NCERC recently welcomed two new Visiting Research Fellows, Blas Quiroga III and Krystin Polhemus.

Funded by the Illinois Corn Marketing Board, the nine-month Fellowship Program is intended to provide training and hands-on experience to prepare the next generation of engineers and scientists for work in mid- to high-skill jobs in the bioeconomy.

“NCERC is pleased to announce the hiring of Blas Quiroga III and Krystin Polhemus as NCERC’s newest Visiting Research Fellows,” said NCERC Executive Director John Caupert. “NCERC benefits greatly from mentoring recent college graduates who have specialized areas of study in biology, chemistry, and engineering. NCERC extends a special thank you to the Illinois Corn Marketing Board for providing the funding necessary to conduct the fellowship program.”

In their roles, the Visiting Research Fellows will serve under the guidance of two supervisors who will provide them with the technical expertise they need to thrive in their research environments and the leadership skills they need to ramp up the trajectory of their careers. This joint supervisory model ensures the connection of theory to practice, and builds upon the Fellow’s academic degree through applied, hands-on learning in an industrial setting. Upon completion of the fellowship program, graduates will be qualified to work in the biofuels, pharmaceuticals, bioprocessing, brewing, and refining industries. To learn more about NCERC’s fellowship program, visit EthanolResearch.com.

On January 31, 2022, NCERC submitted comments to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding the 2020-2022 Renewable Volume Obligations (RVOs) and regulatory concerns related to the implementation of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).

The comments were authored by Executive Director John Caupert, and in his comments, Caupert highlights that retroactive cuts to the 2020 RVO would be harmful for consumers, rural America, our economy, and our environment. He also states five key action items that the EPA should observe in order to uphold the RFS:

1. Eliminate the proposed revision to the 2020 RVO and require obligated parties to comply with 2020 standards that were finalized in 2019.

2. Revise 2021 volumes to a more accurate accounting of actual use of renewable fuels.

3. Finalize the proposed 2022 RVO’s, while restoring the 500-million-gallon remand.

4. Deny all pending SRE petitions and ensure future petitions are held to the standards set forth in the unappealed holdings of the 10th Circuit Court.

5. Uphold the integrity of the bipartisan achievement that spurred economic growth and strengthened our national security, and energy independence in the form of the Renewable Fuels Standard.

Through the support of the Illinois Corn Growers, NCERC has successfully scaled up its novel "low energy, low cost" pretreatment method that encourages the breakdown of starch and fiber during fermentation. Following the pretreatment method, two different types of yeasts were used during the fermentation. The fermentation was successfully completed on Friday, January 28, when the material was harvested from the 150L fermenter.

Once dried, the result is a high protein DDGS that will be sent to the team at the Aquaculture Research Institute at the University of Idaho for testing. The high protein DDGS will be incorporated into the diets of fish and results will be shared to stakeholders in the DDGS and aquaculture industries.

The experiment was documented through pictures and video and was featured on NCERC's social media channels. This project was also used as a training ground for new employees who will be working extensively in NCERC's intermediate-scale laboratory, the Fermentation Suite.

On January 18, all of NCERC's full time staff gathered to discuss its strategic and research priorities for 2022. Five key members of the team gave presentations that provided overviews of upcoming projects and action items associated with the successful preparation of those projects.

Some of these projects included important milestones in 2022, including the implementation of the Wet Lab Expansion Grant, which will be used to expand NCERC's intermediate-scale capabilities. They also covered various research topics that the research and business development staff hope make significant progress in 2022.

Big things are set to come in 2022! Stay tuned by following NCERC on social media or keeping up to date on the monthly NCERC at Work newsletters.

NCERC's research team has been working on an in-situ fermentation of corn kernel fiber with intentions to produce high-protein DDGS for use in an aquaculture feeding trial. The early results of this study were showcased at the 2021 FEW and work has continued in January 2022.

Work on hemp to biofuel conversion will continue this fall through funding provided to NCERC Director of Fermentation Dr. Jie Dong from a special SIUE funding program, COVID-19 Assigned Research Time, that enables assistant and associate professors to address promotion and tenure research activities that have been negatively impacted by the COVID 19 pandemic.

As a continued effort to scale up sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) conversion, NCERC has hired another graduate assistant who is assisting Dr. Dong in this area of his research throughout the academic year. This research is part of a larger group of researchers who submitted a grant proposal to the Dept of Energy's Bioenergy Technology Office in June with plans to commercialize a corn to isopentenol to SAF method. An NCERC Graduate Assistant working on this project presented a poster featuring research findings at the 2021 Alternative Fuels and Chemicals Coalition (AFCC) in November.

Through funding provided by SIUE’s Transitional and Exploratory Projects (STEP) grant program, NCERC will continue our research on the conversion of municipal solid waste (MSW), waste that comes from both residential and commercial sources, to biofuel. NCERC recently hired a graduate assistant to lead this research over the next academic year, with hopes that we will continue to scale up the conversion method initially established by Director of Research Dr. Yan Zhang. A special thanks to Waste Connections for providing quarterly samples of MSW!

Virtual

January 24

February 8

St. Louis MO

February 9 - 11

Miami, FL

February 21 - 23

New Orleans, LA

February 24

Virtual

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