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Chen Developing Low-cost Method to Produce Fuel
November 7, 2009
Wilfred Chen, professor of chemical and environmental engineering, is leading a consortium that is developing a one-step consolidated bioprocessing method for direct fermentation of cellulose to ethanol. This would create a cost-effective way to convert an abundant non-food related agricultural residue into vehicle fuel. The result would be reduction of environmental pollution, enhancement of the value of farmers' crops, and less need for imported petroleum.
The new Energy Policy Act is requiring that several billion gallons of renewable fuel must be produced by 2012, with most produced as biofuel using renewable biomass. While the cost of other raw materials can be high, this form of lignocellulosic biomass is especially well-suited for energy applications because of its availability, low cost and environmentally benign production. The raw material can be found in wheat straw, corn stalk and soybean residues, industrial waste from the pulp and paper industry, forestry residues and municipal solid waste.
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10.19.09 > BCOE Environmental Projects Capture Two Awards
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Department Highlights
- Professors David Cocker and Wilfred Chen are recipients of the NSF-CAREER Awards, supporting the early career development of academics most likely to become future academic leaders
- Professor Robert Haddon won the James C. McGroddy Prize for New Materials of the American Physical Society
- Yushan Yan is the most recent professor inducted as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), joining fellow colleagues Robert Haddon, Joe Norbeck, Mark Matsumoto, Ashok Mulchandani, Wilfred Chen, and Charles Wyman.
- The Department's research funding is around $10 million a year, and our faculty collaborates in major campus research efforts in nanotechnology and chemical sensors
- Our students have won the EPA STAR Award, an Office of Naval Research Fellowship, and a federal grant for a project on rainwater harvesting to supplement local water supplies in the national People, Prosperity and the Planet (P3) competition
- CEE faculty have twice received the Chancellor's Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award and the Excellence in Teaching Award
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