Two companies launched by discoveries at an engineering research center based at Iowa State University have won business development grants to help them commercialize their biorenewable technologies.
Both technologies would help industries produce chemicals from biorenewable sources rather than petroleum. They were developed by researchers at the National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals based at Iowa State. The center (known as CBiRC, “See-burk”) was established in 2008 by the NSF’s Engineering Research Center program. So far, the NSF has committed to support the center with $30.5 million over an eight-year period.