August 19, 2010

Communications major Zachary Waickman had no idea what he was getting into when he signed up for Loyola University's undergraduate Solutions to Environmental Problems (STEP): Biodiesel course in the fall of 2007.

But grappling with the unknown was part of the course's allure. "The very first class we didn't have a facility, we didn't know how to make biodiesel and we had very little money," Waickman says. "It was awesome." [More]

August 9, 2010

In northeastern Oregon, ZeaChem, a Colorado-based biofuel company, recently broke ground on a 250,000 gallon integrated cellulosic biorefinery. The technology development project is expected to be operating in 2011.

Combining the company's $6.25 million funding and a $25 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the new facility - located at the Port of Morrow in Boardman, Ore. - will have multiple buildings. The Recovery Act funding is supporting construction of the cellulosic ethanol production areas in the facility. [More]

August 6, 2010

Some biotech companies use outdoor ponds to make algae-based biofuels, but Harrison Dillon and Jonathan Wolfson, co-founders of San Francisco-based Solazyme Inc., are taking an inside approach: a pharmaceutical company's fermentation tanks.

"Oil that costs a $1,000 per gallon to make in a pond will cost about $1.50 to $2 per gallon in the next year or so using these kind of tanks," Dillon says. "We can use existing infrastructure for this process." [More]

July 1, 2010

Twelve Darmouth College students stopped at the U.S. Department of Energy Monday in a Big Green Bus, a 1989 MCI coach with an engine modified to run on waste vegetable oil. [More]

July 1, 2010

WASHINGTON — Algae is a promising biofuel, but making it accessible for drivers has proven difficult. It's expensive and converting it to usable energy is time consuming. [More]

July 1, 2010

After a harvest is over, crops can be sold, shipped, canned or consumed. But what happens to the parts of the crops that are inedible—the corn stover, stalks or cobs?

Selling crop residues for bioenergy could provide farmers with an extra source of income. Yet, leaving some residue on the fields helps reduce soil erosion and maintain healthy levels of soil carbon and other nutrients. [More]

June 25, 2010

INEOS Bio-one of the 17 global companies of the chemicals company INEOS-is on schedule to begin construction this fall on the new Indian River BioEnergy Center near Vero Beach, Fla. The INEOS facility-which was formerly a grapefruit processing plant for Ocean Spray-will produce nearly eight million gallons of bioethanol per year from renewable biomass including yard, wood and vegetable waste.

As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Department of Energy provide 50:50 cost-matching grants to 19 integrated biorefinery projects throughout the country. INEOS Bio was selected to for a matching grant of up to $50 million, which will fund the construction for the new center. [More]

June 25, 2010

When Tony Petelos became the mayor of Hoover in 2004, the police fleet was run down. Within the next year, Petelos, with support from the community, called for a big change: switch out the old police fleet with new, flexible-fueled vehicles.

Flexible-fueled vehicles are specially designed to run on gasoline or any blend of up to 85 percent ethanol. The fleet is now made up of nearly 200 cars and more than 150 equipment vehicles, with 88 percent of the fleet running on either biodiesel or corn ethanol. [More]

June 16, 2010

Increased ethanol production will help revitalize the rural economy and decrease America's dependence on foreign oil, but there are other ways to create opportunities in the farmlands. [More]

June 11, 2010

Energy crops and agricultural residue, like corncobs and stover, are becoming part of rural America’s energy future. Unlike the more common biofuel derived from corn, these are non-food/feed based cellulosic feedstocks, and the energy content of the biomass makes it ideal for converting to sustainable fuel. [More]

June 9, 2010

Gills Onions had a problem: Too much onion waste.

As one of the largest US onion processors, the Oxnard, Calif. company produces chopped and sliced onions for retail, bulk and foodservice sale. This creates up to 1.5 million pounds of onion trimmings a week. Until last year, the company simply spread the onion byproduct on fields. Unfortunately, this waste disposal system cost a lot of money, required storage and created odors, pests and potential groundwater contamination. At the same time, Gills Onions anticipated growing electricity costs. [More]

June 7, 2010

Could leftover Christmas trees be turned into biogasoline?

That’s the question researchers at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University have been working for three years to address. The research team says making stable biogasoline in existing refineries— from materials such as leftover wood — looks promising. [More]

May 27, 2010

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) will be saving nearly $4 million a year by switching a portion of their current natural gas-fueled steam plant for one powered by biofuel. The move is part of an Energy Savings Performance Contract that will ultimately cut the Lab’s fossil fuel consumption by 70 percent per year---saving 120,000 barrels of oil, the same amount used to power 4,500 homes in one year. [More]

May 24, 2010

General Mills is a well-known name to anyone who has gone to a grocery store. But what you might not know is that the delicious Cheerios you nosh on may soon be made using a unique form of renewable energy. The company is deploying its first on-site biomass steam boiler at its milling plant in Fridley, Minn., where it produces oat flour for its signature cereals, including Lucky Charms. [More]

May 14, 2010

For the last 17 years, AmeriCorps members have pledged to uphold their duties as public servants, vowing to "get things done for America—to make our people safer, smarter and healthier.” But a new type of volunteering in Montana is adding one more thing to that list: making America greener. [More]

May 10, 2010

In parts of this country, wood seems like the outsider in the biomass family. New ethanol plants that grind down millions of bushels of corn in the Midwest and breakthroughs in algae along the coasts always garner the most attention. But in states like Montana, a place with over 70 million acres of forest, wood is the biofuel of choice. [More]

May 7, 2010

Cellulosic biofuels made from agricultural waste have caught the attention of many farmers and could be the next revolution in renewable biofuels production. This video shows how an innovative technology that converts waste products from corn harvests into renewable biofuels could help America produce billions of gallons of cellulosic biofuels in the upcoming decade. [More]

May 4, 2010

President Obama made a push for renewables at a wind turbine plant in Iowa and an ethanol plant in Missouri, telling crowds that "a clean energy economy will lead the 21st Century economy." [More]

April 1, 2010

Rental car customers may be able to breathe a little easier during their next trip to the airport. [More]

March 30, 2010

Unlike most biotechnology students who have to go to a research facility to see scientists in action, those at Greeneville High just need to turn their heads.

For the last four years, Larry Cosenza, of C2 Biotechnologies, a one-man shop in Germantown, N.Y, has been working in his basement to construct fusion enzymes, a new technology that converts biomass into energy more easily. But in January, he took over Greeneville High School’s agriculture room, a move that will not only expand his workspace and put him steps closer to commercialization but also encourage project-based learning in the classroom. [More]