Gasoline E5 with 5 percent ethanol will now be available in seven provinces in Vietnam in the next eight months. It was revealed at a conference debating the government's plan to disburse the E5 gasoline. The Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group, and the People's Committee in Quang Ngai province attended the conference.

The ethanol-gasoline blend consists of 95 percent of the conventional non-lead gasoline and 5 percent ethanol. Tests show that it has a higher octane rating than conventional gasoline which allows higher fuel efficiency. The Vietnam government recognizes the biofuel industry to be pivotal in energy security and reducing dependence on fossil fuels.

Engineering biomass for easier degradation was an idea coined 20 years ago in the lab of John Ralph, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor. Ralph's group was then aiming to reduce energy needed in paper pulping through efficient removal of lignin from trees. Removing and processing lignin, the sturdy polymer in plant cell walls, remains a major obstacle in the biofuels industry.

Curtis Wilkerson, a plant biologist from Michigan State University, led a team of researchers in a study that focuses on enhancing poplar (Populus sp.) trees to break down easier thus improving their viability as a biofuel resource. "By designing poplars for deconstruction, we can improve the degradability of a very useful biomass product. Poplars are dense, easy to store, and they flourish on marginal lands not suitable for food crops, making them a non-competing and sustainable source of biofuel." according to Wilkerson.

To produce these enhanced poplars, Wilkerson identified and isolated a gene capable of making monomers that are easier to break apart. Shawn Mansfield, from the University of British Columbia, then successfully put that gene into poplars. This gene then introduced weak links into the lignin backbone making more easily degradable poplars.

Biodiesel use in British Columbia (BC) has effectively contributed in the reduction of greenhouse gases in the province. This was revealed after the British Columbia government recently released the emissions reduction results for 2012. More than 900,000 tons of greenhouse gases were removed from British Columbia's motor fuels. Thirty-three percent of the removed greenhouse gases, or at least 296,000 tons, were contributed by biodiesel use.

The British Columbia government and the Western Canada Biodiesel Association (WCBA) have been in collaboration to reduce greenhouse gases caused by fossil diesel fuels since 2005. Ian Thomson, the president of WCBA, considers this as a remarkable accomplishment. "Low carbon fuels deliver cleaner air for BC's cities and towns, real action on climate change, and jobs in BC from clean and renewable technologies. The province has been recognized globally for its leadership and these results are proof that the BC approach is working." said Thomson.

Jatropha curcas has recently emerged as a candidate crop for biodiesel production. This is due to the high oil content in its seeds. Jatrophas are also known to have short gestation periods, very hardy and are able to grow on marginal land. However, improvement of its agronomic traits has only just started because of its late domestication.

JcSDP1 is a specific lipase in Jatropha that starts the catabolism of triacylglycerol, the most abundant storage oil in plants. Using RNA interference, several JcSDP1-deficient Jatropha plants were generated. It was found that JcSDP1-deficient plants accumulated 13 to 30% higher total seed storage lipids compared to control plants. This increase could be due to the blocked TAG degradation in the transgenics.

This new strategy of improving seed oil content of Jatropha also has the potential to be used in other oil crops.

Lignocellulose hydrolyzates are difficult substrates for ethanol production due to its high resistance to inhibitors during pretreatment and hydrolysis. In addition, efficient utilization of hexose and pentose sugars poses difficulty for the development of Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains for biomass-to-ethanol processes. Metabolic engineering and laboratory evolution have been utilized to produce desired strain properties.

Two descendants, strains IBB10A02 and IBB10B05, were evolved from S. cerevisiae strain BP10001. The strains were obtained by a two-step laboratory evolution. The IBB10A02 strain was selected for fast xylose fermentation with anaerobic growth before adaption while the IBB10B05 strain was selected for fast xylose fermentation with anaerobic growth after adaption. Enzymatic hydrolyzates were prepared from up to 15% dry mass pretreated wheat straw. In all strains, yield coefficients based on total sugar consumed were high for ethanol and notably low for fermentation by-products. The xylose consumption rate was also enhanced , compared to the non-evolved strain BP10001. Under the conditions used, IBB10B05 was also capable of slow anaerobic growth.

Laboratory evolution of strain BP10001 resulted in enhanced xylose at almost complete retention of the fermentation capabilities previously acquired through metabolic engineering. The new strain IBB10B05 is a good candidate for intensification of lignocellulose-to-bioethanol processes.

The rising global demand for petroleum has started the development of infrastructure-compatible, renewable fuels and chemicals. One potentially renewable feedstock that could have an impact is ethylene. There is currently a great interest in developing a technology for ethylene production from renewable resources such as biomass.

Ethylene serves as a building block for a wide variety of plastics, textiles, and chemicals. A process recently has been developed for its conversion into liquid transportation fuels. Ethylene can also be produced biologically, since it is a plant hormone that modulates growth and development, and functions in the defense response to abiotic or biotic stresses. A variety of microbes, including bacteria and fungi, also produce ethylene. One of the metabolic pathways used by these microbes is an ethylene-forming enzyme (EFE). It is a promising biotechnology target since the expression of a single gene is sufficient for ethylene production in the absence of toxic intermediates.

The paper features the first comprehensive review and analysis of EFE, including its discovery, sequence diversity, heterologous expression and reaction mechanism. It also tackles the involvement of EFE in diverse metabolic modes and the requirements for harvesting bioethylene. Strategies that could guide future research directions are also discussed.