Research performed by NARA members contributes to an understanding of how to develop a sustainable wood residual-to-biojet fuel and co-product industry. Sustainability in this case refers …more
Building a biorefinery to convert wood residues into chemical products like biojet fuel is expensive. The projected capital investment exceeds $850 million. An alternative, and potentially less costly approach, …more
Dr. Scott Holub from Weyerhaeuser presented an update on research at the NARA long-term soil productivity site near Springfield OR. This presentation is part of a webinar series provided by the McCall Outdoor Science School and is used to bring NARA …more
NARA researcher Xiao Zhang received a $500,000 five-year Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program award from the National Science Foundation to develop ways to convert lignin into long chained hydrocarbons that could be used for fuel. For more information, read the article posted in the WSU news.
Xiao’s team contributed greatly to NARA’s efforts to determine the variability …more
* Note: This notice appears on the NARA blog due to a request from RSB on 1/28/15 to disseminate this information to a wider audience.
A 60-day public consultation period for revisions to the RSB‘s Principles & Criteria begins today. Comments, questions and suggestions are requested for the following documents:
Gevo Inc. is a NARA affiliate organization. With NARA, they are developing a yeast biocatalyst that makes isobutanol from simple sugars derived from wood residuals. In addition, they work with NARA’s techno-economic team to determine the costs involved with producing isobutanol and the conversion of isobutanol to biojet.
Biofuels Digest just published a brief review that describes Gevo’s technologies and their recent advances and challenges.
Read Gevo: Biofuels Digest’s 2015 …more
Trees need nitrogen to grow. If soil nitrogen levels are low, then growth is limited. The ability to accurately monitor the amount of soil nitrogen in a working forest is helpful for predicting future growth and for knowing when to take corrective action (fertilizer, altered management practices) when soil nitrogen levels decline.
Efforts to …more
The USDA-NIFA, through NARA, funds research to determine the environmental impact from a wood-based biofuel and chemical industry. To gauge how this industry would affect greenhouse gas (GHG) levels, a life cycle assessment (LCA) is being developed. In this …more
The USDA-NIFA, through NARA, funds research to help expand the array of commercial products produced using post harvest forest residues. Experiments to modify the lignin-rich component of wood residuals into …more
Researchers at the Argonne National Laboratory have developed a online program (WATER) designed to provide analysis on water demand for use in developing biofuels from multiple feedstocks including forest wood biofuels.
WATER adopts a water footprint methodology and contains extensive climate, land use, water resource, and process water data.
Free access is available here.