Four Michigan Tech Chemical Engineering students placed in the annual Minerals Processing division undergraduate and graduate poster competition during the Society of Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration (SME) Annual meeting in Denver on February 27. This annual poster competition showcases research from the top mining and mineral processing programs across the nation and is judged by some of the top engineers and scientists in industry and academia. It involved a five-minute oral presentation in a special session as well as a public poster display at a large SME gathering.
PI David Shonnard (ChE) has been awarded a three-year research co-op/joint agreement totaling $300,000 for “Accelerated Development of Commercial Hydrotreated Renewable Jet (HRJ) Fuel from Redesigned Oilseed Feedstock Supply Chains,” from the US Department of Agriculture.
The 1st Annual Graduate Research Forum for the Department of Chemical Engineering was held on January 24, 2013.
Judges for the Oral Presentations were:
Awards will be announced on Friday, February 1, 2013, 12-1 in room 215 Chem Sci.
Check the webpage for photos and award announcements.
Kathleen Halvorsen (SS), David Shonnard (ChE), and Rodney Chimner (SFRES) have received $777,206 from the National Science Foundation as the first year of a five-year grant totaling $4,841,735 for the project, “OISE-PIRE Sustainability, Ecosystem Services, and Bioenergy Development Across the Americas.”
Caryn Heldt (Chem Engg) has been awarded a research grant of $81,821 from the National Science Foundation for “Precipitation and Self-Interaction of Viruses by Preferential Hydration.” This is the first year of a three-year project totaling $247,736.
New Funding: Professor Gerard Caneba (ChE/CEBFM) has received $14,711 from the Environmental Protection Agency for a project, “Environmentally Responsible Treatment and Generation of Useful Products from Aluminum Extraction Waste Materials.”
Professor David Shonnard (ChE/SFI) and CoPIs Associate Professor Andrew Burton and Assistant Professor Audrey Mayer (both SFRES) and Professor Ezra Bar-Ziv and Professor Jeffrey Naber (both ME-EM) have received $1.8 million from the National Science Foundation for a four-year project: “SEP: Sustainable Forest-Biofuel Pathways to Hydrocarbon Transportation Fuels; Biomass Production, Torrefaction, Pyrolysis, Catalytic Upgrading, and Combustion.”
In a story about how universities commercialize technologies developed by their faculty, the Chronicle of Higher Education listed Michigan Tech among the top 157 universities for licensing income, licenses issued, research expenditures, start-up companies formed and patents applied for and issued. The report was based on statistics compiled by the Association of University Technology Managers. See Technologies.
The 2012 ASISC conference held in Houghton was a remarkable success this year with people travelling from all over the world to share their
research in mineral processing. Along with presenters from industry,
Michigan Tech graduate and undergraduate students presented their latest research centered around sustainable developments for mineral processing. It provided a great networking opportunity for Michigan Tech students to meet representatives from leaders in the mining and steel manufacturing industry as well as other researchers from many other institutions.
Assistant Professor Wenzhen Li (ChE/SFI) has received $259,998 from the National Science Foundation for a three-year project, “Selective Electrocatalytic Oxidation of Biorenewable Polyols Over Bimetal Catalysts.”