Achievement

A new research focus is emerging this year on using microbial degradation processes in new ways to make better use of renewable biomass feedstocks that currently are hard to process and usually go waste. Trainee T. Louie and M. Haggblom are microbiologists investigating how to use microbes to generate methane for biopower from the hard-to-digest lignocellulosic (aka “woody”) components of plant mass – currently neither technically nor economically viable as biomass feedstocks. Trainee A. Luther and advisor D. Fennell are environmental engineers developing an anaerobic digestion reactor to recover and utilize ammonia and biogas from high nitrogen waste sources that are currently environmentally problematic, such as animal wastes that are odiferous and can contaminate groundwater. Both research projects are still nascent but noteworthy because of the potential for converting recalcitrant, environmentally problematic wastes into sources of heat and power.