petrol smoke bat droppings bat caves some species of millipedes wild ginger roots and wild mango wood all have this smell. plã Âaeâ this means a bloody smell that attracts tigers.
which logging companies pay stumpage fees and oil companies pay royalties. Modern medicine relies on antibiotics to kill off bacterial infections explains Hollis. This is incredibly important.
Cutting releases of methane and nitrous oxide two gases that pound-for-pound trap more heat than does CO2 should be considered alongside the challenge of reducing fossil fuel use.
#oewe clearly need to reduce the burning of fossil fuels to cut CO2 emissions. But that addresses only part of the problem.
Among the largest human-related sources of methane are ruminant animals (cattle sheep goats and buffalo) and fossil fuel extraction and combustion.
Of course with increasing pressure on water energy and other resources there are multiple other reasons to reduce the use of synthetic chemicals in agriculture wherever possible.
and the subsequent unsustainable wood-sourcing practices in an effort to provide low-cost fuel to dry
and quality and towards its application as a sustainable energy crop the authors suggest. Sugar beet is the first representative of a group of flowering plants called Caryophyllales comprising 11500 species
and turn it into high-quality protein and energy. The end product is six times more nutritious than the moss.
The cellulose crystals are more difficult to break down into sugars to make liquid fuel. So let's make a product out of it building on the existing infrastructure of the pulp and paper industry.
and environmental risks notably greenhouse gases produced by the energy and transport services needed for industrial livestock production
and energy--and how in addition to reducing greenhouse-gas emissions the technological developments in the water sector may help alleviating water scarcity.
observations projections and impacts commissioned by the Department of energy and Climate Change (DECC) which he jointly led with the UK Met Office addressed an urgent international need for scientific evidence on the impact of climate change to be presented in a consistent format
and Energy Policy (RDCEP) Argonne National Laboratory and lead author of the paper. So the effect of limited irrigation availability in some regions could end up doubling the effect of climate change.
and will save significant time energy and money. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Tyndall National Institute.
work developing bio-based materials to support the green energy infrastructure. Wool was recognized We during a presentation at EPA headquarters in Washington D c. on Dec 11.
and energy and produce less hazardous waste compared to petroleum-based processes. The products can be used as adhesives composites
and foams--even circuit boards hurricane resistant energy efficient roofs and leather substitutes. Finding low toxicity replacements for commodity plastics such as polystyrene and PVC adhesives foams
#Ethanol blends carry hidden riskblending more ethanol into fuel to cut air pollution from vehicles carries a hidden risk that toxic
Those problems would likely occur in buildings with cracked foundations that happen to be in the vicinity of fuel spills.
The Rice study detailed this week in the American Chemical Society journal Environmental science and Technology emerges as the Environmental protection agency (EPA) prepares technical guidance for higher ratios of ethanol in fuels.
Computer simulations at Rice determined that fuel with 5 percent or less ethanol content does not rise to the level of concern
because small amounts of ethanol and benzene a toxic volatile hydrocarbon present in gasoline degrade rapidly in the presence of oxygen.
and gasoline intended for flex-fuel vehicles could increase the generation of methane. Ethanol and gasoline separate into distinct plumes as they spread underground from the site of a spill.
As liquid ethanol degrades into gaseous methane it expands driving advective flow and forcing the gas outward--and upward.
So the Rice lab led by Alvarez with the participation of researchers from Chevron Shell and the University of Houston programmed a three-dimensional vapor intrusion model to simulate the degradation migration and intrusion pathways of methane and benzene under various site conditions.
The paper's co-authors include Hong Luo an environmental hydrologist at the Chevron Energy Technology Co.;
The American Petroleum Institute and the China Scholarship Council supported the research. The researchers utilized the Data analysis
Our insatiable demand for energy threatens to cover the rural landscape with wind turbines and solar farms.
and better able to use that energy you'll perform better Trumble explained. Cortisol can play a similar role.
Short-term increases in that particular hormone are beneficial for energy mobilization in the body. If you come across a predator
and need to be able to mobilize your energy reserves quickly you would definitely benefit from a spike in cortisol he continued.
If you have low energy coming into the system you see decreased testosterone. If you don't have enough calories coming into the system you see decreased testosterone.
If you're expending too much energy you see decreased testosterone. In industrial populations we have relieved many of these pressures.
The Tsimane experience higher exposure to parasites and pathogens and less food security thus they face a tradeoff between investing energy to maintain good immune function
and spending energy to high levels of testosterone which result in more muscle mass Trumble explained.
Energy has to be spent just to maintain it which is not so easy when you have to hunt
but not maintain so much mass as to require additional energy. That's one of the ways these short-term testosterone spikes are said beneficial he.
in order to relate it to the energy challenge and the risk of national political unrest caused by food shortages
An Advanced Micrometeorological Method for Measuring and Processing Field-Scale Energy Flux density Data in its signature video-demonstration format.
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 storage (CCS) will be pivotal in reaching ambitious climate targets according to a new comprehensive study of future energy technologies from IIASA the Potsdam Institute for Climate Change the Stanford Energy Modeling
The study published in a special issue of the journal Climatic Change provides an overview of the results of EMF27 a major research project combining 18 different global energy-economy models from research teams around the world.
In 2010 coal oil and gas supplied more than 80%of the world's total primary energy supply
--and the demand for energy is projected to increase by 2 to 3 times by 2100.
The EMF27 study shows that without policies to cut greenhouse gas emissions fossil fuels will remain the major energy source in 2100 with resulting increases in greenhouse gas emissions.
and nuclear energy because the combination of the two can lead to negative emissions says IIASA researcher Volker Krey lead author of the study published last week.
CCS is a yet-unproven technology that would remove carbon from fossil fuel or bioenergy combustion and store it underground.
Bioenergy is an especially valuable energy resource because unlike solar wind and hydro power it can be converted into liquid and gaseous fuels
which are easily storable and can be used readily by current transportation systems while the other renewable technologies would require electric or hydrogen vehicles and infrastructure in order to power transportation.
and is led by the Stanford Energy Modeling Forum the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impacts Research IIASA and other institutes.
A second study by Mccollum and Energy Program leader Keywan Riahi also included in the issue shows that
contrary to some recent claims the fossil fuel consumption that models project out to 2100 is well within the bounds of estimated recoverable reserves and resources.
because we'll run out of available coal oil and gas supplies in the coming decades. However our study which compares long-term scenario results across a large suite of technologically-detailed models shows that fossil resource constraints are unlikely to limit greenhouse gas emissions in this century.
but prevent general processes in cells such as energy production or cell mitosis. In order to calculate the concentrations of pesticides in surface waters
When oil is extracted from the camelina seeds using either solvent extraction or expeller pressing the oil is used then in fuel production.
The defatted meal that is produced during this process is high in protein and may be fed to livestock
Stein said that the variation in digestibility among the sources of camelina expellers might be due to genetic differences between the seeds or differences in the oil extraction procedures.
and metabolizable energy content of camelina expellers and to conduct growth performance studies. Story Source:
or other outside energy ripple like waves in a pond. Strong waves can trigger plasmon responses in adjacent nanoparticles.
The Department of energy the National Science Foundation and the Robert A. Welch Foundation supported the research.
Graphene-based electronics promise advances such as faster internet speeds cheaper solar cells novel sensors space suits spun from graphene yarn and more.
X-ray crystallography and more recently nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy are the most common tools to see how the amino acids in a protein chain arrange themselves based on their attractive and repulsive energies
if trees are left standing in some regions according to a Dartmouth College study that for the first time puts a dollar value on snow's ability to reflect the sun's energy.
and crop pollination--but the Dartmouth study is the first to do so for albedo or the surface reflection of incoming solar energy.
The Energy Biosciences Institute at the U. of I. supported the research. Miscanthus does almost as well in poor soils as in fertile cropland Long said.
Several growers in the U s. pelletize Miscanthus for use as a renewable carbon-neutral energy source.
and other liquid fuels Long said. This would complement corn ethanol since it would allow the use of land unsuited
Long and his colleagues calculated the total land area needed to produce enough Miscanthus to meet the U s. Renewable Fuel Standard mandate for cellulosic ethanol production by the year 2022.
and firewood and the mining of limestone there--used for the production of cement fertilizer
and extreme events which are all areas that concern key sectors such as energy health and agriculture.
It is planned now to study the impacts of climate change on air quality and on other key sectors of the economy such as energy and agriculture.
Wood is a renewable resource that could help contribute to the nation's energy needs for an indefinite period according to Ray.
It could serve as a sustainable fossil fuel replacement. He added that although wood is currently uncompetitive with natural gas-powered boilers in certain states it could compete with other fuel sources such as oil propane and coal.
The most likely states for wood conversion currently are Maine Texas New york Florida and Georgia according to the researchers.
The researchers who report their findings in the online version of the Renewable Energy Journal used databases from the U s. Energy Information Administration to estimate that there are 163000 industrial and commercial boilers in use in the United states. Of those they found that there were 31776
oil coal and propane boilers in 37 states in the Midwest Northeast and South the target region of their study.
Those boilers generate the energy equivalent of 287 million barrels of oil a year. If all of the boilers would be converted to wood-burning ones they would consume about three times the wood available in the area
To make use of the pomelo's ability to absorb impact energy the block mold casting process was modified
The main reason for this is the need for energy-saving lightweight products especially in the automotive industry.
Continued growth of the livestock industry likely exacerbates rabies outbreaks in the region by providing an almost unlimited food source for the blood-feeding bats fueling population growth and range expansion.
either gold or silver it may be a good candidate for harvesting solar energy and for other large-area optical devices and materials that would be too expensive to produce with noble or coinage metals.
but the holidays are a time to sample special seasonal treats that people have spent a lot of energy preparing.
However as China began to import millions of tons of oilseed rape to crush for cooking oil the route opened for L. maculans to spread via contaminated seed between countries.
Competition also increases trees'risk to bark beetles and diseases and subsequently leads to a buildup of dead fuels.
and tree density control are the most effective and efficient ways to reduce fuel buildup.
In turn this growing fuel ladder can carry a ground fire into the crowns of the overstory trees.
and including researchers from the Department of energy Joint Genome Institute (DOE JGI) reported the complete genome of R. irregularis (formerly Glomus intraradices) in a paper published online November 25 in the journal Proceedings of the National
This is the first sequenced genome of arbuscular mycorrhizae the type that is dominant on the planet said Igor Grigoriev one of the senior authors on the paper and lead for the Fungal Genomics Program at the DOE JGI.
In 2006 shortly after the DOE JGI sequenced the first tree genome Populus trichocarpa it became apparent that it took a village (of other organisms) to raise a poplar tree.
Rhizophagus irregularis is the next in this linage to be released by the DOE JGI it follows the ectomycorrhizal fungal symbiont Laccaria the poplar rust pathogen Melampsora and dozens of bacterial genomes.
and published by the DOE JGI has a genome of about 30 Mb. Through several generations portions of R. irregularis's genome were duplicated invaded by repeated transposable elements famously known as'jumping genes'.
The above story is provided based on materials by DOE/Joint Genome Institute. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
and a previously unknown early brick structure above it fragments of charcoal and grains of sand were tested using a combination of radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence techniques.
and development actions that lead to the abatement or reduction of vulnerability to climate change and mitigation plans that include actions such as improved energy efficiency
and renewable energy generation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Overall 130 cities (65 percent) have at least a mitigation plan and less than a third (28 percent) also an adaptation plan.
Dutch cities are the most ambitious aiming to be'carbon-''climate-'or'energy-neutral'(100 percent reduction target) by 2050 or earlier.
Researchers received funding from the National Science Foundation and Wake Forest's Center for Energy Environment and Sustainabilitydrones Deliver a Bird's eye Viewone of the researchers'robots a copter drone relies on eight small propeller units
These findings clearly support national recommendations encouraging individuals to achieve energy balance and to increase fruit and vegetable consumption stated Boucher.
Here energy water and detergents are required. In the EU project Micromilk coordinated by the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB different partners have developed a system that enables the preservation of milk and milk products with microwaves.
#Sofrito contains substances that reduce risk of cardiovascular diseasethe combination of tomato olive oil garlic and onion in a sofrito increases the amount of polyphenols and carotenoids.
tomatoes onions garlic and oil. The combination of these foods equals the bio-health compounds of each one separately.
With regard to oil scientists recommend using virgin olive oil instead of sunflower oil. In fact they are now looking for the ideal proportion of the four ingredients
and it would seem that the inclusion of 10%extra virgin olive oil gives very good results in the sofrito properties.
In related research last May Wayne and his colleagues reported at the Biology of Genomes meeting in New york the results of their comparison of the complete nuclear genomes of three recent wolf breeds (from the Middle east East asia
This is challenging because the nuclear DNA of ancient remains tends to become degraded. While Wayne plans to pursue this follow-up research he said he does not expect a nuclear genome analysis to change the central finding.
However he said it will fill in more of the details. This is not the end-story in the debate about dog domestication but
#Researchers warn against high emissions from oil palm expansion in Brazilexpanding millions of hectares of Brazilian land to produce palm oil for food
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
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
Among other possibilities the work could help in the race to meet Department of energy (DOE) standards that call for the creation by 2015 of materials that can hold 5. 5 percent of their weight in hydrogen to fuel vehicles.
Aside from storing hydrogen for fuel ZIFS show potential for size-selective catalysis environmental remediation and for use as molecular sieves.
which approaches the DOE standard Shahsavari said. We didn't reach that DOE target with this design
but if we can functionalize the ZIFS by adding ligand-binding moieties (the functional groups in a molecule) into the pore space then we might be able to.
which is a condition that results in the cows expending more energy than they are taking in through their diet.
and use for example it takes the energy of about a gallon of diesel to produce 4 pounds of nitrogen fertilizer.
In developing countries in particular nitrogen fertilization rates are spiraling upward driving up fossil-fuel consumption Deluca said.
Meanwhile cyanobacteria naturally occurring in farm soils aren't fixing nitrogen at all in the presence of all that fertilizer they just don't expend the energy
Through photosynthesis the leaves trap energy from sunlight and use it to convert carbon dioxide and water into carbon-based carbohydrates
which provide the fuel for new stars. The discovery may also solve a mystery of elderly galaxies.
More detailed work aims to gather the information palm oil producers need to make their plantations more mammal-friendly
#Tapping fungus to unlock energy: Crafting a better enzyme cocktail to turn plants into fuel fasterscientists looking to create a potent blend of enzymes to transform materials like corn stalks
and wood chips into fuels have developed a test that should turbocharge their efforts. The new research published in October in the journal Molecular Biosystems is part of a worldwide effort to create fuels from plants that are plentiful
and aren't part of the food supply. It's possible to do this today but the process is costly laborious and lengthy.
The findings by chemists and colleagues at the Department of energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory open the possibility that laboratory research that now takes months could be reduced to days
and that scientists will be able to assess more options for biofuel development than is possible today.
The breakdown of large sugar polymers into smaller compounds that can then be converted further to fuel compounds is the final crucial step in the effort to make fuels from materials like switchgrass and corn stalks.
These plants and many others are stored full of energy in carbon bonds which can be converted into fuel
if scientists can find ways to free the compounds that store the energy from the tough structural material known as lignocellulose
which holds the plants together. Lignocellulose is what stands between you and a tankful of fuel created from corn stalks or switchgrass.
The ultimate goal is to begin with a plant material like corn stalks for instance and to subject it to a cocktail of enzymes that would convert those plants to fuel said chemist Aaron Wright who led the PNNL team.
It takes a series of steps to do that and the cost has to come down if these fuels are to compete seriously with traditional hydrocarbon-based fuels.
T. reesei chews through materials naturally cutting through the chemical wrapping much like a person with scissors cuts through a tightly wrapped ribbon around a gift freeing the inner contents for enjoyment.
It's their job to break down complex sugars into simple sugars a key step in the fuel production process.
Many of the measurements for the study such as the measures of protein activity using mass spectrometry were done at EMSL the DOE's Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory on the PNNL campus. Wright's team included Lindsey
A paper outlining this research is published in this month's issue of the journal Food and Energy Security.
but this project shows the fuel itself is only half the story--immense value lies within other co-product streams too.
and other agricultural feedstocks bioethanol has particular potential for use as a petrol substitute. Currently the dried distiller's grains with solubles (DDGS) generated as a co-product are sold to the cattle-feed market
By helping us to move to the next key stage of development it has brought closer the prospect of full-scale industrial use that could deliver major benefits to the emerging'green'fuel sector.*
and energy crops their production has led to an increase in the levels of nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus in our water sources.
Residents depend on the forest for wood as fuel and building material and rely on local grasses to thatch roofs
#Straw could supply energy to millions of householdsleipzig. Straw from agriculture could play an important role in the future energy mix for Germany.
Up until now it has been underutilised as a biomass residue and waste material. These were the conclusions of a study conducted by the TLL (Thueringian regional institute for agriculture) the DBFZ (German biomass research center) and the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research (UFZ.
According to them from a total of 30 million tons of cereal straw produced annually in Germany between 8 and 13 million tons of it could be used sustainably for energy or fuel production.
These results highlight the potential contribution of straw to renewable sources of energy scientists state in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Applied Energy.
and yet so far it has hardly been used for energy production. From 1950 to 2000 there was a noticeable rise in the cultivation of winter wheat rye and winter barley in Germany
or 13 megatons of straw can be used sustainably every year for energy production --i e. without causing any disadvantages to the soils or other forms of utilisation.
To our knowledge this is the first time that a study like this has been conducted for an EU country demonstrating the potential of straw for a truly sustainable energy use
thus be said that straw can contribute to the future energy mix. The degree to which it will contribute to greenhouse gas reduction
A reduction compared to fossil fuels can be somewhere between 73 and 92 percent 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.
According to the summary of the new study straw-based energy applications should be developed in Germany in particular in those regions with favourable conditions and appropriate power plants.
Even if we wouldn't be spinning straw into gold in the foreseeable future it would still make an important contribution to the energy turnaround.
currently Denmark is considered still to be the world leader in straw-based energy applications. 15 years ago a master plan was introduced there ensuring in the meantime in Germany's northern neighbouring country that over 5 billion kilowatt hours of energy per year is generated from straw.
Those residents depend on the same forests for wood for fuel and building and grasses to thatch roofs
#Key genes for increasing oil content in plant leaves identifiedscientists at the U s. Department of energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have identified the key genes required for oil production and accumulation in plant leaves and other vegetative plant tissues.
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.
If we can transfer this strategy to crop plants being used to generate renewable energy or to feed livestock it would significantly increase their energy content and nutritional values said Brookhaven biochemist Changcheng Xu who led the research.
The experiments were carried out in large part by Xu's group members Jilian Fan and Chengshi Yan.
Oil is twice as energy-dense as carbohydrates which make up the bulk of leaves stems and other vegetative plant matter.
If you want to cut calories from your diet you cut fat and oils. Conversely if you want to increase the caloric output of your biofuel
or feed for livestock you want more oil said Xu. But plants don't normally store much oil in their leaves and other vegetative tissues.
In nature oil storage is the job of seeds where the energy-dense compounds provide nourishment for developing plant embryos.
The idea behind Xu's studies was to find a way to reprogram plants to store oil in their more abundant forms of biomass.
The first step was to identify the genes responsible for oil production in vegetative plant tissues. Though oil isn't stored in these tissues almost all plant cells have the capacity to make oil.
But until these studies the pathway for oil biosynthesis in leaves was unknown. Many people assumed it was similar to
what happens in seeds but we tried to look also at different genes and enzymes said Xu.
Unraveling the genesthe scientists used a series of genetic tricks to test the effects of overexpressing
or disabling genes that enable cells to make certain enzymes involved in oil production. Pumping up the factors that normally increase oil production in seeds had no effect on oil production in leaves
and one of these when overexpressed in leaves caused growth and developmental problems in the plants.
Altering the expression of a different oil-producing enzyme however had dramatic effects on leaf oil production.
If you knock out (disable) the gene for an enzyme known as PDAT it doesn't affect oil synthesis in seeds
or cause any problems to plants but it dramatically decreases oil production and accumulation in leaves Xu said.
In contrast overexpressing the gene for PDAT-that is getting cells to make more of this enzyme-resulted in a 60-fold increase in leaf oil production.
An important observation was that the excess oil did not mix with cellular membrane lipids
but was found in oil droplets within the leaf cells. These droplets were somewhat similar to those found in seeds only much much larger.
It was as if many small oil droplets like those found in seeds had fused together to form huge globules Xu said.
Bigger droplets may seem better but they're not explained Xu. Oil in these oversized droplets is broken easily down by other enzymes in the cells.
In seeds he said oil droplets are coated with a protein called oleosin which prevents the droplets from fusing together keeping them smaller
while also protecting the oil inside. What would happen in leaves the scientists wondered if they activated the gene for oleosin along with PDAT?
The result: Overexpression of the two genes together resulted in a 130-fold increase in production of leaf oil compared with control plants.
This time the oil accumulated in large clusters of tiny oleosin-coated oil droplets. Identifying the mechanismnext the scientists used radio-labeled carbon (C-14) to decipher the biochemical mechanism by which PDAT increases oil production.
They traced the uptake of C-14-labeled acetate into fatty acids the building blocks of membrane lipids and oils.
These studies showed that PDAT drastically increased the rate at which these fatty acids were made. Then the scientists decided to test the effects of overexpressing the newly identified oil-increasing genes (PDAT
and oleosin) in a variant of test plants that already had elevated an rate of fatty acid synthesis. In this case the genetic boost resulted in even greater oil production
and accumulation-170-fold compared with control plants-to the point where oil accounted for nearly 10 percent of the leaf's dry weight.
That potentially equals almost twice the oil yield by weight that you can get from canola seeds
which right now is one of the highest oil-yielding crops used for food and biodiesel production said Xu.
Burning plant biomass with such energy density to generate electricity would release 30 to 40 percent more energy
and the nutritional value of feed made from such energy-dense biomass would also be enhanced greatly.
These studies were done in laboratory plants so we still need to see if this strategy would work in bioenergy
or feed crops said Xu. And there are challenges in finding ways to extract oil from leaves
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
and feedstocks for producing renewable energy he said. Xu is now collaborating with Brookhaven biochemist John Shanklin to explore the potential effect of overexpressing these key genes on oil production in dedicated biomass crops such as sugarcane.
This research was funded by the DOE Office of Science (BES. Images showing the storage of oil in droplets were produced using microscopes housed at Brookhaven's Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN) also supported by BES.
Related Linksplant Cell paper: Dual Role for Phospholipid: Diacylglycerol Acyltransferase: Enhancing Fatty acid Synthesis and Diverting Fatty acids from Membrane Lipids to Triacylglycerol in Arabidopsis Leaves http://www. plantcell. org/content/early/2013/09/26/tpc. 113.117358. abstract
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Brookhaven National Laboratory. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
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