Dec
15
A New Way to Make Better Diesel Fuel
December 15, 2015 | 6 Comments
Researchers from KU Leuven and Utrecht University have discovered a new approach to the production of diesel fuel. The new method would be used to produce much cleaner diesel and can quickly be scaled up for industrial use. The researchers suggest that in 5 to 10 years, we may see the first cars driven by […]
Jul
16
A New Hybrid Fuel Engine Design
July 16, 2014 | Leave a Comment
A University of Wisconsin team led by Professor Rolf Reitz has designed a hybrid fueled engine using both diesel fuel and gasoline that is 59.5% efficient. Chemical efficiency at 59.5% is far better than gasoline engines and 10 to 15% better than the 52% maximum in modern diesel truck engines. Professor Reitz is one to […]
Feb
25
A New Oil Producing Sugarcane
February 25, 2014 | 1 Comment
In a stunning development a multi-institutional team led from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign reports that it can increase sugarcane’s geographic range, boost its photosynthetic rate by 30 percent and turn it into an oil-producing crop for biodiesel production. The team will present its latest findings today at the U.S. Department of Energy’s ARPA-E […]
Jul
31
Bacteria Makes Diesel Fuel From CO2 Alone
July 31, 2013 | 2 Comments
A team of researchers of Jay Keasling’s group with the US Department of Energy (DOE)’s Berkeley Lab operated Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) has engineered the bacterium Ralstonia eutropha – a microbe now used to produce biodegradable plastic for the production of fatty acid-derived, diesel-range methyl ketones. The team uses R. eutropha, which is a chemolithoautotroph […]
Apr
23
Bacteria Make Diesel Fuel On Demand
April 23, 2013 | Leave a Comment
A team from the University of Exeter, with support from Shell, has developed a method to make bacteria produce diesel on demand. Sounding a bit like science fiction the technology still faces many significant commercialization challenges. But the diesel, produced by the special strains of E. coli bacteria, is almost identical to conventional diesel fuel, […]