Conference Session

Biology in Engineering

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mark McConkie, Utah State University; Timothy Taylor, Utah State University; David Britt, Utah State University

Tagged Divisions

Biological & Agricultural

. Page 11.1072.5 Reductionism is generally the accepted approach for attaining a Ph.D. in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. While extending one’s specialized (Ph.D. level) knowledge to a broader problem can provide new and nontraditional approaches, it is more likely to not lead to a successful result. The same applies at the departmental level. At USU the name change required bringing in new faculty with specialization in chemical engineering, bioengineering, Materials Science, and analytical chemistry to complement the old guard rooted in traditional Agriculture and Irrigation Engineering. The breadth of faculty knowledge extends beyond the walls of the classroom or teaching laboratory into faculty

Conference Session

Biology in Engineering

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kurt Rosentrater, USDA-ARS; Kasiviswanathan Muthukumarappan

Tagged Divisions

Biological & Agricultural

, detergents,and bioplastics. The ethanol is used as a solvent and for transportation fuels. Additionally, anon-site cogeneration system provides electricity and steam for the conversion processes [14].The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) biorefinery concept (Figure 4) is built ontwo different "platforms" to promote specific product streams. The "sugar platform" is based onbiochemical conversion processes and focuses on the fermentation of sugars extracted frombiomass feedstocks. The "syngas platform" is based on thermochemical conversion processesand focuses on the gasification of biomass feedstocks and by-products from conversionprocesses. Page