Gasoline made from Giant Miscanthus at MSU

Cool Planet Biofuels recently announced it has used Freedom giant miscanthus to create gasoline, a breakthrough in the biofuels industry. Mississippi State University researcher Brian Baldwin and his colleagues in the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station spent years developing a variety of giant miscanthus, a perennial grass native to Asia, particularly suited to the Southeastern climate and soils. MSU filed a plant patent application for the resulting variety, named Freedom, in 2010, and licensed it to Georgia-based Repreve Renewables LLC.

"MSU, MAFES and the Extension Service have a long history of bioenergy research. The possibility of gasoline being made from a cultivar developed in Mississippi is very exciting and validates MSU’s research focus," Mr Kasper said. "The primary reason we license our intellectual property is so our industrial partners can take MSU’s research and translate it into greater applications for the public benefit. We want our technology out there, improving the lives of people around the world."  Read more ...

Biofuel company HQ moving to Philadelphia

A biomass energy company plans to move its HQ to the suburbs of Philadelphia from Georgia and will create 150 jobs over the next three years. The company Renmatrix will be developing ways to turn products like wood and waste into, as well as developing methods to access the fermentable sugars that are the foundation of biofuels. Venture capitalist John Doerr said "Sugar is the next crude, the new crude, done right, this can revitalize the American economy." Read more ...