MAS BioEnergy Fellows Take On DC (March 2011)
The MAS BioEnergy second cohort traveled to Washington, DC to meet up with representatives on Capitol Hill, federal agency executives and scientists, and energy NGO's from February 28 thru March 3, 2011. A key component of the MAS BioEnergy program is for the participants to develop an understanding of the interface between policy and technology, and its impact of policy on research, development, and implementation of bioenergy technology and products. Specific goals for this policy immersion week are:
• Learn about the policy-making process
• Learn which individuals and organizations influence bioenergy policy
• Understand the goals and perspectives of the individuals and organizations influencing bioenergy policy
• Learn how policy-makers form their views on bioenergy and other technical topics
Some meeting highlights included:
Congressional Research Services - learned about their roles in compiling and providing information relative to bioenergy research and topics to Congress. This highly-educated group of scientists serve as liasions for the policy/technology interface to produce critical scientific information for Congress to use in the policy-making process.
Visited with executive director of the Algal Biomass Organization, Mary Rosenthal, about the importance of lobbying on the hill about algal biofuel research
Visited Senator Mark Udall's office to discuss energy opportunities and importance in Colorado
Met with AAAS legislative fellows for Senator Mark Udall and the Senate Energy Committee - highlight of the trip! Found out what it is really like to be a scientist immersed in the political world. Encouraged our scientists that very knowedgeable scientists are present to help inform policy-makers about the current energy science and possibilities. We can envision some of our fellows move towards this role after their doctorate work.
Visited the EPA headquarters and met with economists and environmental specialists about the RFS2 mandate as well as some of the more current transportation standards incorporating biofuel materials.
Visited the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy including meetings with chief science officer, Sam Baldwin, and the Technology Managers of the Biomass Program. The interactions between students and scientists were invigorating and enthusiastic as both groups shared ideas about new technologies and explained some of the current DOE approaches within the current political environment.
Visited with the the USDA Senior Bioenergy Advisor, Donna Perla and the USDA National Program Leader of the Biomass program to discuss the new approaches of the USDA to bioenergy research especially agricultural techniques and the expansion of the Biomass Program that partners with academic and agency groups.
Most importantly, we had tons of fun in the capitol exploring new restaurants, seeing the sites, and becoming even closer as a group.
CSU a hotbed of alternative biofuel research (December 2010)
Read the original article at http://www.today.colostate.edu/story.aspx?id=5018
From Today at Colorado State, April 23rd, 2010:
It could be said that Colorado State is growing colonies of researchers -- as well as algae -- in its exploration of alternative fuels. CSU's community of researchers is populated by the significant number of faculty devoted to the study of energy and the environment and through partnerships with alternative energy companies.
Tara Schumacher, a Ph.D. grad student in Ken Reardon’s lab, looks through a microscope surrounded by flasks of different algae strains
We don't have to beg for data'
As a researcher at Colorado State University, Assistant Professor Tom Bradley expects to dig and dig – and dig some more – for his data. But it turns out measuring the environmental impacts of algae as a biofuel is easier when you have a legion of researchers backing you up.
CSU is a hotbed of expertise on converting algae to biodiesel because of significant faculty research on energy and the environment. “We’re very lucky to be doing this work here at the University,” says Bradley. “Anywhere else, we’d have to beg for the data.”
University, companies collaborate
Public-private partnerships on a national scale also have played a major role in alternative fuel research. In January, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced that Solix, a privately held alternative energy company; and other collaborators would be part of a $49 million consortium coordinated through The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center.
The consortium, called the National Alliance for Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts, is part of an $80 million investment in advanced biofuels research announced by Chu. The consortium is the only one funded by the U.S. Department of Energy that focuses solely on algae.
Ensuring an easy transition to biofuels
Working on the DOE grant are Anthony Marchese and Ken Reardon, Jud and Pat Harper Endowed Chair of Chemical and Biological Engineering, from the College of Engineering and Shawn Archibeque from the College of Agricultural Sciences. The three will investigate reuse of byproducts from the algae-to-oil process, properties of algae-produced fuels, and whether the alternative fuel can easily replace gasoline and petroleum diesel, says Marchese, who is leading the University’s portion of the grant.
Jenna Bloxom, a student in a CSU program funded by the NSF to provide interdisciplinary biofuels training for doctoral students, works with cell cultures.
“The goal behind the consortium is to advance the current status of research and development into algae biofuels and really encompass the entire process of algae biofuels – from biology to cultivation at large scales to converting algae oil to biofuel and characterizing the fuels that you get,” Marchese says.
Breadth of research assignments
CSU researchers are responsible for about $1.25 million of the grant:
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Archibeque will research whether the algae’s leftover biomass – after the oils have been extracted – could be used in animal feed.
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Reardon will examine ways of converting that leftover biomass to another fuel such as ethanol or butanol.
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Marchese’s expertise is fuel characterization – or ensuring that the fuels that are produced are usable. He also serves as a team leader for the entire consortium on fuel conversion.
“I’m looking at characterizing those fuels to make sure that they’re fit for purpose,” Marchese says. “We can’t expect the engine manufacturers to design engines that run specifically on algae. It’s more likely that we’ll need to produce fuels that have properties identical to gasoline, diesel, or jet fuel.”
Research taps students
Marchese is conducting one of the first studies on the emissions produced from algae as a biofuel with fellow mechanical engineering Professor Azer Yalin. He adds that a minimum of two master’s students and one doctoral student will be working on the DOE project with him.
Undergraduates are likely to be involved as well – two-thirds of the roughly 60 students typically working in the Engines and Energy Conversion Lab are undergraduate students, said Mac McGoldrick, program manager for the lab.
“These are often students from a variety of disciplines, not just engineering, and they’re learning from some of the best people in their fields,” McGoldrick says. "Dozens of undergraduates are involved in biofuels research projects across the University."
Biofuels in the Clean Energy Supercluster
Marchese, Reardon and Archibeque already work together as members of the University’s Clean Energy Supercluster, an internal University network of more than 150 researchers exploring topics related to energy and the environment.
Research into biofuels is an especially strong component of CSU’s Clean Energy Supercluster. A sample:
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Ken Reardon is the CSU liaison to a statewide collaboration to speed up commercialization of clean energy technological innovation and create new jobs in the New Energy Economy. He represents CSU in the Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels, or C2B2, which is part of the Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory, a partnership between CSU, CU-Boulder, Colorado School of Mines and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
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A team of professors at CSU are using a $3 million National Science Foundation grant to provide interdisciplinary biofuels training for doctoral students. The biofuels industry around the nation has grown so complex that the next generation of scientists needs to know all its angles – from the chemistry of making it to the economics of selling it.
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Reardon directs this program along with a leadership team of Dan Bush, Chair of the biology department; Jan Leach, University Distinguished Professor of bioagricultural sciences and pest management; and Keith Paustian, professor of soil and crop sciences and senior research scientist in the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory.
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Cobalt Technologies this spring tapped Marchese and Reardon to perform engine testing with a gasoline-butanol blend made with the biobutanol from beetle-killed wood. Cobalt, a Mountain View, Calif., company is developing a drop-in replacement for petroleum and petrochemicals from beetle-affected lodgepole pine. Fuel testing has been performed at the EECL under the auspices of the newly formed Sustainable Bioenergy Development Center.
CSU to host Netherlands researchers at algae symposium (October 2010)
Read the original article at http://www.news.colostate.edu/Release/5405
From Colorado State University, October 4th, 2010:
Colorado State University to Host Netherlands Researchers at Algae Symposium Today
Colorado State University will host a group of researchers from Wageningen University in the Netherlands to discuss worldwide research and current innovations in algae-to-biofuel research at the Algae Symposium today.
Microalgae are considered one of the most promising feedstock for biofuels. Although microalgae are not yet produced at large scale for bulk application, recent advances - particularly in the systems of biology, genetic engineering, and biorefining - present opportunities to develop this process in a sustainable and economical way within the next 10-15 years.
Rene H. Wijffels and Maria J. Barbosa of Wageningen University will present “An Outlook on Microalgal Biofuels” from noon-1 p.m. today in Room 228 of the Lory Student Center. The event is free and open to the public.
Wijffels is head of the bioprocesses department at Wageningen University where he obtained his master’s and doctoral degrees in bioprocess engineering.
Barbosa holds a doctoral degree from Wageningen University and is facilitator and advisor of the Intergovernmental Institution for the use of Micro-algae Spirulina Against Malnutrition, an organization that strives to make Spirulina, an edible microalgae that is a key factor toward eliminating malnutrition.
The symposium will also include a poster session and a series of short presentations featuring several other researchers from Wageningen University. Presentations include: post-treatment of municipal wastewater, increased production of pigments in microalgae, harvesting of microalgae and response of algae to fluctuating light.
The event is sponsored by the Colorado State University Office of International Programs and Sustainable Bioenergy Development Center.