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Nsf Career Award Supports Schwartz's Research On The Chemical Process For Making Rubber Component, Marcus Wolf Mar 2021

Nsf Career Award Supports Schwartz's Research On The Chemical Process For Making Rubber Component, Marcus Wolf

General University of Maine Publications

advance his ongoing dissection of the Lebedev process. The well-known, multi-step chemical reaction is used to make butadiene from biomass-derived ethanol. However, little research has been conducted on the Lebedev process at the molecular level. Understanding the intricacies of this process will help researchers create new catalysts necessary for the chemical reactions to make goods from both petroleum and biomass, that would increase butadiene yield.


The Global Relevance Of Bio-Based Industries To Engineering And Technology Education, Kurt A. Rosentrater, Radha Balamuralikrishma Jun 2006

The Global Relevance Of Bio-Based Industries To Engineering And Technology Education, Kurt A. Rosentrater, Radha Balamuralikrishma

Kurt A. Rosentrater

The society in which we live has developed an insatiable demand for energy and material goods. In particular, recent data reveals that the aggressive pursuit of improved standards of living in the highly populated countries of India and China has contributed to increased demand for fossil fuels, which has exacerbated the recent spike in energy costs. Historically, these needs have been met primarily by fossil fuels and other non-renewable raw materials. As environmental concerns grow, however, renewable resources are gaining increased attention. This paper examines the emergence and importance that bio-based industries are increasingly beginning to play. A bio-based enterprise, …


Winter Bird Use Of Conservation Reserve Program Fields Harvested For Biomass, Les D. Murray, Louis B. Best Jan 2006

Winter Bird Use Of Conservation Reserve Program Fields Harvested For Biomass, Les D. Murray, Louis B. Best

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

As Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) contracts expire, many fields may be returned to agricultural production. Growing switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) as a biomass fuel is an alternative to returning fields to rowcrops. CRP fields provide winter cover for birds, but the harvest of biomass would remove most of the cover and affect bird use of the fields. We estimated winter bird abundances in nonharvested, total-harvested, and partially (strip) harvested switchgrass fields in southern Iowa. Song sparrows (Melospiza melodia) were observed only in strip-harvested fields and ring-necked pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) were observed only in nonharvested fields and uncut areas of strip-harvested fields. …


Biomass Yield Stability In Alfalfa, Joseph G. Robins, Heathcliffe Riday, Sara J. Helland, E. Charles Brummer Jan 2004

Biomass Yield Stability In Alfalfa, Joseph G. Robins, Heathcliffe Riday, Sara J. Helland, E. Charles Brummer

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

In addition to biomass production, alfalfa (Medicago sativa) cultivars also need to express yield stability across diverse environments. The objective of this experiment was to analyze the nature of biomass yield stability in ten commercial alfalfa cultivars by evaluating performance of individual genotypes. Biomass yield was measured in each of five environments across two years, and the yield stability computed for the overall cultivar mean performance and the mean performance of each of the genotypes comprising the cultivars using the genotype x environment variance statistic of Shukla and the superiority statistic of Lin and Binns'. The GxE variance of the …


Fungi And Diseases Associated With Cultivated Switchgrass In Iowa, C. E. Gravert, G. P. Munkvold Jan 2002

Fungi And Diseases Associated With Cultivated Switchgrass In Iowa, C. E. Gravert, G. P. Munkvold

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) is a native perennial prairie grass that is now cultivated as a forage crop and a biomass crop for renewable energy. Biomass yields of switchgrass in southern Iowa have recently dropped significantly in some fields and the reduction has been attributed to disease. A disease survey was conducted in 1999 to assess the prevalence of major diseases in Chariton Valley switchgrass production. There were disease symptoms present on switchgrass plants in each field and thirteen fungal species were identified from leaf, stem, and root samples. Two pathogenic fungi, Tilletia maclaganii and Colletotrichum graminicola, were present in …