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Cosmo Specialty Fibers and CLH (Compañía Logística de Hidrocarburos) join the NARA alliance

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NARA is an alliance of universities, business and government laboratories. As the project matures, new opportunities and challenges are presented that warrant new expertise which can be provided by outside organizations. Bringing organizations into the NARA alliance requires approval from existing members and compliance with NARA’s non-disclosure, conflict of interest and intellectual property policies. In addition, each new member is assigned a specific scope of work within the NARA leadership team.

NARA welcomes the recent addition of two new business …more

IDX Students present findings and request stakeholder input

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The Northwest Advanced Renewables Alliance (NARA) aims to facilitate development of an environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable wood-based biofuels and co-products industry in the Pacific Northwest. During 2013/2014, NARA will examine the biofuels supply chain potential in western Washington and Oregon.

NARA has named this supply chain study area the Mid Cascade to Pacific (MC2P) region. During 2012/2013, NARA examined the supply chain potential in western Montana, Northern Idaho and Eastern Washington and named this region the Western Montana Corridor …more

NARA holds annual meeting in Corvallis Oregon

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Participants at the 2013 NARA annual meeting in Corvallis Oregon
Participants at the 2013 NARA annual meeting in Corvallis Oregon

Researchers, educators, economists and business leaders gathered to attend NARA’s second annual meeting held in Corvallis Oregon September 9th -12th. This year’s meeting was structured to accomplish multiple objectives:

  • To provide a forum for NARA teams to meet, share information and map out …more

NARA Cumulative Report (8/11-3/13) is available for viewing

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Front page of the NARA Cumulative Report
Front page of the NARA Cumulative Report

The NARA Cumulative Report: August 2011-March 2013 is available for viewing here.

This report provides a compilation of progress reports for each aspect of the NARA project covering project inception (8/11) through to March 2013. Progress reports are grouped into one of five project goals: Sustainable Biojet, Value …more

Biofuel curriculum preview from Facing the Future

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Fueling Our Future Flyer PDF_Page_1

NARA affiliate organization Facing the Future has developed biofuels centered curriculum designed for middle and high school students. The packet will be available for purchase in October; however, you can preview the materials at http://bit.ly/15JtnpJ (MS) or http://bit.ly/17Cn3VR (HS). A full story on this much awaited product will be provided later in the year.

NARA participates in the Montana Economic Development Summit

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Charles Burke meets with Montana Jobs Summit participant
Charles Burke meets with Montana Jobs Summit participant

NARA outreach team members Charles Burke, Peter Kolb and Craig Rawlings met with business and policy leaders at the Montana Economic Development Summit in Butte Montana September 16-17. It was quite an event.

Imagine a city of less than 30,000 citizens hosting a free event …more

Co-product development: lignin-based molecules for commercial epoxies

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Based on current estimates, a bone-dry ton of forest residue can be converted to 59 gallons of isobutanol.  What remains is approximately 1450 dry pounds of “waste product”. (Tom Spink presentation at the Idaho Small Log Conference 2013). Approximately 37% of the “waste product” or more technically speaking “co-product residual” is lignin (550 dry pounds) with the remainder being processing acids, unreacted cellulose (polysaccharides), non-fermented sugars, extractives, bark, yeast, and wood ash. The most common commercial use …more

Forest Inventory and Utilization Data

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PNW_biomass_availability copy

One of the services provided by NARA affiliate, The University of Montana’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research (BBER), is publically available forest industry data. Much of the information they provide and compile contributes to NARA’s efforts to produce supply chain, environmental and economic sustainability analyses, models and GIS applications useful to an emerging wood-based biofuels industry in the Pacific Northwest.  Listed below are two sources …more

Improving simple sugar yields from wood residuals

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Illustration of cellulase enzyme on cellulose

 

Materials built from simple sugar molecules are the foundation of plant systems. Many plants, like corn, use these sugar-based materials to store energy in the form of starch. We then use these materials for food and increasingly as fuels and chemicals. Simple sugars are also used in structural plant materials that humans …more