Daily Archives: September 26, 2008

ACS podcasts on the future of clean energy: from artificial photosynthesis to biomass co-firing

Read the full post at Biopact. Meeting the world’s growing energy needs while responding to global warming during the 21st Century will be one of the biggest challenges humanity has ever faced, say scientists in a set of interesting but … Continue reading

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Scientists develop cheap catalyst for hydrogen production from biofuels

Read the full post at Biopact. Scientists from Ohio State University have developed a very cheap non-precious metal catalyst that converts biofuels like ethanol into hydrogen with an efficiency of up to 90%. This development opens up a future of … Continue reading

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Scientists discover new plant protein – important applications in energy crops

Read the full post at Biopact. Scientists at Michigan State University have identified a new protein necessary for chloroplast development, which might lead to a whole new class of energy crops. The discovery allows researchers to design crops that grow … Continue reading

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Novel fungus helps beetles to digest hard wood – potential applications in next-gen biofuels

Read the full post at Biopact. A little known fungus tucked away in the gut of Asian longhorned beetles helps the insect munch through the hardest of woods according to a team of entomologists and biochemists. Researchers say the discovery … Continue reading

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Could bioenergy save the bees?

Read the full post at Biopact. Over the past few months, stories about the dramatic die-off of bee colonies have grabbed headlines. In the U.S., the situation is critical, with the phenomenon – dubbed “colony collapse disorder” (CCD) – eliminating … Continue reading

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Scientists use nanoscale catalysts to produce biofuels from syngas

Read the full post at Biopact. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory and Iowa State University are combining gasification with high-tech nanoscale porous catalysts, to create ethanol from a wide range of biomass, including distiller’s grain left … Continue reading

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ORNL chooses biomass to power its campuses

Read the full post at Biopact. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), one of America’s most important national science labs, has signed an $89 million energy savings performance contract with Johnson Controls, Inc. to apply advanced energy conservation solutions and … Continue reading

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Campus Bus to Run Off Vegetable Oil

Read the full story in The Statesman. Stony Brook University is starting to become a little more environmentally conscious with a new initiative to retrofit the campus buses by converting their engines to run off of vegetable oil, a cleaner … Continue reading

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Seventh-grader wins award for biodiesel project

Read the full story in the Frederick News-Post. While world leaders and scientists debate global warming and its potential far-reaching effects, one local student is working to fix the problems he believes his generation faces. Monocacy Middle School seventh-grader Ben … Continue reading

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Search for alternative fuels brewing in state ponds

Read the full story in the New Mexico State University Round Up. As part of the worldwide search for alternative energy resources, a two-year-old NMSU project headed by area researchers to turn algae into biodiesel has proven to be highly … Continue reading

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