Reardon named endowed chair of Chemical and Biological Engineering (August 2010)

Read the original article at http:// http://www.today.colostate.edu/story.aspx?id=4337

From Today at Colorado State University, August 26th, 2010:

Chemical engineering prof named to endowed chair

Ken Reardon, Colorado State University engineering professor, has been designated the Jud and Pat Harper Endowed Chair of Chemical and Biological Engineering -- a prestigious honor named after a former president of the university.

Leading expert on biofuels and biotechnology

Reardon is a leading expert on the production of biofuels as well as biotechnology for detection of environmental pollutants. In 2009, he worked with Cenergy, the university’s vehicle for commercializing innovative clean and renewable technologies, to spin off OptiEnz Sensors LLC, which will develop, manufacture and sell biosensors to detect food and water contaminants.

Ken Reardon, professor of chemical and biological engineering, has been named Jud and Pat Harper Endowed Chair of Chemical and Biological Engineering.
 

“This is a well-deserved honor for Professor Reardon, who has been a tremendous asset for the College of Engineering,” said Sandra Woods, dean of the college. “He is an example of the faculty members in our college who collaborate with industry partners as well as other disciplines to develop innovative alternative energy solutions. We are grateful to the Harpers for their additional contribution to his research and for their long-term support and leadership within CSU and the College of Engineering. ”

Funds from Jud and Pat Harper

The funds for Reardon’s position were pledged in 2007 by longtime Colorado State supporters Jud and Pat Harper, who named Colorado State University the beneficiary of a $1 million life insurance policy. Jud Harper's distinguished record of service at the university includes serving as interim president from July 1989 through June 1990 and as vice president for Research and Information Technology from 1982 to 2000. Previously, he served as professor and department head of Agricultural Engineering (later Agricultural and Chemical Engineering) from 1970-1982.

In 2000, Harper accepted a part-time appointment as special assistant to the president under Al Yates until he fully retired in 2003. He has served on the College of Engineering Dean's Advisory Board and the Chemical Engineering Advisory Board.

Pat Harper has also been a strong ambassador for the university through such groups as the Colorado State University Women's Association.

Attract and retain outstanding scholars, teachers

Endowed chairs help to attract and retain outstanding scholars and teachers, providing them with recognition and additional funding. Funds may be used to help upgrade laboratories and equipment as well as for seed money to develop innovative technologies with the help of undergraduate and graduate students.

Reardon has been at the university since 1989 and is responsible for attracting $10.7 million – largely federal research dollars – to CSU. He is the Colorado State University site director for the Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels, or C2B2. C2B2 was founded in March 2007 by the Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory, a consortium consisting of four institutions:

• Colorado State University
• Colorado School of Mines
• University of Colorado-Boulder
• National Renewable Energy Laboratory

More about Reardon’s research group

Reardon's research group blends engineering analysis with proteomics and other experimental methods from microbiology and biochemistry to gain insights into biological systems. These approaches are used in projects in bioprocessing (including the production of biofuels), environmental biotechnology, biosensing, and biomedical science and engineering. His biofuels-related research began more than 20 years ago with a project on the production of butanol from sugars and now includes studies on algal biorefineries and enzyme bioprospecting.

CSU Chemistry professors find new breakthrough for biofuel conversion (April 2010)

Read the original article at http://www.today.colostate.edu/story.aspx?id=3665

From Colorado State University, April 22nd, 2010:

Using ionic liquids without acids for biomass conversion into fuels saves time, energy

Dissolving plant biomass in "green" solvent ionic liquids - salts that melt at low temperatures - converts more sugars needed for biofuel more quickly than traditional methods, according to a new study by Colorado State University professors.

Important discovery for alternative fuels

The discovery is an important step in the move toward the use of nonedible plant biomass as an alternative source for fuel. The study, by Professor Eugene Chen in chemistry and Xianghong Qian, an assistant professor in mechanical engineering, was recently published in the April 15 issue of American Chemical Society’s journal, Energy and Fuels.

Traditionally, plant biomass materials need enzymes or strong acids as catalysts to release the sugars locked within walls of plant cells. When mixed with a suitable amount of water, ionic liquids – called “green” solvents because they’re nonvolatile and recyclable – convert the biomass directly into sugars. This process is completed without added acid catalysts that are commonly used in other processes to extract sugars from plants.

New process reduces costs

The sugars extracted from plant biomass can be readily converted into HMF - 5-hydroxymethyl furfural, which leads to biofuel with considerably higher energy density than current ethanol-based biofuel. The new process they developed can also convert the biomass directly into HMF in high yield, without isolating the sugars.

“Extracting that sugar and subsequently converting it to biofuel can be costly – one-third of the cost of the entire process is the enzymes,” Chen said. “While that process does have some unbeatable advantages – it can convert cellulose to glucose almost exclusively - the cost of it is high and the rate of the sugar release is low.”

Recover, recycle, reuse ionic fluids

The cost of ionic liquids can be steep as well, but they can be recovered, recycled and reused, Chen said. Qian, through computer modeling, helped Chen determine that the origin of the acidity discovered in ionic liquid-water mixtures. This acidity was previously unrecognized and now found suitable for conversion of biomass into sugars also without common side reactions – no additional catalyst was needed.

Ionic liquids are among the very few liquids that can dissolve plant biomass since plants have very tight defense systems that make it difficult to break down cell walls. The support system of the plant is intertwined with the sugars needed for biofuel, lignin, and other proteins.

Scientific challenge

If scientists could get to the sugars in plants easily, then they could meet society’s energy needs through Earth’s plants, Chen said.

“In about one decade, plant biomass could sequester the energy equivalent of the energy stored in all the crude oil on Earth. The problem is that we currently cannot efficiently and economically convert the biomass into sugars or directly into fuels,” he said.

About the researchers

Chen, a former senior research chemist with Dow Chemical, has been at Colorado State since 2000. Qian joined Colorado State in 2006 from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory where she researched biomass conversion to biofuels using thermochemical methods.

Also assisting with the research are Yuetao Zhang, a research scientist working with Chen, and Hongbo Du, Qian’s graduate student.



Eugene Chen, professor of chemistry and the co-author of a study published in Energy & Fuels.




Xianghong Qian, an assistant professor in mechanical engineering and the study co-author.

Colorado State University professors to measure pollutant formation from algae biofuels (March 2010)

Read the original article at http://www.news.colostate.edu/Release/5093

From Colorado State University, March 23rd, 2010:

Some Colorado State University engineers are stepping back from the scramble to find renewable alternatives to oil and asking a pivotal question: Is algae as a biodiesel truly more environmental friendly?

Anthony Marchese and Azer Yalin, associate professors in mechanical engineering, have received a $325,000 National Science Foundation grant to conduct one of the first studies on the emissions produced from algae as a biofuel.

“One of the reasons we’re interested in algae-based biofuels is because of their potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to reduce our dependence on imported oil,” Marchese said. “What are the consequences if we were to suddenly go from zero to 20 billion gallons of algae-based biofuel per year over the next 20 years? Are there going to be any consequences that we may not have thought about? Recent history is littered with examples where we’ve moved too quickly with the technology without understanding the risks.”

An example, he said, is the MTBE additive to oxygenate fuels that was quickly removed from the market because of possible health effects appearing from groundwater contamination.

“Now is a good time to evaluate pollutant formation from these fuels – before they are in widespread use,” Marchese said.

Marchese and Yalin are also working with Jeff Collett in CSU’s atmospheric chemistry department and John Volckens in environmental and radiological health sciences. Marchese’s research focuses on the fundamentals of how fuels burn and the particulate matter that is produced.

The scientists will conduct several experiments to better understand how oxides of nitrogen, also known as NOx, are produced from biofuel. Much of the work will be done at the CSU Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory.

“There is a lack of understanding of the chemistry behind NOx and soot formation from biodiesel in general,” Yalin said. “Algae-based biodiesel is unique and has a different chemical structure than feedstocks like soybeans, so we’re building several experiments to focus on the NOx production and soot as well. In diesel engines, NOx and soot are still a major concern.”

The researchers will use Yalin’s expertise in lasers to safely study combustion while it’s happening as well as to provide images and data on concentrations of different molecules. Yalin and Marchese will use lasers to measure the NOx produced during the ignition of a single spherical droplet of fuel as well as other chemical reactions produced during the combustion process.

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