A project to use seaweed for the production of biofuel and pharmaceutical products has been launched in Ghana.

The project, a first of its kind in Africa, will establish the cultivation of seaweed along Ghana's coastline and establish technology, develop local know-how and bring new business opportunities. The project, led by experts from the Technical University of Denmark, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research is also expected to tackle the energy needs of Ghana and beyond.

Dr. Moses Mensah, Ghana Coordinator for the project said locally-available enzymes will be used in the extraction of the materials from the seaweed which included anti-cancer, anti-tumor and immune-response chemicals.

Director of CSIR-Water Research Institute, Dr Joseph Addo Ampofo said, "Currently in Ghana, management of our coastlines is at a critical juncture. Even when it has to fulfill essential roles in promoting development, reducing poverty and conserving environment at the national, municipal and district levels, our shores are scarcely financially utilized, but congested, polluted, mismanaged, misgoverned and poorly cherished".

He is hopeful that the seaweed cultivation project would help to end the depletion of Ghana's coastlines since it has recently experienced an increase in the beaching of seaweed and has affected the livelihood of local fishermen.

With the help of one of the largest supercomputers in the world, researchers from the University of Minnesota have identified potential materials that could improve the production of ethanol and petroleum products. This discovery could lead to major upgrades in these industries.

Refineries use zeolites, which act as molecular sieves to collect chemical compounds as well as catalyze chemical reactions, to produce and upgrade fuel and chemical feedstock. With more than 200 known zeolites and thousands of variations, improving biofuel and petrochemical processes depends on finding which zeolites work best. Researchers from the University of Minnesota and Rice University have developed a complex computational screening process that can identify every zeolite's performance for specific applications.

"Using a supercomputer at Argonne National Laboratory, we are able to use our computer simulations to compress decades of research in the lab into a total of about a day's worth of computing," said lead researcher Ilja Siepmann, a University of Minnesota chemistry professor and director of the U.S. Department of Energy-funded Nanoporous Materials Genome Center based in Minnesota.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has promised to set the price of biogasoline E5 lower compared to the country's most popular fuel grade in order to boost consumption. The blend, with 5 percent of cassava-based ethanol, will be sold at a cheaper price than the popular 92-RON.

Vietnam's major cities also tested selling E5 last year. Soon, the rest of the country will follow suit. Quang Ngai Province, home to Vietnam's sole oil refinery, was one of the provinces that initiated the sale last year.

PM Dung also ordered the Ministry of Finance to review tax regulations on biofuel to facilitate the switch, including raising export tariffs on ethanol and cassava to maintain enough supplies at home for biofuel production.

Researchers at the Hanoi University of Technology found that E5 does no harm to vehicle engines and concluded that vehicles using E5 accelerate faster and have less carbon emissions.

Engineering microbial strains for improved fermentation requires understanding of the mechanisms of inhibition that affect organisms in the presence of major components of a lignocellulosic hydrolysate. A synthetic lignocellulosic hydrolysate (SH) media with similar composition to the actual hydrolysate will be vital to perform these studies.

Xiaoyu Tang from the Biogas Institute of Ministry of Agriculture in China, and Venkatesh Balan from Michigan State University characterized the nutrients and plant-derived decomposition products present in pretreated corn stover hydrolysate (ACH). They then used it as the basis for the artificial SH used to evaluate the effects of various decomposition products during Saccharomyces cerevisiae 424A (LNH-ST) fermentation.

While most of the decomposition products were inhibitory to fermentation, due to their abundance, the nitrogenous compounds showed the most inhibition, most notably amides. Although, the formulated SH did not perfectly match the profile of the actual hydrolysate, it was effective for studying the inhibitory effect of various compounds on yeast fermentation. The SH formulated in this work was instrumental for defining the most important inhibitors in the ACH.

Natural bacterial consortia are promising in the production of ethanol from lignocellulosic feedstock due to its adaptation to a wider range of natural substrates as well as its capacity for efficient cellulose degradation. However, their low ethanol conversion efficiency has greatly limited their development and application.

Researchers led by Tsinghua University's Shizhong Li analyzed different natural bacterial consortia in China and found that the "HP" consortium exhibited relatively high ethanol production. The team also discovered that a certain bacterium, Pseudoxanthomonas taiwanensis, was vital in the productivity of the consortia. This strain was also responsible for boosting the ethanol production of other natural bacterial consortia.

The team also developed a new consortium, called HPP, and optimized the proportion of P. taiwanensis in it to achieve the highest ethanol production reported for natural consortia.

A common algae commercially grown as fish food holds promise as a feedstock for both biodiesel and jet fuel, according to a new study published in the journal Energy & Fuels.

Researchers, led by Greg O'Neil of Western Washington University and Chris Reddy of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, targeted the algal species Isochrysis since growers can produce it in large batches to make fish food. In addition, it has the ability to produce alkenones, compounds composed of long carbon chains with potential as a fuel source.

Biofuel researchers may have dismissed Isochrysis because its oil is a dark, sludgy solid at room temperature. This sludge is a result of the alkenones, which makes it a unique source of two distinct fuels. They devised a method to separate the fatty acid methyl esters, to be used for biodiesel production, and alkenones, which can be converted into jet fuel.

The team believes that producing two fuels from a single algae species holds some promise for its future commercialization.