Biodiesel is getting a boost at a college in New Jersey, thanks to a grant from Pfizer. This article from the Morris (NJ) NewsBee says the College of Saint Elizabeth has received the grant through Pfizer Undergraduate Research Endeavor (PURE).
PURE’s goal is to support and encourage undergraduate students, especially underserved students, to participate in research opportunities. The student projects that were outlined which require the advanced technology and equipment are enzyme kinetics, properties of aspirin derivatives, synthesis and analysis of biodiesel, and Great Swamp Watershed monitoring.
The grant allows the college to purchase such equipment as high performance liquid chromatography column to analyze aspirin purity, gas chromatography column to analyze fatty acid methyl ester components of biodiesel, a rotational viscometer, a spectrophotometer and other highly specialized equipment as well as software for data collection and analysis.
“Our recent grant from the Pfizer PURE Initiative will allow us to pursue several research opportunities with our students,” said Kimberly Grant, professor of chemistry. “These projects encompass a number of pertinent questions in the fields of organic, bioorganic, biochemistry and environmental science.”
Grace Bailey, a junior chemistry major from Vernon, said, “The viscometer has made my research so much easier and faster. Before, I would have to spend many more hours on my research, and this equipment has cut my time by more than half.” Bailey is conducting the research on synthesis and analysis of biodiesel fuels and will be presenting her research to the Independent College Fund of New Jersey in March 2016.