Posts Tagged Biodiesel

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 [...]

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 [...]

Switchgrass Biofuel Makes Home Energy Costs Drop

Posted by Mila Luleva in Green News on March 25, 2013

According to a study conducted by the USDA Agricultural Research Service, the burning of biomass in the form of switchgrass, instead of oil, could cut down energy costs of companies and homes. The study shows that this is particularly true for regions such as the Northeast, where the price of oil as well as the [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

Chicken Waste Biofuel to Power Future Mazda Diesel Engines

Posted by Mila Luleva in Biodiesel on January 22, 2013

The new Mazda 6 “clean diesel” sedan will be displayed at the “Daytona International Speedway’s Rolex 24 endurance race”, which will take place next week. The makers have prepared to show three high-performance racing versions of the car, which run on specially made by the company ‘Dynamic Fuels’ renewable, synthetic diesel. The secret of Dynamic [...]

Algae Producing Fuel Through Photosynthesis With the Help of Engineering

Posted by Mila Luleva in Biodiesel on January 8, 2013

New species of blue-green algae was engineered by chemists at University of California, Davis. The aim of the team, led by assistant professor Shota Atsumi, was to find a replacement of petroleum and natural gas to produce chemical feedstock. The findings were published in the latest Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences. The unique study looked [...]

Was it Fraud? How Biofuels Company “Earned” Millions from EPA Loophole

Posted by Benji Jerew in Biodiesel, Biogas, Green Policy on January 2, 2013

In June 2010, a CN Rail cargo train crossed the US / Canada border 24 times, earning some $2.6 million in transportation revenue. This statement, in itself, is probably not newsworthy, as cargo trains transport some 1.8 trillion tons of freight each year throughout North America. However, when you consider the cargo, which included tankers [...]

Wood-to-Bio-oils Process Studied on Supercomputer

Posted by Benji Jerew in Biodiesel on December 17, 2012

Fossil fuels, including petroleum, coal, natural gas, and others, are essentially organic materials that have decomposed. Under pressure, heat, and time, and in an anaerobic, oxygen-free, environment, both animal and plant materials eventually are converted into high-carbon compounds that, for human beings anyway, make great hydrocarbon [HC] fuels. Carbon dioxide [CO2] was sequestered from the [...]

Photosynthetic Cyanobacteria Produces Sugar for Biofuel

Posted by Mila Luleva in Biodiesel on December 17, 2012

Sugar is one of the key elements involved in the production of ethanol and determining the cost of biofuels. A new initiative called Proterro, intends to produce ultra-cheap sugar by using photosynthetic microorganisms. Proterro raised $3.5 million in a financing round in addition to the previous $5 million. The photosynthetic cyanobacteria has been engineered to [...]

Genetically Modified Marine Algae to Increase Biofuel Production

Posted by Janina Lazo in Biodiesel on November 27, 2012

Biologists at the University of California - San Diego disproves last month’s report of National Academy of Sciences to the Department of Energy that claimed algal biofuel production might be limited by freshwater, by demonstrating that marine algae can be bioengineered to produce biofuels as freshwater algae do. Researchers led by Stephen Mayfield showed that the marine [...]

Giant Reed as Biofuel Source: Miracle or Disaster?

Posted by Janina Lazo in Biodiesel, Energy news on November 25, 2012

The renewable fuels industry sees the giant reed (Arundo donax) as a miracle biofuel plant due to its fast-growing and drought-resistant features that it easily thrives in poor soil, rendering it as a low-maintenance renewable energy source. On the other hand, environmentalists and scientists deem the giant reed as yet another disaster like other invasive [...]

Biodiesel Extracted from Thanksgiving Turkey

Posted by Leigh Kim in Biodiesel on November 24, 2012

Thanksgiving Day is a holiday in which Americans not only overstuff themselves with food to the point of misery, but also generate tons of kitchen fat, oil, and grease (FOG). Most people know that dumping the fats of meat, dairy products, and lard is terrible for the sewer system. Industry collection agencies and restaurants are [...]