While much attention has focused on the climate change mitigation potential of biofuels, research from the social sciences increasingly highlights the social and livelihood impacts of their expanded production. Policy and governance measures aimed at improving the social effects of biofuels have proliferated but questions remain about their effectiveness across the value chain. This paper perfo...

BACKGROUND The unicellular model cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 is considered a promising microbial chassis for biofuel production. However, its low tolerance to biofuel toxicity limits its potential application. Although recent studies showed that bacterial small RNAs (sRNAs) play important roles in regulating cellular processes in response to various stresses, the role of sRNAs in ...

© The Ecological Society of America www.frontiersinecology.org E energy demands, volatile petroleum prices, and growing concerns about climate change have spurred worldwide interest in alternatives to fossil fuels. Biofuels, or fuels produced from biomass, have become a major focus of attention, because they represent a potential means of both reducing dependence on fossil fuels and lowering ne...

Major feedstock sources for future biofuel production are likely to be high biomass producing plant species such as poplar, pine, switchgrass, sorghum and maize. One active area of research in these species is genome-enabled improvement of lignocellulosic biofuel feedstock quality and yield. To facilitate genomic-based investigations in these species, we developed the Biofuel Feedstock Genomic ...

a r t i c l e i n f o JEL codes: C61 C71 C72 O13 O21 Keywords: Biofuel Supply chain Land use Spatial market equilibrium MPEC The rapid expansion of the biofuel industry diverts a large amount of agricultural crops as energy feedstocks, and in turn affects farm land allocation, feedstock market equilibrium, and agricultural economic development in local areas. In this paper, we propose game-theo...

Sugarcane is a proven biofuel feedstock and accounts for about 40% of the biofuel production worldwide. It has a more favorable energy input/output ratio than that of corn, the other major biofuel feedstock. The rich resource of genetic diversity and the plasticity of autopolyploid genomes offer a wealth of opportunities for the application of genomics and technologies to address fundamental qu...

A strong pollution episode in the upper troposphere between South China and the Philippines was observed during CARIBIC flights in April 2007. Five pollution events were observed, where enhancements in aerosol and trace gas concentrations including CO, CO2, CH4, nonmethane hydrocarbons (NMHCs) and halocarbons were observed along the flight tracks during four sequential flights. The importance o...

Bioenergy, made available from materials derived from biological sources, has been widely considered as one of the major renewable and sustainable energy sources to enhance energy security and mitigate climate change [Beringer et al., 2011; Fargione et al., 2010]. Food grain is currently the most popularly used biomass feedstock for biofuel production, e.g., maize (Zea Mays L.) grain for bioeth...

Clostridial fermentation of cellulose and hemicellulose relies on the cellular physiology controlling the metabolism of the cellulosic hexose sugar (glucose) with respect to the hemicellulosic pentose sugars (xylose and arabinose) and the hemicellulosic hexose sugars (galactose and mannose). Here, liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry and stable isotope tracers in Clostridium acetobutylicum w...

Increase of biofuel production is an important component in the development of alternative energy in Thailand. To meet the higher amount of biofuel (targeted by Thailand Department of Alternative Energy Development and Efficiency, DEDE), a lot of biofuel feedstock production is needed which in turn requires a large volume of water for irrigation. This study assesses the water footprint (WF) of ...