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Biofuels constitute an important alternative for the current national and worldwide energy demand. The main goal of this paper is to summarize the recent contributions of Universidad de los Andes for the development of technologies related to its production. Such efforts have been conveyed to the use of sub products like oil palm empty-fruit-bunch or domestic solid waste for ethanol production, hydrogen production and liquid fuels through anaerobic digestion and waste pyrolysis respectively, and biodiesel by fatty acids esterification. Generally, the limitations of these technologies stand on discovering adequate catalysts either from biological or chemical origin, finding optimum reaction conditions (temperature, pressure and reactive systems) accounting yield and selectivity and, finally, feedstock selection from an economical perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of virtual media as a support to formal higher education requires a methodology able to support the teacher's specific educative needs and the pedagogical requirements of diverse subjects and knowledge areas. This paper presents the methodology used on the construction of Learning Virtual Environments as a complement to the face to face activities of ten different disciplines courses on the Universidad de los Andes, at Bogotá (Colombia). The procedure and balance of this methodology are part of the reflection contained in this document. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]