02/17/2009

Feb. 20 Talk at OSU to Look at Alt-fuel Biobutanol

Writer:

Kurt Knebusch
knebusch.1@osu.edu
330-263-3776

Source:

Fred Michel, Food, Agricultural, and Biological Engineering
michel.36@osu.edu
330-263-3859

COLUMBUS, Ohio — “Biobutanol as an Energy Alternative” is the topic when the winter seminar series of Ohio State University’s Department of Food, Agricultural, and Biological Engineering continues on Friday, Feb. 20, at noon.

Thaddeus Ezeji, who studies fermentation biology as an assistant professor in Ohio State’s Department of Animal Sciences, will speak.

Attend by video link on Ohio State’s Columbus campus (219 Agricultural Engineering Building) or at the university’s Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC) in Wooster (212 Agricultural Engineering Building).

For more information, call (330) 263-3859.

Ezeji’s research focuses on the microbial conversion of animal and food industry wastes to bio-energy and other value-added products. He earned his doctorate in microbiology, magna cum laude, from the University of Rostock, Germany, in 2001.

“Like ethanol, biobutanol is a liquid alcohol fuel that can be used in today’s gasoline-powered internal combustion engines,” says the Web site of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Alternative Fuels and Advanced Vehicles Data Center.

“The properties of biobutanol make it highly amenable to blending with gasoline,” the Web site says. “It is also compatible with ethanol blending and can improve the blending of ethanol with gasoline.”

Next in the series is “Anaerobic Digestion Systems for Biogas Energy in Ohio” by Clemens Halene, vice president of engineering, Schmack BioEnergy, noon, Friday, Feb. 27, in the same locations.

See the complete series schedule at http://www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/newfabe/news_and_updates/seminars/Wi2009sem.pdf.

The Department of Food, Agricultural, and Biological Engineering is part of Ohio State’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences.

OARDC is the college’s research arm and is the largest university agbioscience research center in the nation.

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