Rosanne Boudreau’s job, as the safety coordinator for Berkeley Lab’s Biosciences Area at its satellite site in Emeryville, California, is to make sure all experiments and research are conducted safely. Before any experiment starts, she will look at all the possible hazards and help implement any controls that should be put into place to mitigate those hazards.
Making Biofuels Cheaper by Putting Plants to Work
Biofuels are an important part of the broader strategy to replace petroleum-based gasoline, diesel, and jet fuels that we use today. However, biofuels have so far not reached cost parity with conventional petroleum fuels.
One strategy to make biofuels more competitive is to make plants do some of the work themselves. Scientists can engineer plants to produce valuable chemical compounds, or bioproducts, as they grow. Then the bioproducts can be extracted from the plant and the remaining plant material can be converted into fuel. When produced in the plant itself, bioproducts can help reduce the cost of the resulting biofuel.
CRISPR Genome Editing Strategy Could Improve Rice, Other Crops
Scientists at UC Davis and collaborators at the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) have used CRISPR technology to genetically engineer rice with high levels of beta-carotene, the precursor of vitamin A. The technique they used provides a promising strategy for genetically improving rice and other crops. The study in Nature Communications was published by a research team led by Pam Ronald, a professor in the Genome Center and the Department of Plant Pathology at UC Davis and Scientific Lead of Plant Pathology at JBEI.
Diving deeper into a genus of fungi with bioenergy potential
A new study in Nature Communications further investigates a genus of fungi whose vast biochemical diversity makes it important for bioenergy applications.
The study, led by researchers at the Joint BioEnergy Institute, the the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI), a DOE Office of Science User Facility located at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), and the Technical University of Denmark, presents the first analysis of a section of Aspergillus fungi known as Flavi. The results are part of a long-term project to sequence the genomes of more than 300 Aspergillus fungi.
Trash to Treasure: Scientists Convert Municipal Waste to Biofuel Precursors
As the need for energy security grows, scientists are investigating nonfood biomass sources that can be used to create valuable biofuels and bioproducts. Among these sources is municipal solid waste (MSW) — in other words, trash that’s produced every day around the world in significant amounts.
In a new study published in the journal ChemSusChem, researchers at Berkeley Lab created six blends that combined MSW items (non-recyclable paper and grass clippings) with biomass (corn stover and switchgrass). Using an ionic liquid-based process, they converted these blends into methyl ketones, which are chemical compounds that can be used as diesel fuel precursors.
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