Researchers develop revolutionary biomass-to-hydrogen process

Biomass Magazine

By Virginia Tech | April 04, 2013

Researchers look to unlock secrets of cellulose production

Biomass Magazine
By Holly Jessen
December 27, 2012

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Research into switchgrass rust resistance gene funded

Biomass Power & Thermal
By Lisa Gibson March 24, 2011

Researchers at Virginia Tech, Oklahoma State University and Iowa State University have discovered potential rust resistant genes in switchgrass cultivars.

An assistant professor of horticulture at Virginia Tech has been awarded a $1 million grant from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture to develop and deploy rust fungus resistant genes and monitor the pathogen in switcghrass. It’s the second monetary award his research into rust-resistance has earned him.

Bingyu Zhao and his research colleagues at Virginia Tech, Oklahoma State University and Iowa State University discovered potential rust resistance genes in several switchgrass cultivars from their large germplasm. The researchers will now work to enhance their ability to genetically identify rust resistance genes and associate those genes with molecular markers. They will also develop a system for functional analysis of putative rust resistance genes in switchgrass; and analyze the DNA of the switchgrass rust pathogen to determine the structure and dynamics of rust populations across the country, according to Virginia Tech.

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New enzyme ‘cocktail’ could improve biomass processing efficiency

Conveying News

Discovery of a new 'enzyme cocktail' could simplify the biomass process, by eliminating the detoxification stage.

Researchers at Virginia Tech believe that a combination of enzymes could be used to break up biomass in place of sulphuric acid – or an equivalent.

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Chemical Engineers Use Gold To Discover Breakthrough For Creating Biorenewable Chemicals

MedicalNewsToday.com
Article Date: 22 Oct 2010 - 1:00 PDT

University of Virginia chemical engineers Robert J. Davis and Matthew Neurock have uncovered the key features that control the high reactivity of gold nanoparticles in a process that oxidizes alcohols in water. The research is an important first step in unlocking the potential of using metal catalysts for developing biorenewable chemicals.

The scientific discovery could one day serve as the foundation for creating a wide range of consumer products from biorenewable carbon feedstocks, as opposed to the petroleum-based chemicals currently being used as common building blocks for commodities such as cosmetics, plastics, pharmaceuticals and fuels.

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Hatcher Team Creates New Process to Boost Biofuel Production from Algae

News@OldDominion (Old Dominion University, Virginia)

Just when you're sure that algae are a good source of biodiesel fuel, along comes a new scheme to wring even more alternative energy from the green scum.

During the past five years, researchers at Old Dominion University have devised ways to cultivate and harvest microscopic algae, and then to convert them into a biodiesel fuel by a proprietary one-step process. Now they have discovered another process - which they also hope to patent - that produces a versatile, algae-based liquid similar to crude oil.

Patrick Hatcher, the ODU Batten Endowed Chair in Physical Sciences and the executive director of the Virginia Coastal Energy Research Consortium (VCERC), said in an interview Friday, Aug. 20, that this new oil he and collaborators are producing can be refined into gasoline and jet fuel, as well as diesel fuel.

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University researchers develop first stable bio-oil for transportation use

NewsLeader.com
Staff Report • June 8, 2010

BLACKSBURG — Researchers at Virginia Tech are using science to control unstable components in biomass to develop stable oils that can be readily upgraded to transportation fuels for the first time. Biomass comprises recently living organisms such as wood or waste products.

Converting woody feedstocks – in this case, poplar and pine wood – to liquid fuels usually produces bio-oil that is unstable and acidic, and which cannot be converted to transportation fuel using traditional processing technologies.

According to Foster Agblevor, associate professor of biological systems engineering in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, these bio-oils present further problems. The oils become thicker during storage, resulting in a substance that turns to char when heated. These bio-oils are unusable for fuel after only a few months in storage.

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Corn ethanol curse strikes again? Algae fuels have large footprint

GreenBang.com
By Greenbang on Jan 21, 2010 in Energy and Fuel

Could algae-based biofuels suffer the same fate as the now much-discredited corn-based ethanol? They might, if we don’t find ways to reduce algal fuel’s environmental impact, according to a new study.

After the race to turn corn into fuel helped spark a global spike in food prices, clean-energy proponents turned their sights to so-called “second-generation” biofuel stocks. These include non-food crops like switchgrass and algae, as well crop waste and lumber waste. Algae have been widely considered to have especially great potential, since they can be grown in marginal areas that don’t compete with prime food-growing farmlands.

But there’s a problem — or, rather, several problems — with that idea, according to a team of researchers from the University of Virginia. Their new study finds that growing algae for fuel is more energy- and water-intensive than other biofuel crops, including switchgrass, canola and corn. Oh, and it also produces more greenhouse gas emissions than those other sources.

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Bio-fuel research stimulate economy

Collegiate Times (Virginia Tech University)
by Allison Sanders, news staff writer
Tuesday, September 22, 2009; 10:56 PM

Virginia Tech is once again shooting for environmental friendliness by creating a sustainable source of bio-fuel in Danville, Va.

The construction of the Sustainable Energy Technology Center will be breaking ground in Cyber Park in early 2010 as a part of the expansion of the Virginia Tech-sponsored Institute for Advanced Learning and Research.

The $10.5 million project has been funded by grants awarded to IALR by the Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission, an organization that promotes economic growth and development in tobacco-dependent areas.

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UVA Takes On Algae-Based Biofuel

NBC29 - WVIR

Updated: Jan 29, 2009 4:29 PM EST
Posted: Jan 29, 2009 2:54 PM EST

Three professors at University of Virginia are taking going green literally. They are in the process of growing and studying the use and benefits of pond algae as a way to power cars and planes.

They say it's cheap and a ready resource to use at any time.

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Energy technology a new cash crop for Virginia?

WSLS 10

BY REX BOWMAN Media General News Service Published: December 12, 2008

Where tobacco once formed the foundation of the economies in Southside and parts of Southwest Virginia, the cash crop of the future could turn out to be energy research.

Using $32 million wrung from tobacco companies a decade ago, the communities of Lynchburg, Danville, South Boston and Abingdon are preparing to build four energy-research centers where scientists from Virginia Tech, other institutions and private businesses could work to find solutions to the nation’s, and world’s, energy problems.

To the Lynchburg center goes the task of nuclear research. To Danville, bio-energy. To South Boston, wind turbines and green engineering. And to Abingdon, clean coal and natural gas.

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Algae farmer tries to make diesel

inRich.com (Richmond, VA)

Prince George County man gets ODU help to create alternative fuel

Wednesday, Sep 24, 2008 - 12:08 AM Updated: 07:14 PM


By REX SPRINGSTON
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
SLIDESHOW
BURROWSVILLE Jes Sprouse quit his job to follow his dream.

He became an algae farmer.

Sprouse, 35, grows the emerald slime in a 1-acre pond in eastern Prince George County.

If his gamble pays off, Sprouse will turn the algae into enough biodiesel fuel to make himself rich, ease the country's reliance on petroleum and help fight global warming.

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University of Virginia Researches Test Algae as Biofuel and Digester of Greenhouse Gases

GrainNet.com
Date Posted: August 8, 2008

In the world of alternative fuels, there may be nothing greener than pond scum.
Algae are tiny biological factories that use photosynthesis to transform carbon dioxide and sunlight into energy so efficiently that they can double their weight several times a day.

As part of the photosynthesis process algae produce oil and can generate 15 times more oil per acre than other plants used for biofuels, such as corn and switchgrass.

Algae can grow in salt water, freshwater or even contaminated water, at sea or in ponds, and on land not suitable for food production.

On top of those advantages, algae — at least in theory — should grow even better when fed extra carbon dioxide ( the main greenhouse gas ) and organic material like sewage.

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Water Needed to Produce Various Energy Types

Virginia Tech University
Released: Thu 17-Apr-2008, 08:50 ET

Newswise — It is easy to overlook that most of the energy we consume daily, such as electricity or natural gas, is produced with the help of a dwindling resource – fresh water. Virginia Tech professor Tamim Younos and undergraduate student Rachelle Hill are researching the water-efficiency of some of the most common energy sources and power generating methods.

Younos, associate director at the Virginia Water Resources Research Center based at Virginia Tech and research professor of water resources in the College of Natural Resources and undergraduate researcher Hill, of Round Hill, Va., majoring in environmental science and aquatic resource concentration, in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, have analyzed 11 types of energy sources, including coal, fuel ethanol, natural gas, and oil; and five power generating methods, including hydroelectric, fossil fuel thermoelectric, and nuclear methods.

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