Michigan Technological University is one of 85 partners in a US Department of Energy-funded $70 million energy-saving project called the REMADE (Reducing Embodied-energy and Decreasing Emissions) Institute.
The project’s goal is to drive down the cost of technologies needed to reuse, recycle and remanufacture materials such as metals, fibers, polymers and electronic waste. Ultimately REMADE hopes to achieve a 50 percent improvement in overall energy efficiency by 2027.
TechCentury, an engineering and technology news website published by the Engineering Society of Detroit, reported on research into vitamins and tears, by Maryam Khaksari and Adrienne Minerick (ChemEng). Read the story here.
Vitamins in tears may be an alternative to invasive bloodwork demonstrated by research led by Adrienne Minerick (ChE, CoE) and Maryam Khaksari (ChE, ChARM Lab).
Several science news outlets covered the story including Fit Pregnancy and Baby, TechCentury and Counsel & Heal. A number of science blogs also picked up the story: Bioscience Technology, BioSpace, Bionity.com and ScienMag.
Several more science news outlets covered the story including a Q&A on MedicalResearch.com, Lab Manager Magazine, NutraIngredients and an article in the French magazine Parents and Italian magazine Corrierre. A number of science blogs picked up the story in Italian, English and French.
Digital Journal reported on a $4 million U.S. Department of Energy grant to LanzaTech to design and plan a demonstration-scale facility using industrial off gases to produce 3M gallons/year of low carbon jet and diesel fuels. Michigan Tech’s Sustainable Futures Institute will help them evaluate the environmental footprint of the fuel produced.
CHICAGO, IL–(Marketwired – Dec 30, 2016) – Carbon recycling company, LanzaTech, has been selected by the Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) to receive a $4M award to design and plan a demonstration-scale facility using industrial off gases to produce 3M gallons/year of low carbon jet and diesel fuels.
Professor David Shonnard, Director, Sustainable Futures Institute, Michigan Technological University:
The Michigan Tech Sustainable Futures Institute is excited to continue our relationship with LanzaTech, helping them innovate and develop products that meet environmental goals in addition to technical and economic targets.
Four Michigan Tech undergraduates have received scholarships from the Annexstad Family Foundation. They are Ashley Brown, Michael McGee, Alyssa Smith and Xena Cortez.
McGee is a second-year chemical engineering student whose family has lived in the Upper Peninsula for three generations. “With my degree, I will travel the world, using my knowledge to better companies’ environmental footprint,” he says.
The Annexstad Family Foundation was established in 2000 to help aspiring college students. “We have long believed that young people are our future,” say Cathy and Al Annexstad. “By giving students who are the brightest of the bright the opportunity for a college diploma, we are giving our country a successful future.”
The Presidential Council of Alumnae at Michigan Tech held a panel discussion in Chem Sci 101 on September 22, 2016. Alumnae gave presentations about their careers.
Closed captioning available.
Dr. John Patton was presented with his award during a wine and cheese reception on September 21, 2016. The Honorary Alumnus/a Award was for:
Strongest non-alumni supporters of Michigan Tech; provided service and support of the University characteristic of dedicated alumni
The reception was held on the first floor of the Chem Sci Building, near the Unit Operations Laboratory Window. Dr. Patton gave a speech, “Advice for a successful undergraduate career.”
Closed captioning available.
Outstanding alumni and friends will be recognized at the Alumni Reunion Awards Dinner on August 5, 2016.
The Honorary Alumni Award will be presented to John Patton, former Professor of Chemical Engineering 1968-77 of El Paso, Texas when he is on campus this fall.
The Fort Worth, Texas native, earned his bachelor’s, masters and PhD in Chemical Engineering from Oklahoma State University. He joined Exxon USA as a section head responsible for research on enhanced petroleum operations in 1959. In 1968 he brought his extensive process design and operations experience to Michigan Tech as professor of Chemical Engineering plant design and economics. Within three years his design students started receiving national recognition from AIChE. During his tenure at Michigan Tech his students twice won the national AIChE Design Contest for undergraduates. He also initiated a viable graduate program and elevated the quality of the undergraduate curriculum to the point of its receiving full national accreditation.
David Shonnard (Robbins Chair, ChE) and Robert Handler (SFI) have been invited as panelists in a breakout session at the Alternative Aviation Fuel Workshop hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) in Macon, Georgia September 14-15, 2016.
Handler will attend and join other experts from government, industry and academia to promote the environmental sustainability of biofuels in the aviation industry. Further information can be obtained from Handler at 7-3612 or rhandler@mtu.edu.
Suphitsara Yingyuen, whose nickname is Mae, and Sorawit “Pum” Limtasiri are materials engineering undergrad students from Kasetsart University in Bangkok who are at Michigan Tech for a two- month summer internship.
The internships started after Jennifer Donovan, Tech’s director of news and media relations, traveled to Thailand as a Fulbright communications specialist at Kasetsart University.
The interns’ advisor, Timothy Eisele, assistant professor of chemical engineering says, “Overall, I am very happy with both of them. They are conscientious workers who want to have a good understanding of what they are doing, and they work well with my other students.”
Wen Zhou (ChE/SFI) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $310,716 research and development grant from the National Science Foundation.
David Shonnard (ChE) is the Co-PI on the project “SusChEM: Integrated Studies on Interactions between Lignocellulosic Fine Structure and Hydrolytic Enzymes toward Efficient Hydrolysis.” This is a three-year project.
David Shonnard (ChE/SFI) delivered the keynote address at the 4th International Conference on Sustainable Chemical Product and Process Engineering (SCPPE) held in Nanjing, China from May 31 – June 3, 2016.
The conference was hosted by Nanjing Tech University and the State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering.
Shonnard provided an update on research into sustainable biofuels through environmental life cycle assessment.