Iowa State University had the largest presence of any university at tcbiomass2015, an international conference on thermochemical biomass conversion science. BEI director Robert C. Brown was presented the 2015 Don Klass Award for Excellence in Thermochemical Conversion Science for shaping the field, and BEI/Iowa State student Joseph Polin won second in the student poster competition.
Researchers from Iowa State University and the Bioeconomy Institute have been awarded nearly $2 million to study production of biochar for use as a soil amendment. This approach stores carbon underground instead of allowing carbon dioxide to re-enter the atmosphere as plants decompose. The award is from the Global Climate and Energy Project (GCEP) based at Stanford University.
The BEI 2015 Virtual Tour video provides a brief overview of many thermochemical processing research projects underway at BEI. The video made its premiere at the tcbiomass2015 conference.