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Title: Multidisciplinary Graduate Curriculum in Support of the Biobased Products Industry

Abstract

The project had a dominant education component. The project involved revising curriculum to educate traditional engineering students in the emerging field of industrial biotechnology. New classes were developed and offered. As a result, the curriculum of the Colorado School of Mines was expanded to include new content. Roughly 100 undergraduates and about 10 graduate students each year benefit from this curricular expansion. The research associated with this project consisted of developing new materials and energy sources from renewable resources. Several significant advances were made, most importantly the heat distortion temperature of polylactide (PLA) was increased through the addition of cellulosic nanowhiskers. The resulting ecobionanocomposites have superior properties which enable the use of renewable resource based plastics in a variety of new applications. Significant amounts of petroleum are thereby saved and considerable environmental benefits also result. Effectiveness and economic feasibility of the project proved excellent. The educational activities are continuing in a sustainable fashion, now being supported by tuition revenues and the normal budgeting of the University. The PI will be teaching one of the newly developed classes will next Fall (Fall 2006), after the close of the DOE grant, and again repeatedly into the future. Now established, the curriculum inmore » biobased products and energy will grow and evolve through regular teaching and revision. On the research side, the new plastic materials appear economically feasible and a new collaboration between the PI’s group and Sealed Air, a major food-packaging manufacturer, has been established to bring the new green plastics to market. Public benefits of the project are noteworthy in many respects. These include the development of a better educated workforce and citizenry capable of providing technological innovation as a means of growing the economy and providing jobs. In particular, the educational components addressing the production of bioethanol, biodiesel, and bioplastics provide graduates that can assist American industries in including greater renewable content in feedstocks for materials and fuels. Finally, the collaboration fostered by this grant led to the drafting of a new book entitled, Bioengineering for Sustainability: Materials and Fuels for the 21st Century. This text will be widely available to the public interested in learning more about these important areas of technology.« less

Authors:
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401 USA
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
OSTI Identifier:
888465
Report Number(s):
DOE/ID14008/Final
TRN: US200711%%682
DOE Contract Number:  
FG36-01ID14008
Resource Type:
Technical Report
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
09 BIOMASS FUELS; AIR; BIOTECHNOLOGY; ECONOMICS; EDUCATION; EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES; ENERGY SOURCES; LEARNING; MARKET; PETROLEUM; PLASTICS; PRODUCTION; biofuels, biomass, bioplastics, biobased, renewables, biotechnology, education, research, ecobionanocomposite, nanocomposite, cellulose, graduate education, post-graduate education, curriculum, polylactide, food packaging, green plastics, sustainability

Citation Formats

Dorgan, John R. Multidisciplinary Graduate Curriculum in Support of the Biobased Products Industry. United States: N. p., 2005. Web. doi:10.2172/888465.
Dorgan, John R. Multidisciplinary Graduate Curriculum in Support of the Biobased Products Industry. United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/888465
Dorgan, John R. 2005. "Multidisciplinary Graduate Curriculum in Support of the Biobased Products Industry". United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/888465. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/888465.
@article{osti_888465,
title = {Multidisciplinary Graduate Curriculum in Support of the Biobased Products Industry},
author = {Dorgan, John R},
abstractNote = {The project had a dominant education component. The project involved revising curriculum to educate traditional engineering students in the emerging field of industrial biotechnology. New classes were developed and offered. As a result, the curriculum of the Colorado School of Mines was expanded to include new content. Roughly 100 undergraduates and about 10 graduate students each year benefit from this curricular expansion. The research associated with this project consisted of developing new materials and energy sources from renewable resources. Several significant advances were made, most importantly the heat distortion temperature of polylactide (PLA) was increased through the addition of cellulosic nanowhiskers. The resulting ecobionanocomposites have superior properties which enable the use of renewable resource based plastics in a variety of new applications. Significant amounts of petroleum are thereby saved and considerable environmental benefits also result. Effectiveness and economic feasibility of the project proved excellent. The educational activities are continuing in a sustainable fashion, now being supported by tuition revenues and the normal budgeting of the University. The PI will be teaching one of the newly developed classes will next Fall (Fall 2006), after the close of the DOE grant, and again repeatedly into the future. Now established, the curriculum in biobased products and energy will grow and evolve through regular teaching and revision. On the research side, the new plastic materials appear economically feasible and a new collaboration between the PI’s group and Sealed Air, a major food-packaging manufacturer, has been established to bring the new green plastics to market. Public benefits of the project are noteworthy in many respects. These include the development of a better educated workforce and citizenry capable of providing technological innovation as a means of growing the economy and providing jobs. In particular, the educational components addressing the production of bioethanol, biodiesel, and bioplastics provide graduates that can assist American industries in including greater renewable content in feedstocks for materials and fuels. Finally, the collaboration fostered by this grant led to the drafting of a new book entitled, Bioengineering for Sustainability: Materials and Fuels for the 21st Century. This text will be widely available to the public interested in learning more about these important areas of technology.},
doi = {10.2172/888465},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/888465}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Sun Jul 31 00:00:00 EDT 2005},
month = {Sun Jul 31 00:00:00 EDT 2005}
}