News

  • Registration Now Open for the Anaerobic Digestion on the Farm Conference

    Registration Opens for Anaerobic Digestion on the Farm Conference, Nov 6 - 8

    October 3, 2023

    Registration Opens for Anaerobic Digestion on the Farm Conference, Nov. 6-8

    Registration is open for the upcoming conference titled "Anaerobic Digestion on the Farm — Optimizing Environmental and Economic Outcomes for Rural Communities and Beyond," Nov. 6-8 2023, at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. Early-bird rates are available through October 6.

    Learn More!

  • Aerial image of Bryan Siever's farm and anaerobic digesters

    Anaerobic Digestion on the Farm Conference

    July 6, 2023

    Iowa State University, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 7 and the University of Iowa have announced an upcoming conference: Anaerobic Digestion on the Farm: Optimizing Environmental and Economic Outcomes for Rural Communities and Beyond. The conference will be November 6-8, 2023, at the Scheman Building at the Iowa State Center in Ames, Iowa. Anaerobic digestion is the natural process in which microorganisms break down organic materials. "Anaerobic digestion offers many environmental and economic benefits," said EPA Region 7 Administrator Meg McCollister. "This conference will bring together government, academic, and private-sector experts, stakeholders, and interested parties to advance understanding of anaerobic digetion and policy implementation." 

    Read the full Article

  • Iowa State University's Xianglan Bai holds a beaker of shredded, single-use plastics, while graduate students work behind her in the Biorenewables Research Laboratory.

    Researchers Team Up To Break Down, Upcycle Low-Quality, Rejected Plastic Wastes

    February 8, 2023

    Iowa State University's Xianglan Bia is leading two, $2-million-plus projects that will study and develop new ways to break down waste plastics and convert them to useful materials. The U.S. Department of Energy is supporting both projects. 

    Read the full story

  • Photo of Lisa Schulte Moore smiling in front of a prairie root model

    Here are the Des Moines Register's 2023 People to Watch

    January 10, 2023

    It is a Des Moines Register tradition to close out each year and open the next by introducing readers to 15 People to Watch — individuals expected to make an impact on Iowa in the coming year.This year's nominations from readers and our journalists totaled nearly 50 people and posed hard decisions for staff members charged with winnowing them to just 15. The final 15 include people in business and the arts, athletes, those who work to support farmers and refugees, those who are the first new elected officials to their seats in decades, and people educating new generations. Bioeconomy Institute's Co-Director, Lisa Schulte Moore, was selected as of of 15 People to Watch.

  • Iowa State University's first MacArthur Genius- Lisa Schulte Moore

    Iowa State Professor and MacArthur Fellow establishes funds to support transdisciplinary research

    December 22, 2022

    AMES, Iowa – Lisa Schulte Moore, professor of natural resource ecology and management at Iowa State University and 2021 MacArthur Fellow, recently established two funds in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in honor of the many collaborations she’s taken part in throughout her career at the university... 

  • Image of rows of corn with The Spokesman Speaks logo

    Creating Fertilizer from Corn Stover Podcast Featuring Dr. Robert Brown

    October 31, 2022
    Creating Fertilizer from Corn Stover Podcast Featuring Dr. Robert Brown

    Since 1934, The Iowa Farm Bureau Spokesman has been Iowa’s leading agriculture news source, and today it has the largest readership of any ag newspaper in Iowa. On Episode 116 of The Spokesman Speaks podcast hosted Dr. Robert Brown, Co-Director of the Bioeconomy Institute to discuss a unique initiative to produce renewable energy, fertilizer and more from corn stover, while sequestering carbon. Listen to the podcast here!

  • Aerial view of prairie STRIPS interspersed between row-crops

    $80 Million Grant Aims to Make Regenerative Farming Practice a Moneymaker for Farmers

    September 23, 2022

    An Iowa State University research team is part of an $80 million federal grant to show how generating renewable natural gas from cover crops and prairie grass could give farmers a market-based motivation to use conservation practices that sequester carbon dioxide and improve water quality.

  • Containers with samples of milled biomass, biochar and bio-oils (left to right). The biomass is converted into the char and oils in the pilot-scale pyrolizer at the Biorenewables Center.

    ISU team receives XPRIZE Carbon Removal landmark award for innovative vision to remove carbon from the atmosphere

    April 22, 2022

    An Iowa State University research team that helped develop a demonstration-scale pyrolyzer capable of sequestering thousands of tons of carbon dioxide a year has received a prestigious milestone award from XPRIZE Carbon Removal...

  • Robert Brown and Lisa Schulte Moore named co-directors of Iowa State University's Bioeconomy Institute

    April 14, 2022

    The Iowa State University Office of the Vice President for Research announced Robert Brown and Lisa Schulte Moore will serve as co-directors of the nationally renowned Bioeconomy Institute (BEI).

  • Students brewing beer
    April 8, 2022

    Robert Brown has been brewing beer in his basement for over a decade now. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the distinguished professor at the Bioeconomy Institute has always enjoyed the science of the brewing process, along with the end product. So when he was approached about helping the Center for Crops Utilization Research he agreed, on the condition that he could also teach a course on the science of brewing beer. And with the help of an ISU alum involved in making brewing equipment, the center has a state-of-the-art facility for students to learn the process and history of making beer. Learn more!

  • Tannon Daugaard, an engineer at the Bioeconomy Institute, with the pilot-scale pyrolizer at the Biorenewables Center. Photo by Christopher Gannon/Iowa State University News Service.

    Innovation at Work: Breaking ground on next-generation agricultural markets

    April 6, 2022

    AMES, Iowa – Iowa soil is good at growing crops. In fact, it’s probably the best agricultural soil in the world. And, while Iowa’s farmland has proven itself to be a powerhouse for producing cash crops like corn and soybeans, Iowa State University scientists are dreaming up innovative ways to grow new value, new markets and new revenue streams from Iowa soils.

  • Letter to the Ames Tribune: Carbon removal could, in fact, bring great benefits

    October 4, 2021

    Robert Brown, Lisa Schulte Moore, and Tannon Daugaard write into the Ames Tribute about the benefits of carbon removal.

  • December 2, 2020

    This program will develop a synthesis and assessment of USDA NIFA’s investments in the ‘SAS’ program for FY18-FY24, and provide programmatic review of SAS projects, to include impacts, assessment and evaluation of the Coordinated Agricultural Project ‘CAP’ program in relation to program goals, the USDA Science Blueprint, the USDA Strategic Goals, and USDA Agriculture Innovation Agenda.  Comprehensive analysis of USDA NIFA support of research, education, & extension to identify systems challenges in the sustainability of U.S. agriculture and food production.

  • December 2, 2020

    The Sun Grant Program will benefit multidisciplinary, multi-institutional/multi-state teams integrating research, extension, and education programs addressing critical challenges in the bioeconomy. 

  • December 2, 2020

    ECO-CBET will support fundamental research activities that confront vexing environmental engineering and sustainability problems by developing foundational knowledge underlying processes and mechanisms such that the design of innovative new materials, processes, and systems is possible.

  • December 2, 2020

    The EPA (P3) Award Program seeks student teams proposing to research, develop, design, and demonstrate solutions to real world challenges.

  • December 2, 2020

    This Topic Area [“T”] will identify and support disruptive concepts in energy-related technologies within small businesses, including collaborations with universities/national labs, and have potential for large-scale impact.

  • November 4, 2020

    The advantages of autothermal operation of chemical reactors are outlined in a recent prospective article by Robert C. Brown, director of the Bioeconomy Institute (BEI), Anson Marston Distinguished Professor of Engineering and Gary and Donna Hoover Chair in Mechanical Engineering at Iowa State University. The article will appear in the Nov. 18, 2020 edition of Joule, which publishes research, analysis, and ideas addressing the need for sustainable energy.

  • October 21, 2020

    At minimum, 1 PI and 2 Co-PIs will participate. Interdisciplinary research encouraged, particularly for E3P applications. At minimum, 1 tenure or tenure-track PI must hold a faculty appointment within a College of Engineering. Topics are as follows…

  • October 21, 2020

    Jessica Brown, a Ph.D. student in mechanical engineering at Iowa State University, won first place in the graduate research poster competition at the TCS 2020 conference held virtually in October 2020. Her winning poster was titled: “A novel semi-batch autoclave to overcome thermal dwell time in solvent liquefaction experiments”. A cash prize of $400 came with the award. An Iowa State student won first place in the poster competitions at the 2014, 2016, and 2018 TCS bi-annual conferences as well.

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