The village Board of Appeals gave advocates of a controversial proposed biomass plant a boost Thursday, approving the installation of stacks and a boiler building higher than village ordinances typically permit.

About 275 residents attended the hearing at the Rothschild Pavilion, but the crowd had dwindled to double digits after about five hours of testimony.

 A University of Illinois metabolic engineer has taken the first step toward the more efficient and economical production of biofuels by developing a strain of yeast with increased alcohol tolerance.

Biofuels are produced through microbial fermentation of biomass crops, which yield the alcohol-based fuels ethanol and iso-butanol if yeast is used as the microbe to convert sugars from biomass into biofuels.

Every day, 500 tonnes of tiny wood pellets are churned out of Pacific BioEnergy’s Prince George plant, destined for thermal power plants in Europe.

Loaded into boxcars and transported by rail, cargo ship and, finally, canal barges, they’ll travel more than 20,000 kilometres before they end up heating some kid’s waffle in Belgium.

Solarvest has commenced a cooperative Research and Development agreement with Dr. Suzanne Budge at the Canadian Institute of Fisheries Technology at Dalhousie University to assist Solarvest in the characterization of lipids and fatty acids in algae.

The United States used significantly less coal and petroleum in 2009 than in 2008, and significantly more wind power. There also was a decline in natural gas use and increases in solar, hydro and geothermal power according to the most recent energy flow charts released by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Last year, Powers Energy of America announced that it would build a $254 million waste-to-energy ethanol plant in Schneider, Indiana.

According to an article published in the Post-Tribune, the bioethanol plant has received full commitments for funding. In addition to funding this plant, the investors have also now committed to supporting a $75 million solar plant.

Researchers at North Carolina State University have received a grant aimed at finding an energy efficient and environmentally friendly method for breaking down lignin -- a renewable, energy-rich raw material found in plants -- into feedstock for the petrochemical industry, which produces everything from fuel to pharmaceuticals.

As an electronic sign by the road flashed messages last week about “America’s Clean Fuel” and “America’s Peace Fuel,” trucks lined the driveway into the Carbon Green BioEnergy ethanol plant on M-66 near the Barry-Eaton-Ionia county borders.

Three years ago, representatives of Hawaiian Electric Co. met with farmers on the Big Island to discuss growing feedstock that could be converted to biofuel and used in the company’s generators.

But discussions grew quiet when local farmers calculated how much they would be earning.