Caltech Ventures, a Ghana-based cassava cropping and processing company, will start the production of ethanol from cassava at a distillery in Hodzo this March 2016.

This would be the first industrial-scale ethanol production in Ghana, which usually imports around 60m liters of ethanol per year. Kasapreko Company (KCL), an indigenous alcoholic beverage producer and a large importer of ethanol, holds 40% shares in Caltech Ventures.

The project will also produce electricity and animal feed. The company will initially use 400 hectares of cassava and will increase this to 1,000 hectares by the end of 2016.

Argentina recently announced that it will be increasing their required blend of ethanol in gasoline to 12 percent from the current 10 percent, to boost the country's production of the biofuel by 20 percent.

President Mauricio Macri said that the additional ethanol would exclusively be derived from sugar. The increase should be a boon to farmers struggling with a slump in global sugar prices due to oversupply. The measure would become effective from March or April.

Argentina, an agricultural powerhouse, produces all the ethanol it uses. The country's ethanol production is about 800,000 cubic meters, of which 59 percent is corn-based and 41 percent is cane-based. Argentina's ultimate aim is to raise the required blend of ethanol in gasoline to 15 percent.

The Argonne National Laboratory released a study that evaluated the potential effects of future biofuel production on freshwater resources in the Missouri River Basin.

The study identified four areas that could be associated with increased feedstock production, and demonstrated that increasing the amount of switchgrass acreage in these hot spots could significantly improve water quality. This study used the Soil and Water Assessment Tool, a modeling tool that examines how water quality and flow would respond to region-specific increases in feedstock production.

The results of the study could be useful in decisions regarding enhancement of the environmental sustainability of feedstock production.

Researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee have developed a fractional hydrolysis technology that they say produces low cost ethanol from a perennial weed known as Kans grass (Saccharum spontaneum).

Using the process, scientists could recover more cellulose and hemicellulose from the Kans grass compared to other feedstock grasses. The process also doesn't use toxic chemicals required in standard hydrolysis, making more environment friendly.

Kans grass was chosen as the feedstock for production of bioethanol because of its high yields, low cost, ability to grow in marginal lands with almost no water supply and wide availability throughout the year. It is commonly used in thatching katcha houses in rural areas.

At the University of California, researchers have adapted the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing system for use in a yeast strain that can produces useful lipids and polymers. The development could lead to new precursors for biofuels, polymers, adhesives and fragrances.

CRISPR-Cas9 is a groundbreaking technique that enables scientists to make precise targeted changes in living cells. Unlike traditional gene-editing methods, it is cheap, easy to use and effective in almost any organism.

The research involves the oil-producing yeast Yarrowia lipolytica, known for converting sugars to lipids and hydrocarbons. The CRISPR-Cas9 allowed scientists to tap into the yeast's biomanufacturing potential. The team used CRISPR-Cas9 to knock genes out and introduce new genes, both useful tools in biomanufacturing.

The work was the first step in creating long chain hydrocarbons from yeast rather than synthetically. Other researchers may use the system to create precursors for biofuels, reducing the current reliance on edible plant oils.

The acyl carrier protein (ACP) is an essential component in the synthesis of fatty acids, the precursor of biofuels. Natural fatty acids usually have long carbon chains. However, shorter carbon chains are desired for internal combustion engines.  Xueliang Liu and Wade M. Hicks from Harvard University and Harvard Medical School, respectively, tested if engineering the length of proteins in fatty acid metabolism may enable microbial synthesis of shorter fatty acids.

The team constructed a model of the Synechococcus elongatus ACP. Amino acids were then mutated to increase steric hindrance to the acyl chain. Certain mutant ACPs, when overexpressed in Escherichia coli, increased the proportion of shorter chain lipids; Mutants I75W and I75Y showed the strongest effects. Expression of these mutant ACPs also increased production of lauric acid in E. coli.

The team engineered the specificity of the ACP to alter the E. coli lipid pool and enhance production of medium-chain fatty acids as biofuel precursors. These indicate that modification of ACP itself could be used to enhance production of commodity chemicals based on fatty acids.