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Current Fossil Fuels News Events, Discoveries and Articles

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Strategies for producing natural and non-natural chemicals by microorganisms
Daejeon, the Republic of Korea-In our everyday life, we use gasoline, diesel, plastics, rubbers, and numerous chemicals that are derived from fossil oil through petrochemical refinery processes. (2012-05-18)

Manmade pollutants may be driving Earth's tropical belt expansion
Black carbon aerosols and tropospheric ozone, both manmade pollutants emitted predominantly in the Northern Hemisphere's low- to mid-latitudes, are most likely pushing the boundary of the tropics further poleward in that hemisphere, new research by a team of scientists shows. (2012-05-17)

Oxygen-separation membranes could aid in CO2 reduction
It may seem counterintuitive, but one way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere may be to produce pure carbon dioxide in powerplants that burn fossil fuels. (2012-05-16)

Lawrence Livermore work may improve the efficiency of the biofuel production cycle
By deciphering the makeup of a bacterium found in the soil of a tropical rain forest, scientists may have a better understanding of how to more efficiently produce biofuels. (2012-05-15)

Microbe that can handle ionic liquids
In the search for technology by which economically competitive biofuels can be produced from cellulosic biomass, the combination of sugar-fermenting microbes and ionic liquid solvents looks to be a winner save for one major problem: the ionic liquids used to make cellulosic biomass more digestible for microbes can also be toxic to them. A solution to this conundrum, however, may be in the offing. (2012-05-15)

Nanosheet Catalyst Discovered to Sustainably Split Hydrogen from Water
Hydrogen gas offers one of the most promising sustainable energy alternatives to limited fossil fuels. (2012-05-14)

Americans support national clean-energy standard
The average U.S. citizen is willing to pay 13 percent more for electricity in support of a national clean-energy standard (NCES), according to Yale and Harvard researchers in Nature Climate Change. (2012-05-14)

Better plants for biofuels
An article in F1000 Biology Reports published today argues that recent advances in knowledge mean that plant-derived biofuels could meet about 30% of the global demand for liquid transportation fuels, drastically reducing the amounts of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels, without having an impact on food production. (2012-05-03)

New CU-NOAA monitoring system clarifies murky atmospheric questions
A University of Colorado Boulder-led team has developed a new monitoring system to analyze and compare emissions from man-made fossil fuels and trace gases in the atmosphere, a technique that likely could be used to monitor the effectiveness of measures regulating greenhouse gases. (2012-04-20)

Thawing permafrost may have led to extreme global warming events
Scientists analysing prehistoric global warming say thawing permafrost released massive amounts of carbon stored in frozen soil of Polar Regions exacerbating climate change through increasing global temperatures and ocean acidification. (2012-04-05)