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BP has indeed given up on jatropha, the shrub once touted as the great hope for biofuels, and walked away from its jatropha joint venture for less than $1 million.

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Exxon’s $600 million deal with Synthetic Genomics to brew fuel from algae could mark a coming of age for alternative fuels.

exxon synthatic genomics craig venter algae biofuel greenmonktv

Algasol Renewables SL is a focused technology development company located in a science park, ParcBIT, in the Balearic Islands (Spain) with a unique technology for low-cost cultivation of micro algae in a closed environment – a technology that can be deployed both on land, in the desert and at sea.

algasol algasol renewables biofuel greenmonktv

Dow Chemical and Algenol Biofuels, a start-up company, are set to announce Monday that they will build a demonstration plant that, if successful, would use algae to turn carbon dioxide into ethanol as a vehicle fuel or an ingredient in plastics.

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At a time when water supplies are scarce in many areas of the United States, scientists in Minnesota are reporting that production of bioethanol — often regarded as the clean-burning energy source of the future — may consume up to three times more water than previously thought.

water bioethanol biofuel greenmonktv

Some people think of it as going from the fish tank to the gas tank, while others simply call it the power of pond scum. What they are talking about is research to turn algae—the green slimy stuff you find in stagnant water—into a clean replacement for petroleum.

algae biofuel green crude

San Diego, already home to dozens of companies involved in solar or wind energy, would be a major player in the nation's multi-trillion-dollar energy economy if a group of local researchers succeed in turning algae into a commercially viable transportation fuel, something they think they can do within a decade.

algae san diego biofuel

Researchers are reporting they have successfully made a high quality biodiesel from spent coffee grounds. They estimate that the coffee ground biodiesel industry could generate as much as $8,000,000 in profits annually using waste from US Starbucks stores alone.

biodiesel biofuel

A tree fungus found in the Patagonian rainforest naturally produces a concoction of chemicals and hydrocarbons which are remarkably similar to diesel, and could be pumped directly into vehicle tank.

This research was led by one, Gary Strobel, a plant boffin from Montana State University, who said, "This is the only organism that has ever been shown to produce such an important combination of fuel substances."

mycodiesel fungus biodiesel biofuel

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed a simple, two-step chemical process to convert plant sugars into hydrocarbon fuels. The compounds created during the process could also be used to make other industrial chemicals and plastics.

biofuel hydrocarbon biofuel

Using plants to help clean up heavily polluted soils has been successfully tested for many years and shown to be a cheap and environmentally friendly way to clear heavy metals such as arsenic, copper, zinc and chromium from contaminated land. The main problem with the method has been the amount of time it takes to grow successive crops of plants to clean up an area. Now scientists may have come up with a solution by combining heavy metal tolerant bacteria with plants used to make biofuels such as oil seed rape.

biofuel contamination oil seed rape

Our proprietary methodology for developing specific growth and productivity traits will help in any algai production system improve its output of inexpensive, oil-rich algae as the raw material for the generation of biofuel." An important note is the current concern of corn-based ethanol impacting the cost of livestock, poultry feed and basic food production. Algae can be grown in the terrain unsuitable for grain, corn or soybeans. In addition, algae production will not impact the cost of feed or food production.

algae biofuel

Not sure about using food crops or land for growing fuel for transportation (can only drive up prices) but in experiments, sweet potatoes grown in Maryland and Alabama yielded two to three times as much carbohydrate for fuel ethanol production as field corn grown in those states, Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists report. The same was true of tropical cassava in Alabama.

biofuel fuel ethanol transportation

Algae holds much promise as a carbon eater and a biofuel. It can be grown in arid climates using waste or polluted water and since it grows so fast each acre of algae produces more energy than from other biofuels. Nor is algae a food crop.

sequestration biofuel greenfuel algae

Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian.

biofuel food prices world bank guardian

Butanol may make a better biofuel than ethanol for transportation if the cost of its production can be reduced!

biofuel butanol

green biofuel