A research team at the South
Dakota School of Mines & Technology is beginning work on pilot scale
testing of new methods that turn biorefinery waste into valuable products. The waste
biomass or byproducts generated by ethanol plants and other biorefineries, such
as corn stover, are normally thrown away—but finding cost-effective means of using
this waste to make new products will generate extra revenue for the facilities,
help lower fuel costs, reduce carbon emissions, and ultimately help
farmers.
“This is one more way SD Mines is
pioneering research that helps the environment while increasing efficiency and
profit margins for our industry partners.
This is the kind of work that can have a positive impact on the economy
of South Dakota,” says SD Mines Vice President of Research Ralph Davis, Ph.D.
Rajesh Shende, Ph.D., professor in
the chemical and biological engineering department at SD Mines, is leading the
research. This work began in Shende’s lab with a
$2.16 million grant from the Department of Energy (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office that was awarded in 2017.
This initial validation stage in the research
proved successful; Shende’s team is now working on the effort to optimize
processes at the laboratory level and scale up the work to prove it can work
for industry.
“This is a great milestone in this
project and we’re excited,” says Shende.
“We had been doing something on a lab scale looking at a few grams at a
time, we’re moving to processing one ton of per day.”
A pilot scale testing facility is set to be established at SD Mines. Pilot scale processing
of corn stover will be performed at Idaho National Lab, SD Mines and Southwest
Research Institute (SwRI). The facilities will make products such as carbon nanofibers, lactic
acid, phenol, and battery grade biocarbon. These valuable products have wide
ranging use in industry, from disinfectants to carbon fiber materials to
batteries and fuel. The products that can be created with these processes include
clean-burning oils, “This can be blended with commercial bio-diesel and used in
diesel generators,” says Vinod Amar, Ph.D., a SD Mines research scientist
working on the project.
Some of the partnering institutions
on this project will also have processing facilities including Old Dominion
University (ODU), Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), Idaho National
Laboratory (INL) and Southwest Research Institute (SwRI).
Members of Dr. Shende’s research team shown above include Ph.D.
graduate student Joseph Houck, undergraduate student Hope Dosch, Dr. Vinod Amar
and Dr. Rajesh Shende. Others not pictured include, Ph.D. graduate student
Bharath Maddipudi along with undergraduate students Trevor Penrod and Jarvie Arnold.