The Center recently received funding for several projects aimed to boost research and development efforts to utilize wastes and residues for production of bioenergy and healthy food products:
- $1,000,000 from LCCMR to demonstrate innovative technologies for complete utilization of wastewater resources. The technologies involve microalgae biomass production, scum-biodiesel, and sludge conversion.
- $125,910 from MNDrive for developing a unique non-thermal processing platform to improve nutritional value and microbial safety of food products.
- $150,000 from MNDrive to support three collaborative projects to creating added value from Minnesota food and agricultural waste streams by recycling nutrients through microalgae production, thermochemical conversion, and ammonia production.
- $125,000 from Sun Grants and IREE for development of novel fast pyrolysis and gasification processes
- $184,366 from Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station for conversion of turkey wastes to energy via fast pyrolysis and gasification
- $378,833 from Sun Grants to develop processes for distributed production of DME based fuels using microwave technology and direct catalytic synthesis
- $250,000 from Minnesota Corn Growers Association and IREE for non-thermal plasma assisted synthesis of ammonia from renewable hydrogen.