According to a new study of NASA satellite data, global plant productivity that had once been flourishing with warming temperatures and an extended growing season is now declining due to regional drought. Plant productivity is a measure of the photosynthesis process that green plants use to convert solar energy, carbon dioxide and water into sugar, oxygen and ultimately plant tissue. During the 1980s and 90s…

CleanTech Biofuels – an early-stage provider of cellulosic biomass feedstock derived from municipal solid waste (MSW) for renewable power and biofuel production – recently announced an agreement with Fiberight LLC to install its demonstration vessel at Fiberight’s cellulosic ethanol pilot plant in Lawrenceville, VA. CleanTech’s patented Biomass Recovery Process, combined with Fiberight’s Targeted Fuel Extraction system, will create a fully…

R3 Environmental, a Wilmington, N.C.-based startup, is currently in negotiations with New Hanover County to construct a revolutionary facility which will sort the county’s refuse, filter recyclables and convert the organic material into biofuel (cellulose biomass). This waste-to-fuel production plant will aid to dissolve reliance on landfills, reduce the district’s carbon footprint, and moderate taxpayer costs. Not to mention, the initiative will eliminate local curbside recycling programs as the service

Biofuels are an exceptional diesel and gasoline alternative, especially as technology advances and companies begin adopting more avant-garde methods of production. Based out of New Mexico, Sundrop Fuels has developed a hybrid solar-biomass refinery which will employ concentrated solar power (CSP) to heat plant remains and wood chips; in turn creating biofuel. By using solar power to supply the immense heat needed in biofuel production, the refinery will significantly increase…

Back in 2007, Congress passed a new law which will require gasoline refiners to blend a higher percentage of biofuel into gasoline, and added a requirement for 21 billion gallons of “advanced biofuels” by 2022 as part of this revised Renewable Fuel Standard (“RFS2”). The Department of Energy (DOE) approximates that every 42-gallon barrel of oil we import in America yields roughly…