Archive for category Biodiesel

Engineered Tobacco Leaves Produce Biofuel at Berkeley

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Biodiesel on May 18, 2013

Instead of smoking it, we could one day use tobacco to power cars – thanks to a project at UC Berkeley, CA. A team of scientists are now using genetically modified tobacco leaves that produce oil. The researchers have worked to isolate chlorophyll from the oil that the leaves produce so that the final product [...]

E. Coli Strain Generates Pure BioDiesel Just Like the Real Thing

Posted by Benji Jerew in Biodiesel on April 26, 2013

Biodiesel is becoming more popular as a fuel because it is carbon neutral and fairly easy to manufacture. Unfortunately, because it doesn’t contain the same amount of energy as petro-diesel, biodiesel is usually mixed with petro-diesel to improve vehicle performance. Users of the blended fuel aren’t carbon-neutral, but can cut their carbon emissions by whatever [...]

Waste Cooking Oil Provides Power, Runs Desalination Plant, Sewage System in London

Posted by Mila Luleva in Biodiesel on April 11, 2013

A new initiative by Thames Water and 2OC, a utility company, aims to collect used cooking oil for powering the world’s biggest fat-fueled power station, major sewage works, a desalination plant and to supply UK’s National Grid. The waste cooking oil will be supplied by thousands of London restaurants. Considering that their annual spending on clearing drains from [...]

Synthetic Trees Produce Energy Efficient Biofuels From Algae

Posted by Mila Luleva in Biodiesel on April 10, 2013

Synthetic trees, designed by researchers at the University of Texas, are the latest innovation in the field of cultivating algae for biofuels. The approach that Thomas Murphy and Halil Berberoglu, researchers from the Mechanical Engineering Department at The University of Texas at Austin took, aimed to scale up algal biofuel production in order to increase the [...]

Solazyme’s New Technology Enables Efficient Production of Bio-Oils

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Biodiesel on April 10, 2013

Microalgae oil production could receive a well-deserved boost due to recent discoveries made at Solazyme. Researchers developed a method to produce different types of bio-oils at the same location (not necessarily to be used as fuels). They utilized simple industrial fermentation and the company’s own patented microalgae strains. Solazyme says their new technology is a [...]

How to Make an Algae Photo-BioReactor at Home

Posted by Mila Luleva in Biodiesel, How to... on April 9, 2013

Producing biofuels from algae is a topic that has been widely discussed over the past few years. As we have already mentioned in earlier articles on the topic, government officials in the U.S. are already funding various projects to encourage scientists and companies to implement this technology. Here we would like to show you a [...]

Microalgae on Building Facade Produces Energy and Insulates From Noise

Posted by Mila Luleva in Biodiesel, Green Buildings on March 27, 2013

A new building facade technology by the firm Strategic Science Consult (SSC), promises to generate electricity and produce heat from algae. The green building is located in Hamburg, Germany, and it is one of the 16 buildings included in “The International Building Exhibition” – 2013, a multi-disciplinary, multi-million euro project funded by the government of Hamburg. The two [...]

Biodiesel Byproducts Can Reduce The Carbon Footprint of Concrete

Posted by Mila Luleva in Biodiesel on March 15, 2013

Civil engineers from Kansas State University are determined to find a way to reduce the carbon footprint of concrete production by using biodiesel byproducts. The study is published in the latest issue of the Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering. The process of making concrete does not require as much energy as making steel or [...]

KLM to Introduce New Weekly Bio-Fueled Transatlantic Flights

Posted by Mike Sandru in Biodiesel on March 14, 2013

Dutch carrier KLM is planning to introduce weekly transatlantic flights that will be running solely on biofuels obtained from old cooking oil. This marks an important step towards satisfying the ever-growing demand for sustainable air travel. With this move, then, KLM offers commuters between Amsterdam and New York the option to reduce their air travel [...]

Bioplastics Could Have a New Source of Raw Material: Animal Fats

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Biodiesel, Green News on February 22, 2013

Animal leftovers are a valuable source of fats (carbon-rich organic polymers) that are ideal for the production of bioplastics. This could make the search for alternatives to petrochemical products turn slaughter houses in goldmines. Along with the meat, skin, bones and even hair, the slaughter houses will be able to turn any of the redundant organic [...]

Grasslands Replaced by Biofuel Crops, Wildlife Affected

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Biodiesel on February 19, 2013

Biofuels may be better for the environment than fossil fuels, but the hunt for profit destroys grasslands and pastures in the U.S. and affects wildlife. This is the conclusion of a study led by Christopher Wright and Michael Wimberly from South Dakota State University in Brookings. The two pulled their conclusions by analyzing satellite imagery [...]

Growing Algae Biofuel in Seawater Could Reduce Europe’s Coal Consumption

Posted by Mila Luleva in Biodiesel on February 11, 2013

AccliPhot, the new EU consortium based at the University of Aberdeen, has all the right ingredients to find a way to reduce the growing consumption of coal and replace it with renewable energy sources. Scientists are now searching for potential uses of seawater for biofuel production. The aim is to improve the traditional algae farming, [...]

Biomass Turns Easier into Fuel Thanks to New Research

Posted by Mila Luleva in Biodiesel on February 8, 2013

Biomass can now be converted into fuels efficiently, ensuring long-lasting availability of renewable materials. This is possible thanks to research conducted by a team of Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists. The study published in the journal Catalysis Science & Technology gives new insights in the field of of biomass fuels synthesis. John Gordon, one of [...]

The World is A Long Way Off Viable Biofuel From Algae

Posted by Mila Luleva in Biodiesel on February 1, 2013

Algal biofuels have been discussed quite extensively lately, as a very promising alternative to fossil fuels. Researchers at Cornell, however, published a study last month, indicating that further research is needed before the technology becomes economically and energetically viable. The team consisted of Deborah Sills, a postdoctoral associate in the research groups of Charles Greene, [...]

Palm Oil Plantations in South East Asia Speed up Climate Change

Posted by Mila Luleva in Biodiesel, Climate Change on January 31, 2013

Palm oil trees have been a subject of quite a debate lately, as they are considered environmentally unsustainable. Adding to this, a new study just published in the journal Nature reveals that deforestation in the peat swamps of Malaysia, for the purpose of growing palm trees for biofuels, resulted in a release of locked carbon. [...]