A group of 29 scientists have published an article in the prestigious Science journal arguing for the development of perennial grain crops which have been described as potentially "the biggest agricultural revolution for 10,000 years".

Currently, most grain grown around the world has to be replanted after every crop. 70% of all cropland is used for annual cereals, oilseeds and legumes. Thia consumes a lot of resources and is hard on the land.

The scientists argue that perennial grain, in addition to not needing replanting - saving farm machinery passing over and compacting the ground and reducing fuel consumption - would have a much deeper and more powerful root system than annuals. This would mean that it used water much more efficiently.

Other benefits of a deep perennial root system would be less erosion and better carbon sequestration. Perhaps most importantly, such a field might need as little as 3% of the fertiliser required by annuals. Not only are nitrate fertilizers energy-intensive to make, they are also prone to washing out of fields to pollute water supplies, kill habitats and cause other ecologcal damage.

Perennial fields would also require much less herbicide for control weeds.
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A team of MIT Biological Material Group researchers has developed a way of using a modified virus as a kind of biological scaffold that can assemble the nanoscale components needed to split a water molecule into hydrogen and oxygen atoms.

During photosynthesis in plant cells, natural pigments absorb sunlight, while catalysts then promote the use of that energy to split water into its component hydrogen and oxygen molecules.

The MIT team, led by Professor Angela Belcher, engineered a common, harmless bacterial virus called M13 so that it would attract and bind with molecules of  a biological pigment (in this case zinc porphyrins) and a catalyst (iridium oxide). The virus acts as a kind of scaffolding, causing the pigments and catalysts to line up with the right spacing to trigger the water-splitting reaction.

Using the virus to make the system assemble itself improves the efficiency of the oxygen production fourfold.
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Researchers from the UK Met Office have studied the benefits of various biofuel crops in models of the future global climate. They have found that the carbon that is released into the atmosphere from the loss of natural vegetation could be paid back by using miscanthus grass within 30 years.. Estimates for other biofuel crops, such as corn for ethanol, range from 167 to 420 years to pay back their carbon debt.

According to John Hughes, UK Met Office Research Scientist, "Our study demonstrates the huge potential of energy crops, in particular of Miscanthus. Also, by scaling the results up to the global scale as we do in this study we are developing a new set of tools for evaluating energy crops."

Miscanthus is a tall perennial grass tha thas been called both "elephant grass" and "E-grass". It is sometimes confused with African elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum). The miscanthus cultivars proposed for Europe (miscanthus x giganteus) are sterile hybrids which originated in Japan.

Miscanthus can be harvested every year with a sugar cane harvester and can be grown in a cool climate like northern Europe.The harvested stems of miscanthus can be used as fuel for the production of heat and electric power as well for manufacturing bio-ethanol.

Miscanthis x giganteus

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Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute in Bremen have developed a paint which they say improves the efficiency of ships, aircraft and wind turbines by reducing their flow resistance.

They have achieved this by modelling the paint’s structure on the scales of fast-swimnming sharks which evolved in a manner that significantly diminishes drag.

Carribean Reef Sharl (Image by Albert Kok via Wikimedia)

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Researchers at the Centre de Recherche Paul Pascal in Bordeaux have developed a biofuel cell which converts the chemical energy generated by photosynthesis into electrical energy.

Photosynthesis transforms carbon dioxide and water into glucose and oxygen through a complex series of chemical reactions in the presence of visible light. The researchers have developed a biofuel cell made up of two enzyme-modified electrodes that uses the products of photosynthesis (glucose and oxygen) to produce electricity.

When the cell was inserted in a living plant, in this case a cactus. the scientists observed an increase in electrical current when a desk lamp shining on the cactus was switched on, and a reduction when it was switched off. The scientists were also able to make the first ever observation of the real-time course of glucose levels during photosynthesis.

The researchers showed that a biofuel cell inserted in a cactus leaf could generate power of 9 μW per cm². Because this yield is proportional to light intensity, stronger illumination accelerates the production of glucose and oxygen, so more fuel is available to operate the cell.

In the future, this system could form the basis for a new, environmentally-friendly and renewable way to transform solar energy into electrical energy

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Albin Czernichowski, a professor at the University of Orleans in France has developed a small, low-tech, inexpensive device called a "GlidArc reactor" that produces super-clean fuels from waste materials, such as a biodiesel fuel that releases ten times less air pollution than conventional diesel.

The reactors, about the size of a refrigerator, are custom designed to clean dirty gases produced by a low-tech gasification of locally available wastes, biomass, or other resources. For example, corn farmers could use the leaves and stalks left in the field after harvest (called "corn stover") as the raw material or waste cooking oil from restaurants could be used as the raw material in urban areas. They can also be used to convert glycerol, which is a major byproduct of biofuel production and is expensive to refine, into carbon monoxide and hydrogen for use as a fuel.

According to Professor Czernichowski, the GlidArc reactors are low-tech and low cost. "Almost all the parts could be bought at your local hardware or home supply store. We use common ‘plumber’ piping and connections, for instance, and ordinary home insulation. Instead of sophisticated ceramics, we use the kind of heat-resistant concrete that might go into a home fireplace. You could build one in a few days for about $10,000."

The reactors get their name from the use of a gliding arc of electricity to that produces a plasma inside the reactor. The plasma allows chemical reactions to occur at dramatically reduced temperatures. Gases from heating biomass or glycerol become clean and chemically active, and this allows for the transformation of those materials into clean fuels.

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About 1 billion car tyres are made each year and each one takes around 25 litres of oil to make. The oil is used to manufacture isoprene.

Researchers at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company and the biotechnology company, Genencor, are developing a way of making bio-isoprene from plant waste products like sugar cane, corn and switchgrass, using genetically modified bacteria that converts the sugars contained in the plants to bio-isoprene.

According to Richard J. LaDuca, Genencor’s senior director, the resulting tyres should perform at least as well and last just as long as oil-based tyres. The new tyres could be on the market within about five years.

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A group of scientists from IBM and Stanford University have announced a chemistry breakthrough that they bellieve could change the nature of plastics and plastics recycling.

The team has developed a new method of using organic catalysts to produce and break down plastic polymers which could lead to plastics becoming endlessly recyclable.

Currently, many plastics, such as plastic bottles, can only be recycled once for what is called "second-generation use". Most bottles made from second-generation recycled plastic cannot be recycled again and are typically sent to landfills.

According to IBM, "the team has developed a new strategy for the synthesis of high molecular weight cyclic polyesters and the generation of new families of biocompatible polymers for biomedical applications." 

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Engineers at Princeton University, led by Professor Michael McAlpine, have developed a power-generating rubber film which could harness natural body movements such as breathing and walking, to power pacemakers, mobile phones and other electronic devices. For example, shoes made of the material could harvest the pounding of walking and running to power mobile electrical devices.

The material is composed of ceramic nanoribbons embedded into silicone rubber sheets. The nanoribbons are made of lead zirconate titanate, a ceramic material that generates an electrical voltage when pressure is applied to it  The silicone sheets, with embedded nanoribbons,  generate electricity when flexed and are highly efficient at converting mechanical energy to electrical energy.

Because the silicone is biocompatible (it is already used for cosmetic implants and medical devices), it can be implanted in the body to power medical devices. Placed against the lungs, sheets of the material could use breathing motions to power pacemakers, obviating the current need for surgical replacement of the batteries to power the devices.

As well as generating electricity when it is flexed, the material flexes when electrical current is applied to it. This opens the door to other kinds of applications, such as use for microsurgical devices.

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A team of scientists, led by Professor Will Zimmerman from the University of Sheffield, has developed an innovative device which will make the production of alternative biofuels more energy efficient.

The team have devised an air-lift loop bioreactor in which gas microbubbles (less than 50 microns in diameter) transfer materials in the liquid in the bioreactor much more rapidly, and using much less energy, than the larger bubbles produced in conventional biorectors. Because the microbubbles are so small, they rise more slowly and smoothly. This generates much less stirring in the liquid and, consequently, wastes less energy.

Studies to date have found the microbubble technique to use 18% less energy and the researchers believe that it has the potential to revolutionise the energy-efficient production of biofuels.

The approach is currently being tested with researchers from Suprafilt in Rochdale on industrial stack gases and with Yorkshire Water who are using the microbubbles technique to give a better performance in the treatment of wastewater. They are predicting that it will reduce their current electricity costs for the process by a third.

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