Three teams of Iowa State University researchers will use grants from the Iowa Energy Center to develop biorenewable technologies. All three projects involve the thermochemical conversion of biomass to biorenewable fuels, chemicals, and products. The grants are part of the center’s mission to improve energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies.
- Up to a three-year, $468,000 grant to a research team led by Song-Charng Kong, an associate professor of mechanical engineering. Other researchers working on the project are Robert C. Brown, an Anson Marston Distinguished Professor in Engineering and the Gary and Donna Hoover Chair in Mechanical Engineering; Eliot Winer, an associate professor of mechanical engineering and associate director of the Virtual Reality Applications Center; and Guiping Hu, an assistant professor of industrial and manufacturing systems engineering.
- Up to a three-year, $315,000 grant to a research team led by Laura Jarboe, an assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering. Other researchers working on the project are Brown; Zhiyou Wen, an associate professor of food science and human nutrition; Zhanyou Chi, a post-doctoral research associate for the Center for Sustainable Environmental Technologies; and Shengde Zhou, an assistant professor of biological sciences at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb.
- Up to a two-year, $200,000 grant to a research team led by Brown. The team also includes Jarboe; David Laird, a professor of agronomy; and Bernardo del Campo, a graduate student in mechanical engineering.