Bioeconomy Institute

This week, we toured Bryan Siever's Cattle Farm and AgriReNew Renewable Energy Company in Stockton with state elected officials, locally appointed officials, and state/federal legislative staff. Much insightful questions and conversation to help move Ag and Energy policy in IA.

“Both collaboration and diversity of approaches have helped make Iowa State and Ames Laboratory ‘go to’ institutions when it comes to plastics upcycling,” Brown said. “What strikes me about our recent success in winning contracts and awards in this field is that it has involved four independent research teams at Iowa State and Ames Lab, rather than a single coordinated effort. I believe this reflects well on our research community’s depth of expertise and ability to apply diverse scientific and technical skill sets to identify and develop innovative solutions to emerging societal challenges.”

Iowa State University and Ames Laboratory Lead Charge in Plastics “Upcycling” Research Ames, Iowa, has recently become a national research epicenter for a rapidly emerging field: plastics “upcycling.” Researchers at Iowa State University, in tandem with Ames Laboratory — a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Laboratory — received multiple awards over the 2020 calendar yea...

Join us for the 2021 Carbon Removal Forum on March 10th (9:00 AM - 12:00 PM)! This event will be held virtually!

The link below to register.

(You must register to participate.)

Carbon Removal Forum • Bioeconomy Institute • Iowa State University The Carbon Removal Forum is a campus-wide event to harness knowledge and capacity toward developing an Iowa State University program in agriculturally-based carbon removal that could contribute toward mitigating climate change. March 10, 2021 9:00 am– 12:00 pm CST Virtual via Zoom (link to come) T...

Last year Brown was awarded a multimillion dollar grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop a system to convert plastic and paper wastes generated by the military into macronutrients to feed expeditionary forces. Brown and his team are using a thermal process to convert these wastes into substrate for fermentation into single cell protein. The team not only has to prove out the basic concept, but they eventually need to build a field deployable fermentation system that is simple enough for soldiers to operate.

“The constraints to this problem have several parallels to homebrewing. As I told our team, I have been preparing for this project for the last ten years,” Brown said.

Engineer by day, brewer by night • College of Engineering News • Iowa State University January 19, 2021 • Nick Fetty CoE News Mechanical Engineering beer beer brewing craft beer mechanical engineering Robert C. Brown poses in the brew lab that he has set up in the basement of his home. Photo courtesy of Robert C. Brown. When he’s not busy conducting research in the laboratories of...

Through support from the U.S. Dept. of Energy, the Multi-University Center for the Chemical Upcycling of Waste Plastics (CUWP) is hosting a Research Experience for Undergraduates in the Chemical Upcycling of Waste Plastics. Student positions will be available at CUWP campuses at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Iowa State University.

Research Experience for Undergraduates in Chemical Upcycling of Waste Plastics Through support for the U.S. Department of Energy, the Multi-University Center for the Chemical Upcycling of Waste Plastics (CUWP) is hosting a Research Experience for Undergraduates in the Chemical Upcycling of Waste Plastics. Student positions will be available at CUWP campuses at the University o...

Iowa State Student Continues Winning Poster Tradition • Bioeconomy Institute • Iowa State University October 21, 2020 • Robert Mills News Jessica Brown, a Ph.D. student in mechanical engineering at Iowa State University, won first place in the graduate research poster competition at the TCS 2020 conference held virtually in October 2020. Her winning poster was titled: “A novel semi-batch autocl...

Newly Funded Research Study Aims to Convert Paper and Plastic Wastes into Food: Researchers at Iowa State University (ISU) and its partners will create a system that converts wastes generated by military expeditionary forces into food. The technology could vastly improve military logistics and may have wider application to produce food and reduce plastic wastes.

https://www.biorenew.iastate.edu/2020/09/10/newly-funded-research-study-aims-to-convert-paper-and-plastic-wastes-into-food/

Grant to help scientists, industry and farmers harness biomass and manure to fuel farms • News Service • Iowa State University AMES, Iowa – A new federal grant will allow a research team led by Iowa State University, Penn State and Roeslein Alternative Energy to develop new methods of turning biomass and manure into fuel.