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UrduA team of scientists with two Department of Energy Bioenergy Research Centers — the Center for Bioenergy Innovation, or CBI, at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation, or CABBI, at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign — identified a gene in a poplar tree that enhances photosynthesis and can boost tree height by about 30% in the field and by as much as 200% in the greenhouse.
Tag: Biofuels
Breakthrough in Biofuel Production: Rhodococcus Strain N1-S Transforms Succinic Acid Production
Researchers from China have achieved a breakthrough in biofuel production with the development of Rhodococcus aetherivorans strain N1, a new species, and its enhanced variant, N1-S. The study highlights how N1-S excels at detoxifying toxic byproducts from lignocellulosic biomass, resulting in a remarkable 6.5-fold increase in succinic acid yields compared to traditional methods.
Turning Agricultural Trash to Treasure
New funding will help Berkeley Lab and partners improve how the diverse agricultural waste in California’s Northern San Joaquin Valley can be used to make sustainable bioproducts and biofuels.
Feasibility of agricultural biomass in Southeast Asia for enzymes production
Abstract The agricultural sector in Southeast Asia holds significant importance for the region’s economies, playing a vital role in employment and ensuring food security. Major contributors to this sector include Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, and Malaysia. In fact, the…
Scientists Gain New Molecular-Level Insights into Breaking Down Plant Material for Biofuels
To produce biofuels from nonedible plants, researchers can use cellulase to break down plant cellulose into glucose, which can be fermented to generate bioethanol. Researchers have now used a specialized optical microscope to visualize single cellulase enzymes interacting with different forms of cellulose. This allowed them to investigate enzyme function in the presence of the product of the reaction and other components of plant biomass.
Innovative Light-Driven Enzymatic Biosystem for the Synthesis of Natural Terpenoids
In a recent study, researchers from China have developed a light-driven in vitro enzymatic system to produce α-farnesene, a useful natural terpenoid, from methanol. By optimizing and coupling thirteen biocatalytic reactions, and using natural thylakoid membranes, they achieved a significant α-farnesene production using methanol and glycolaldehyde as source materials.
Biofuels versus climate change: Exploring potentials and challenges in the energy transition
Abstract In a scenario characterized by the constant rise of global temperatures and extreme climatic events, the need for sustainable energy alternatives is urgent. Biofuels, derived from biomass, emerge as a promising option to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and combat…
Nanoparticle applications in Algal-biorefinery for biofuel production
Abstract Rapidly depleting fossil fuel resources and rising greenhouse gas emissions have accelerated the search for cost-effective renewable energy sources. Algal feedstock has long been touted as a potential source of several biofuels because of its renewable and sustainable features.…
An Inside Look at How Plants and Mycorrhizal Fungi Cooperate
For millions of years, underground fungi have lived in symbiosis with plant roots. Researchers have been able to study both sides of this interaction up close, using RNA sequencing to understand gene expression: one of the first cross-kingdom spatially-resolved transcriptomics studies to date.
Engineers have adjusted the diesel engine to run properly on rapeseed oil
RUDN engineers adjusted the operation of a diesel engine running on rapeseed oil. Typically, the second fuel reduces engine performance, but the authors explained how to adjust it so that vegetable and diesel fuels come close in performance.
Protecting the Protector Boosts Plant Oil Content
Biologists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory have demonstrated a new way to boost the oil content of plant leaves and seeds.
Reduced Nitrogen Oxide Emissions from Industrial Vehicles Ahead
A new discovery by PNNL researchers has illuminated a previously unknown key mechanism that could inform the development of new, more effective catalysts for abating NOx emissions from combustion-engines burning diesel or low carbon fuel.
Researchers Demonstrate First Precision Gene Editing in Miscanthus
Miscanthus thrives on marginal lands with limited fertilization and tolerates drought and cool temperatures, making it an ideal bioenergy candidate. Previous efforts to genetically improve miscanthus focused on introducing external genes at random places in the plant’s genomes. This research developed gene-editing procedures using CRISPR/Cas9 that will allow scientists to selectively target existing genes to knock out their function and introduce new genes into precise locations.
Synthetic DNA could help scientists modify genes and create new biofuels
Unlocking the potential of laboratory-crafted DNA, known as synthetic DNA, holds the key to groundbreaking advancements across multiple domains, according to quantum biologists from the University of Surrey.
The copper key to more efficient biomass breakdown
Nonfood, plant-based biofuels have potential as a green alternative to fossil fuels, but the enzymes required for production are too inefficient and costly to produce. However, new research is shining a light on enzymes from fungi that could make biofuels economically viable.
DOE funds next-generation Center for Bioenergy Innovation at ORNL to advance renewable jet fuel
The Center for Bioenergy Innovation has been renewed by the Department of Energy as one of four bioenergy research centers across the nation to advance robust, economical production of plant-based fuels and chemicals. CBI, led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is focused on the development of nonfood biomass crops and specialty processes for the production of sustainable jet fuel to help decarbonize the aviation sector.
Jamey Young: Then and Now / 2012 Early Career Award Winner
Engineering professor Jamey Young at Vanderbilt University is developing new strategies for engineering the metabolism of cyanobacteria. He is working to create “green cell factories” for producing renewable fuel compounds.
MSU discovery advances biofuel crop that could curb dependence on fossil fuel
Michigan State University researchers have solved a puzzle that could help switchgrass realize its full potential as a low-cost, sustainable biofuel crop and curb our dependence on fossil fuels.
Spinning food processing waste into ‘gold’
Scientists have taken the first step at estimating the best large-scale uses for food processing waste, first analyzing its contents and, based on those findings, proposing production opportunities ranging from sustainable fuels, biogas and electricity to useful chemicals and organic fertilizer.
Engineered Poplar Lignin Has More of a Valuable “Clip-off” Chemical
Lignin, the complex polymer that gives plants their structural integrity, makes them difficult to break down and creates challenges for the creation of biochemicals and bioproducts. Building blocks that are present in small amounts in the lignin of the bioenergy crop poplar are valuable platform chemicals that are easy to “clip-off” during plant deconstruction. Scientists engineered a new type of poplar to have more of a specific building block in its lignin and less lignin overall. This results in wood that is easier to deconstruct and more valuable as a bioproduct raw material.
James McKinlay : Then and Now / 2012 Early Career Award Winner
James McKinlay is an associate professor of biology at Indiana University. His group used genetics, analytical chemistry, and computational modeling to identify factors that determine hydrogen gas production levels. More broadly, we identified factors that govern cooperative relationships between microbes.
Bacteria for Blastoff: Using Microbes to Make Supercharged New Rocket Fuel
Scientists used an oddball molecule made by bacteria to develop a new class of biofuels predicted to have greater energy density than any petroleum product, including the leading aviation and rocket fuels.
Scientists ID Sterol Essential for Oil Accumulation in Plants
Scientists seeking to unravel the details of how plants produce and accumulate oil have identified a new essential component of the assembly line–a particular sterol that plays a key role in the formation of oil droplets. The findings may suggest new ways to engineer the oil content of a variety of plant tissues for potential applications in bioenergy, chemical engineering, and nutrition.
Stinkweed could make a cleaner bio-jet fuel, study finds
A common farm weed could make a “greener” jet fuel with fewer production-related environmental impacts than other biofuels, a new study indicates.
The best bioenergy crops for the North Carolina Piedmont
Research shows options with high yield and low water use
New enzyme breaks down waste for less expensive biofuels, bioproducts
In a step toward increasing the cost-effectiveness of renewable biofuels and bioproducts, scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory discovered a microbial enzyme that degrades tough-to-break bonds in lignin, a waste product of biorefineries.
DOE Awards $45.5 Million for Projects to Advance Biotechnology Research
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today awarded $45.5 million for research projects geared towards understanding and harnessing nature’s biological processes to produce clean biofuels and bioproducts.
Pretreating Nuisance Green Algae with Lye, Urea Increases Bacterial Production of Biogas
An international research team reports their success in using urea and sodium hydroxide (NaOH, commonly known as lye or caustic soda) as a pretreatment of algae, which breaks down cellulose and more than doubles biogas production under their initial experimental conditions.
TRANSFORMING CO2 AND SUGARS INTO BIOFUEL
With a $2.7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), UD Professor Eleftherios (Terry) Papoutsakis is developing a system to produce bioenergy from a mix of microbes that can convert carbon dioxide into useful chemicals.
Enhancing Land Surface Models to Grow Perennial Bioenergy Crops
To understand the effects of expanding biofuel production, scientists must accurately represent biofuel crops in land surface models. Using observations from biofuel plants in the Midwestern United States, researchers simulated two biofuel perennial plants, miscanthus and switchgrass. The simulations indicate these high-yield perennial crops have several advantages over traditional annual bioenergy crops—they assimilate more carbon dioxide, and they require fewer nutrients and less water.
Next-generation tech for biofuels refining
Helping to strengthen the economic viability of biorefineries in the production of alternative fuels derived from biomass is critical to decreasing the use of fossil fuels and mitigating carbon dioxide emissions.
Fields of Breeders’ Dreams: A Team Effort Toward Targeted Crop Improvements
In Nature, a multi-institutional team including DOE Joint Genome Institute researchers has produced a high-quality reference sequence of the complex switchgrass genome. Building off this work, bioenergy researchers are exploring targeted genome editing techniques to customize the crop.
How Did Red Algae Survive in Extreme Environments?
Red algae have persisted in hot springs and surrounding rocks for about 1 billion years. Now, a Rutgers-led team will investigate why these single-celled extremists have thrived in harsh environments – research that could benefit environmental cleanups and the production of biofuels and other products.
Jennifer Doudna Wins 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Biochemist Jennifer Doudna, a professor at UC Berkeley and faculty scientist at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), is co-winner of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for “the development of a method for genome editing.”
New building block in plant wall construction
University of Adelaide researchers as part of a multidisciplinary, international team, have uncovered a new biochemical mechanism fundamental to plant life.
The research, published in The Plant Journal details the discovery of the enzymatic reaction involving carbohydrates present in plant cell walls, which are essential for their structure.
Stronger membranes help yeast tolerate bioenergy production chemicals
Creating biofuels from plant material requires ionic liquids (ILs) to break down plant cells. We also need microbes such as yeast to convert the resulting plant material into biofuel. However, ILs often keep microbes from growing. Scientists have now learned how one strain of yeast strengthens its membranes and holds up better to ILs.
Smart Farms of the Future: Making Bioenergy Crops More Environmentally Friendly
Farmers have enough worries – between bad weather, rising costs, and shifting market demands – without having to stress about the carbon footprint of their operations. But now a new set of projects by scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) could make agriculture both more sustainable and more profitable.
Brookhaven Biochemist Receives Prestigious Award for Plant Lipid Research
Jantana Keereetaweep, a biochemistry research associate in the biology department at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, has been awarded the Paul K. Stumpf Award for her research on plant lipids (fats and oils). The award, given every two years, recognizes the contributions of a promising early-career scientist in honor of Stumpf, who was a world leader and pioneer in the study of plant lipid biochemistry.
Making Biofuels Cheaper by Putting Plants to Work
One strategy to make biofuels more competitive is to make plants do some of the work themselves. Scientists can engineer plants to produce valuable chemical compounds, or bioproducts, as they grow. Then the bioproducts can be extracted from the plant and the remaining plant material can be converted into fuel. But one important part of this strategy has remained unclear — exactly how much of a particular bioproduct would plants need to make in order to make the process economically feasible?
Upgrading Biomass with Selective Surface-Modified Catalysts
Loading single platinum atoms on titanium dioxide promotes the conversion of a plant derivative into a potential biofuel.
Seeing starch: Novel technique enables gentle observation of biofuel materials
Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a new method to peer deep into the nanostructure of biomaterials without damaging the sample. This novel technique can confirm structural features in starch, a carbohydrate important in biofuel production.
How to Make it Easier to Turn Plant Waste into Biofuels
Researchers have developed a new process that could make it much cheaper to produce biofuels such as ethanol from plant waste and reduce reliance on fossil fuels. Their approach, featuring an ammonia-salt based solvent that rapidly turns plant fibers into sugars needed to make ethanol, works well at close to room temperature, unlike conventional processes, according to a Rutgers-led study in the journal Green Chemistry.
Science Snapshots – Waste to fuel, moiré superlattices, mining cellphones for energy data
Science Snapshots – Waste to fuel, moiré superlattices, mining cellphones for energy data
Scientists Discover Key Factors in How Some Algae Absorb Solar Energy
Scientists have discovered how diatoms – a type of algae that produces 20 percent of the Earth’s oxygen – absorb solar energy for photosynthesis. The Rutgers University-led discovery, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could help lead to more efficient and affordable algae-based biofuels and combat climate change from fossil fuel burning.