http://www.biodieselmagazine.com/articles/435133/volkswagen-renewable-diesel-evaluation-program-completed

Volkswagen of America Inc. announced the successful completion of its Renewable Diesel Evaluation Program in collaboration with Solazyme Inc. and Amyris Inc.

Volkswagen measured the environmental impacts from the use of pre-commercial renewable diesel formulas. Analysis found that advanced renewable fuels in the test offered comparable performance to standard crude-based diesel fuels while producing less CO₂ emissions. During the evaluation, Solazyme's Soladiesel RD and the Amyris renewable diesel were used for the program.

"Evaluations like this are part of Volkswagen's broader holistic environmental strategy which underscores the company's commitment to the environment by deploying a comprehensive approach which addresses carbon reduction and sustainability at each part of the vehicle lifecycle." said Ewald Goessmann, executive director, Volkswagen Group of America, Electronics Research Laboratory.

The report highlights the market potential that renewable fuels offer, combining comparable performance, helping reduce emissions, while utilizing more sustainable methods.

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http://www.biofuelsdigest.com/bdigest/2015/07/01/nearly-half-of-senate-writes-urging-for-streamlined-support-for-forest-bioenergy/

In Washington, nearly half of the United States Senate has written to the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Energy as well as the Environment Protection Agency Administrator, strongly urging the agencies to streamline support of biomass for energy.

The Senate also pushed them to provide working policies to ensure more use of sustainable biomass energy rather than a complicated policy framework that can contradict itself and create investment uncertainty, as is the case now. The letter especially pushes for recognition of carbon neutrality of forest biomass and forestry residues.

http://www.biotechnologyforbiofuels.com/content/8/1/91

Production of the chemical 1,2-propanediol and the potential biofuel 1-propanol still depends on petroleum. The bacterium Corynebacterium glutamicum has been discovered to be able to overproduce 1,2-propanediol through metabolic engineering. Furthermore, the bacterium has also been previously modified to produce ethanol and isobutanol. Bielefield University's Volker F. Wendisch presented in his study the improved production of 1,2-propanediol by C. glutamicum as well as production of the potential biofuel 1-propanol.

The yield of the C. glutamicum expressing the genes gldA and mgsA from Escherichia coli was improved by additional expression of alcohol dehydrogenase gene yqhD from E. coli. Deletion of genes hdpA and ldh prevented formation of glycerol and lactate as by-products and further improved the 1,2-propanediol yield.

For the 1-propanol production, the operon ppdABC from Klebsiella oxytoca encoding was expressed in the improved 1,2-propanediol producing strain, resulting in a strain producing as much as 12 mM of 1-propanol and up to 60 mM unconverted 1,2-propanediol.

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http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/10/6/064015/

In Michigan, converting large areas of marginal farm land to perennial biofuel crops carries some unknowns, including how it could affect the balance of water between rainfall, evaporation and movement of soil water to groundwater.

A recent study from the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center and published in Environmental Research Letters looks at how efficiently "second generation" biofuel crops use rainwater and how these crops affect overall water balance. The study was led by Michigan State University professor and GLBRC scientist Stephen Hamilton.

Researchers used soil-water sensors to measure the rate of evapotranspiration occurring within each cropping system. Results show that the perennial biofuel crop system's evapotranspiration did not differ greatly from that of corn under both normal and drought conditions. This indicates that rain-fed perennial biomass crops have little impact on landscape water balances, whether on arable lands or on marginal lands.

Results also suggest that crop ET rates, and thus groundwater recharge, streamflow, and lake levels, may be less sensitive to climate change than has been assumed.

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http://www.news.wisc.edu/23870

A team of researchers led by Daniel Noguera of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, have created a process for making the work environment less toxic for the organisms that produce bio-products from cellulosic biomass.

When bacteria convert sugars into ethanol, they run into toxic aromatic compounds, thus slowing down the process. Researchers proposed using Rhodopseudomonas palustris, a bacterium that feeds on the aromatics but not sugars, to make things safer for the other microorganisms, increasing their efficiency. This process offers an advantage over current chemical processes which also removes some glucose.

Their research opens up a promising opportunity for the field of cellulosic biofuels and chemicals production. "Although using cellulosic biomass is better than using corn for ethanol, this technology is still in its early stages, and we still have many opportunities to improve the engineering and the economics of the process," said Noguera.

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https://news.ncsu.edu/2015/07/off-switch-wood-formation/

North Carolina State University researchers, led by Vincent Chiang and Ron Sederoff, now have better understanding of how lignin is formed in plants and how it can be altered for biofuel, pulp, and paper production.

They have discovered that the same process plants use to respond to environmental stress acts as an on/off switch for a key enzyme in wood formation.

 "Plants use a process called protein phosphorylation to rapidly respond to external stimuli, such as threats from drought, pests or diseases," says Ling Chuang, co-lead author with the Forest Biotechnology Group.

Researchers focused on an enzyme controlling six chemical reactions in the lignin biosynthesis pathway, all of which were shut down significantly, altering lignin composition in black cottonwood. The results could be used to help modify plants to be better biofuel feedstocks or to be more resistant to pests.

 "Phosphorylation-mediated control of wood formation seems to be a ubiquitous process in plants," says Jack Wang, lead author of the study.