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Boosting Galactan Sugars Could Boost Biofuel Production

By Guest PostDecember 23, 2012Environmentai oikawa, april liwanag, arabidopsis thaliana, atmosphere, berit ebert, berkeley lab, bioenergy fuel crops, biofuels, carbon neutral, carsten rautengarten, cellulosic biomass, denmark, diesel, emilie rennie, enzyme, ethanol, ferment, fuels, galactan, galactan synthase, galactose, gals1, gals2, gals3, gasoline, gt92 enzyme, gt92 proteins, henrik scheller, jet fuels, mads clausen, mathias andersen, mechanical stress, miscanthus, overexpressors, pentoses, plant cell walls, polymer, six carbon sugar, snowfall, switchgrass, technical university, wind, yeast, yves verhertbruggen, β galactan synthase

Collaboration at JBEI Identifies the First Enzyme Linked to Galactan Synthesis

Galactan is a polymer of galactose, a six-carbon sugar that can be readily fermented by yeast into ethanol and is a target of interest for researchers in advanced biofuels produced from cellulosic biomass. Now an international collaboration led by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) has identified the first enzyme capable of substantially boosting the amount of galactan in plant cell walls.

Unlike ethanol, advanced biofuels synthesized from the sugars in plant cells walls could replace gasoline, diesel and jet fuels on a gallon-for-gallon basis and be dropped into today’s engines and infrastructures with no modifications required. Also, adanced biofuels have the potential to be carbon-neutral, meaning they could be burned without adding excess carbon to the atmosphere. Among the key challenges to making advanced biofuels cost competitive is finding ways to maximize the amount of plant cell wall sugars that can be fermented into fuels. (more…)

More Bang for the Biofuel Buck

By Guest PostNovember 18, 2012Environmentabe products, acetone, artillery shells, bacterium, berkeley lab, biofuels, british, bullets, butanol, chaim weizmann, clostridium acetobutylicum, dean toste, diesel, douglas clark, elad gross, ethanol, fermentation technique, fuel molecules, gasoline, gunpowder, harvey blanch, hydrocarbons, jet fuel, joseph binder, lignocellulosic biomass, low carbon, metal catalyst, palladium, palladium catalyst, pazhamalai anbarasan, petrochemical processes, propellant, sanil sreekumar, weizmann organism, world war, zachary baer

Berkeley Lab Researchers Combine Old Fermentation Process For Making Explosives with New Chemical Catalysis to Boost Biofuel Production

A fermentation technique once used to make cordite, the explosive propellant that replaced gunpowder in bullets and artillery shells, may find an important new use in the production of advanced biofuels. With the addition of a metal catalyst, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have shown that the production of acetone, butanol and ethanol from lignocellulosic biomass could be selectively upgraded to the high volume production of gasoline, diesel or jet fuel.

Using the bacterium Clostridium acetobutylicum, the Berkeley Lab researchers fermented the sugars found in biomass into the solvent acetone and the alcohols butanol and ethanol, collectively known as “ABE” products. They then catalyzed these low carbon number products with the transition metal palladium into higher-molecular-mass hydrocarbons that are possible precursors to the three major transportation fuel molecules. The specific type of fuel molecule produced – whether a precursor to gasoline, diesel or jet – was determined by the amount of time the ABE products resided with the palladium catalyst. (more…)

Ethanol Mandate Not the Best Option

By Guest PostFebruary 14, 2012Economy, Environmentamerican coalition, amount of pollution, consumers value, corn based fuel, crude oil, e85, environmental economics, ethanol, ethanol price, gasoline, government mandate, michigan state university, per gallon, price of gas, protect the environment, renewable fuel, soren anderson, taxed fuel, united states

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Many people are willing to pay a premium for ethanol, but not enough to justify the government mandate for the corn-based fuel, a Michigan State University economist argues.

Soren Anderson studied the demand for ethanol, or E85, in the United States. He found that when ethanol prices rose 10 cents per gallon, demand for ethanol fell only 12 percent to 16 percent on average. (more…)

Tiny Amounts of Alcohol Dramatically Extend A Worm’s Life, But Why?

By Guest PostJanuary 21, 2012Science1 millimeter, alcohol, alcohol consumption, alcoholic beverages, beer, biochemistry of aging, brian young, c elegans, caenorhabditis elegans, cardiovascular, cardiovascular disease, cholesterol, dna damage, effect, ethanol, health benefit, human aging, larval stage, longevity, minuscule, neurological effects, novartis research foundation, paola castro, protein repair enzyme, san diego, shilpi khare, steven clarke, stuart wolpert, tiny worm, trivial explanation

Minuscule amounts of ethanol, the type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages, can more than double the life span of a tiny worm known as Caenorhabditis elegans, which is used frequently as a model in aging studies, UCLA biochemists report. The scientists said they find their discovery difficult to explain.

“This finding floored us — it’s shocking,” said Steven Clarke, a UCLA professor of chemistry and biochemistry and the senior author of the study, published Jan. 18 in the online journal PLoS ONE, a publication of the Public Library of Science. (more…)

Researchers Find Potential Key for Unlocking Biomass Energy

By Guest PostJuly 24, 2011Environment, Sciencebiofuel, bruce dale, cellulose, corn leaves, economically viable, energy potential, enzymes, ethanol, great lakes bioenergy research center, michigan state university, non edible biomass, plant cells, ratio of ammonia, renewable energy, shishir chundawat, stalks, switch grass, toxic chemicals

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Pretreating non-edible biomass – corn leaves, stalks or switch grass – holds the keys for unlocking its energy potential and making it economically viable, according to a team of researchers led by Michigan State University.

Shishir Chundawat, a postdoctoral researcher, and Bruce Dale, professor of chemical engineering and materials science, of MSU led a team of researchers in identifying a potential pretreatment method that can make plant cellulose five times more digestible by enzymes that convert it into ethanol, a useful biofuel. The research was supported by the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, a partnership between the University of Wisconsin and MSU and published in the current issue of Journal of the American Chemical Society. (more…)

Growing Biofuel Crops in Unusual Places

By Guest PostJanuary 29, 2011Environmentairport property, biodiesel, biofuel, biofuel crops, biofuels crop production, canola, cellulosic and oilseed biofuel crops, crops, dennis pennington, ethanol, farmland, freeways to fuels, highway, homegrown bioenergy feedstocks, michigan, michigan economy, natural gas, nontraditional land, oil, oilseed crops, oriental mustard, pennycress, petroleum, renewable fuels, switchgrass, terri novak, vacant urban land

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Michigan State University researchers are finding new locations to grow crops used for biofuel.

The land they’ve identified might surprise some because it’s right next to where the fuel is being used. (more…)

Biofuel, food price

By ShamsApril 29, 20082 commentsEnvironment, Technologybiofuel, ethanol, fossil fuel

Higher the biofuel production higher the food price. The relation looks like this. One thing left…….higher the biofuel, lower the dependence on fossil fuel. So what’s happening now??

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