A milestone has been reached on the road to developing advanced biofuels that can replace gasoline, diesel and jet fuels with a domestically-produced clean, green, renewable alternative. Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) have engineered the first strains of Escherichia coli bacteria that can digest switchgrass biomass and synthesize its sugars into all three …

I rounded the north corner of the field when I spotted farmer Jacob on his new, green John Deere. I slowed my van up to almost a walking pace and eased it to the side of the road. I waiting for Farmer Jacob to arrive so I could inquire what my friend had just been planting. More: continued here

By Robert Sanders, Media Relations | February 9, 2015 BERKELEY —Generating electricity from biomass, such as urban waste and sustainably-sourced forest and crop residues, is one strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, because it is carbon-neutral: it produces as much carbon as the plants suck out of the atmosphere. A carbon dioxide injection well in Australia. (Photo courtesy of CO2CRC) …

USDA Grant Aims to Convert Beetle-Killed Trees into Biofuel The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced today that it has awarded nearly $10 million to an academic, industry, and government consortium led by Colorado State University to study the major challenges limiting the use of insect-killed trees in the Rockies as a sustainable feedstock for bioenergy. The award was made …

Crafting a better enzyme cocktail to turn plants into fuel faster Tapping fungus to unlock energy Scientists looking to create a potent blend of enzymes to transform materials like corn stalks and wood chips into fuels have developed a test that should turbocharge their efforts. The new research, published in October in the journal Molecular BioSystems, is part of a worldwide …

U.S. ENERGY SECURITY EFFORTS UNDER ATTACK IN ANNUAL DEFENSE BUDGET BILLS House Defense Bill Undermines Public-Private Initiative to Develop Domestic Alternative Energy Sources to Reduce Reliance on Foreign Oil The House on Friday approved a $642 billion annual Defense authorization bill, 299-120. Included in the bill are harmful provisions that would undermine efforts to reduce the military’s dependence on the …

how to make compressed fire logs One of the most common forms of biomass heating used in many homes is the open fire place where they use logs to temperature their living room Some may even have a basic stove in their living room using logs Though these wood heating solutions only provide adequate temperature for one room are not …

Despite what many people may believe, combustion biomass does not actually have a negative effect on the ecosystem plus climate change. Yet it is always important to burn biomass as efficiently as likely, producing little if any smoke. This will decrease particulate emissions in addition to maintain air quality. On the other hand the actual principle of combustion biomass does …

The definition of biomass fuels is any form of untreated matter which can be used to manufacture fuel. For case in point, biomass is the most common matter used for wood fuels, yet there are many more natural materials which can also be used. There growing research in fuel crops. Energy crops are purpose grown plants that have high yields …

For many years there was very little alternative in obtainable wood boilers. The heating market for the last 50 years has been dominated by means of oil, gas in addition to electric boilers. These fossil duel derived energy solutions provide minimum convenience, and for many years the charge of oil in addition to gas has constructed it impossible for wood …

One of the main reward compared to incineration wood in a standard stove is control offered by means of a pellet stove thermostat. This means a pellet stove is much more convenient, in addition to more comparable to oil or gas stoves. The reason a pellet stove can operate by means of a thermostat is due to the characteristics of …

uses of wind energy As oil prices continue to explode tag alternative energy tag is getting a close look in the United States Here is a guide to tag wind energy tag in the USA One of the worlds fastest growing types of tag renewable energy sources tag is wind energy While most of the Earth is still reliant on …

Ethanol fuel biomass may be defined as vegetable substances or plants currently in use to generate gasoline or sustaining energy. More particularly this is a biological origin that is extracted from the living matter. Ethanol has derived its alternative energy coming from plants like corn, switchgrasses, hemp, willow and sugar cane along with additional vegetation which provides or hold sugar. …

Pellet stove heating is seeing impressive growth in the 21st century. The growth of the pellet market is being driven by means of two factors. Firstly the growing charge of fossil energy fuel such as oil and gas. The prices of these fuels is driven by unstable supply in addition to limited resources to meet growing global demand. Fossil fuel …

When you move to pellet heating solutions, the two key decisions that have to be constructed are which pellet stove to acquire, plus what type of energy pellets you are going to use. Currently as well as by means of far the most popular form of fuel pellets are premium biomass pellets, along with its straightforward to see why. Premium …

The New Fuels Alliance (NFA), one of the nation’s leading advocates for advanced biofuels, is warning that California’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions from gasoline may actually increase greenhouse gas emissions and worsen the state’s dependence on dirty fossil fuels.

At this years’ Going Green we talked to Bill Roe, the CEO of Coskata about his company’s work in developing bio fuel alternatives. They are making ethanol from a variety of feed stocks including switchgrass, wood chips, agricultural residues (bagasse, corn stover, etc.) as well as waste streams such as old tires and municipal solid waste. Coskata is commercializing a …