I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
ALBUQUERQUE — Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory and elsewhere say they may be hot on the trail of an exciting new character in the story of biofuels — fungus.
The (Santa Fe) New Mexican and Science Daily reported Monday that the hoopla surrounds a species of fungus once known for devouring the cotton uniforms of WWII soldiers, Trichoderma reesei.
The research team believes the fungus could be used to break down a wide variety of plant fibers into simple sugars, and perhaps be the key to the industrial production of ethanol that doesn’t require corn and other valuable foodstuffs.
No word yet from farmers who have seen corn prices skyrocket from the competition for their product, nor on how long it might take for the T. reesei research to bear fruit.
Meanwhile, farther down the Rio Grande, a company has started commercial production of algae, which is seen by some as a better bet than ethanol as a biofuel. PetroSun announced in March that it has 1,100 acres of saltwater ponds in Rio Hondo, Texas, and that it will produce 4.4 million gallons of algal oil and 110 million pounds of "biomass" — dried algae that itself can be turned into ethanol — every year.
A 2007 report in Popular Mechanics noted that algae can double in volume overnight and produce 200 times more oil per acre than soybeans.
