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Reporter/Producer - The Environment Report

Tagged: biofuel

The Environment Report
9:00 am
Tue March 12, 2013

How to turn beer, manure, rotten milk, and chocolate-covered cherries into electricity

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Credit Courtesy photo / Novi Energy
Two of the three large, green digester tanks are visable from a nearby road.
Credit Lindsey Smith / Michigan Radio
Workers put the finishing touches on a smaller tank for grease storage. The bacteria loves grease, but it's not good to give it the the colony all at once.
Credit Courtesy Photo / Novi Energy
The main entrance to the Fremont Community Digester.
This bubble-like accumulator collects the methane gas and supplies a constant feed to two large engines.
Credit Courtesy photo / Novi Energy
This bubble-like accumulator collects the methane gas and supplies a constant feed to two large engines.
Credit Courtesy photo / Novi Energy
A truck unloads apple pumice at the Fremont Community Digester.
Credit Lindsey Smith / Michigan Radio
Anand Gangadharan (second to left) stands next to US Senator Debbie Stabenow at a ribbon cutting ceremony in November.
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Listen to today's Environment Report above or read an expanded version of the story below.

When you find an anaerobic digester in Michigan, they’re usually set up on large scale dairy farms.

Michigan State University has a good YouTube video showing how the process works at the digester on their campus.

Bacteria turn all that cow manure into methane, which is burned in engines to create renewable electricity. But now there’s a new kind of digester in Fremont, Michigan that’s consuming much more than cow poop.

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Environment & Science
4:25 pm
Tue February 26, 2013

MSU study celebrates marriage of algae gene to a weed

Credit Courtesy: Michigan State University
Christoph Benning, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at MSU
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Michigan State University researchers are celebrating the marriage of a weed and an algae gene -- and its value as a potential biofuel. 

The team found that adding an algae gene to mustard weed caused the plant to store oil in its leaves, and the technique could be used to get more energy out of plants grown for bio-fuel.

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