When making cellulosic ethanol from plants, one problem is what to do with a woody agricultural waste product called lignin. The old adage in the pulp industry has been that one can make anything from lignin except money.

The University of Washington is receiving a $31.2 million gift from Washington Research Foundation to boost entrepreneurship and support research that tackles some of society’s most crucial challenges.

Eastern Illinois University continued its dedication to clean energy on April 25 by opening its new research facility, Center for Clean Energy Research and Education (CENCERE), dedicated to alternative fuel exploration.

As hydrogen fuel cell vehicles continue to roll out in increasing numbers, the infrastructure for fueling them must expand as well. To this end, a new project launched by the Energy Department and led by Sandia National Laboratories and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will work in support of H2USA, the public private partnership introduced in 2013 by the Energy Department and industry stakeholders to address the challenge of hydrogen infrastructure.

First view of nature-inspired catalyst after ripping hydrogen apart provides insights for better, cheaper fuel cells.

For more than two years, Marshall Cox PhD’13 and John Kymissis, associate professor of electrical engineering, have been working on their startup Radiator Labs. Their first consumer product—the Cozy—is now in production and set for delivery next fall, just in time for winter’s cold blasts. And also just in time to win Popular Science Magazine's Annual Invention Awards as one of the most exciting innovations the PopSci editors have seen this past year.

Researchers have genetically engineered trees that will be easier to break down to produce paper and biofuel, a breakthrough that will mean using fewer chemicals, less energy and creating fewer environmental pollutants.

Renewable energy today is predominantly derived from wood, corn, wind, and water. The majority of these first-generation biofuels are burned, which causes greenhouse gases to be released and adds to carbon emissions. 

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Joint BioEnergy Institute have engineered a bacterium to synthesize pinene, a hydrocarbon produced by trees that could potentially replace high-energy fuels, such as JP-10, in missiles and other aerospace applications. With improvements in process efficiency, the biofuel could supplement limited supplies of petroleum-based JP-10, and might also facilitate development of a new generation of more powerful engines.

New development is part of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Reinvent the Toilet Challenge."

Dr. Shane Snyder, EPA Scientists, Leading Environmental Labs to Present Data on Recycled Water, Hydraulic Fracturing, Trace Contaminants in Water.

Teaching crop plants to concentrate carbon dioxide in their leaves could increase photosynthetic efficiency by 60 percent and yields by as much as 40 percent, researchers report in a new study.