Outreach

Energy Generation and Storage, Renewable Energy, Biofuels, and High Value Organic Products from Biomass

Depletion of fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, and natural gas raise the question about alternative sources of fuels, such as biomass derived fuels. Our environment is the major concern since it is significantly affected by the growing pollution from low-efficient power plants and cars. 

The proposed plan (Fig.1) developed for SD Pine Ridge Indian reservation in April of 2013 by Dr. Smirnova involves students and teachers in regard to sustainable energy approaches and the opportunities relevant to American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES).


This program for middle and high school students and teachers involves the graduate and undergraduate students from Smirnova research group  and addresses the major issues related to the greenhouse effect, contamination of the environment, and  advanced power generating devices, e.g. fuel cells with efficiency twice as much in comparison to the internal combustion engines, electric batteries, and wind/solar applications.

Within the next five years this initiative will involve at least five K-12 American Indian schools and the Oglala Lakota College. The efficiency of the proposed educational model will be evaluated for the K-12 schools from SD Shannon and Pennington counties. This initiative will also involve science teachers and students in discussions/hands-on activities related to sustainable energy. The teachers and students will be invited to South Dakota Mines to participate in seminars and workshops. The faculty and students from Mines will visit the schools, make presentations, and provide hands-on experiments related to sustainable energy and energy generation. This outreach program implemented in collaboration with Dr. Filipova is currently supported by NASA EPSCoR, GSC NASA, and NSF EPSCoR BIOCON projects. Other universities and colleges from SD, e.g. USD, SDSU, and Oglala Lakota College, are also involved in this long-term activities.