such as developing metal alloys that can work in deep-water drilling and membranes for purifying oil, gas, water and biofuels.
The Food and agriculture organization of the united nations has suggested that the United states suspend biofuel production from maize, and US President Barack Obama unveiled an aid package for stricken farmers on 13 Â August 17-23 august NASA s Mars rover Curiosity will attempt its first drive on the red planet next week
Rapeseed biodiesel fails sustainability testbiodiesels made using rapeseed oil may not be sustainable enough to be used in the European union (EU),
and use of biofuels for transport be at least 35%lower than those from fossil fuels; thereafter, 50%lower.
making it eligible for blending in biodiesels. The oil currently makes up over 80%of all vegetable oils used in European biofuels.
However, a study published last month one of the most detailed so far attempted to replicate the commission's calculations
Germany, calculated the greenhouse-gas savings of rapeseed biofuel in several different situations. They looked at factors such as variations in soil quality and fertilizer application during crop production,
They also compared the biofuel emissions with values for fossil fuels used in the commission's calculations and others in the scientific literature.
did they find that the biofuel produces low enough emissions to be regarded as a sustainable biofuel under RED,
such as loss of food production as land is made available to grow biofuels. If these changes were taken into account,
rapeseed biofuel would be even less sustainable, the authors say. Fausto Freire, who conducts research on biofuels at the University of Coimbra in Portugal
agrees with Pehnelt and Vietze s conclusion that the actual greenhouse-gas savings of rapeseed biofuel are much lower than those estimated by the commission.
Freire says that there are"huge uncertainties associated with the greenhouse-gas emissions of biodiesel.""The Europe directive is not transparent
and the calculations don t provide the data to justify the numbers, he says. The European commission will carry out a full review of the policy in 2014,
and is already working on an assessment of the indirect land-use changes resulting from its biofuel policy.
but instead to facilitate responsible use of all energy sources from oil and coal and natural gas, to nuclear and hydropower and biofuels, to wind and Solar energy development, economic growth,
Biofuels rethink The European commission launched an overhaul of its biofuels policies on 17 Â October,
and concerns that biofuels may produce greater greenhouse-gas emissions than fossil fuels (see Nature http://doi. org/bmssn7;
) The proposals retain a target that 10%of transport fuels should come from renewable sources by 2020 but set a 5%cap on food-based biofuels.
cio Lula da Silva, described his country s biofuel boom in March 2007. Back then, Brazil was the poster child of ethanol fuel,
Biofuels are falling from grace around the world as critics charge that devoting millions of hectares of agricultural land to fuel crops is driving up food prices
and that the climate benefits of biofuels are modest at best. But the fall has been hardest in Brazil,
leaving biofuels less competitive. On the very night that current President Dilma Rousseff gave the closing speech of the Rio+20 conference in June the final agreement
Now, Brazil hopes to tap into a new biofuel source: second-generation ethanol, produced from the tough cellulose in plant stalks.
In December last year, the Brazilian Development Bank launched a 1-billion-real (US$481-million) credit line to stimulate research and development in cellulosic biofuels and other advanced sugar-cane technologies.
Lawmakers also reinstated a tax credit of US$1  per gallon (26.5  cents per  litre) for biodiesel production,
says Brett Lund, former head of intellectual property for the biofuels group of Syngenta, an agri-giant headquartered in Basel, Switzerland."
12 18 july 2013biofuels brake Biofuels made from food crops are on course to be curbed in Europe after an 11 Â July vote by the environment committee in the European parliament.
after scientists warned that production of some biofuels drives land clearance that can lead to greater greenhouse-gas emissions than from fossil fuel (see Nature 499,13-14;
EU debates U-turn on biofuels policythe European union (EU) has spent the past 10 years nurturing a  15-billion (US$20-billion) industry that makes transport fuel from food crops such as soya beans
Now the EU could change course by setting a cap on the use of food-based biofuel,
Tensions are rising over how much of the emerging science on biofuel emissions will be included in EU policy ahead of a vote on 10 Â July by the key European parliament committee dealing with the legislation.
Europe began mandating the development and use of biofuels in 2003. The two latest laws on the subject, passed in 2009,
Biofuel counts towards that requirement if it produces a 35%emissions saving over fossil fuels, or 50%from 2017 onwards;
helping to generate a thriving bio  fuels industry based mainly on biodiesel. Europe is even importing rapeseed and vegetable oil to meet demand.
But the original accounting for biofuel emissions was all wrong, as Tim Searchinger, who studies environmental economics at Princeton university in New jersey, noted in an influential 2008 article (T.  Searchinger et  al.
when agricultural land is used to plant biofuel crops, fresh land may be ploughed up to accommodate the existing crops that have been edged out.
most varieties of biodiesel turn out to produce more emissions than bioethanol and often more than fossil fuels.
ethanol from maize (corn) the main biofuel for US vehicles was given the green light under the agency s rules.
But the European commission has ducked the issue in the face of strong resistance from the biofuels industry and Europe s energy and agricultural sectors.
Under the proposal, land-use figures would not be used to select one biofuel over another. But fuel suppliers would have to start including land-use figures produced by the IFPRI
the committee proposed gradually increasing mandates for use of advanced biofuels not made from food crops."
But Europe s Joint Research Centre in Brussels says that the models used to calculate the land-use numbers are no less certain than the accepted science on the direct emissions of biofuels
and is pushing to incorporate land-use change numbers to distinguish between better and worse food-crop biofuels.
whereas others, including central and eastern European countries with strong biofuel lobbies, do not. Although this month s vote will lay out the main lines of argument,
Biofuel rules The US Environmental protection agency proposed reducing requirements for the use of biofuels on 15 Â November
The proposal would require that biofuels make up 9. 2%of the US transportation fuel supply in 2014, down from 9. 74%in 2013.
The requirement for advanced biofuels, which must reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by at least half, would drop from 1. 62%to 1. 33%.
Ethanol and other biofuels, including certain petrol and diesel substitutes, can be produced from simple sugars, usually by fermentation.
and a University of Wisconsin spin-off firm, Glucan Biorenewables, is already using GVL to make furans, a different kind of biofuel.
"There is great potential for it to help overcome some of the most vexing problems associated with biofuels,
one run by POET-DSM Advanced Biofuels and the other by Dupont). The industry has promised long that this second-generation biofuel will cut greenhouse-gas emissions,
reduce US reliance on imported oil and boost rural economies. Yet just as the fuel is on the cusp of making it big,
Cellulosic Biofuels Industry Progress report 2012-2013 (AEC, 2012) Cellulosic-ethanol producers have several options to increase their market.
Last year, an energy-department project to supply the US NAVY with advanced biofuels provided funding for four facilities that will all use thermochemical methods to make drop in fuels.
It also produces a seed rich in an oil suitable for use as sustainable and environmentally-friendly biodiesel fuel.
and eventually producing biofuel. A potential unintended side-effect of such a project is a chance of increased cloud cover and rainfall.
#Using Wood As Biofuel May be Worse For The Planet Than We Thoughttimber harvesting may release significant amounts of carbon into the atmosphere according to a new study.
Policymakers should reevaluate calls to boost the use of trees for biofuel the researchers recommend.
Forest biomass currently comprises about 75 percent of global biofuel production. The study appears in the journal Global Change Biology-Bioenergy.
Wait you're telling me that burning large amounts of wood and other biofuels puts carbon into the atmosphere?
Formed from the incomplete combustion of fossil fuel biofuel and biomass it is emitted directly into the atmosphere
#California Working on First Commercial Biofuel From Beetsninety-five percent of the ethanol fuel produced in the U s. comes from corn
The biofuel could go into specially-designed ethanol vehicles as well as regular U s. gasoline most of which is composed of 10 percent ethanol.
The proposed biofuels plant creates an entirely new market for Monsanto's genetically engineered (GE) sugar beet.
In North america GE sugar beet for biofuels would have been an ideal public relations coup for Monsanto but one that could have cost farmers and consumers in the long run.
Meanwhile no biofuels today can compete with traditional rocket fuels on the market. Although ethanol derived from corn for example can more or less replace gasoline even the latter
A breakthrough in rocket-compatible biofuel came in 2011. That's when the Navy discovered chemicals that link together or dimerize two molecules of pinene into a fuel with properties similar to JP-10.
For now the team is trying both methods in hopes of making a drop in biofuel that's cheaper and more sustainable option for launching rockets or missiles without changing engines or existing infrastructure.*
and pulp industries and in an emerging biofuel industry that could be based on hybrid poplar plantations.
and biofuels industries using technology that is already well-established for cellulose-based materials. Some of the byproducts of the paper industry now go to making biofuels
so we could just add another process to use the leftover cellulose to make a composite material Moon said.
Camelina seeds have very high oil content leading researchers at the Danforth Center to focus on Camelina to develop biodiesel and other industrial products.
and therefore valuable supplies of biomass across the globe by reducing the need for biofuels Based on our analysis this freeing up of biomass is one of the key system-wide consequences of electrifying transport says Mccollum.
Teasing apart the complex relationship between soil fungi and plants is likely to have an impact on improving biofuel production from plant biomass.
or for renewable clean-burning biodiesel could result in extremely high emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2)
or indigenous areas the total amount of CO2 emissions from biodiesel made from palm oil produced in that region may exceed the carbon intensity of petroleum diesel
which biodiesel intends to replace. Focussing on the Brazilian region of Parã¡the researchers employed a bottom-up model to arrive at their conclusions
Brazil has increased drastically its production of biodiesel over the last decade. In 2006 the country produced 69 million litres of biodiesel;
today it produces close to 3 billion litres the majority of which is produced from soybean oil. Oil palm has become an increasingly attractive crop for the production of biodiesel as it has a much higher yield than other crops requires barely any new technology to produce
and harvest can grow in poor soil conditions and is very labour intensive--ideal for job creation and security.
In each of the scenarios 22.5 million hectares of land were converted creating 29 billion gallons of biodiesel each year.
if the extraction refinement transport and actual combustion of the biodiesel is taken into account and added to emissions from
either of these two scenarios the total carbon intensity of biodiesel will exceed greatly that of diesel.
and that scientists will be able to assess more options for biofuel development than is possible today.
Seventy years later T. reesei is a star in the world of biofuels because of its ability to churn out enzymes that chew through molecules like complex sugars.
That would bring down the cost of producing biofuels. Wright's study focused on a subset of the fungus's collection of cutting tools on enzymes known as glycoside hydrolases.
#Chickens to benefit from biofuels bonanzachickens could be unexpected the beneficiaries of the growing biofuels industry feeding on proteins retrieved from the fermenters used to brew bioethanol thanks to research supported by the Engineering and Physical sciences Research Council (EPSRC.
The project was born out of the vision of biofuels pioneer Dr Pete Williams of AB Agri who was convinced valuable material was being overlooked
Dr Burton believes the project helps address an issue often raised in connection with cereal-based biofuels:
when using straw for the generation of heat combined heat and power generation or as second-generation biofuel production.
The different greenhouse gas balances cast a differentiated light on the EU's goal of covering ten percent of transportation sector's energy use by using biofuels.
Enhancing expression of these genes resulted in vastly increased oil content in leaves the most abundant sources of plant biomass-a finding that could have important implications for increasing the energy content of plant-based foods and renewable biofuel feedstocks.
Conversely if you want to increase the caloric output of your biofuel or feed for livestock you want more oil said Xu.
and biodiesel production said Xu. Burning plant biomass with such energy density to generate electricity would release 30 to 40 percent more energy
so it can be converted to biofuels. But our research provides a very promising path to improving the use of plants as a source of feed
%We believe that these genetically modified plants she explained could be a good alternative to food crops for producing biofuels
and to meet an anticipated demand for biofuels--requiring more and more fertilizer. Even if anthropogenic NOX emissions were globally zero avoiding critical load exceedance at all national parks would require a 55%reduction of anthropogenic NH3 emissions their report states.
In response to the increasing demand for phosphorus in the food biofuels and biobased materials industries global consumption of phosphate has risen significantly
Besides nonrenewable reserves alternative phosphate resources include municipal wastewater and agricultural organic residues such as livestock manure or digestate from biogas plants.
#Time to rethink misguided policies that promote biofuels to protect climate, experts saypolicymakers need to rethink the idea of promoting biofuels to protect the climate
because the methods used to justify such policies are flawed inherently according to a University of Michigan energy researcher.
but scientifically simplistic perception that biofuels such as ethanol are inherently carbon neutral meaning that the heat-trapping carbon dioxide gas emitted
because the plants used to make biofuels--including corn soybeans and sugarcane--are already pulling carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere through photosynthesis said Decicco a research professor at the U-M Energy Institute and a professor of practice at the School of Natural resources and Environment.
because it methodically deconstructs the life-cycle-analysis approach that forms a basis for current environmental policies promoting biofuels.
Instead he presents a rigorous carbon cycle analysis based on biogeochemical fundamentals to identify conditions under which biofuels might have a climatic benefit.
Plants used to make biofuels do not remove any additional carbon dioxide just because they are used to make fuel as opposed to say corn flakes Decicco said.
and into subsidies mandates and other programs to prop up biofuels is unwarranted he said. Decicco's direct carbon accounting examines carbon sources
Biofuels have no benefit at the tailpipe Decicco said. Per unit energy the carbon dioxide emissions from burning ethanol are just 2 percent lower than those from gasoline.
Biodiesel yields carbon dioxide emissions about 1 percent greater than those from petroleum diesel. If there is any climate benefit to biofuels it occurs
only if harvesting the source crops causes a greater net removal of carbon dioxide from the air than would otherwise have occurred Decicco said.
and promoting biofuels. Corn ethanol production of 14 billion gallons supplied 4. 4 percent of total U s. transportation liquid fuel use in 2011.
Biofuels are presumed the replacement for the petroleum-based transportation fuels gasoline and diesel that dominate liquid fuel use.
In the United states the federal Renewable Fuel Standard mandates a large increase in biofuels use which has reached now 16 billion gallons a year mainly ethanol.
#Panda poop microbes could make biofuels of the futureunlikely as it may sound giant pandas Ya Ya
and Le Le in the Memphis Zoo are making contributions toward shifting production of biofuels away from corn
Brown and her students based at Mississippi State university now have identified more than 40 microbes living in the guts of giant pandas at the Memphis Zoo that could make biofuel production from plant waste easier and cheaper.
when it comes to biofuel production--that's why we focused on the microbes in the giant panda.
and transform them into oils and fats for biodiesel production. Brown said that either the bacteria themselves
which could be used as animal feed in various food applications or as a raw material for biofuel production.
and feed cereal crop but also can be used as the basis of biofuel. Its resistance to heat and water stress allows it to grow in poor dryland regions as a staple food resource for 500 million poor people in Africa
and biofuel crops could be grown and maintained in many places where it wasn't previously possible such as deserts landfills
Researchers from the University of Cambridge have demonstrated that with the addition of the biofertiliser biofuel crops can be grown successfully
and E coli bacteria have joined forces to turn tough waste plant material into isobutanol a biofuel that matches gasoline's properties better than ethanol.
We're hoping that biofuels made in such an efficient way can eventually replace current petroleum-based fuels said Xiaoxia Nina Lin assistant professor of chemical engineering and leader of the research.
While much previous research has focused on trying to create a superbug that could tackle the whole job of processing waste plant materials into biofuels Lin
The team managed to get 1. 88 grams of isobutanol per liter of fluid in the ecosystem the highest concentration reported to date for turning tough plant materials into biofuels.
or more of biomass annually enough to produce biofuels that could displace 30 percent or more of our current petroleum production.
#New possibilities for efficient biofuel productionlimited availability of fossil fuels stimulates the search for different energy resources.
The use of biofuels is one of the alternatives. Sugars derived from the grain of agricultural crops can be used to produce biofuel
but these crops occupy fertile soils needed for food and feed production. Fast growing plants such as poplar eucalyptus
and can be a sustainable source for biofuel. An international collaboration of plant scientists from VIB and Ghent University (Belgium) the University of Dundee (UK) The James Hutton Institute (UK) and the University of Wisconsin (USA) identified a new gene in the biosynthetic
and has the potential to greatly increase the efficiency of energy crop conversion for biofuels said Sally M. Benson director of Stanford university's Global Climate and Energy Project.
Unfortunately lignin severely reduces the accessibility of sugar molecules for biofuel production. The lignin cement has to be removed via an energy-consuming and environmentally unfriendly process.
Plants with a lower amount of lignin or with lignin that is easier to break down can be a real benefit for biofuel and bioplastics production.
#Existing cropland could feed four billion more by dropping biofuels and animal feedthe world's croplands could feed 4 billion more people than they do now just by shifting from producing animal feed
and biofuels to producing exclusively food for human consumption according to new research from the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota.
In addition crops are increasingly being used for biofuels rather than food production. This study sought to quantify the benefit to food security that would accrue
and provide one of the most promising sources of biofuel. The discovery the product of a multiyear effort to provide a high-quality full genome map of the oil palm plant
Palm oil also has the best energy balance of any commercial product currently used in biofuel applications yielding about 9 times the energy required to produce it according to Dr. Martienssen.
and replaced by single-species plantations of oil palm rubber trees and crops for biofuels. The authors warn that such plantations greatly reduce areas available for seed dispersing wildlife.
They also identified a network of genes that cause poplar roots to grow well in low-nitrogen soil making them ideal candidates for biofuel tree plantations on marginal lands.
because it is a major biofuel crop. There are tens of thousands of genes in the poplar genome.
and manure management and the installation of biogas recovery systems have contributed all to reducing the environmental impact of beef.
Biogas recovery systems are used in processing facilities to produce energy from animal waste. Animal waste is collected in lagoons where the gas is captured.
and shelter for the ants for researchers they are potential models for better biofuel production.
Accessing and deconstructing cellulose is also the goal of GLBRC researchers who want to ferment the stored sugars to ethanol and other advanced biofuels.
but understanding how they work in the context of the ant community could help researchers create similar methods for processing cellulosic biofuel feedstocks such as corn stalks and grasses.
and tested for their ability to break down biofuel feedstocks. However this process can be time-consuming and costly.
#Wood not so green a biofuel? Logging may have greater impact on carbon emissions than previously thoughtusing wood for energy is considered cleaner than fossil fuels
and logging waste makes up about 75 percent of global biofuel production. Mineral soil carbon responses can vary highly depending on harvesting intensity surface disturbance and soil type.
reduced yields for U s. cornif the climate continues to evolve as predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change the United states stands little to no chance of satisfying its current biofuel goals according to a new study by Rice university
Whereas biofuels offer a means to use more renewable energy while decreasing reliance on imported oil it is important to recognize the tradeoffs Alvarez said.
The authors of the new paper have questioned long the United states'support of biofuels as a means to cut vehicle emissions.
In a 2010 white paper on U s. biofuels policy produced by Rice's Baker Institute for Public Policy authors including Alvarez
Their 2009 feature article in Environmental science and Technology suggested the amount of water required to bring biofuels to market may be prohibitive;
#Ultrasound#Making Waves for Enhancing Biofuel Productionall chefs know that you have to break some eggs to make an omelet
in order to cook up a better batch of biofuel. Research by David Grewell associate professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering
In one example of ultrasound's positive impact on biofuel production the Iowa State researchers found that they could significantly increase the efficiency of removing lignin from biomass in solution.
and allow the freed sugars to be dissolved for further processing into biofuel. Grewell and his colleagues found that pretreating
Grewell and his colleagues report a third application for ultrasound in biofuel production showing that they can accelerate transesterification the main chemical reaction for converting oil to biodiesel.
In one case the researchers found that subjecting soybean oil to ultrasound transformed it into biodiesel in less than a minute rather than the 45 minutes it normally takes.
and starved with glycerin a co-product of biodiesel production could prodfuce high yields of oil that could be extracted
and simultaneously converted to biodiesel with ultrasonics in less than a minute. This is a dramatically faster
#Top-class biofuel from the depths of the foresttops and branches from tree-felling sites are reborn in the laboratory as compact pellets.
The oils are also for industrial processes such as making soaps cosmetics perfumes paints and biofuels.
so farmers ethanol producers and others in the biofuels industry will all be on the same page here in the United states as well as in Europe and Brazil.
European calls for biofuels certification are pushing efforts in the U s. to figure out how to certify an agricultural supply chain.
Although the requirement has been postponed until January 2014 the aviation sector is actively seeking ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through biofuels.
'In the war of words and in the public media biofuels have had to face more accusations than any other renewable energy source such as solar power
--which is used also to produce starch flour biofuel and even beer--as the perfect crop for helping to feed a continent where growing conditions in many regions are deteriorating in the face of climate change.
and biofuel production said many of the recent discoveries in his and other laboratories around the world had previously been under the radar--known only to a small group of plant biologists
or low-yielding acidic soils into astonishingly productive farmland to grow crops for food and biofuels.
biofuel productionhydrogen sulfide the pungent stuff often referred to as sewer gas is a deadly substance implicated in several mass extinctions including one at the end of the Permian period 251 million years ago that wiped out more than three-quarters of all species
But in low doses hydrogen sulfide could greatly enhance plant growth leading to a sharp increase in global food supplies and plentiful stock for biofuel production new University of Washington research shows.
The most significant near-term promise he believes is in growing algae and other stock for biofuels.
Plant lipids are the key to biofuel production and preliminary tests show that the composition of lipids in hydrogen sulfide-treated plants is the same as in untreated plants he said.
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