Following a series of announcements related to NCERC's workforce training and education initiatives, a press release was shared summarizing this work, which includes our first annual Workforce Training & Education report, which was published and shared at NCERC's Advisory Board + Stakeholder meeting in March. Access your copy of it here.

In addition to the annual report, NCERC showcased that four students who have worked in our facility during the past academic year and performed on our research projects will graduate from SIUE on May 6, 2022.

NCERC's recently announced partnership with the University of Hawai'i at Hilo through a workforce training program funded by BioMADE, is another significant milestone recently met by the NCERC team.

Lastly, NCERC's Marketing/PR intern Allison Simpson collaborated with members of the research team, including Krystin Polhemus, NCERC Visiting Research Fellow, to update the Ethanol Demonstration Kit.

The Department of Chemistry of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) initiated the Probst Lecture series in 1975 as a memorial to one of its founding faculty members, Professor William J. Probst. Each year a noted chemist is invited for a visit that features multiple lectures on SIUE's campus.

This year's speaker was Dr. Shang-Tian Yang of Ohio State University. He was invited by SIUE Chemistry Professor and NCERC Director of Fermentation Dr. Jie Dong, a former student of Dr. Yang. Dr. Yang's presentation, "Industrial Biotechnology and Biorefineries in a Circular Bioeconomy", featured his work from more than 40 years of research, including 12 related patents, some of which have been licensed to companies for commercial development.

During his time on campus, Dr. Yang also took a tour of NCERC and met with NCERC staff.

The Visiting Research Fellowship program is for recent graduates of a bachelor's or master's program in a STEM field. Funded through a foundation account, sponsored by the Illinois Corn Growers Association, the Fellowship program is intended to provide training and hands-on experience to prepare the next generation of engineers and scientists for work in mid- to high- skill jobs in the bioeconomy.

Engineering Visiting Research Fellowship - apply here!

Laboratory Visiting Research Fellowship - apply here!

The Ethanol Plant Operating Technician is responsible for the operation, maintenance, and monitoring of equipment and associated control mechanisms of the biofuels pilot plant. The selected candidate will assist in operating and troubleshooting mechanical control systems, utility equipment and other mechanical components commonly associated with fermentation, distillation, dehydration, and grain handling processes in the NCERC pilot plant. Apply here!

Through the collaborative work between NCERC's marketing and research teams, the Ethanol Demonstration Kits received a much-needed refresh after several years serving as a great tool for K12 teachers, FFA leaders, and community organizations.

To celebrate the new design, NCERC hosted a contest that was publicized through our social media channels and allows community members to nominate worthy teachers to win an Ethanol Demonstration Kit and $100 for school supplies.

Multiple teachers were nominated throughout April and Brian Wiltz, an Agriculture Teacher and FFA Advisor at Lexington High School in Lexington, IL was selected to win the grand prize.

NCERC Blog - Earth Day 2022: Turning Trash into Fuel of the Future

For several years, NCERC has utilized a variety of bio-based feedstocks, such as corn stover, hemp, and orchard waste, to research the conversion of cellulosic material to sugars and then to ethanol. In 2021, the NCERC research team expanded its portfolio of feedstocks to include Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) through funding provided by SIUE’s STEP grant program. This project sparked the first non-agricultural waste research project and led to a nearly-year-long pursuit of converting MSW into ethanol. In April 2022, NCERC achieved what it set out to do. Ajay Venigalla

The United States’ population generated 292.4 million tons of MSW or 4.9 pounds per person per day in 2018 according to the US Environmental Protection Agency. Of the MSW generated, almost 94 million tons of MSW were recycled and composted, equivalent to a 32.1 percent recycling and composting rate, and an additional 17.7 million tons of food were managed by other methods. In November 2021, NCERC received a waste donation from a local provider of solid waste collection, transfer, recycling and disposal services who mostly serves exclusive and secondary markets across the US and Canada.

To fulfill the needs of the project, NCERC hired a student worker, Ajay Venigalla, to perform the day-to-day laboratory operations, including sorting the waste, processing samples, and generating data for the research team to review. After several months of hard work, here’s what we learned:

On April 21, NCERC participated in "One Day, One SIUE", a day dedicated to celebrating SIUE through online giving and an evening event. This campaign marked NCERC's first fundraiser ever and we raised $160 for self-initiated research projects.

NCERC's research team has been working on an in-situ fermentation of corn kernel fiber with intentions to produce high-protein DDGS for use in an aquaculture feeding trial. The early results of this study were showcased at the 2021 FEW and work has continued in January 2022.

Work on hemp to biofuel conversion will continue this fall through funding provided to NCERC Director of Fermentation Dr. Jie Dong from a special SIUE funding program, COVID-19 Assigned Research Time, that enables assistant and associate professors to address promotion and tenure research activities that have been negatively impacted by the COVID 19 pandemic.

As a continued effort to scale up sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) conversion, NCERC has hired another graduate assistant who is assisting Dr. Dong in this area of his research throughout the academic year. This research is part of a larger group of researchers who submitted a grant proposal to the Dept of Energy's Bioenergy Technology Office in June with plans to commercialize a corn to isopentenol to SAF method. An NCERC Graduate Assistant working on this project presented a poster featuring research findings at the 2021 Alternative Fuels and Chemicals Coalition (AFCC) in November.

Through funding provided by SIUE's Transitional & Exploratory Projects (STEP) grant program, NCERC will continue our research on the conversion of municipal solid waste (MSW), waste that comes from both residential and commercial sources, to biofuel. NCERC recently hired a graduate assistant to lead this research over the next academic year, with hopes that we will continue to scale up the conversion method initially established by Director of Research Dr. Yan Zhang. A special thanks to Waste Connections for providing quarterly samples of MSW!

April 1

Helix Center - St. Louis, MO

April 6

NCERC Facility

April 13

Virtual

April 13

Virtual

April 21

SIUE Campus

Edwardsville, IL

May 3

Des Moines, IA

May 9 - 12

Omaha, NE

May 10 - 12

St. Louis, MO

May 17

Virtual

May 25

NCERC Facility

May 27

Don't miss an issue of NCERC at Work! Click here to subscribe.