Robert C Brown

Robert C Brown

Position
  • Anson Marston Distinguished Professor in Engineering
  • Gary and Donna Hoover Chair in Mechanical Engineering
  • Founding Director of the Bioeconomy Institute
Dr. Robert C. Brown is Anson Marston Distinguished Professor in Engineering and Gary and Donna Hoover Chair in Mechanical Engineering at Iowa State University (ISU). He holds the rank of Professor in the Departments of Mechanical Engineering, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, and Food Science and Human Nutrition. Dr. Brown is widely recognized as a thought leader in processing of biomass and plastic wastes into energy, fuels, and chemicals. He was recognized by Biofuels Digest as one of the “Top 100 People” in bioenergy for six consecutive years. His activities have been cited hundreds of times in the press including Nature Magazine, Scientific American, New York Times, Discovery Magazine, BBC, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. In 2022, he led a team that received a Milestone Prize from the XPRIZE Foundation in carbon removal based on technology developed at ISU.

Dr. Brown is the founding director of ISU's Bioeconomy Institute, which coordinates ISU’s research, educational, and outreach activities related to biobased products and bioenergy. He also helped launch ISU’s Biorenewable Resources and Technology (BRT) graduate program, the first such degree-granting program in the United States. Dr. Brown was the director of the Center for Sustainable Environmental Technologies, a center within the Institute for Physical Research and Technology, from 1996 until it was merged with the Bioeconomy Institute in 2014. He was one of the founders of ISU’s BioCentury Research Farm, which was recognized in 2010 by Biofuels Digest as the “Institutional Research Facility of the Year.” He founded the Symposium on Thermochemical and Catalytic Sciences for Biofuels and Biobased Products, which bi-annually brings together international experts in the field.

Dr. Brown has built multi-disciplinary teams at ISU distinguished by the use of thermochemical technologies to produce fermentable sugars from cellulose, provide substrate for gas fermentation, and convert waste plastics into substrate for production of single cell protein and oleochemicals. He has received over $150 million in research contracts and grants during his academic career including $16.5 million for a ConocoPhillips Biofuels program and $22 million for an NSF EPSCoR Track 1 RII Project in Renewable Energy.

Dr. Brown has published over 300 refereed papers and book chapters. He wrote Biorenewable Resources: Engineering New Products from Agriculture, now in its second edition, the most widely used textbook in biorenewables over the last decade. His book Why Are We Producing Biofuels received the Book of the Year Award from Biofuels Digest in 2012. He edited Thermochemical Processing of Biomass, the second edition released in April 2019, and co-edited Fast Pyrolysis of Biomass: Advances in Science and Technology, published by the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2017

Dr. Brown established a brewing laboratory in the Food Science Dept. at ISU in 2021. He secured a gift of brewing equipment from Blichmann Engineering to establish this laboratory. In the same year, he secured a native brewery license for the laboratory and begin offering the course FS HN/ME 373 Science and Practice of Brewing. In late 2023, the program began wholesaling beer produced in the lab’s two barrel brewhouse.

Dr. Brown received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan State University in 1980. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineers, a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, and a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineering. He received the Don Klass Award for Excellence in Thermochemical Conversion Science in 2015 and the Andrew Chase Division Award in Chemical Engineering from the American Institute of Chemial Engineers in 2020. He has developed twenty-six patented inventions, one of which received a R&D 100 Award from Research and Development Magazine in 1997.

Contact

1140E Biorenew Lab
617 Bissell Rd.
Ames
,
IA
50011-1098

Education

  • B.S., Physics, University of Missouri, 1976
  • B.A., Mathematics, University of Missouri, 1976
  • M.S., Mechanical Engineering, Michigan State University, 1977
  • Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, Michigan State University, 1980

Books

Fast Pyrolysis of Biomass: Advances in Science and Technology

Book coverEditors: Robert C Brown, Kaige Wang
Fast pyrolysis and related catalytic pyrolysis are of increasing interest as pathways to advanced biofuels that closely mimic traditional petroleum products. Research has moved from empirical investigations to more fundamental studies of pyrolysis mechanisms. Theories on the chemical and physical pathways from plant polymers to pyrolysis products have proliferated as a result. This book brings together the latest developments in pyrolysis science and technology. It examines, reviews and challenges the unresolved and sometimes controversial questions about pyrolysis, helping advance the understanding of this important technology and stimulating discussion on the various competing theories of thermal deconstruction of plant polymers. See at the Royal Society of Chemistry


Why are We Producing Biofuels?

Book cover

By Robert C. Brown, Tristan R. Brown
“Why Are We Producing Biofuels?” is written for those who are curious about efforts to introduce biofuels into our energy supply but are not satisfied with the publicly accessible information on the subject. Written by experts in the field, this book provides educators, policy makers, business leaders, and the general public with an insider’s understanding of the current research in the field as well as an appreciation of the debates surrounding biofuels. See at Amazon.com


Thermochemical Processing of Biomass: Conversion into Fuels, Chemicals and Power, 2nd Edition

Book cover

Robert C. Brown (Editor)
Thermochemical Processing of Biomass: Conversion into Fuels, Chemicals and Power, 2nd Edition is a comprehensive examination of the large number of possible pathways for converting biomass into fuels and power through thermochemical processes. Bringing together a widely scattered body of information into a single volume, this book provides complete coverage of the many ways that thermochemical processes are used to transform biomass into fuels, chemicals and power. Fully revised and updated, this new edition highlights the substantial progress and recent developments that have been made in this rapidly growing field since publication of the first edition and incorporates up-to-date information in each chapter.


Biorenewable Resources: Engineering New Products from Agriculture, Second Edition

Book cover

By Robert C. Brown, Tristan R. Brown
Biorenewable Resources: Engineering New Products from Agriculture, 2nd Edition will provide comprehensive coverage of engineering systems that convert agricultural crops and residues into bioenergy and biobased products. This edition is thoroughly updated and revised to better serve the needs of the professional and research fields working with biorenewable resource development and production. Biorenewable resources is a rapidly growing field that forms at the interface between agricultural and plant sciences and process engineering. Biorenewable Resources will be an indispensable reference for anyone working in the production of biomass or biorenewable resources.


Areas of Interest

  • Biorenewable resources
  • Thermochemical and biological conversion of biomass
  • Biopolymers and other value-added products from syngas fermentation
  • Hydrogen fuel from biomass gasification
  • Bio-oils from fast pyrolysis of biomass