Biomass

Trees may be a renewable resource, but the rate of this renewal may not meet the increasing demand for plant biomass. But now researchers at the University of Manchester have potentially found a way to boost tree stocks by using gene manipulation to increase the size and growth rate of trees.

Researchers at Virginia Tech claim to have created a method to produce hydrogen fuel using a biological technique that is not only cheaper and faster than other methods, but also produces hydrogen of a much higher quality ... and all from the leftover stalks, cobs, and husks of corn.

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute have developed a "biobattery" in the form of a highly efficient biogas plant that can turn raw materials like straw, scrap wood and sludge into useful outputs for the energy and transportation industry.

Indiana University biologists claim to have found a quicker, cheaper, cleaner way to increase production in bioethanol-producing microbes using nitrogen gas. This could replace chemical fertilizers and make the cost of cellulose ethanol competitive with that of corn ethanol and gasoline.

Researchers have been able to take the cellulose in sawdust and convert it into hydrocarbon chains. These can be used as an additive in gasoline or as building blocks to create plastics, rubber, nylon, insulation foams and other materials normally made from ethylene, propylene and benzene.

The ACE 1 stove from African Clean Energy combines elements of solar and biomass power to offer an eco-friendly cooking solution that also charges electronic devices. The stove is a cooking/charging solution for connected campers, developing nations and remote, off-grid dwellers.

The Power Pallet works by burning available biomass, but before the fuel is fully combusted, the resulting flammable gases like hydrogen and carbon monoxide are spirited away to be used instead as fuel in a General Motors engine that acts as an electrical generator.

“Biomass” is the seventh ESA Earth Explorer satellite to get the nod and is aimed at determining the amount of biomass and carbon stored in the world’s forests with unprecedented accuracy.

Spanish scientists have invented a more efficient system for collecting dead seaweed from beaches, for use in power plants.

A US school has cut a six-figure sum from its winter energy bill by replacing its oil-burning boiler with woodchip biomass boilers.

Researchers have engineered a microbe that can extract all the major sugars in seaweed and convert them into renewable fuels and chemicals, making seaweed a cost-effective renewable source of biomass.

By looking at the digestive system of termites, researchers have discovered a cocktail of enzymes that unlocks access to the sugars stored within the cells of woody biomass that could help make it a more viable source of biofuels, such as ethanol.