Outdoor air pollution causes 3.3 million premature deaths a year, mainly in Asia. And without policies to cut particulate pollution from traffic, industry and home biofuels, the deaths could double by 2050.
An ancient form of energy: a wood pellet manufacturing facility in upstate New York.
thewildcenter/flickr
Tim Baye, University of Wisconsin Colleges and the University of Wisconsin-Extension
The future of two key energy policies – the EPA’s Clean Power Plan and Renewable Fuel Standard – will decide whether bioenergy will continue to grow in US or not.
A law signed into effect last week seeks to reduce fertilizer runoff that causes toxic algae blooms. But to really address the problem requires taking a hard look at how America farms.
Plants use photosynthesis to build molecules and energy they can use. By copying plants, humans can make cleaner fuels.
Ranjit Bhatnagar/Flickr
Most of the energy that fuels our lives comes from plants. Whether it is a fossil fuel that was formed hundreds of millions of years ago or the food we eat, all carbon-borne energy has its ultimate origins…
Electricity from wood? We have the power.
Pixelbliss/Shutterstock
When we think of renewable energy, it’s easy to picture spinning wind turbines or rooftop solar panels. But what about bioenergy? While wind and solar are now well established – in South Australia wind…
What happens to CSIRO when the federal government decides to strip away A$111 million over four years from its A$733 million annual contribution to the organisation’s budget? We are beginning to find out…
Fill ‘er up… with biological burnt offerings.
Mejidori
Bioenergy and biofuels have an important role to play in lowering the use of carbon-intensive fossil fuels – a point underscored by the IPCC report which confirmed the need for further research to improve…
Deforestation must be balanced with biofuel demands.
mauroguanandi
Biofuels have come under scrutiny in the latest IPCC report, which outlines some of the emergent risks associated with their production. In principle, biofuels seem to be an ideal solution to reducing…
From tree to biofuel in few steps.
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Luc Henry, EPFL – École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne – Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne
Turning wood and agricultural waste into biofuels is one step closer to being a truly green process, according to a recently published study in the journal Science. James Dumesic of the University of Wisconsin-Madison…
Around three billion people in the world, largely in developing countries, rely on fuels like wood and charcoal for cooking and heating in the home. But burning these biomass fuels, not least in confined…
Show me the green: Tetraselmis suecica algae viewed under a confocal microscope.
Emily Roberts/Swansea University
Leave a glass with nutrient-rich pond water on a sunny window sill and within a day or two it will have turned a very vibrant, verdant green. This apparent alchemy has less to do with chemistry and more…
Algal genes are introduced into tobacco cells that grow into plants.
Peggy Lemaux/UC Berkeley
Tobacco doesn’t immediately conjure up ideas of fuel for cars and planes. But that’s precisely what a three-year, $4.8m project from the US Department of Energy’s ARPA-E PETRO (Plants Engineered to Replace…
Wheat-free: fields full of quick-growing miscanthus grass, an energy-rich biofuel.
Andrew Parsons/PA
Critics of the conversion of plants into biofuel have long argued that it is an issue of food versus fuel, and a recent UN report gives some weight to their argument. Since the amount of maize needed…
Hartmut Michel discussing the future of energy production and storage.
63rd Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings
Hartmut Michel won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1988 “for the determination of the structure of a photosynthetic reaction centre”, which helped reveal details of one of nature’s most useful processes…
The engineered E.coli produced a diesel-style fuel, the researchers said.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cdepaz
A diesel-style fuel has been created from a modified version of the Escherichia coli bacteria, the tummy bug that causes Bali belly. A new study, published in the journal PNAS and conducted by researchers…