Two Arizona State University researchers working on biodiesel projects have been nominated for the 2009 World Technology Award, which recognizes individuals and corporations from 20 technology-related sectors.
They’ll be headed to New York for the World Technology Awards gala ceremony on July 16, 2009 at the conclusion of the two-day World Technology Summit:
Scientists Qiang Hu and Milton Sommerfeld in the College of Technology and Innovation at ASU’s Polytechnic campus, have been selected as nominees for the award for their work with algal feedstocks and biodiesel fuel. In November 2008, TIME magazine selected the researchers’ work as one of the top 10 best innovations for 2008.
You can find more information at www.wtn.net.
Who are the stars of biodiesel science? Here are two of them, nominated for this prestigious award. Don’t forget that we are in the infancy of biodiesel science and engineering, and we don’t exactly know where all this will go, just that it will be part of the future of fuel.
Joe Jobe photo from: http://www.biodiesel.org/aboutnbb/whoarewe/staff%20photos/Joe%20Jobe%20300.jpg
In a move to fight a proposed change that would basically shut out soy-based biodiesel… the bulk of the nation’s biodiesel production… from the Renewable Fuels Standard, the National Biodiesel Board has launched a Web site to give people the tools to make comments on the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal.
The RFS2 Action Center gives those who want to stop the change examples of comments, where and how to send the comments, and this letter from NBB CEO Joe Jobe himself:
Please do read the letter from Mr. Jobe, as he speaks for the entire biodiesel industry in the U.S.A., the main idea being that we are not part of wrecking the rain forests—we have plenty of land here.
A UGA scientist operates a photobioreactor. Dalton Utilities is partnering with the university on a pilot project to produce biodiesel from wastewater on DU's land application system along the Conasauga River. Contributed photo / Dalton Daily Citizen
Dalton Utilities hasn’t struck oil, but the company may have about the next best thing. This fall the utility plans to start a pilot project to produce biodiesel from wastewater on its land application system along the Conasauga River.
“We are working on the design now,” said Mark Marlowe, Dalton Utilities’ vice president of water and wastewater engineering. “We hope to start construction in the fall or winter of this year, and complete construction in fall or winter. The startup will take several months. But it should be fully operational by the spring of 2010.”
Get this, biodiesel from waste water via algae. If this works, and we will know soon, this could change the way we look at waste water and biodiesel, a production method no one can argue with.
Actually, the concept of making biodiesel from coffee is not new. For several years, Brazilians have been extracting oil from defective and surplus coffee beans to produce biodiesel. At the University of Nevada, the researchers are focusing on spent coffee grounds, collected from the local Starbucks. The Starbucks outlets in Reno participate in the company’s Grounds for Your Garden program, where customers are encouraged to recycle waste coffee grounds for their gardens, Strull says. The students recycled the grounds into their research project instead.
Who knew? There is enough oil in coffee beans to extract for biodiesel production. There seem to be so many different sources for biodiesel, I don’t see how it can fail to grow and grow.