ITHACA,
N.Y. -- In a time of skyrocketing gasoline prices
and concerns over global warming, Cornell University
is helping to spearhead the next green revolution
by using plants to produce energy, industrial chemicals
and green materials.
Awarded
more than $8.2 million in federal funding over
four years through the recent signing of the federal
Transportation Bill, Cornell has been tapped by
the federal government as one of five Sun Grant
Centers of Excellence -- regional hubs that will
take the lead in researching the use of plant biomass
in energy and chemical production; for education
and outreach activities; and for soliciting and funding
proposals that focus on using renewable agricultural
resources to produce heat, electricity, biofuels,
natural products, such as biopesticides and bioherbicides,
and industrial chemicals.
"With our global community entering a less
certain oil future, over the next 10 to 25 years,
there will be a major transition to agricultural-based
bio-industries," said Larry Walker, professor
of biological and environmental engineering at Cornell
and director of the institute.
Cornell, the land-grant university of New York state,
is the lead university for the Northeast Sun Grant
Institute of Excellence, which serves 14 states and
the District of Columbia, from Maine to Maryland
to Michigan. That makes Cornell one of only two universities
in the nation, along with Oregon State University,
now designated by the federal government in all of
the four categories of land, sea, space and sun grant
institutions.
"Genomics, nanobiotechnology and breakthroughs
in molecular biology, genetics and biological engineering
have opened up a broad spectrum of opportunities
and challenges for manipulating microbial and plant
systems to produce novel organic compounds and to
meet part of the U.S. and world energy needs," said
Walker. "Opportunities abound for integrating
these advances in engineering and science into regional,
national and global efforts to develop sustainable
industries and communities."
Involving at least two dozen Cornell faculty members,
the institute was established in 2004 at Cornell.
But it was not until the passing of the Transportation
Bill in August that the institute was given the funding
needed to solicit and award competitive grants to
regional land-grant universities to work in partnership
with industry, governmental agencies, communities,
private entrepreneurs and others stakeholders for
bringing the bio-economy to the region.
The Northeast Sun Grant Initiative will focus on
biopower -- energy produced from renewable biomass
for heat and electricity; biofuels -- liquid and
gaseous transportation fuels, such as bioethanol
and biodiesel, made from biomass resources; and bioproducts
-- chemicals and materials that are traditionally
made from petroleum-based resources but will be made
from biomass. In each of these strategic areas, initiatives
will involve feedstock development, conversion processes,
systems integration and biomass public policy issues.
Currently,
less than 10 percent of chemicals and commodities
and less than 5 percent of U.S. energy supplies
are derived from agriculturally based resources,
Walker pointed out.
"Our vision is to rethink how many of the material
needs of society can be met by using renewable agriculturally
based raw materials," Walker said, noting that Cornell
is an ideal location for the Northeast Sun Grant
Institute because "it is one of very few institutions
in the world that can bring together so many physical
and life scientists, engineers and social scientists
with the talent and interest in sustainable development,
or that has access to so many bright young minds."
The Sun Grant centers not only will promote the
development of bio-based energy technologies but
also environmental sustainability as well as boost
the economic vitality and diversity of rural communities,
said Walker. He praised New York's congressional
representatives -- Sherwood Boehlert, Maurice Hinchey
and Jerome Nadler as well as U.S. Senators Hillary
Clinton and Charles Schumer -- for their support
of funding for the consortium. Gov. George Pataki's
Washington office was also helpful in the political
process, he said.
Michael
Hoffman, director of the Cornell University Agricultural
Experiment Station, said: "Funding of
the Sun Grant is truly great news for Cornell, the
Northeast and the nation. The Sun Grant is well positioned
to help us diversify our energy supply portfolio,
more important now then ever before, and generate
a multitude of new natural products and industrial
chemicals. We see many economic and environmental
benefits for New York state farms and communities
thanks to the Sun Grant."
The Northeast Sun Grant Institute at Cornell serves
a region that includes the states of Connecticut,
Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan,
New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania,
Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, D.C., and West
Virginia. The other regional Sun Grant Centers of
Excellence are at Oregon State University-Corvallis;
University of Tennessee-Knoxville; Oklahoma State
University, Stillwater; and South Dakota State University-Brookings.
Campus bio-energy and bioproducts projects: With
more than 400 life scientists at Cornell, a multitude
of bio-energy and bioproducts projects are already
under way on campus. They include:
- pretreating switch grass and alfafa to improve
their enzyme conversion to fermentable sugars;
- engineering enzymes that are more effective in
converting cellulose derived from herbaceous crops
and grasses into fermentable sugars to be converted
into industrial chemicals;
- developing molecular ecology techniques to prospect
for novel industrial enzymes and microorganisms
from extreme environments;
- engineering plants to effectively produce important
industrial enzymes and industrial compounds;
- applying nanofabrication and single-molecule
confinement methods to investigate molecular mechanisms
of important industrial enzymes;
- enhancing ethanol tolerance and production in
yeast through understanding and manipulating membrane
restructuring;
- converting dairy manure-derived biogas from anaerobic
digestion to produce electricity, hydrogen and
heat on dairy farms;
- utilizing used vegetable oil from restaurants
to replace diesel fuel for vehicles;
- investigating the technical and economic constraints
of using digester and landfill gases to operate
fuel cells;
- developing environmentally friendly bioherbicides
to control plant-pathogenic bacteria and fungi;
- screening molecules for novel compounds in diverse
organisms for their genetic capacity to synthesize
some important families of natural products, such
as antibiotics and insecticides;
- developing microbial biopesticides through combined
approaches of genetic engineering, fermentation
optimization and process engineering; and
- testing the burning of grass pellets as a biofuel.
Many Cornell graduate students are involved in carrying
out these research activities through the U.S. Department
of Agriculture Multidisciplinary Graduate and Education
Training Program for bio-based industries.
Cornell News Service: Susan Lang, Senior Science
Writer
Office: (607) 255-3613
E-Mail: SSL4@cornell.edu Media Contact:
Blaine P. Friedlander Jr.
Phone: (607) 254-8093
E-Mail: bpf2@cornell.edu Related Information: Northeast
Sun Grant Center
Larry Walker
Web site
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