We report a near-complete dissolution of wood lignin at less than 80°C for 20 min using an easily recyclable hydrotrope.

BUSINESS HIGHLIGHTS 403 Crop-cap warning | Dear Mr. President | Biofuel research at NASA | The challenges of seaweed | Ethanol plant for sale | BP to acquire biomethane production facility | Anti-dumping petition TECHNOLOGY NEWS 406 Mustard plants could make tasty new biodiesel feedstock | Nuts to biofuels and batteries PEER REVIEWED PERSPECTIVE 407 Life cycle assessment is the most relevant framework to evaluate biofuel greenhouse gas burdens MODELING AND ANALYSIS 417 Techno-economic assessment of biomass bales storage systems for a large-scale biorefi nery Kamalakanta Sahoo, Sudhagar Mani 430 Corn stover as feedstock for the production of ethanol: chemical composition of different anatomical fractions and varieties 454 Planning the optimal site, size, and feed of biogas plants in agricultural districts Demetrio Antonio Zema 472 Techno-economic assessment of biogas to liquid fuels conversion technology via Fischer-Tropsch synthesis Ikenna J. Okeke, Sudhagar Mani 488 Comprehensive assessment of sugarcane straw: implications for biomass and bioenergy production REVIEWS 521 EliteTree TM : an advanced biomass tree crop technology that features greater wood density and accelerated stem growth The cover image, by Xuebing Zhao et al., is based on the Review Organosolv fractionating pre-treatment of lignocellulosic biomass for effi cient enzymatic saccharifi cation: chemistry, kinetics, and substrate structures,

Succinic acid is a promising chemical which has a wide range of applications and can be biologically produced. The separation of succinic acid from fermentation broth makes more than 50 % of the total costs in their microbial production. This review summarizes the present state of methods studied for the recovery and purification of biologically produced succinate. Previous studies on the separation of succinic acid primarily include direct crystallization, precipitation, membrane separation, extraction, chromatography, and in situ separation. No single method has proved to be simple and efficient, and improvements are especially needed with regard to yield, purity, and energy consumption. It is argued that separation technologies coupled with upstream technology, in situ product removal, and biorefining strategy deserve more attentions in the future.

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