DOE Visit
As mentioned previously, representatives from the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renwable Energy at the Department of Energy visited campus recently. The main focus was on bioenergy. The visitors included Tobin Harvey, Senior Advisor in Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Jacques Beaudry-Losique, Program Manager of the Biomass Program of the Office of Science, and John Ferrell, also of the Biomass Program. Joint discussions were held with both agriculture and engineering. These efforts have grown out of the A&M Bio-Energy Alliance that was signed last year between Vice Chancellor for Agriculture and Life Sciences Elsa Murano and Vice Chancellor for Engineering Kem Bennett. The agreement makes possible collaborative research in biofuels to address the broad spectrum of issues ranging from the design and development of crops as high-energy feedstock all the way to the end user (biomass conversion to conventional fuels and engine design). A focus of the visit on the engineering side was the work on the Mixalco conversion process being done by Mark Holtzapple and Cesar Granda in Chemical Engineering.
The discussions with the DOE were very productive. The research here fits very well with the plans at DOE which should open up significant opportunities for future funding. Thanks to everyone who helped arrange the agenda and participated in the discussions to make this a success. We are looking to build on this good foundation.
Lee