To some people, manure is just waste. To Iowa State University researcher Samy Sadaka, it’s bio-oil. He and other researchers at ISU are working on a project to convert farm waste into bio-oil.

According to an ISU release, the project is being supported by $190,000 in grants from the Iowa Biotechnology Byproducts Consortium. The researchers are working to take wastes from Iowa farms — manure and corn stalks — and turn them into a bio-oil that could be used for boiler fuel and perhaps transportation fuel.

In the photo from ISU, Sadaka is working with his bio-drying system that is used to dry a mixture of manure and corn stalks so they can be burned to produce the bio-oil.