Switching from cellulose to small sugar molecules A team of scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Carbon Research (MPI-KoFo) in Mühlheim-sur-la-Ruhr have developed a new method that makes cutting relatively easy cellulose in its building blocks, sugars. This could open the door to the production of […]

Creation of a Prospective Reflection Workshop on the biomass of the future Called "VégA", this workshop takes place in a global context dominated by three major challenges: the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere, development of substitutes for fossil hydrocarbons and the limited availability of renewable natural resources. He […]

“Biobased” Coca-Cola bottles: the ethylene glycol in the new Dasani water bottles will be derived from sugar and molasses. This year, Coca-Cola will introduce bottles for its Dasani brand water with up to 30% biobased content. Beverage bottles are typically produced from polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which itself results from the reaction […]

Agriculture: the challenge of green growth Launch in Haute-Normandie of a network dedicated to biomaterials, bioenergy and green chemistry. This network, which will be used to promote non-food agricultural production (flax, rapeseed, hemp, miscanthus, etc.) has been called "Novéa". It will be officially launched on Thursday 10 September 2009 at […]

New wood dissolving process for the paper, biofuels, textiles and clothing industries… An American-British collaboration between two scientists from the Department of Chemistry at Queen's University in Belfast and researchers from the University of Alabama (United States) has made it possible to develop a new ecological process for dissolving wood from conifers or […]

Improvement of biomass pretreatment techniques The development of second generation biofuels requires the development of technologies, in particular for the pretreatment of cellulosic biomass and fermentation of sugars. The use of ionic liquids to dissolve lignocellulose and later to facilitate hydrolysis into sugars is promising but faces […]

Lignol announces cellulosic ethanol production from a new pilot biorefinery Lignol is a Canadian company undertaking the development of biorefining technologies for the production of ethanol and other biochemical co-products from non-food biomass. Lignol's proprietary solvent-based pretreatment technology facilitates the rapid conversion of […]

Electricity and heat produced from biomass with a new gas production technology On August 3, 2009, Federal Minister of the Environment Sigmar Gabriel made around 3,5 million euros available to the platform - technological form for bioenergy and methane (TBM, [1]), within the framework of the […] program

Hemp: a low-cost raw material that respects the environment Natural fibers have long been used successfully in insulation and construction materials, but are also used to strengthen composite materials for aeronautics and automobiles . Researchers from the Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering in Potsdam-Bornim (ATB) as well as […]

Abandonment of the massive development project for biofuels in Germany On April 4, 2008, Germany had to give up one of the pillars of its environmental policy: the massive development of biofuels. “All together, we underestimated the problems,” admitted Federal Minister for the Environment, Sigmar Gabriel. An admission which condemns the E10, the new […]

An astonishing “green” refinery called “Morgane” Created in 1995 by Hervé Balusson, Olmix is ​​a company specializing in the preparation of additives. Very early on, it oriented its strategy towards the development of natural additives, notably clay-based, soon combined with green algae. It is from these raw materials that the R&D department of […]

Reconciling bioenergy production and nature conservation For three and a half years, the PROGRASS project will focus on the possibilities - economically profitable and ecologically acceptable - of using grasslands to produce bioenergy in Europe. Endowed with 3 million euros from the European Union, the project […]

Termites at the pump? The second generation of biofuels should make it possible to produce bioethanol from lignocellulosic materials, in particular by enzymatic hydrolysis. Researchers at the University of Florida have looked for new types of enzymes in well-known agents of wood degradation, termites. They thus probed the intestine of […]

Diesel produced by mushrooms could be an alternative to conventional fuels and first generation biodiesel produced from vegetable oil. Called "mycofuel", this alternative was developed by Professor Gary Stobel of the University of Montana (United States). The fungus responsible for this natural diesel production is Gliocladium roseum. Gliocadium […]

Microalgae (from the Chlamydomonas family) to improve the operation of biogas units Source BE of ADIT The working group led by Prof. Gerd Klöck and Dr. Anja Noke, biotechnologists at the Institute for Environmental and Biological Techniques at the University of Applied Sciences Bremen, focus their work on developing new […]