biofuel crops Archives – The Green Optimistic

Are Biofuel Crops Actually Increasing Carbon Emissions?

Benji Jerew — Tue, 07 Apr 2015 04:16:18 +0000

On the surface, planting biofuels crops might seem to be a good carbon-neutral endeavor, but research indicates quite the opposite. Could growing biofuel crops to fuel your flex-fuel vehicle actually be worse for the environment? A new UW-Madison (University of Wisconsin at Madison) study seems to indicate quite the opposite. The way we see it, […]

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Grasslands Replaced by Biofuel Crops, Wildlife Affected

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 15:53:41 +0000

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 […]

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University of Southampton to Develop Crops that Use Less Water

Benji Jerew — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 21:21:57 +0000

As humanity pushes further into the future, and considering the implications of an already-warming climate, considerations are being taken into the kind of crops that we’ll need. Genetic engineering has led to crops that are bug- and disease-resistant, which has increased food production in some areas. Southampton University, in the UK, has just been funded […]

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Self-Destructing Crops That Produce Biofuel More Efficiently Studied by Agrivida

Ovidiu Sandru — Thu, 19 May 2011 18:54:48 +0000

In the process of making biofuel, crops have to first be disintegrated into sugars, which is often a puzzling step, since it requires a lot of time and is not always efficient. Agrivida, a company located near Boston, is experimenting how to reverse engineer plants so they simply self-destruct into simpler elements quicker and better, to yield cheaper and more biofuel.

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Sugarcane Crops Showed to Cool Climate

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 18:29:53 +0000

Sugarcane has been touted as a sort of an inefficient biofuel crop, since it consumes a lot of water and fertilizer, and hence its carbon footprint is not the best for such a purpose, compared to algae, for example. Sugarcane, on the other hand, can help cool the climate in a certain way.

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Producing Biofuel From Food Crops Could Generate More CO2 Than Burning Petrol, Study Says

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 11:43:16 +0000

In a desperate effort to stop global warming due to CO2 emissions, the concerned people's first resort is to produce biofuels and use them in engines. But current incentives that promote biofuels will be pushing farmers around Europe to grow mainly food crops on usable food crop lands.

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Locally Grown Biofuels Promoted and Funded by U.S. Government

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 13:57:41 +0000

The Obama Administration wants to help the biofuel industry develop. The government is thus investing $8.9 million to award nine companies in seven states for improving their genetic breeding programs for creating plants better suited for biofuel.

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Juice Extracted from Rotten Watermelons to be Used in Biofuel Production

Mike Sandru — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 17:01:21 +0000

Every summer, hundreds of thousands of tons of watermelons are transformed in garbage because they aren't good enough for marketplace. A new research says that the juice extracted from these watermelons could be used to the biofuel production.

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10% of Scotland's Biofuel to be Algae-based by 2020

Cristi — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 18:13:54 +0000

Last week Scotland's Energy Minister launched the Biomara research project to study the feasibility of microalgae and seaweed usage as alternative energy in the production of biofuels. This project aligns with the requests of having at least 10% of clean transport energy by 2020. The project is about $8 million (€6 million) worth.

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Korean Seaweed Biofuel not Using Usable Lands for Crops

Cristi — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 20:09:39 +0000

Today, most of the liquid biofuels are sugar or starch based and are obtained from crops of sugar beet, sugar cane, potatoes or corn. A problem in the future could be the lack of lands. These crops use good lands on which food can grow instead. An idea to decrease use of proper agricultural lands would be to use the unproductive lands to obtain biofuels.

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New Biofuel Machine Offers Cheap Heating, Cooling and Electricity for Homes

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 21:13:59 +0000

a super efficient system using biofuels has been invented at Newcastle University: it has the power to cool and heat UK homes, besides providing electricity. The system feeds with seeds of the Croton Megalocarpus, a plant with origins in East Africa.

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