Ethanol production from cellulosic biomass can make a significant contribution toward decreasing our dependence on fossil fuels.  However, the fermentation of biomass can be problematic.  On...
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Lignocellulosic biomass is a plant biomass that is made up of cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin, and is an ideal raw material for use in biofuel production. The premier lignocellulosic biomass crop...
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Developing batteries with improved performance and safety requires considering a variety of factors. Optimal batteries should provide high voltage, storage of substantial amounts of energy, reliable a...
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Biofuels produced from biomass provide a promising alternative to fossil fuels.  Biomass is an inexpensive, readily available and renewable resource.  However, the process of converting biom...
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Detecting chemical and biological agents at low levels is important in military applications, drug enforcement, airport security and environmental monitoring.  A variety of devices and methods cu...
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Rectifiers are devices that convert alternating current (AC) into direct current (DC). The simplest and least expensive type of rectifier uses a full- or half-bridge of diodes to convert single- or th...
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Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) are a group of fatal diseases caused by a misfolded form of the prion protein.  TSEs include sheep scrapie; bovine spongiform encephalopathy, know...
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Distributed energy resources (DER) are small power generators that are typically located at customer sites where the energy they generate is used. Small DER produce low emissions, can be manufactured ...
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Current changes in global climate, land use and other human activities, such as the increased use of pesticides, can have a negative impact on the well being of animals.
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Many conventional methods, such as radioimmunoassay (RIA), enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) or surface plasmon reflectometry (SPR), can detect the presence of target molecules; however, these...
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Processes that store renewable energy such as wind or solar energy as chemical fuels have the potential to provide a substitute for fossil fuels and ease civilization’s reliance on non-renewable...
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Levulinic acid is a biomass-derived compound that can be obtained inexpensively in high yields from a variety of waste cellulose-containing materials. It has been identified as a top biomass-derived c...
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Hydrogen is one of the most promising alternative energy sources and is expected to have enormous growth potential due to recent advances in technology.  Currently, hydrogen gases are produced by...
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Recently, significant advances have been made in using heterogeneous catalysts for converting biomass-derived compounds to chemicals and fuels.  One such compound, levulinic acid, can be inexpens...
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Increasing demand of petrochemical resources to produce the energy and chemical materials required by industrialized societies with growing populations combined with a diminishing supply has resulted ...
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Although a battery can store significant amounts of energy, it cannot deliver it quickly. But a battery can be used to charge a capacitor, which then can provide much power all at once. Supercapacit...
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Drinking water must be treated to remove organic contaminants, such as pathogenic microorganisms, and inorganic contaminants, such as heavy metals.
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Functionalized substrates have commercial applications ranging from biosensors to energy conversion devices such as solar cells.  Biosensors rapidly detect the presence of target biomolecules bas...
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To remove the substantial heat generated by today’s most powerful microprocessors, many high-performance and personal computers use liquid cooling, rather than air cooling, technology. Research ...
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Currently, most schemes for detecting bioagents or other biological molecules are based on relatively complex electronic, photonic and/or electrochemical methods, or on more elegant biomolecular metho...
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Alkanes produced from carbohydrates could provide a renewable source of transportation fuel to complement the rapidly growing production of bio-diesel from vegetable oils and animal fats.
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Photovoltaic cells convert sunlight directly into electricity through the interaction of photons and electrons within a photoconducting material. To create a photovoltaic cell, a photoconducting mater...
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Some experts in the oil industry and geological fields believe global oil reserves will reach peak production within the next twenty years.  They believe that the annual supply of petroleum-based...
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Because potential biological attacks against civilian populations have become an important issue for homeland security, practical and efficient biosensors are needed. However, no currently available b...
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A UW-Madison researcher previously developed an inexpensive, real-time wireless microsensor for detecting biological agents in water supply networks and other aqueous environments, such as the milk su...
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