released recently.
While sampling blended biodiesel fuels purchased from small-scale retailers, researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution found that many of the blends do not contain the advertised amount of biofuel.
The 50th Annual Maize Genetics Conference will be held at the Marriott Wardman Park in Washington, D.C., from Feb. 27 to March 2, 2008. Highlights of the conference include announcing the draft sequence of the maize genome, progress on improving maize as a bioenergy crop, and the development of biofortified, nutritionally enhanced corn.
Despite increasing popular support for solar photovoltaic panels in the United States, their costs far outweigh the benefits, according to a new analysis by Severin Borenstein, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business and director of the UC Energy Institute.
Taking a page out of a science fiction story, researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and Webb Research Corporation (Falmouth, Mass.) have successfully flown the first environmentally powered robotic vehicle through the ocean. The new robotic "glider" harvests heat energy from the ocean to propel itself across thousands of kilometers of water.
Led by the three major biofuels producers (the U.S., Brazil and the European Union), an international effort seeks harmonized standards for bioethanol and biodiesel, two key renewable energy sources and global commodities. A report identifying standards differences is step one. Next: national measurement labs (NIST in this country) will work to bridge the gaps.
Deposits of natural gas in Michigan were created rapidly by bacteria during the last ice age, indicating the possibility of making natural gas a renewable resource. Some of the gas was released when ice retreated, contributing to interglacial methane spikes in the atmosphere, a finding that can be used in current climate models.
"The Biology and Business of Biofuels," a three-day meeting on the latest science, business and policy issues about biofuels, will be held Monday, Jan. 28, through Wednesday, Jan. 30, in the Hoffmann Auditorium of The Salk Institute on Torrey Pines Road in La Jolla.
Within five to seven years fast growing trees and grasses might become economically viable alternatives to corn as a source of renewable fuel ethanol, reducing the need for pollutants that now cause a massive "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico.
Biology based renewable energy company Coskata Inc. and automotive giant General Motors announced their cooperative plans to reduce fossil fuel consumption this past weekend, thanks in part to Coskata's "next generation ethanol" process based on research and technology developed by the OSU Biofuels Team and licensed exclusively to Coskata.
Chemical engineering researchers at the University of Arkansas have investigated supercritical methanol as a method of converting chicken fat into biodiesel fuel. The new study also successfully converted tall oil fatty acid into biodiesel at a yield of greater than 90 percent, significantly advancing efforts to develop commercially viable fuel out of plentiful, accessible and low-cost feedstocks and other agricultural by-products.
Using smoke, laser light, model airplane propellers and a campus wind tunnel, a team is trying to solve the airflow mysteries that surround wind turbines, an increasingly popular source of "green" energy.
Using concentrated solar energy to reverse combustion, a research team from Sandia National Laboratories is building a prototype device intended to chemically "reenergize" carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide using concentrated solar power. The carbon monoxide could then be used to make hydrogen or serve as a building block to synthesize a liquid combustible fuel, such as methanol or even gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.
Terry Meyer, an Iowa State University assistant professor of mechanical engineering, is using laser technology to develop advanced sensors capable of analyzing the combustion inside engines, power generators and heating systems. He'll use the sensors to study -- and potentially improve -- the combustion of alternative fuels.
University of Delaware researchers have created a system that enables vehicles to not only run on electricity alone, but also to generate revenue by storing and providing electricity for utilities. The technology--known as V2G, for vehicle-to-grid--lets electricity flow from the car's battery to power lines and back.
Rodney Andrews at the University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research can discuss the status of energy research programs and feasible alternatives to oil.
Researchers in the Georgia Tech Research Institute's (GTRI) Center for Innovative Fuel Cell and Battery Technologies believe that understanding how and why fuel cells fail is the key to both reducing cost and improving durability. The problems they are addressing include chemical attack of the membrane, carbon corrosion and platinum instability.
Kyoto was a valiant first attempt to tackle global carbon emissions, and support for the Kyoto Protocol is still needed in the international community, but it will not be enough to make a breakthrough with climate change. That's according to a letter co-authored by a University of Adelaide climate change expert and published today in the international journal Nature.
Michigan Technological University and Michigan State University are teaming up to help develop a renewable biofuels industry in Michigan.
A recently announced research grant means that some sociologists at Kansas State University are joining the conversation about alternative fuels.
Carbon footprints. The rising cost of gasoline. Coal, wind or solar power. Energy issues are promoting much discussion today, including in Kansas. Researchers at Kansas State University's Center for Sustainable Energy think about these issues a lot.
What do the countries of Thailand, Uruguay and Ghana have in common? They all could become leading producers of the emerging renewable fuel known as biodiesel, says a study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies.
As Texas' electric grid operator prepares to add power lines for carrying future wind-generated energy, an electrical engineer at The University of Texas at Austin is developing improved methods for determining the extent to which power from a wind farm can displace a conventional power plant, and how best to regulate varying wind power.
The "Energy Efficiency Partnership of Greater Washington" will tackle global warming by retrofitting existing buildings with energy efficiency products designed to decrease energy use and significantly cut carbon emissions.
The newest addition to five Kansas schools or school districts will give students a chance to learn more about wind power.
"National Wildlife Federation welcomes the release of a new National Academy of Sciences report, Water Implications of Biofuels Production in the United States, which highlights the need for a new Biofuels Innovation Program in the next Farm Bill.
Engineers have found a way to turn discarded chicken eggshells into an alternative energy resource. The patented process uses eggshells to soak up carbon dioxide from a reaction that produces hydrogen fuel. It also includes a unique method for peeling the collagen-containing membrane from the inside of the shells, so that the collagen can be used commercially.
An ESF student makes fuel for the college fleet, and his own Mercedes-Benz, from cooking oil that comes from a university dining hall.
The search for alternatives to fossil fuels has led to a major investment in a microbe that converts plant matter into ethanol. Noted for its appetite for all things cellulose, the bacterium efficiently converts biomass to ethanol in a carbon-neutral process that doesn't require the additional enzyme treatments usually accompanying bioethanol production.
The University of Haifa, in cooperation with Stanford University, is embarking on a unique, wide-ranging research effort to investigate energy production using a gas lying beneath the ocean floor, as an alternative to oil. The initiative will be conducted in the new School for Marine Studies at the University of Haifa, whose establishment was made possible through the generous donation of American businessman Mr. Leon Charney.
Hybrid electric cars need much better batteries--and A123, a plucky Massachusetts startup, says it's got them.
As the national debate over energy independence intensifies, researchers at the University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research are refining methods to convert coal into liquid fuel.
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