NCERC recently welcomed Mingjun Ma, Ph.D. as its new Post-Doctoral Research Fellow. Ma joins NCERC’s growing team of researchers who focus on a variety of research topics that help to support the expansion of the bioeconomy in the United States and across the globe.

The Post-Doctoral Research Fellow program is supported through funding from the Illinois Corn Marketing Board who has been a longtime supporter of the NCERC and its workforce training programs.

“We’re extremely grateful for Dr. Ma’s arrival to our team. We have big plans to expand our research services and expertise in 2022 and he will play a critical role in doing so,” said John Caupert, NCERC Executive Director. “We’re particularly excited to utilize his skill sets in Lifecycle Analysis and Technoeconomic Analysis as we take the next steps in projects related to novel uses of bio-based feedstocks and new uses for corn. NCERC owes this incredible opportunity to the ongoing support of Illinois’ corn growers.”

Ma joins NCERC after completing a Ph.D. in Agriculture and Biosystems Engineering at Iowa State University where he performed research in corn fermentation, pet food and animal ingredients, and grain processing.

“I’m excited to continue my research at NCERC on topics that make an impact on agriculture and the bioprocessing industries,” said Ma. “The research team at NCERC is renowned for its expertise and I’m grateful to learn from and work with them as I prepare to take the next step in my career.”

At the 2022 National Ethanol Conference, NCERC Director of Business Development & Client Relations Jackie Hayes led a panel that explored knowledge gaps and strategies to best prepare the industry’s future leaders for success.

To kick off the panel, Hayes presented the results of a recent survey conducted with the YPN members and provided an overview of young professionals' attitudes towards different themes, such as access to industry leaders, access to networking events/learning opportunities, organization- and industry-wide succession planning, and other important topics related to preparing the next generation of leaders.

During the panel, which included Danci Baker of Ringneck Energy, Janet Fisher of Lallemand Biofuels & Distilled Spirits, Mick Henderson of Commonwealth Agri-Energy, Tony Leiding of Trenton Agri-Products, and Nick Pirotte of RSM US, YPN members and industry leaders discussed different ways they've participated in or supported these types of efforts and made recommendations for recruiting and retaining top notch talent within the ethanol industry.

Following the general session that day, the YPN hosted a social hour where over 30 members met and networked with one another.

This month, NCERC's research team kicked off a multi-month project that will verify the accuracy, precision, and limit of quantitation of a published analytical method that measures the level of ethyl carbamate in Dried Distillers Grains with Solubles (DDGS). Ethyl carbamate (EC) is a naturally formed compound in alcoholic beverages or other foods during fermentation process and/or during storage and is classified as a probable human carcinogen

When all the method parameters pass the acceptance criteria, we will utilize the analytical method to analyze DDGS samples collected from Producer Members of the Renewable Fuels Association. The results will be reviewed and correlated with processing conditions by Dr. Kurt Rosentrator of Iowa State University and the Distillers Grains Technology Council. 

National holidays pose great opportunities for NCERC's marketing and public relations team to showcase the various members of our dynamic team. This month, we celebrated "International Day of Women & Girls in Science" and "National Engineers Week". Check out our social media posts below!

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 and 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!

February 8

St. Louis MO

February 9 - 11

Miami, FL

February 21 - 23

New Orleans, LA

February 24

Virtual

March 2

NCERC Facility

March 16 - 18

Washington, DC

March 29

NCERC Facility

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