Biomass

London-based company, Bio-bean, hopes to turn left-over coffee grounds into biodiesel for vehicles and biomass pellets to heat buildings.

Algae is proving to be pretty darn useful – in recent years, it’s been used to produce oxygen, purify wastewater, provide light and serve as a source of biofuel. Now, bioplastics firm Algix and clean tech company Effekt are making flexible foam out of the stuff, too.

Researchers at the KU Leuven Centre for Surface Chemistry and Catalysis in Belgium have developed a Polylactic acid (PLA) production technique that is cheaper and greener and makes the bioplastic a more attractive alternative to petroleum-based plastics.

This "bio-digital" structure sees fluid filled with microalgae organisms pumped around an otherwise transparent shelter to produce dynamic shade, energy in the form of biomass, and an impressive amount of oxygen, while responding to the presence of visitors to produce interesting visual effects.

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.