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New Advance in Biofuel Production

By Guest PostJune 2, 2013Environmentacid catalyst, advanced biofuels, alternative to gasoline, atmosphere, bioenergy, biofuel production, blake simmons, burning, carbon dioxide, cellulosic biomass, crystals, diesel, enzymes, fermentable sugars, fossil fuels, hanbin liu noppadon, hydrolyzing biomass polysaccharides, imidazolium chloride, ionic liquid, jbei, jet fuels, liquid fuels, manali sawant, new advance, ning sun, recycle, vitalie stavila

Joint BioEnergy Institute Researchers Develop Enzyme-free Ionic Liquid Pre-treatment

Advanced biofuels – liquid fuels synthesized from the sugars in cellulosic biomass – offer a clean, green and renewable alternative to gasoline, diesel and jet fuels. Bringing the costs of producing these advanced biofuels down to competitive levels with petrofuels, however, is a major challenge. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), a bioenergy research center led by Berkeley Lab, have taken another step towards meeting this challenge with the development of a new technique for pre-treating cellulosic biomass with ionic liquids – salts that are liquids rather than crystals at room temperature. This new technique requires none of the expensive enzymes used in previous ionic liquid pretreatments, and makes it easier to recover fuel sugars and recycle the ionic liquid. (more…)

Sweet Success: Berkeley Lab Researchers Find Way to Catalyze More Sugars from Biomass

By Guest PostMay 4, 2013Scienceachilles heel, advanced biofuels, amorphous, berkeley lab, biofuel production, biomass of grasses, carbon into atmosphere, catalysis, catalytic activity, cellulase enzymes, cellulose classification system, cellulosic biomass, crystalline, douglas clark, enzyme cocktails, enzyme synergy, fermentable sugars, fossil fuels, harvey blanch, industrial manufacturing processes, jan liphardt, jerome fox, light microscopy technique, localization microscopy, palm, palm technology, photo activated, solid surfaces, substrate heterogeneity, sweet success, synergistic activity, ultrahigh precision, united states, university of california

Catalysis may initiate almost all modern industrial manufacturing processes, but catalytic activity on solid surfaces is poorly understood. This is especially true for the cellulase enzymes used to release fermentable sugars from cellulosic biomass for the production of advanced biofuels. Now, researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) through support from the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI) have literally shed new light on cellulase catalysis.

Using an ultrahigh-precision visible light microscopy technique called PALM – for Photo-Activated Localization Microscopy – the researchers have found a way to improve the collective catalytic activity of enzyme cocktails that can boost the yields of sugars for making fuels. Increasing the sugar yields from cellulosic biomass to help bring down biofuel production costs is essential for the widespread commercial adoption of these fuels. (more…)

Biofuels Blend Right In

By Guest PostFebruary 3, 2013Environmentadvanced biofuels industry, atmosphere warming carbon, balance, benchmark, berkeley lab, biofuel feedstocks, biofuels, blake simmons, cellulosic biomass, complex polysaccharides, corn stover, cost competitive, diesel, energy characteristics, energy densification, eucalyptus, feedstock varieties, fermentable sugars, flavor characteristics, fossil fuels, gasoline, global temperatures, grape varietals, green chemistry, ionic liquid, jbei, jet fuel, jian shi, joint bioenergy institute, lignin, lignocellulosic biomass, lignocellulosic biorefineries, lodgepole pine, methylimidazolium acetate, microbial fermentation, mixture, neal yancey, pellets, pre treatment, recalcitrant material, seema singh, substitute, switchgrass, Technology, transportation fuel, united states, vicki thompson, vitalie stavila, volatile organic solvents, wine, winemakers

Researchers Show Ionic Liquids Effective for Pre-Treating Mixed Blends of Biofuel Feedstocks

Winemakers have long known that blending different grape varietals can favorably balance the flavor characteristics of the wine they produce. In the future, makers of advanced biofuels might use a similar strategy, blending different feedstock varieties to balance the energy characteristics of the transportation fuel they produce.

A collaborative study by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), a bioenergy research center led by Berkeley Lab, and the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has shown that an ionic liquid proven to be effective for pre-treating individual biofuel feedstocks is also effective at pre-treating multiple different feedstocks that have been mixed and densified into a blend. (more…)

Tag Archives: fermentable sugars

New Advance in Biofuel Production

Sweet Success: Berkeley Lab Researchers Find Way to Catalyze More Sugars from Biomass

Biofuels Blend Right In