|  | | Value-added Technologies for Utilization of Crop Byproducts and Residues
Date Approved: 10/13/2003
Amount: $100,000
Lead: Professor Roger Ruan
Contact Person: Roger Ruan
Status: Awarded by the Department of Defense, $525,000 leveraged.
Benefits and Deliverables:
- In Year 1, the researchers will focus on process optimization and product development.
- In Year 2, the researchers will focus on scale-up pilot facility development and testing.
Description:
The
goal of the study is to develop new technologies to convert biomass,
especially lignocellulosic biomass, to biopolymers, and develop methods
to make consumer and industrial products from these biopolymers. The
specific objectives of this proposed project are to optimize the total
liquefaction technology the researchers developed and patented earlier,
and develop a scale-up pilot facility, and systematically evaluate the
technology including its energy consumption and economics.
The
federal and state governments and the industries are stepping up
efforts to shift the current fossil-oil-based economy to a new
bio-based economy. This is a great opportunity. The University of
Minnesota IREE was created in this atmosphere to seize the opportunity.
The non-renewable resource- and fossil-oil-based economy has adverse
impacts on the environment, and is non-sustainable. In contrast, an
economy based on renewable resources such as biomass will certainly
supplement energy and material production from fossil resources, and
offers strong possibility of displacing use of petroleum. First,
biomass resources are domestic, reducing dependence on foreign oil and
reducing concerns over the stability of that supply. The conversion
processes used with biomass sources also have a major advantage over
petroleum refining processes, releasing far fewer pollutants to the
atmosphere and generating no toxic wastes during production. Perhaps
most importantly to many in the US, producing chemicals and materials
from renewable biomass resources means new markets for agriculture.
Opening new uses for agricultural crops and processed derivatives can
reduce the effect of food commodity market limits on agricultural
product prices, delivering higher returns to producers.
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