Biomass in Biological News

'Green' energy from algae

... dioxide concentrations and, hence, produce more biomass for energy production. However, this is not ... to land plants, algae produce five times as much biomass per hectare and contain 30 to 40% oil usable for ... extracting the valuable constituents of the algae biomass by an electric pulsed treatment. So far, Dr. ...

New technique can fast-track better ionic liquids for biomass pre-treatments

... with finding ways to break lignocellulosic biomass down into fermentable sugars. The use of ... sugars, shows promise as a way of pre-treating biomass for a more efficient conversion into fuels. ... liquids are able to dissolve lignocellulosic biomass should pave the way for finding new and better ...

Nitrogen research shows how some plants invade, take over others

... that the pine had accrued nearly twice as much biomass as the next most productive species, and more than three times as much biomass relative to the other species. "The higher ... of the white pine is caused by an increased biomass nitrogen pool that was not driven by increased ...

Pacific Northwest forests could store more carbon, help address greenhouse issues

... this region accounts for 14 percent of the live biomass in the entire United States. The findings were ... inventory data that captured current variation in biomass due to many factors. "We have known that ... About 65 percent of the live and dead biomass in this region is on public lands, while private ...

Plastic that grows on trees, part two

... scientists have to learn how to convert plant biomass into a building block for plastics and fuels ... upcoming issue of Applied Catalysis A . "In biomass like wood, corn stover and switchgrass, cellulose ... pure HMF. But to be able to feed cellulosic biomass directly from nature, the team still needed to ...

Scientists work to plug microorganisms into the energy grid

... The most attractive are known as lignocellulosic biomass and include wood residues (including sawmill and ... better understand. In addition to studying the biomass itself, Keller's lab is also looking for microbes ... It can not only break down the cellulosic biomass to sugars but ferment it to acetate and ethanol, ...

Study reveals potential to amass more carbon in eastern North American forests

... they factored in only the live, above-ground biomass of tree trunks and crowns, and not the carbon ... headed west. In Wisconsin, for example, forest biomass and carbon have been steadily recovering since ... Areas that once supported large amounts of forest biomass might also be good sites for growing plantations ...

Study reveals potential to amass more carbon in eastern North American forests

... they factored in only the live, above-ground biomass of tree trunks and crowns, and not the carbon ... headed west. In Wisconsin, for example, forest biomass and carbon have been steadily recovering since ... Areas that once supported large amounts of forest biomass might also be good sites for growing plantations ...

Historical increase in corn yield -- it's in the roots

... studies have shown that the increase in total biomass accumulated through sustained photosynthesis is ... at higher density could cause the increase in biomass accumulation. Root systems with improved ... soil at depth can extract more water to sustain biomass increase. A team of scientists from Australia ...

Iowa State researchers developing clean, renewable energy for ethanol industry

... project partners the thermochemical conversion of biomass with ethanol production." The project will ... idea is to use heat and oxygen to gasify biomass and produce a medium Btu gas (called synthesis ... used to produce the biomass. Gasifying biomass releases the fixed nitrogen as ammonia in the ...

Cellulosic biofuel technology will generate low-cost green fuel, says major study

... from a series of expert papers on "The Role of biomass in America's Energy Future (RBAEF)" in a special ... analysis of more than a dozen mature technology biomass refining scenarios, will make a major ... of mature technologies for producing energy from biomass to date" he says. "Involving experts from 12 ...

Global Energy Systems to Acquire WoodTech, LLC, and Affiliated Entities

... Recycle Wood Waste and Generate Energy from Waste biomass ATLANTA, Feb. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ... David, has spent the last ten years building the biomass fuel and landscape materials business. "We have ... our business into a state-of-the-art, world-class biomass business - we found that partner in Global ....

Rot's unique wood degrading machinery to be harnessed for better biofuels production

... trees such as poplarbred specifically as biomass for biofuels. Among the desirable ... mix of enzymes to get the most out of converting biomass into fuel. "Nature offers some guidance here," ... efficiencies and reduce costs associated with biomass conversion for renewable fuels and chemical ...

New satellite techniques for looking at climate change

... of the UK-based AEL Consultants has mapped the biomass of Scotland's forests. This marks the first time biomass data has been extracted over a large area using ... would otherwise increase global warming. Mapping biomass a quantitative estimate of the organic material ...

Climate change enhances grassland productivity

... freeze-thaw cycles in winter can increase biomass production according to the results of a recent ... that on the manipulated plots ten percent more biomass grew compared to on the control plots. Such ... plots produced 10 percent more above-ground biomass than the control plots on which in the previous ...

Scientists identify bacteria that increase plant growth

... the metabolic pathways within them that increase biomass and carbon sequestration in poplar trees growing ... BU72 repeatedly showed the highest increase in biomass production up to 50 percent as compared with ... for biofuels and for carbon sequestration through biomass production," van der Lelie said. ...

Scientists use lasers to measure changes to tropical forests

... important environmental factors affecting forest biomass and carbon sequestration." Hughes and his ... plants like strawberry guava might affect biomass levels in the context of carbon sequestration and ... results suggest fast-growing invaders decrease biomass levels, while slower-growing species ...

AGU journal highlights -- Dec. 31, 2008

... 9. Influence of biomass burning and mineral dust found in West Africa ... transport pathways over West Africa, finding biomass burning aerosols lofted above undercutting dust-laden air. Aerosols from biomass burning appear to absorb significantly more ...

Turning over a new leaf for future energy supplies

... A global energy supply based on biomass grown to generate electricity and produce fuel is ... then? It is commonly assumed that the amount of biomass that can be grown on available land in competition to food is so limited that a scenario based on biomass as the major source of energy is unrealistic. ...

Plants grow bigger and more vigorously through changes in their internal clocks

... and could result in new methods to increase biomass for biofuels and seed production for animal ... than their parents. They are larger and have more biomass and bigger seeds. The same is true for plants ... and could have a huge impact on generating higher biomass crops for biofuels and increasing yield in many ...

Current mass extinction spurs major study of which plants to save

... systems with fewer species generally produce less biomass than those with more species. Less plant biomass means that less carbon dioxide is absorbed from ... and less oxygen is produced. So, as the biomass of plants plummets around the globe, the ...

Nitrogen applied

... fertilizer applied to their cover crops had less biomass output for soil protection, while plots that did use fertilizer had greater biomass along with an increased amount of nitrogen ... this data we see that we can increase cover crop biomass by using nitrogen fertilizer and that the ...

USGS news: August science picks

... USGS scientists and collaborators quantified the biomass of free-living organisms and their parasites in ... of their hosts, by their estimates, parasitic biomass in the estuaries was comparable to the biomass of several major groups of free-living animals ...

UGA gets $2.5 million in grants to study plants to make biofuels

... The program aims to accelerate research in biomass genomics and further the use of cellulosic plant ... species of sunflower produce woody stems and high biomass yields, often reaching heights of 18 to 21 feet," ... genetic mechanisms underlying wood production and biomass accumulation in sunflower." In addition, Knapp ...

Miscanthus can meet US biofuels goal using less land than corn or switchgrass

... we've found with Miscanthus is that the amount of biomass generated each year would allow us to produce ... nation. "One reason why Miscanthus yields more biomass than corn is that it produces green leaves about ... not nearly as efficient at converting sunlight to biomass as Miscanthus, Frank Dohleman, a graduate student ...

New UGA biomass technology dramatically increases ethanol yield from grasses and yard waste

... waste. "Producing ethanol from renewable biomass sources such as grasses is desirable because they ... amount of simple sugars released from inexpensive biomass for conversion to ethanol. The technology ... for food and feed. The trade-off with using a biomass like grasses is that grasses are harder to break ...

Parasites outweigh predators in Pacific Coast estuaries

... Baja California, researchers have determined that biomass of these parasites exceeds that of top predators, ... in this week's issue of the journal Nature . biomass is the amount of living matter that exists in a ... in size they comprised a small fraction of biomass in a habitat, while free-living organisms such as ...

Study shows parasites outweigh predators

... Princeton University has determined that parasite biomass in those habitats exceeds that of top predators, ... more attention to the energetics of disease." biomass is the amount of living matter that exists in a ... in size they comprise a small fraction of biomass in a habitat while free-living organisms such as ...

Nature publishes new evidence about the deep biosphere written by biogeoscientists

... appear to take over the major fraction of the biomass pool." According to Lipp, Archaea make up at ... To date, estimations of the deep biosphere biomass range from about 60 to 300 billion tons of ... Because all current techniques used to detect biomass in the deep biosphere arrive at different ...

Duckweed genome sequencing has global implications

... priority projects for 2009 directed toward new biomass and bioenergy programs. According to the ... such as frogs and fowl. These plants produce biomass faster than any other flowering plant, serve as ... production has intensified. The search for new biomass species has revealed the potential of duckweed ...

US Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute announces new genome sequencing projects

... spans important terrestrial contributors to biomass production in the Loblolly pinethe cornerstone of ... "Its ability to efficiently convert CO2 into biomass and its widespread use as a plantation tree have ... breeding programs to improve Loblolly as a biomass feedstock, carbon sequestration tool, and source ...

Stanford study: Bioenergy potential of reviving abandoned agricultural land

... biofuel production is finding land to grow the biomass needed to produce the energy. Taking cropland out ... and a co-author of the paper. "If you put biomass energy in locations that previously had ... of plant species that might give you the most biomass per year would probably depend on the local ...

Major progress in technology needed for 25 percent renewable energy use to be affordable

... described as "25 x '25"). The study finds that biomass resources and wind power have the greatest ... sources that can be used to produce electricity. biomass resources like stalks from food crops, wood ... that a large, inexpensive and easily converted biomass supply is essential if it is to be used as a ...

Abandoned farmlands are key to sustainable bioenergy

... estimate that the worldwide harvestable dry biomass could amount to as much as 2.1 billion tons, with ... productive and current fossil fuel demand is low, biomass could provide up to 37 times the energy currently ... and we've been able to identify areas where biomass can be grown for energy, without endangering food ...

Buckminster Fuller takes on big coal

... In the third stage, the economic benefits of the biomass emerge. "Already suitable Appalachian wind sites ... with another renewable energy source like woody biomass from willows and poplars, a viable energy system can be developed." And this biomass can be used not just for electricity but for ...

Bacteria 'feed' on earth's ocean-bottom crust

... molecular methods to quantify the microbial biomass and estimate the diversity of microbes in ... for life. In the lab, they calculated how much biomass could be supported by chemical reactions with the ... They then compared this figure to the actual biomass measured. "It was completely consistent," Edwards ...

Energy crops take a roasting

... used to roast coffee beans could give Britain's biomass a power boost, increasing the energy content of ... is increasingly seen as a desirable treatment for biomass because it creates a solid product which is ... and 78 per cent for reed canary grass. Raw biomass takes up a lot of space and has a low energy ...

Lean and mean biomass-degrading fungus reveals capabilities for improved biofuel production

... fungi will enable more economical conversion of biomass from such feedstocks as the perennial grasses ... producing enzymes for the breakdown of cellulosic biomass to fermentable sugars, which can then be ... decreasing the cost of converting cellulosic biomass to fuels and chemicals. ...

Iowa State-ConocoPhillips collaboration advances 26 research projects in first year

... a grant from ConocoPhillips to study how various biomass crop systems affect water quality beneath the ... that will allow researchers to design and build a biomass gasification system that produces synthetic ... cost-effective technologies for converting plant biomass into liquid transportation fuels. ...

Mascoma and UT join in $26M DOE grant

... of a $26 million grant for the development of biomass conversion technology. The grant is for ... enhance the commercial feasibility of converting biomass crops into fuels and other products. UT, the ... of ethanol from sustainable non-food plant biomass such as switchgrass and other ...