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News and TrendsDuring the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout in Missouri and the Mentor Superboat Grand Prix in Ohio, several powerboat competitors used high-level ethanol blends to fuel their race boats. In these events, majority of top performing boats ran on high-ethanol blends, including an ethanol-fueled boat that set a new world speed record. According to some participants, they switched to ethanol blends since it is easy on their pistons and gave their boats more horsepower. This was proven by several boat teams setting new personal speed records. Growth Energy CEO, Emily Skor, has also stated that the results from these competitions proved that American Ethanol is compatible with marine engines because it burns cooler and cleaner, and boosts power and performance. The winning boats running on ethanol prove all the environmental and engine benefits of ethanol. An engineering student, José Alberto Espejel, from La Salle University in Mexico City has developed a way to create ethanol from water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes). His project will be presented to the Nobel Prize laureates in Sweden this December. Considered an invasive species outside the Amazon basin range, the water hyacinth is a serious problem in small bodies of water. A school project challenged Espejel to convert the plant into a useful product. He first wanted to produce biodegradable plastic from the plant before choosing to extract fermentable sugars from the plant and convert it into ethanol. The proposed process is said to be capable of producing about 20ml of bioethanol per kilogram of water hyacinth. Espejel and his faculty advisor, chemical engineer Norma del Rocío Mireles, are currently working on improving the efficiency of the process. http://thestandard.com.ph/business/215407/salim-group-revives-renewable-energy-bid.html The Metro Pacific Investments Corporation, a unit of the Salim Group of Indonesia, plans to develop a waste-to-energy facility in Payatas, Quezon City in the Philippines. Metro Pacific president Jose Ma. Lim said that the company will soon submit a project proposal to the Quezon City government. The project will have two components: a biodigester, to convert waste to energy and a stoker plant for incineration. The proposed project could potentially generate 30 to 40 megawatts of power. This is the second attempt of Metro Pacific group to build a waste-to-energy project in the country. In 2014, the company signed an agreement with a Singapore-based company to develop a waste-to-energy facility in Tagum, Davao del Norte. However, it terminated the investment agreement due the "non-completion of the conditions precedent under the investment agreement". Metro Pacific states that it will continue to pursue waste-to-energy projects in the country to address solid waste management and the increasing demand for electricity. Research and DevelopmentResearchers from the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology in the United Arab Emirates have designed and are now testing a new biodiesel reactor that could lower production costs. The institute, together with Abu Dhabi's Center of Waste Management, Tadweer, developed the chemical reactor capable of producing high-quality biodiesel from fats, such as waste cooking oil, using less energy in less time. The reactor combines mixing via soundwave agitation, flow mixing via static mixer, as well as separation, recovery, and purification to efficiently convert waste cooking oil into biodiesel. The process also yields less of the by-product glycerol and more biodiesel than conventional industrial methods. The Masdar Institute reactor is also much smaller compared to traditional bioreactors. Because of this, the production capacity will be suitable for organizations that have an interest in sustainable waste transformation. Aside from waste cooking oil, the reactor can also convert algal oil, non-edible vegetable oil, and tallow from meat processing facilities. Brackenburn, a new company in England, has developed a process that turns bracken into briquette style logs called "Brackettes". Bracken (Pteridium aquilinum) is a large fern considered as a nuisance plant in England. Brackenburn will harvest 1,200 tons of Bracken this autumn when ground nesting birds are long gone, since bracken is home for birds and butterflies in spring and summer. The use of bracken can decrease the need to cut down trees and will not demand the use of energy crops that compete with food crops for arable land. Furthermore, the residue from brackette production is high in potash, and can be used as natural fertilizer. The project has already gained support from local landowners and farmers. Brackenburn has also recently completed a factory upgrade to increase production of "Brackettes".
Energy Crops and Feedstocks for Biofuels Productionhttp://biotechnologyforbiofuels.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13068-016-0599-6 Rice cultivation produces two kinds of waste, straw, and husk. While previous studies have focused on straw, the effect of steam explosion on rice husk is currently unknown. Researchers, led by Ian P. Wood from the Institute of Food Research in the US, compared the effects of steam explosion on the enzymatic saccharification as well as simultaneous saccharification and fermentation of rice straw and husk. Pretreatment at temperatures 210°C and above removed most of the non-cellulosic sugars in both feedstocks. Prolonged saccharification at high cellulase doses showed that rice straw could be saccharified effectively after steam explosion at 210 °C for10 min. On the other hand, rice husk required more severe pretreatment conditions (220 °C for 10 min), and still achieved a lower yield at optimal conditions. Rice husk also required a higher cellulase dose for optimal saccharification.
Illinois State Associate Professor of Genetics John Sedbrook was awarded a $1 million grant by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to develop genetic resources that can be used to domesticate field pennycress. Pennycress has agronomic and economic potential due to its extreme cold tolerance and natural ability to produce abundant amounts of oil-rich seeds. Previous studies have indicated that pennycress could yield as much as 80 gallons of oil for fuels and industrial products. Sedbrook and colleagues will be working to improve the seed germination, the crop establishment of pennycress as well as its pod shattering. New genetic tools, along with scientific knowledge and the funding, will allow researchers to make genetic improvements to pennycress. The goal of the project is to domesticate and commercialize pennycress in a relatively shorter span of years compared to the domestication of rice and corn. http://biotechnologyforbiofuels.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13068-016-0592-0 Elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum) and hybrid pennisetum (Pennisetum americanum × P. purpureum) are perennial C4 grasses that are potential biomass feedstock. However, increasing biomass yield and stress tolerance of these two crops is required for them to be considered for commercial production. Previously, bacterial endophytes have been used as biofertilizers to improve biomass yield of energy crops. Jiangsu University's Xia Li and Xiaoyan Geng isolated endophytic bacteria strains from the roots of elephant grass and classified them into four genera: Sphingomonas, Pantoea, Bacillus, and Enterobacter. The team then selected four representative strains from each genus and tested their effects on plant growth and salt stress tolerance of hybrid pennisetum. Inoculation with the mixture the four bacteria induced a significant plant growth increase of hybrid pennisetum under normal and salt stress conditions. All strains were found to solubilize phosphate, fix nitrogen, produce indole acetic acid and ammonia. The availability of phosphate, nitrogen, IAA and ammonia resulted in the improved growth and salt tolerance of hybrid pennisetum. These results suggest that inoculants can be exploited to establish large-scale feedstock production for hybrid pennisetum even on saline marginal lands. |
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