It looks like one Nobel Prize winner groups biofuels with another, ahem, organic and somewhat odorous material. Prize winner Hartmut Michel, who's the director of the Molecular Membrane Biology at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysics, has gone on record criticizing the use of biofuels for alternative energy because of their lack of efficiency, according to ClimateSanity.
In alphabet soup terminology, the API's mad at the EPA, and the RFA thinks it's a bunch of BS.
Researchers at the University of Michigan have discovered a fast way to turn algae into biocrude oil, a clean substitute for conventional crude oil. Chemical engineering professor Phil Savage and doctoral student Julia Faeth were able to pressure cook microalgae in 1,100-degree-Fahrenheit sand for about one minute, converting 65 percent of it into biocrude.
Yes, this sounds like something straight out of the The Onion, but it appears to be the real deal. Toto Ltd., a Japanese toilet company has apparently constructed a highly efficient motorcycle that runs on, well, excrement. The project, which has been ongoing since 2009 is called 'Toilet Bike Neo,' made its debut on Thursday in a Fujisawa showroom.
The food vs. fuel debate over ethanol continues, this time through the actions of a handful of U.S. states that are asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to lift – temporarily, at least – the rules that require a "large share" (to use Reuters' words) of the corn crop in America to be used to make ethanol. Instead, says Georgia, the latest state to join the cho
As it was four years ago during another election year, corn ethanol is once again the focal point for heated exchange in the U.S. The federal government is feeling the vise tighten in the corn ethanol debate, as the issues flip and flop between gasoline prices going up and global food prices increasing. The worst drought in more than 50 years is also playing a role.
The U.S. Department of Energy has got its fingers in a lot of alternative-energy pies, from hydrogen vehicles to plug-ins. Today, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the DOE has announced that it will reach a little deeper into 13 biofuel and feedstock improvement pr
BMW may have dibs on being the "Official Automotive Partner to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games," but that doesn't mean there aren't other automotive-related promotional opportunities to be had at the games. Exhibit A: BP's new "Wayne Helix" fuel dispenser.
A Phillips 66 gas-station in Kansas is the first in the U.S. to offer gas with a 15 percent blend of ethanol – aka E15 – to non-flex fuel vehicles, the New York Times reports.
China-based Shengquan Group and the Danish company Novozymes are partnering to make enough cellulosic ethanol for commercialization. Shengquen and Novozymes have reached an agreement in which Shengquen will invest $100 million and Novozymes will provide the "enabling enzyme technology" for production of cellulosic ethanol, a "second-generation" biofuel because it's made from plant waste.
It looks like Blue's fighting Red over the Green.
So about those plans for more military biofuel production...
If you thought last year was a bad one at the gas pump, it could've been worse. That's what one report partially funded by ethanol advocate Renewable Fuels Association says.
As predicted and expected, the Environmental Protection Agency today approved the first applications to make E15, a blend of gasoline with 15 percent ethanol in it. This means that E15 is now a "significant step" closer to production and sale in America.
E15, which is gasoline with a blend of 15 percent ethanol, may be cleared by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to be sold as commercial gasoline in time for the busy summer driving season, website DomesticFuel.com reports, citing statements by ethanol advocates Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) and Growth Energy.
Corn-based ethanol is a controversial fuel in its own right, and a longstanding federal subsidy for blending the biofuel with gasoline has been an additional source of consternation over the last 30 years. According to The Detroit News, Congress has wrapped up its work for 2011 without extending the incentive, a move that's drawn praise from environmental groups and taxpayer advocates.
Burning ethanol in your car is supposed to be better for the environment, but when the company producing the biofuel falsifies air pollution monitoring data, things may not be as clean as they seem.
Output of cellulosic ethanol will surge starting in 2013, according to the U.S.' largest corn-based biofuel production firm, Poet LLC.
