On October 20, NCERC announced that it has been awarded $1.9 million through the Rebuild Illinois Wet Lab Capital program by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO). NCERC joins seven other laboratories from across the state who received a total investment of $15.4 million.

“Last year, my administration launched a Wet Lab Capital program to meet the technical needs of startups, incubators and universities across the state,” said Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker. “Today, after receiving so many brilliant applications from project developers across Illinois, I am excited to announce $15.4 million in grants that is funding $90 million worth of wet lab expansions throughout Illinois–in Chicago but also at both of Southern Illinois University’s campuses, at Rosalind Franklin University in the heart of Illinois’ biopharma ecosystem in northern Illinois, and at life science hubs up and down the state.”

As a renowned research and development (R&D) center that leads the nation in commercializing biotechnologies, NCERC’s facility houses fermentation and processing vessels ranging from bench- to pilot-scale that allow companies hoping to introduce their biotechnology to the marketplace to perform all their research at the same facility using NCERC’s leading staff of researchers, scientists and engineers. NCERC plans to utilize award funding to dramatically expand its intermediate-scale R&D capabilities.

“The equipment that will be purchased using these award funds will be placed in NCERC’s Fermentation Laboratory and Fermentation Suite, two areas of NCERC’s facility that receive the most attention from startups and companies doing cutting-edge research in the biorenewables sector,” said John Caupert, NCERC’s executive director. “We’re extremely excited by the expansion of our research capabilities and look forward to leveraging these assets to attract new clients. We also want to thank our partners on this project, especially the Illinois Corn Growers Association who has generously contributed to the matching funds on the project.”

On Tuesday, October 19, NCERC hosted its first hybrid Annual Meeting, attracting over 50 participants from across the country. Topics of discussion included a review of NCERC's FY2021 activities and financials and an introduction of a new suite of videos that were produced over the summer and focus on the various benefits of working with NCERC's team of R&D experts. You can access the suite of videos here.

In the second half of the meeting, NCERC/SIUE personnel presented three different topics that posed opportunities for discussion. NCERC also presented its FY2021 Annual Review.

Thank you to everyone who participated!

Last month, NCERC announced its membership with BioMADE, the Bioindustrial Manufacturing and Design Ecosystem – a new Manufacturing Innovation Institute dedicated to advancing bioindustrial manufacturing across the nation.

BioMADE brings together a diverse range of member organizations, from large corporations to universities to start-ups. Launched with significant federal support in 2021, BioMADE harnesses the power of biology to create and domestically source the manufactured goods that people use every day.

NCERC Director of Business Development & Client Relations Jackie Hayes has been invited to participate in BioMADE's "4S Committee". The 4S committee is charged with guiding BioMADE’s pursuit of building a sustainable, domestic end-to-end bioindustrial manufacturing ecosystem in a safe, secure, sustainable, and socially responsible (4S) manner. The 4S Committee will work directly with member organizations, the Leadership Council, and the other committees to integrate 4S throughout BioMADE. The 4S Committee will also work to increase public understanding of bio-industrial manufacturing.

BioMADE is a member-driven organization, and industry participation on this Committee is necessary to ensure BioMADE is focused on the right things. Participating in committees and subcommittees is a great way to meet and collaborate with other BioMADE members and work together to shape BioMADE’s priorities.

is the theme of the new series of videos that premiered at NCERC's Annual Meeting.

NCERC Staff, including Executive Director John Caupert, Director of Research Dr. Yan Zhang, Director of Fermentation Dr. Jie Dong, Director of Business Development & Client Relations Jackie Hayes, and Laboratory Project Manager Kaitlin Lasseigne, gave their perspectives on the various ways NCERC strives to go above and beyond for their clients.

These videos are great tools for NCERC supporters to share NCERC's mission and activities with potential clients and collaborators.

The Assistant Director of Pilot Plant Technical Projects will be responsible for designing, directing and coordinating technical research projects in the Fermentation Suite and Pilot Plant at the National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center (NCERC) located on the campus of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE).

The selected candidate will participate in and supervise the engineering design of all processes and modifications needed to meet client or grant-funded objectives for research projects to be conducted in the NCERC’s Pilot Plant. The Assistant Director duties will also include:

Additionally, the Assistant Director will lead and work collaboratively with NCERC’s Safety Committee to maintain facility safety. The Assistant Director may be assigned other related duties or tasks in support of the Center’s mission and goals. This position may also include up to 25% travel.

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 will continue in December with the support of students from SIUE.

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 will present 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.

NCERC Facility

October 6

St. Louis, MO

October 7

Virtual

October 7

Eckert's Farm - Belleville, IL

October 12

St. Louis

October 14

NCERC Facility

October 19

Virtual

October 20

Virtual

October 21

Louisville, KY

October 25 - 26

San Francisco, CA

October 27 - 29

Virtual

November 1 - 3

St. Louis, MO

November 5

NCERC Facility

November 9

Washington, DC

November 14 - 16

Washington, DC

November 16 - 18

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