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    Mongabay, a leading resource for news and perspectives on environmental and conservation issues related to the tropics, has launched Tropical Conservation Science - a new, open access academic e-journal. It will cover a wide variety of scientific and social studies on tropical ecosystems, their biodiversity and the threats posed to them. Tropical Conservation Science - March 8, 2008.

    At the 148th Meeting of the OPEC Conference, the oil exporting cartel decided to leave its production level unchanged, sending crude prices spiralling to new records (above $104). OPEC "observed that the market is well-supplied, with current commercial oil stocks standing above their five-year average. The Conference further noted, with concern, that the current price environment does not reflect market fundamentals, as crude oil prices are being strongly influenced by the weakness in the US dollar, rising inflation and significant flow of funds into the commodities market." OPEC - March 5, 2008.

    Kyushu University (Japan) is establishing what it says will be the world’s first graduate program in hydrogen energy technologies. The new master’s program for hydrogen engineering is to be offered at the university’s new Ito campus in Fukuoka Prefecture. Lectures will cover such topics as hydrogen energy and developing the fuel cells needed to convert hydrogen into heat or electricity. Of all the renewable pathways to produce hydrogen, bio-hydrogen based on the gasification of biomass is by far both the most efficient, cost-effective and cleanest. Fuel Cell Works - March 3, 2008.


    An entrepreneur in Ivory Coast has developed a project to establish a network of Miscanthus giganteus farms aimed at producing biomass for use in power generation. In a first phase, the goal is to grow the crop on 200 hectares, after which expansion will start. The project is in an advanced stage, but the entrepreneur still seeks partners and investors. The plantation is to be located in an agro-ecological zone qualified as highly suitable for the grass species. Contact us - March 3, 2008.

    A 7.1MW biomass power plant to be built on the Haiwaiian island of Kaua‘i has received approval from the local Planning Commission. The plant, owned and operated by Green Energy Hawaii, will use albizia trees, a hardy species that grows in poor soil on rainfall alone. The renewable power plant will meet 10 percent of the island's energy needs. Kauai World - February 27, 2008.

    Tasmania's first specialty biodiesel plant has been approved, to start operating as early as July. The Macquarie Oil Company will spend half a million dollars on a specially designed facility in Cressy, in Tasmania's Northern Midlands. The plant will produce more than five million litres of fuel each year for the transport and marine industries. A unique blend of feed stock, including poppy seed, is expected to make it more viable than most operations. ABC Rural - February 25, 2008.

    The 16th European Biomass Conference & Exhibition - From Research to Industry and Markets - will be held from 2nd to 6th June 2008, at the Convention and Exhibition Centre of FeriaValencia, Spain. Early bird fee registration ends 18th April 2008. European Biomass Conference & Exhibition - February 22, 2008.

    'Obesity Facts' – a new multidisciplinary journal for research and therapy published by Karger – was launched today as the official journal of the European Association for the Study of Obesity. The journal publishes articles covering all aspects of obesity, in particular epidemiology, etiology and pathogenesis, treatment, and the prevention of adiposity. As obesity is related to many disease processes, the journal is also dedicated to all topics pertaining to comorbidity and covers psychological and sociocultural aspects as well as influences of nutrition and exercise on body weight. Obesity is one of the world's most pressing health issues, expected to affect 700 million people by 2015. AlphaGalileo - February 21, 2008.

    A bioethanol plant with a capacity of 150 thousand tons per annum is to be constructed in Kuybishev, in the Novosibirsk region. Construction is to begin in 2009 with investments into the project estimated at €200 million. A 'wet' method of production will be used to make, in addition to bioethanol, gluten, fodder yeast and carbon dioxide for industrial use. The complex was developed by the Solev consulting company. FIS: Siberia - February 19, 2008.

    Sarnia-Lambton lands a $15million federal grant for biofuel innovation at the Western Ontario Research and Development Park. The funds come on top of a $10 million provincial grant. The "Bioindustrial Innovation Centre" project competed successfully against 110 other proposals for new research money. London Free Press - February 18, 2008.


    An organisation that has established a large Pongamia pinnata plantation on barren land owned by small & marginal farmers in Andhra Pradesh, India is looking for a biogas and CHP consultant to help research the use of de-oiled cake for the production of biogas. The organisation plans to set up a biogas plant of 20,000 cubic meter capacity and wants to use it for power generation. Contact us - February 15, 2008.

    The Andersons, Inc. and Marathon Oil Corporation today jointly announced ethanol production has begun at their 110-million gallon ethanol plant located in Greenville, Ohio. Along with the 110 million gallons of ethanol, the plant annually will produce 350,000 tons of distillers dried grains, an animal feed ingredient. Marathon Oil - February 14, 2008.


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Friday, March 07, 2008

Scientists discover signaling pathway that determines plant cell wall growth: could lead to 'third generation' biofuel crops


Plant scientists and cellular biologists from Purdue University have discovered a newly defined biochemical signaling pathway in plants that determines the process of cell wall growth. The discovery may provide the scientific tools to develop dedicated energy crops that yield more biofuels and bioproducts than currently can be produced. Such engineered plants introduce so-called 'third generation' biofuels which are based on growing crops with characteristics that conform to the demands of a particular bioconversion process.

The researchers report their findings in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study also will be published in the journal's March 11 print issue.

Cell growth signals

The biochemical pathway moves materials that determine cell shape and size through a system of signaling proteins, said Dan Szymanski, plant geneticist and cellular biologist at Purdue and lead researcher. By learning more about the growth and development process, it may be possible to engineer plants with improved properties such as cell walls that are more massive or are more easily fermented in the biofuel process.
We expect that cell wall material will to be a major source of biomass from plants designated for biofuel production. We need to learn more about how plant cells control the quality and amount of cell wall material. - Dan Szymanski
The research team investigated plant growth and cell wall development from several scientific approaches in determining the cascade of events that leads to changes in the cell wall. They discovered that a protein called "SPIKE1" directs the protein signaling pathway.

Plant cells grow by expansion, which is cell wall synthesis coupled with an increase in cell size. The key questions scientists need to answer in trying to create plants more valuable for biofuel production center on understanding how plants integrate metabolism, cell growth and biomass production.

To answer those questions and be able to engineer plants for improved growth of biomass for alternative fuels, Szymanski and other scientists investigated complex molecular functions:
Our research is focused on understanding signaling mechanisms. How does a cell interpret multiple types of information and then translate that information to a signal that says, 'Grow here, or modify or reinforce the cell wall here.' Or how does a cell know to make new cytoskeleton filaments at a certain time and place to define regions of growth that determine the cell's shape and size? - Dan Szymanski
Uncovering the mechanism
Actin filaments comprise the cytoskeleton, which is the roadway for delivery and recycling of materials that drive plant growth and determine the cell shape and size. Actin is an abundant protein in organisms that have multiple cells with nuclei:

SPIKE1 is a master regulator of many growth control pathways, including the protein signaling pathway that produces the cytoskeleton. The researchers were able to demonstrate that one of SPIKE1's functions is to control production of actin filament, which defines localized cell regions for delivery and recycling of growth materials.
Wall construction in plants, just as in a road project, is a coordinated effort. The supply and demand of the materials needed for growth must be coordinated. The question is, how do cells regulate this? - Dan Szymanski
The signaling pathway, headed by SPIKE1, is responsible for organizing activities during construction - delivering materials and recycling materials that are used during growth, he said. After SPIKE1 initiates communication among proteins along the pathway, actin filaments are produced and changes in cell shape and size occur:
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Cells also must coordinate with the activities of surrounding cells that have different shapes and functions.
Cell expansion occurs in a crowded, but accommodating environment. As neighboring cells expand, this growth intrudes upon a neighbor. SPIKE1 generates signals so that cells can coordinate with neighboring cells' activities to promote organized cell expansion and proper cell-to-cell adhesion. - Dan Szymanski
Szymanski and his colleagues used an altered version of the mustard family laboratory plant Arabidopsis to study SPIKE1's function and find the proteins that it activates and to which it binds.

They found that when they created mutant plants by switching off the SPIKE1 gene so that the function is lost, one result was improper growth that manifested as holes in the leaf epidermis.

By studying the results of turning off various other protein complexes in the pathway, Szymanski's team was able to follow the sequence of events that occur during signaling.

They also found that plants in which the function of one of the pathway's signaling proteins was altered resulted in mutants that all looked alike. This suggested that the three major protein complexes the scientists investigated all function in a common pathway.

The Purdue research team confirmed this by making double mutants - plants in which two of the proteins had been switched off. One of the pathway's protein complexes, called "WAVE," functions the same way in both humans and Arabidopsis, and the SPIKE1 signaling pathway is likely to function in other plants including rice and corn.

However, in other organisms with SPIKE1-like genes, switching off the gene kills the organism. This lethality has made it difficult for scientists to understand the function of SPIKE1 and comparable genes in other organisms, including humans. Since Arabidopsis survives when SPIKE1 is disrupted, the Purdue team was able to determine the signaling pathway.

Potential implications
The scientists hypothesize that SPIKE1 may both generate and organize protein complex signaling. They also need to discover what activates SPIKE1. When the researchers understand enough about the processes involved in plant cell growth and development, then they may be able to design plants that are bigger with more cell wall that can be processed into biofuel.
Learning more about SPIKE1 likely will help us gain a better understanding of the mechanics and regulation involved with the pathways that control cell architecture and development in plants, and also may be relevant to animal and human growth and development. - Dan Szymanski
The other researchers involved with this study were graduate student Dipanwita Basu, postdoctoral students Jie Le and Taya Zakharova, and research technician Eileen Mallery. All are in the Purdue Department of Agronomy. The project was funded by the National Science Foundation and the Purdue Agricultural Research Program.

Image: A Purdue research team is studying plant growth and cell wall development. By investigating plant cells at the molecular level, they may be able to design plants that are better sources of alternative transportation fuels. In these three slides, green outlines the outer epidermal cells. The red is from chloroplasts from the underlying cell layer. The final slide shows cells of a mutant plant in which a gene called SPIKE1 has been turned off. These mutant cells form abnormally and the cell walls won't properly adhere to each, resulting in holes in the epidermis that you can see through. Credit: Dan Szymanski, Purdue University.


References:

Dipanwita Basu, Jie Le, Taya Zakharova, Eileen L. Mallery, and Daniel B. Szymanski, "A SPIKE1 Signaling Complex Controls Actin-Dependent Cell Morphogenesis through the Heteromeric WAVE and ARP2/3 Complexes", published online on February 29, 2008,
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0710294105

Purdue University: Newly defined signaling pathway could mean better biofuel sources - March 6, 2008.



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China and Australia sign 'clean coal' agreement - steps to carbon-negative bioenergy

In what they see as an important step towards a 'cleaner' coal future, Australia and China signed a formal international agreement for joint research into carbon capture from coal plants. The agreement, between CSIRO and China’s Thermal Power Research Institute (TPRI), will see TPRI install, commission and operate a post-combustion capture pilot plant at the Huaneng Beijing Co-Generation Power Plant as part of CSIRO’s research program. The agreement formalises an earlier partnership (previous post).

Biopact tracks carbon capture developments, because the technology can be applied to biomass power plants to yield "negative emissions" energy, that is, bioenergy which actively removes CO2 from the atmosphere. The logic is: if the coal industry, especially in China, is putting money into developing carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies anyways, then we would rather see those being applied to renewable biomass from the start as this results in the most radical tool to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Post-combustion capture (PCC) is a process that uses amines to capture carbon dioxide (CO2) from power station flue gases and is a technology that can potentially reduce carbon dioxide emissions from existing and future coal-fired power stations by more than 85 per cent. If coupled to biomass power plants, energy with negative emissions as large as -1000 tons CO2/GWh can be achieved (that is: for each GWh of electricity generating it takes a large amount of CO2 from the past out of the atmosphere).

Benefits of PCC include:
  • PCC can be retrofitted to existing plants and is a very prospective means of substantially reducing their greenhouse gas intensity
  • PCC can be integrated into new plants to achieve a range of greenhouse gas intensity reductions down to near zero emissions
  • in contrast to competing technologies, PCC has high operational flexibility (partial retrofit, zero to full capture operation) and can match market conditions for both existing and new power stations- for instance, during periods of high power prices, PCC can be turned off and maximum power delivered to the market
  • PCC offers a lower technology risk compared to competing technologies - this is further enhanced by the ability for staged implementation, which is not possible with competing technologies
  • renewable technologies can be integrated in the PCC process - in particular, PCC allows low-cost solar thermal collectors to provide the necessary heat to separate CO2 from sorbents, effectively reducing the loss of electrical output due to capture
  • PCC can be applied to capture CO2 from natural gas fired power stations and other large stationary sources of CO2, including biomass power plants, smelters, cement kilns and steelworks.
The Sino-Australian pilot plant is designed to capture 3,000 tonnes per annum of CO2 from the power station and begins the process of adapting this technology to evaluate its effectiveness in Chinese conditions. CSIRO’s involvement in this PCC project has been made possible through funding from the Australian Government. The Australian Government is supporting this work through a $A12 (€7.2/US$11.1) million grant, $A4 (€2.4/US$3.7) million of which supports this work in China:
:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Director of CSIRO’s 'Energy Transformed National Research Flagship', Dr John Wright, said low emission energy generation was a key research area for the Flagship and he welcomes the support of the Australian Government.
This project is part of a major research program to identify ways to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the energy sector. Climate change is a critical issue for Australia and internationally, and we’re delighted to be working with TPRI to help find solutions to this global challenge. - Dr Wright
The project will focus on assessing the performance of an amine-based PCC pilot plant under Chinese conditions. It will allow PCC technology to be progressed in the Chinese energy sector which will have a much greater impact than operating in Australia alone.

The Chinese partners are aiming for the Beijing pilot plant to be up and running before August this year.

The installation of the PCC pilot plant in Beijing is a CSIRO Energy Transformed Flagship research project and forms part of the Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate initiative (APP). The APP program for PCC also includes a pilot plant installation at Delta Electricity’s Munmorah power station on the NSW Central Coast, with an additional Australian site currently under negotiation.

The Energy Transformed National Research Flagship is also undertaking PCC research outside the scope of the APP program with a $A5.6 million project in the Latrobe Valley, which focuses on brown coal.

References:
CSIRO: Clean coal agreement with China - March 6, 2008.

CSIRO: Post combustion capture (PCC) - Fact Sheet.

Biopact: Australia and China partner to develop carbon capture and storage technologies - September 07, 2007



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Florida awards $12.5 million grants for renewable energy: includes sweet sorghum ethanol, biodiesel distribution, multi-feedstock biofuels

The state of Florida recently announced the recipients of new renewable energy technologies grants. Part of the Department of Environmental Protection's Renewable Energy Technologies Grant Program, $12.5 million in funding was awarded to eight organizations to stimulate capital investment in the state and promote and enhance the statewide utilization of renewable energy technologies, including ethanol and biodiesel, bioenergy, solar and wind. Earlier, the state announced $25 million in grants as part of the "Farm to Fuel" initiative, which aims to have biomass meet 25 percent of all of Florida's energy needs by 2025 (more here).

The DEP received 139 grant proposals for the new funding round seeking more than $200 million and providing almost $700 million in cost share for renewable energy projects. The proposals, which include technologies ranging from biomass, to solar and hydrogen, were evaluated by the state based on a number of different criteria: cost share percentage; economic development; technical feasibility; innovative technology; production potential; energy efficiency; fostering awareness; project management; duration and timeline; located served; public integration; and incorporation of multiple technologies.

The Renewable Energy Technologies Grant Program recipients for 2007/2008 are:
  • Central Florida Regional Transit Authority (LYNX), “Go Renewable Energy Efficient Next-Generation Biodiesel Fleets” ($2,500,000) – Located in Central Florida, this partnership will implement a large-scale alternative fuel research and demonstration project that provides biodiesel blending at a central fueling location. By 2010, Orange County, LYNX and Orlando Utilities Commission will have transitioned their entire diesel fleet to biodiesel blended fuel.
  • Vecenergy, “Production of Biodiesel Using Multiple Feedstocks” ($2,500,000) – Located in Manatee County, the project includes construction and operation of a biodiesel facility capable of producing 37.5 million gallons of biodiesel per year.
  • Florida Power and Light, “St. Lucie Wind” ($2,500,000) – This project will construct the first wind energy facility in Florida. As proposed, nine wind turbine generation units would be placed in St. Lucie County and are expected to have the potential capacity of 20 megawatts of electrical power.
  • Florida Solar Energy Research and Education Foundation, “Building Florida’s Solar Infrastructure” ($1,688,216) – This statewide project will accelerate the use of solar energy in Florida by reducing market barriers by collaborating with industry experts as well as developing marketing materials and an outreach campaign.
  • Renergie, Inc., “Development of Florida’s Ethanol Industry Using Sweet Sorghum” ($1,500,483) – This project, concentrated in the Florida Panhandle, will design and build Florida’s first sweet sorghum mechanical harvesting system. In addition, the company will develop and construct a sweet sorghum-to- ethanol facility capable of producing five million gallons of ethanol annually.
  • Exceed Corporation, “Dollars & Sense: Renewable Energy for Florida Builders & Developers” ($990,000) – This project, located in Pinellas County, will develop a profitable model for replication that will provide solutions to up-front cost barriers for renewable energy investments for Florida developers.
  • Orange County Government, “Photovoltaic Demonstration and Research Facility and Climate Change Education Center” ($697,433) – This project enables the completion of a demonstration, research and education program through the installation of the largest solar photovoltaic (PV) system in the South, a one megawatt solar PV system located at the Orange County Convention Center.
  • Progress Energy Florida, “Small-Scale Wind Power in Florida” ($123,868) - This project will evaluate inland opportunities for wind energy generation in Florida by using five wind turbines at five different locations across the state, providing more than 15,000 kilowatt hours of wind generation annually.
In 2007, the Florida Legislature appropriated $12.5 million for the Renewable Energy Technologies Grant Program, providing funding for projects that generate or utilize renewable energy resources, including hydrogen, biomass and solar energy. Since the creation of the Florida Energy Act in 2006, a total of $27.5 million has been appropriated for the Renewable Energy Technologies Grant Program:
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We believe that awards such as these are critical in triggering the development of a renewable energy industry in Florida. With the backing of and an investment from the state, we’re hopeful that these projects will yield positive results and serve as a catalyst for major commercial investment in this industry. - Charles H. Bronson, Florida Commissioner of Agriculture
In addition to the Renewable Energy Technologies Grant Program, the Florida Legislature created the “Farm to Fuel” Grants Program to provide matching grants for projects that promote the production and distribution of renewable energy from Florida-grown crops, agricultural wastes and residues, and other biomass. As part of the program and with DEP’s input, twelve grants totaling $25 million were awarded last month to stimulate investment in projects that will enhance the value of agriculture products and expand agribusiness in the State.

Last summer, Governor Charlie Crist signed a set of executive orders to reduce Florida’s greenhouse gases emissions, increase energy efficiency, and remove market barriers for renewable energy technologies such as solar and wind energy. In the months since the executive orders were signed, Florida has stepped onto the world stage as a major marketplace for advanced energy technologies. Just last month, the Governor announced a $200 million energy and economic development budget recommendation that builds on the policy framework of the Governor’s executive orders, focusing on increasing energy efficiency, stimulating development of renewable sources of energy, and using markets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

References:
Florida Department of Environmental Protection: State Awards Grants for Renewable Energy Technologies - February 26, 2008.

Florida's Renewable Energy Technologies Grant Program.

Florida’s climate change initiatives.

Biopact: Florida awards $25 million to biofuel and bioenergy projects in "Farm to Fuel" initiative: 25% of all energy from biomass by 2025 - January 23, 2008

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CU-Boulder awarded project: solar chemical processing of biomass into biohydrogen

Earlier this week, the US Department of Energy and the Department of Agriculture announced an investment into 21 bioenergy research projects (previous post). US$ 1 million went to an interesting project that aims to convert biomass and biogas into a decarbonised biofuel - namely biohydrogen - via solar-thermal gasification. Two types of renewable energy are thus coupled to each other and generate a potentially powerful synergy. If successful, the solar chemical processing technology means hydrogen production from biomass further improves its greenhouse gas balance, because it would entirely exclude fossil fuels as a primary energy source for the gasification process.

There are two main pathways to make hydrogen: (1) gasifying carbonaceous fuels, including biomass, into a syngas that can be further reformed into hydrogen; (2) the electrolysis of water using electricity from any primary energy source, including renewables. According to a very recent study outlining the EU's hydrogen future, of all the possible pathways, biohydrogen based on the gasification of biomass is both the least carbon-intensive, the most economic of the renewable pathways, as well as holding the largest potential in the EU (previous post). Likewise, for use in cars, biohydrogen is the cleanest and most efficient pathway on a well-to-wheel basis (previous post; graph, click to enlarge).

The recently awarded project at the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU-Boulder), which partners with a consortium of other renewable technology researchers (from Europe) now goes a step further and hints at an even cleaner pathway. The goal is to develop rapid solar-thermal chemical reactor systems for the conversion of biomass material like grass, sorghum, corn stalks and leaves, wood waste and algae. The feedstock is heated to more than 2,000 degrees F for just fractions of a second. This will produce an intermediate syngas - a mixture of carbon oxides and hydrogen - that can be easily converted into biohydrogen or liquid fuels.

The three-year award was made to a team led by Professor Alan Weimer of CU-Boulder's chemical and biological engineering department. The team has been studying the use of concentrated sunlight for several other conversion processes, amongst them the decarbonisation of (bio)methane.
Since the process is driven by sunlight and converts biomass to fuels, the end result is a process that is 'carbon negative'. This provides an opportunity to substantially reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere without impacting the food supply. - Professor Weimer
Professor Weimer is executive director of the Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels, or C2B2, a joint center of CU-Boulder, Colorado State University, the Colorado School of Mines, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and industry. Headquartered at CU-Boulder, C2B2 - which has a goal to increase the production and use of energy from renewable resources - was founded in March 2007 by the Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory, a consortium involving all four institutions (previous post).

CU-Boulder will subcontract out to NREL in Golden to provide a high-flux solar furnace (pictured) for the research and to CSU to study switchgrass growth and supply quantities of the tall prairie grass to CU-Boulder for conversion. The CSU collaboration will be led by CSU horticulture Professor Yaling Qian, while the NREL collaboration will be led by Carl Bingham at NREL's High Flux Solar Furnace.

Weimer said he envisions a totally renewable technology, in which a significant fraction of the nation's fuel supply is provided using solar-thermal processing in marginal lands where the farming of crops can provide the needed biomass:
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The CU-Boulder grant was part of the USDA/DOE award package to spend up to $18.4 million to fund 21 biomass research and development demonstration projects over three years for a total of $18.4 million. The projects are aimed at addressing barriers to making the production of biomass more efficient and cost-effective, according to the USDA and DOE.
The University of Colorado at Boulder has been working in the area of solar-thermal chemical processing for more than 10 years and is the largest academic research team in this area in the world. This award recognizes the university's expertise in the field and provides Professor Weimer and his team with an opportunity to move this process closer to commercial reality. - G.P. Bud Peterson, CU-Boulder Chancellor
David Hiller, executive director of the Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory, said Weimer's research on the solar conversion of biomass, the multi-institutional involvement on the project team and the public and private support for the effort are a "perfect reflection of the Collaboratory model."
The Collaboratory brings together some of the world's best researchers to work on promising renewable energy technologies, with guidance and financial support from private industry and public agencies. Professor Weimer, C2B2 and this new project demonstrate the Collaboratory's incredible research power and growing reputation. - David Hiller
Other team members on the winning CU-Boulder proposal include Xcel Energy, Abengoa Solar and Abengoa BioEnergy, which have facilities in the United States and Europe, Arizona Public Service Co., Copernican Energy of Boulder and the Swiss Federal Research Institute.

Copernican Energy is a technology leader in solar-thermal chemical reactor engineering, Xcel Energy will supply utility engineering support for the solar-thermal process technology and Arizona Public Service will supply algae to CU-Boulder for conversion, Weimer said.

Abengoa is the largest green energy company in the world and built the world's first commercial "central receiver" solar-thermal facility that produces electricity for Seville, Spain. The Spain facility is equipped with mirrors on the ground that reflect sunlight to a receiver on an adjacent tower, allowing the achievement of higher temperatures.

The Swiss Federal Research Institute has been partnering with CU in the solar-thermal research area for almost 10 years and provides solar research facilities and expertise in the area of solar radiation modeling and heat transfer.

References:
University of Colorado at Boulder: CU-Boulder Awarded $1 Million From USDA, DOE For Solar-Thermal Biomass-To-Gas Conversion Project - March 5, 2008.

Research page of Professor Alan W. Weimer, C2B2 Executive Director.

NREL: High-Flux Solar Furnace.

Biopact: USDA and DOE to invest up to $18.4 million for 21 biomass RD&D projects: heat, power, biofuels and bioproducts - March 04, 2008

Biopact: EU HyWays report concludes biomass least costly and preferred renewable for hydrogen production; hydrogen can replace 40% oil by 2050 - February 26, 2008

Biopact: Hydrogen out, compressed biogas in - October 01, 2006

Biopact: Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels announces $500,000 in seed grants for research - October 30, 2007


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