Enzymatic Production of Biodiesel? The vast majority of biodiesel today is manufactured using chemical catalysts and methanol. A few problems are associated with this type of processing. These include 1) the need to remove free…
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Techno-Economic Analysis: Synthetic Biology
Techno-economic analysis in synthetic biology is the combination of conceptual process design and production cost estimation activities. Synthetic biology refers to microorganisms that have been genetically altered to produce a foreign molecule as part of…
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Feedstocks: Forestry
Forestry feedstocks utilized in the renewable industry include woody biomass such as: logging residue (e.g. slash, saw dust), forest management waste (e.g. wildfire mitigation, diseased tree removal), and dedicated energy forestry crops (e.g. poplar trees…
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Agricultural Waste Expert
Farming is one of the largest industries in the world and generates significant amounts of agricultural waste. This waste has been targeted as a prime feedstock for the production of energy, fuel, and chemicals. It…
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Gasification Technologies
In gasification technology selection, a necessary initial step is to narrow the search down to a smaller subset of gasification technologies that best match the application and have achieved the necessary technology readiness level (TRL). …
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Using Biomass to Produce Energy
Using biomass to produce energy makes sense because biomass and biofuels made from biomass are alternative energy sources to fossil fuels—coal, petroleum, and natural gas. Thus, while burning fossil fuels or biomass does release carbon…
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Process Integration in Industrial Biotechnology / Synthetic Biology
What does an expert in process integration in the field of industrial biotechnology or synthetic biology do? First, let’s define terms. These two terms are frequently interchanged, but are not exactly synonymous; synthetic biology should…
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Coal Gasification
Coal has historically been used to supply electricity, with most burned at coal-fired power plants. Coal gasification is a newer thermo-chemical process in which the gasifier’s heat and pressure break down coal into basic chemical…
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Biomass Gasification Expert
Biomass gasification is the process of turning some variety of biomass into higher-value products. This is most often done by converting a material containing carbon (like coal, biomass, waste, petroleum coke, etc.) —into syngas. This…
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Anaerobic Digestion Expert
What is an anaerobic digestion expert? Anaerobic digestion is the natural process in which microorganisms break down organic materials. In this instance, “organic” means coming from or made of plants or animals. Anaerobic digestion happens…
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