Bioenergy and Bioproducts

WSU researchers creating catalyst to improve jet biofuel production

RICHLAND, Wash. – Efforts to create an environmentally friendly catalyst that will lower the cost and increase the efficiency in producing bio-based jet fuels has netted Washington State University researchers a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and National Institute of Food and Agriculture. WSU Tri-Cities professor Hanwu Lei and his research team aim […]

Waled Suliman Receives 2018 Amazon Catalyst Grant

PULLMAN, Wash. – Amazon Catalyst program has awarded $177,735 in grants to 10 Washington State University teams comprised of students, faculty and staff across disciplines and locations. The collaborative program between Amazon and WSU launched early in 2018 to fund projects deemed globally impactful and disruptive. What are the next inventions that will change how […]

“BeeToxx” Receives Second Place at the Alaska Airlines Environmental Innovation Challenge

The grand prize winners at the Alaska Airlines Environmental Innovation Challenge (EIC) proved to judges that gardening and innovation go together naturally. BioPots took home the $15,000 Wells Fargo prize with their biodegradable planter pots made from biomass waste like spent beer grains. The University of Washington team included three engineers from the Bioresource Science and […]

Biofuels Digest Features WSU Jet Fuel Research

January 11, 2018 | BiofuelsDisgest,  Jim Lane Back in 2016, researchers at Washington State University Tri-Cities landed a National Science Foundation I-Corps grant to explore the market potential of their biojet fuel research. The team had successfully demonstrated a new, water-based process for deconstructing and recovering lignin from biomass and converting it into jet fuel-range hydrocarbons. […]

Cellulosic Revelation

Sept 2017  | BIOFUELS JOURNAL Researchers at Washington State University Tri-Cities and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland, Washington have discovered that newly combined spectroscopy processes can reveal the differences between the inside and the outside of the molecular structure of cellulosic biomass. [ view pdf of article in Biofuels Journal] [ view digital magazine – requires Flash ]  

WSU Research Gets Closer to Cost-Effective BioFuels

June 5, 2017 | ENVIRONMENTAL MOLECULAR SCIENCES LABORATORY  [ full article ] June 6, 2017 | PHYS.ORG [ full article ] Molecular-level understanding of cellulose structure reveals why it resists degradation and could lead to cost-effective biofuels. A major bottleneck hindering cost-effective production of biofuels and many valuable chemicals is the difficulty of breaking down cellulose—an important […]

WSU Tri-Cities team earns CleanTech Big Picture prize at UW business competition

May 26, 2017 | by Maegan Murray RICHLAND, Wash. – A team from Washington State University Tri-Cities took home the Wells Fargo “CleanTech” Big Picture prize during the University of Washington’s Business Plan Competition this week. With the award, the team, which includes Libing Zhang, a recent doctoral alumna, and Manuel Seubert and Taylor Pate, […]

WSU Tri-Cities team in UW business competition ‘sweet 16’

April 28, 2017   |  WSU News RICHLAND, Wash. – A team from Washington State University Tri-Cities whose business plan is to commercialize a WSU-patented jet fuel technology has advanced to the University of Washington Business Plan Competition’s “sweet 16” round. The sweet 16 round of the UW Business Plan Competition kicks off May 25. [ full […]