Pandas, slugs and ants give clues to making greener biofuels
In a world aiming to shift to greener energy, could slugs, ants and even pandas help show the way? Scientists believe the animals' unique ability to break down tough plant material, including bamboo, could provide clues to ramping up production of plant-based biofuels, one substitute ...
Burning large amounts of wood from forests can cut greenhouse gas pollution — but only alongside policies that encourage new trees to quickly absorb carbon dioxide. That is the conclusion of new research published in Science Advances, which seeks to counter the prevailing view that ...
President Donald Trump's decision to defend the U.S. government's power to broadly exempt oil refineries from biofuel-blending requirements is triggering a backlash in Iowa and other states that are top producers of ethanol and the corn used to make it. Nine biofuel and agriculture advocacy ...
Jera eyes role as global renewable leader but says coal will still play role in Japan's energy mix
With the integration of existing thermal power plants of its parents Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. and Chubu Electric Power Co. completed on April 1, Jera Co. has completed the last step of unifying the full value chain from upstream fuel and power ...
Root and branch reform: Swedish scientist makes fuel from tree waste
Could tree roots, twigs and branches one day be used to power cars? That's the hope of a Swedish researcher who has developed a pulp byproduct that — on a modest scale — does just that. Chemical engineering scientist Christian Hulteberg, from Lund University, has ...
Japan's green energy incentives cast spotlight on controversial use of palm oil
What started as a way to cut Japan's dependence on imported fossil fuels has led to an expected surge in a different and equally controversial energy source: palm oil. Government incentives instituted in the wake of the Fukushima reactor meltdowns in 2011 guarantee prices for ...
The U.S. may accept Australia's offer to supply biofuel for its Asia-Pacific fleet, advancing the U.S. Navy's goal of getting half its power from renewables by 2020. The premier of Australia's northeastern state of Queensland, Annastacia Palaszczuk, signed a cooperation agreement to explore the research, ...
Hurdles mar Japan's renewable energy equation
At Yamakura Dam, 45 km southeast of Tokyo, construction workers are screwing together a 51,000-piece jigsaw puzzle of floating solar panels. When completed, it will be one of the world's largest floating solar projects. Roughly 30 percent of the work on the project in Chiba ...
Easing pressure on farmland, 'bionic leaf' uses sunlight to make clean fuel
A new clean technology to turn sunlight into liquid fuel could drastically shrink the need for large plantations to grow crops for biofuels and also combat climate change, Harvard University researchers said Thursday. That could help protect food supplies and local people's land rights, they ...
ANA to use Euglena jet fuel made from green algae at Japan plant
ANA Holdings Inc., the nation's largest airline, plans to use a Euglena Co. biofuel made from algae as the supplier builds a demonstration plant in Yokohama. ANA will use a mix of which about 10 percent will be the algae-based fuel, Kiyoshi Tonomoto, an executive ...
Besides boosting the use of renewable energy, the government's review of the feed-in tariff system should also correct the overreliance on solar power among the various forms of alternative sources.
The pond scum that may one day fuel planes
The future of Japan's biofuel industry may be pond scum. Or more specifically, green algae that's swirling around in tanks on a tropical Okinawan island. That's what Mitsuru Izumo and his company Euglena Co. are counting on anyway. After 10 years developing the algae as ...
