A total of $24 million in National Science Foundation (NSF) and state grants will fund research efforts on biomass in Kentucky. This story from WKU Public Radio at Western Kentucky University says the five-year, $20 million NSF grant will be in addition to $4 million from Kentucky’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research.
“The focus of this $24 million dollar interdisciplinary multi-institution research effort will be to strengthen Kentucky’s bio-economy and develop new applications for established and emerging industries,” said [University of Kentucky President Eli] Capilouto.
There will be targeted investments at 10 Kentucky research and higher education institutions, including all of the comprehensive universities. Rodney Andrews, director of the UK Center for Applied Energy Research, is principle investigator. Andrews says a carbon material, found in most all energy storage, can be derived from biomass.
“Okay, so we’re looking at can we tailor that biomass so that when it is converted to carbon, it has a better structure than what we have now? Making those more effective, safer. But, we also have that component of how do we do large scale? How do we use this to implement into our grid system?” asked Andrews.
The overall goal of the project is to figure out and engineer bio systems for energy, environmental and industrial applications. In addition, it’s expected to create new opportunities for students in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) disciplines.