Technology Feature |
Featured
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Spotlight |
Réunion’s search for energy self-sufficiency
Whether the French island succeeds in producing all of its electricity depends not only on technology, but also on social and political will.
- Rachel Nuwer
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Outlook |
How to rescue biofuels from a sustainable dead end
An environmentally friendly path forwards for liquid fuel derived from plants will depend on smarter agriculture and smarter regulation.
- Peter Fairley
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Where I Work |
Breeding the sweetest biofuels in the business
Morexa Martin-Gardiner relishes the seasonal shifts of her work on a sugar-cane research station in Barbados.
- James Mitchell Crow
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Article
| Open Access
Genomic mechanisms of climate adaptation in polyploid bioenergy switchgrass
The genome of the biofuel crop switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) reveals climate–gene–biomass associations that underlie adaptation in nature and will facilitate improvements of the yield of this crop for bioenergy production.
- John T. Lovell
- , Alice H. MacQueen
- & Jeremy Schmutz
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Nature Index |
Germany’s start-up scene is booming
With record levels of funding, German start-ups are building the nation’s strength in innovation.
- Gemma Conroy
- , Natalie Parletta
- & Chris Woolston
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News |
How China could be carbon neutral by mid-century
Our special report examines the role of renewables, nuclear power and carbon capture in reaching this ambitious goal.
- Smriti Mallapaty
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Books & Arts |
A brief history of slime
Christopher Howe delights in a new book on the planet’s most powerful organisms — algae.
- Christopher Howe
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Letter |
Biofuel blending reduces particle emissions from aircraft engines at cruise conditions
Compared to using conventional jet fuel, the use of a biofuel blend reduces aircraft engine particle emissions at cruising altitude by about 50–70 per cent.
- Richard H. Moore
- , Kenneth L. Thornhill
- & Bruce E. Anderson
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News & Views |
Deep-sea secrets of butane metabolism
Anaerobic microbes have been found to break down the hydrocarbon butane by a pathway with some similarities to anaerobic methane breakdown. Harnessing the butane pathway might enable biofuel generation. See Article p.396
- Stephen W. Ragsdale
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Article
| Open Access
The genome of Eucalyptus grandis
The Eucalyptus grandis genome has been sequenced, revealing the greatest number of tandem duplications of any plant genome sequenced so far, and the highest diversity of genes for specialized metabolites that act as chemical defence and provide unique pharmaceutical oils; genome sequencing of the sister species E. globulus and a set of inbred E. grandis tree genomes reveals dynamic genome evolution and hotspots of inbreeding depression.
- Alexander A. Myburg
- , Dario Grattapaglia
- & Jeremy Schmutz
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Letter |
Disruption of Mediator rescues the stunted growth of a lignin-deficient Arabidopsis mutant
Disruption of lignin biosynthesis has been proposed as a way to improve forage and bioenergy crops, but it can result in stunted growth and developmental abnormalities; here, the undesirable features of one such manipulation are shown to depend on the transcriptional co-regulatory complex Mediator.
- Nicholas D. Bonawitz
- , Jeong Im Kim
- & Clint Chapple
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Outlook |
Energy: Fuelling the future
Are biofuels the way forward, or should we be looking to advanced solar technologies to power the future? The debate began on Lindau and continues here.
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News |
Growth of ethanol fuel stalls in Brazil
Shortages are a sobering lesson from a biofuels pioneer.
- Claudio Angelo
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Letter |
Integration of chemical catalysis with extractive fermentation to produce fuels
The integration of biological and chemocatalytic routes can be used to convert acetone–butanol–ethanol fermentation products efficiently into ketones by palladium-catalysed alkylation, leading to a renewable method for the alternative production of petrol, jet and diesel blend stocks in high yield.
- Pazhamalai Anbarasan
- , Zachary C. Baer
- & F. Dean Toste
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Review Article |
Membrane-based processes for sustainable power generation using water
- Bruce E. Logan
- & Menachem Elimelech
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Review Article |
Exploiting diversity and synthetic biology for the production of algal biofuels
- D. Ryan Georgianna
- & Stephen P. Mayfield
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Review Article |
Microbial engineering for the production of advanced biofuels
- Pamela P. Peralta-Yahya
- , Fuzhong Zhang
- & Jay D. Keasling
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News |
Rapeseed biodiesel fails sustainability test
European Commission’s calculations of greenhouse-gas emissions questioned.
- Natasha Gilbert
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News |
Canadian biofuel plans derailed
Iogen cancels a pioneering facility to turn crop waste into ethanol.
- Hannah Hoag
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News |
Cyborg snails power up
Molluscs with implanted biofuel cells produce electricity from glucose.
- Richard Van Noorden
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News |
Biofuel from beneath the waves
Engineered bacterium can produce ethanol directly from seaweed.
- Zoe Cormier
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Research Highlights |
Sugar-cane biofuel fouls air
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Research Highlights |
Two-in-one biofuel maker
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News |
US plant scientists seek united front
Academia and industry join forces to carve out ten-year plan.
- Heidi Ledford
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News & Views |
Fuel for debate
With fossil-fuel supplies set to dwindle, the race is on to find ways of making fuels from renewable sources of biomass. Two experts discuss the broad strategies — biochemical and thermochemical — that have emerged as practical approaches.
- Stephen Mayfield
- & P. K. Wong
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Correspondence |
Some more biofuel lessons from Brazil
- Rafael Feltran-Barbieri
- , Ricardo Abramovay
- & Jean Paul Metzger
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Feature |
Renewable energy: Making fuels for the future
The field of biofuels has suffered from cycles of interest and neglect. Still, enterprising researchers have myriad options.
- Charlotte Schubert
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Outlook |
Agriculture: Beyond food versus fuel
The most controversial aspect of biofuels is the perceived competition for farmland. Will advances in biofuels and agriculture send this trade-off speeding towards the history books?
- Duncan Graham-Rowe
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Outlook |
Perspective: Lessons from Brazil
Thirty five years of experience has taught one of the world's leading biofuels producers several essential lessons, which other countries should heed, says Marcia Moraes.
- Marcia Moraes
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Outlook |
Algae: The scum solution
The green slime that covers ponds is an efficient factory for turning sunlight into fuel, but growing it on an industrial scale will take ingenuity.
- Neil Savage
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Outlook |
Fuel options: The ideal biofuel
A biomass-based fuel needs to be cheap and energy dense. Gasoline sets a high standard.
- Neil Savage
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Outlook |
Perspective: A new hope for Africa
Bioenergy could help bring food security to the world's poorest continent, say Lee R. Lynd and Jeremy Woods.
- Lee R. Lynd
- & Jeremy Woods
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Outlook |
Perspective: Don't foul the water
Shifting from corn to perennial crops in making biofuels is essential to save clean water, argues Jeremy Martin
- Jeremy Martin
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Outlook |
Local benefits: The seeds of an economy
Biofuels could help poor nations modernize, but scaling up aid supported projects to commercial operations is far from easy.
- Natasha Gilbert
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Outlook |
Policy: Fuelling politics
Biofuels have been hailed as key to reducing our fossil-fuel dependence, yet their environmental and social impacts remain uncertain. A complex task lies ahead for policy makers.
- Martin Robbins
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Outlook |
Lignocellulose: A chewy problem
The inedible parts of plants are feeding the next generation of biofuels. But extracting the energy-containing molecules is a challenging task.
- Katharine Sanderson
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Outlook |
Introduction: Next generation biofuels
Proponents of biomass-based fuels push for sustainability against a steady tide of conflicting analysis, but can advanced biofuels cut the mustard?
- Peter Fairley
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News |
Biofuels need enforceable ethical standards
Europe's renewable energy targets have 'backfired'.
- Natasha Gilbert
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Research Highlights |
Cow spills guts for biofuels
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Correspondence |
Bioethanol's dirty footprint in Brazil
- Lindemberg Medeiros de Araujo
- & Flávia de Barros Prado Moura
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News |
Tide turns against corn ethanol
Biofuel subsidy sees limited extension in US tax bill as opposition grows.
- Jeff Tollefson
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Research Highlights |
Biotechnology: Fuel from microbes
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Research Highlights |
Organic chemistry: Biofuel boost
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Research Highlights |
Chemistry: Cellulose busters
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Research Highlights |
Energy: Carbon from the mountains
How synthetic biologists are building better biofactories