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$3 million donation for energy chair

2009-09-21T12:05:56Z

Missouri University of Science and Technology's national leadership in energy research and education recently received a big boost -- a $3 million gift from a retired oil and natural gas executive and graduate of the university.

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The Laufers announced their gift Saturday, Sept. 19, during the university's sixth annual gala fundraising event held that evening at La Charrette, the home of Bob and Kim Brinkmann of St. Albans, Mo. Brinkmann is the president of Brinkmann Constructors of Chesterfield, Mo., and a 1971 graduate of Missouri S&T.

Laufer is the retired co-founder and CEO of Bois d'Arc Energy Inc., an NYSE Houston-based company that specialized in offshore oil and natural gas exploration and production. Laufer retired from Bois d'Arc executive management in November 2007 but remained active on the board of directors until the company was sold to Stone Energy Corp. for $1.4 billion in August 2008.

"The Laufers' generous donation to our energy program will certainly position Missouri S&T among the nation's leaders in energy research and education," says Chancellor John F. Carney III. "Wayne and Gayle both recognize the importance of developing innovative ways to address our nation's energy challenges, and we're excited that they have decided to invest in Missouri S&T."

"I believe it's very important for our nation to focus its capital investment and scientific talent on ways to more efficiently develop and utilize our primary sources of energy, and that's one reason Gayle and I provided this support to Missouri S&T," says Laufer.

The donation will be used to fund a new faculty position to be filled by a national leader in energy research and education. A committee of faculty, students and alumni will lead a national search for the position, and Laufer will be involved in the search, Carney says.

Since earning his civil engineering degree from the Rolla campus, Laufer's career has been in the energy industry. His first job out of college was as a production engineer for Shell Oil Co. He worked in various capacities for Shell from 1967-1977, then co-founded an independent energy consulting company in 1977. He served as vice president of operations and production for two independent companies from 1980-1983. In 1984, he co-founded Bois d'Arc Resources and Bois d'Arc Operating Corp. and served as managing partner and president until all company assets were sold in December 1997. Continuing the Bois d'Arc tradition, Bois d'Arc Offshore was formed in 1998 and was active in Gulf of Mexico exploration until it was folded into the Bois d'Arc Energy Inc. initial public offering in 2005.

Formerly a registered professional engineer in the state of Texas, Laufer is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers and the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association.

At Missouri S&T, Laufer was a member of Sigma Pi fraternity, where he held several offices, and was a St. Pat's Board representative. He is a member of the Missouri S&T Order of the Golden Shillelagh donor society.

The Laufers now live in Sanibel, Fla., and spend their summers on San Juan Island, Wash.

Missouri S&T's focus on energy education and research is deeply rooted in the university's history. Founded in 1870 as the University of Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy, some of the campus's earliest graduates were involved in the energy exploration and development needed to fuel the Industrial Revolution.

Today, Missouri S&T's energy research includes research on oil, natural gas, coal and nuclear power in addition to studies of supplemental power sources such as wind, solar and hydrogen. University researchers are also involved in an effort to transform the nation's aging power infrastructure into a "smart" grid that mimics the Internet. Recently, the university received a $5 million federal appropriation to prepare the next generation of engineers for alternative automotive vehicles, such as plug-in electric cars.

The campus also is home to Missouri's first nuclear reactor - a low-power reactor designed as a teaching tool for nuclear engineering students - and the Solar Village, a neighborhood of three solar-powered homes designed and built by students as part of an international design competition. In the fall, a fourth home will be added to the site.

Shipping containers get new life, soldiers get safer water

2009-09-17T21:02:11Z

Dr. Jianmin Wang, professor of civil, architectural and environmental engineering at Missouri University of Science and Technology, has created a wastewater system "in a box." Each system, built by re-purposing a shipping container, is low power, low maintenance and highly efficient. Built from weathering steel, these containers are designed to be tough and can be dropped on site by helicopters.

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This pilot-scale testing unit demonstrates how the wastewater treatment system would work. Recently Wang received approval for full-scale system demonstration.

The system's scorecard is so good that it could be deployed anywhere - from small, rural communities to forward operating bases, like those in Iraq or Afghanistan. Currently, the typical 600-soldier forward operating base requires a daily convoy of 22 trucks to supply the base with fuel or water and dispose of wastewater and solid waste. With few mechanical parts and a small footprint, the system is ideal for military use, Wang says.

"Currently, human wastes are typically burned in burn pits, and the wastewater is usually hauled away and dumped by local contractors," Wang explains. "This results in high costs, security issues, potential health risks, negative environmental impacts to the hosting country and a potential negative image.

"Moreover, almost all fresh water used in the camp - including water for drinking, bathing, showering, laundry, car washing and toilet flushing ?- is from outside sources in the form of bottled and surface water. A deployable and easy-to-use water reclamation station, which transforms wastewater into reusable water within the base, would improve the base environment, security, soldiers' health, stewardship of foreign lands and concurrently reduce cost and fresh water demand from off-base sources."

Current wastewater treatment options include membrane bioreactor, activated sludge, fixed film or on-site septic systems. Similar to these methods, Wang's process uses microorganisms to break down the organic pollutants. Membrane bioreactor, activated sludge process and fixed-film process have been built using standard shipping containers, too. But that's where the similarities end.

The membrane bioreactor process, while similar in size and quality of effluent produced, has extremely higher energy and maintenance costs, and up to 10 times more expensive parts.

"The fixed-film system, as developed by other companies, needs to be monitored and controlled constantly," Wang says. "Plus our system is much smaller than their systems - only 20-30 percent of the size of these systems for the same treatment capacity. Our system does not use any media, which significantly reduces construction and maintenance cost."

Wang's system, named a baffled bioreactor (BBR) by Wang, modifies the conventional activated sludge process by using baffles to create a maintenance-free intermediate settling chamber for sludge return. It uses off-the-shelf, low-tech parts to treat wastewater at a level that exceeds federal standards. The water can be used for non-contact applications, including toilet flushing and car washing.

Although this project is focused on military needs, Wang says the small, low-maintenance and low-power system makes sense for small communities, mobile home parks, motels and even facilities in remote areas, such as highway rest areas and camps.

A few days ago, the U.S. Army approved Wang's request to demonstrate a full-scale, company-size water reclamation station for advanced wastewater and non-potable reuse. During this project, he will also explore the feasibility of producing potable water from wastewater in emergency situations.

"A lesson learned from Hurricane Katrina is that untreated sewage can cause many health and psychological problems for displaced people," Wang adds. "The transportable, modular baffled reactor units could even be deployed to regions where natural disasters occur to quickly prevent untreated wastewater discharge and improve hygiene."

Professor named to leadership of environmental group

2009-09-08T18:48:16Z

Dr. Joel Burken, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Missouri University of Science and Technology, has been elected vice president of the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors and is on track to lead the organization in 2011.
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AEESP is made up of more than 850 professors and practitioners in academic programs throughout the world who provide education in the sciences and technologies of environmental protection.

Elected nationally to the 10-member AEESP board of directors in 2008, Burken recently completed his first year. In 2007, the organization presented Burken with its Outstanding Teaching of Environmental Engineering and Science award. The award honors individuals who are making outstanding contributions to the teaching of environmental engineering, both at the individual's home institution and beyond.

At Missouri S&T, Burken also serves as interim director of the Environmental Research Center and pursues research on how trees and other plants can be used to reduce water and soil pollution -- and reduce overall cleanup costs. Known as phytoremediation, the method involves using plants to clean up pollutants. This work has also led to methods to detect pollutants in the environment by non-invasive testing plant tissues, these patent-pending methods developed at S&T called phytoforensics.

Burken has been honored numerous other times for his teaching and academic pursuits. He received the Rudolph Hering Medal by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1998 and 2007. In 2000, Burken received a faculty early career development award from the National Science Foundation. He also has been presented with S&T's Faculty Excellence Award five times.

Burken earned bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees in civil and environmental engineering from the University of Iowa in 1991, 1993 and 1996, respectively.

$5 million for plug-in electric vehicle project

2009-08-05T20:23:47Z

Missouri University of Science and Technology will receive $5 million in federal funding to provide educational and training programs for a new electric vehicle initiative in Missouri.

]]> U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke announced the funding today (Wednesday, Aug. 5) during a visit to Kansas City, Mo., where Missouri S&T is working with the city of Kansas City, Mo., to provide clean battery-powered transit vehicles to the city. The funding is part of a $2.4 billion initiative to speed the development of electric vehicles and battery technology nationwide.

Locke also announced a $10 million grant for Smith Electric Vehicles to build and deploy up to 100 electric vehicles at an assembly plant planned for the Kansas City Airport. In addition, Locke announced funding for Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler to manufacturing plug-in hybrid electric vehicles in Kansas City and St. Louis, as well as Michigan.

The $5 million for Missouri S&T will fund educational and workforce training programs on advanced vehicles technologies, Locke said.

Missouri S&T has been working with the city of Kansas City, Mo., to design a program for incorporating plug-in hybrid electric vehicles into the city's fleet. Last December, Missouri S&T received $1.66 million in federal funding for that project.

Where greener rubber hits the road

2009-07-27T14:16:30Z

Missouri University of Science and Technology researchers are investigating ways to use rubber and resin from the guayule plant to create a more environmentally friendly paving material.

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Guayule, a shrub native to the southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico, is a source of natural rubber

Flexible pavement, or asphalt, is used to pave about 93 percent of the roads in the United States. That means 5.3 million miles of roads in the U.S. are paved with asphalt.

"The prospect of developing a new and better product for highway construction makes this research both exciting and important," says Dr. David Richardson, associate professor of civil, architectural and environmental engineering at Missouri S&T. "The project will evaluate new ways to reduce our need for crude oil products in future road construction."

Richardson and Mike Lusher, senior research specialist at S&T, are leading the university's efforts. They are working with representatives from Yulex Corp., which develops natural rubber materials from the guayule shrub for use in medical products and green energy production.

According to the researchers, guayule has the potential to replace petroleum-based products that are currently used for highway construction. They say it could help decrease dependency on foreign oil and lower costs.

The two-year study is funded in part by a national cooperative highway research program called Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis. Other partners include the National University Transportation Center in Rolla and the Missouri Asphalt Pavement Association.

Related coverage: Guayule shrub may help pave roads - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Biofuels: 50 gallons per mile?

2009-05-08T15:59:12Z

Federal requirements to increase the production of ethanol has developed into a "drink-or-drive issue" in the Midwest as a result of biofuel production's impact on water supplies and water quality, says a Missouri S&T environmental engineering researcher in a recent issue of the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

]]> In an analysis of the water required to produce ethanol from various crops, Dr. Joel G. Burken, a professor of environmental engineering at Missouri S&T, and colleagues from Rice University and Clarkson University find that ethanol could become a costly proposition in terms of "gallons per mile" and other water quality issues.

They describe the Midwest's water needs and impacts as the 'water footprint' in their cover feature for the May 1, 2009, issue of Environmental Science & Technology.

The researchers report that ethanol derived from corn grown in Nebraska, for example, would require 50 gallons of water per mile driven, when all the water needed in irrigation of crops and processing into ethanol is considered. Fuel derived from irrigated sorghum grown in that state would require even more water to produce - as much as 115 gallons per mile.

Moreover, increasing production of biofuels from row crops will likely result in more water pollution due to soil erosion and the increased use of pesticides to grow enough crops to meet federal mandates for more ethanol, the researchers say. The mandated production using the current technology has driven the use of ethanol production from corn and biodiesel from soybeans as these are the currently available technologies.

In their article, the researchers suggest that federal regulators take a closer look at how a push for bioenergy will affect water resources.

"Developing a sustainable national biofuels program requires careful consideration of logistical concerns ... and of unintended environmental impacts," write Burken and his co-authors, Rosa Dominguez-Faus and Dr. Pedro J. Alvarez of Rice University and Dr. Susan E. Powers of Clarkson University, in their article, "The Water Footprint of Biofuels: A Drink or Drive Issue?"

To arrive at their gallons-per-mile figures, the researchers first looked at the amount of water required to produce a single gallon of ethanol. In Nebraska, for example, it takes 800 gallons of water - from crop irrigation through final processing into ethanol - to create a single gallon of the corn-derived transportation fuel. Divide that by an average mileage of 16 miles per gallon (or two-thirds the average for gasoline-powered cars, a standard average for ethanol-powered vehicles), and the result is 50 gallons of water per mile.

While previous studies have examined biofuel production's impact on air quality, land use and net energy value, "the effect of increased biofuel production on water security has not been subjected to the same scrutiny," the researchers write. The main focus of previous studies looked at environmental trade-offs to fossil-fuel usage and not other aspects of biofuel production, according to the researchers.

"The overall water footprint associated with biofuels must recognize the impact of increased agricultural activity on water quality as well as water consumption," they write. With the federal Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007 calling for a dramatic ramp-up in ethanol production by 2015, Burken and his colleagues foresee additional water quality problems due to "increased agricultural activity such as tilling more land for row crops and higher fertilizer and agrichemical application."

The Energy Independence and Security Act requires the United States to produce 15 billion gallons of corn-derived ethanol annually by 2015 and 16 billion gallons of fuel from cellulosic crops, such as switchgrass, by 2016. The researchers note that 44 percent of all the corn produced in the United States from 2007 would be required for ethanol production to meet the 2015 goal.

"The decision to mandate ethanol production may look great initially as we all like the concept of biofuels," Burken says, "but really our difficult energy position and reliance on foreign oil is the result of our lack of an energy policy and investing a decade ago in biofuel technologies. Biofuel production is part of our energy future, but it needs to be considered as part of a portfolio of energy sources and technologies."

While it's unlikely the EISA will be repealed, Burken hopes lawmakers and regulators at the state and federal levels "consider a life-cycle analysis before implementing future mandates" for energy sources. Lawmakers and regulators need to consider all of the economic and environmental trade-offs - not just reducing greenhouse gas emissions, for instance. "Otherwise, we may be thinking we're addressing one environmental issue while in fact sacrificing another," Burken says.

Burken and his colleagues suggest that "drought-tolerant, high-yield plants grown on little irrigation water" would have less impact on water resources. One such crop, Burken says, is miscanthus, a fast-growing perennial grass that "grows so dense you can't walk through it and grows about 9-10 feet a year." Currently, however, no technology is available to convert the cellulosic biomass and produce it in large quantities. Once alternative biofuel production crops and processes are developed, selecting the best crop for individual settings will help to optimize biofuel production and minimize the environmental impacts of the production, Burken says.

"Developing the crops and distribution of crop production took about 100 years to get to where it was a few years ago," Burken says. "Redeveloping this production with the goal of biofuel production will take time and effort of farmers and engineers. While miscanthus may or may not be a part of our biofuels future, we at least need a little time and investment to develop the best solutions for our future."

Quoting Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens, whom Burken met on April 22 during the Missouri Energy Summit, Burken says, "The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, but the next best time if you didn't is today."

Portions of Energy Summit to be streamed live

2009-04-15T14:29:57Z

Portions of the Missouri Energy Summit, chaired by Missouri S&T Chancellor John F. Carney III, will be available for viewing live over the Internet.]]> www.umsystem.edu/summits/energy2009/program/schedule. Pickens - the architect of the "Pickens Plan" to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil - is the keynote speaker for the Missouri Energy Summit. Pickens' address is scheduled for 12:15 p.m. Wednesday, April 22 (Earth Day), in Jesse Hall Auditorium on the University of Missouri-Columbia campus. Read more about the Energy Summit on the Missouri S&T News site.

Run Rabbit, run

2009-04-06T17:01:45Z

Norman Cox, an associate professor of electrical engineering, figures his 1977 Volkswagen Rabbit gets the equivalent of about 130 miles to the gallon - primarily because it doesn't run on gasoline.

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Video: Partnerships and possibilities

2009-04-03T19:55:26Z

How Kansas City is going "green"

2009-04-02T21:08:45Z

As energy prices soar and the problem of greenhouse gases accelerates, some U.S. cities are looking for ways to go green.

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Missouri S&T joins national energy consortium

2009-04-02T21:05:55Z

The current U.S. energy crisis includes deep dependence on foreign oil, too great a reliance on non-renewable fossil fuels, and carbon dioxide emissions that are causing severe changes in the global climate. Finding solutions to these problem will require a synergy of innovative minds. To that end, Missouri University of Science and Technology has now joined a national consortium to help find long term, secure, sustainable, and environmentally friendly sources of energy.

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The Missouri Energy Summit: Chancellor Carney's take

2009-03-03T22:40:54Z

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S&T student proving walls (even sofas) can talk

2009-03-03T22:01:53Z

Most college students will admit to searching their couch cushions for extra coins to do laundry. But Jon McKinney's cushion hunt isn't about finding money. He wants to help epidemiologists identify what's triggering diseases like asthma in children, and he's got the backing of the Environmental Protection Agency.

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Working with Dr. Glenn Morrison, associate professor of environmental engineering at Missouri University of Science and Technology, the junior is developing the science behind "building forensics," an emerging field that lies at the outer edge of environmental engineering.

"Our goal is to identify what's happened inside a home based on the 'unique fingerprints' of the chemicals we find," McKinney says.

The pair is using nondestructive techniques to take samples from couch cushions, drywall and even concrete to identify the concentration of chemicals that had been in the home. If successful, the technique would make it easier for scientists to reliably identify the chemical causes for many diseases.

The problem of indoor pollution has escalated in recent years as homes have been made more energy efficient, reducing the amount of natural ventilation and allowing a buildup of potentially harmful substances in the air. Many researchers believe the air found inside people's homes can be more hazardous to their health than the smog and other environmental pollutants they are exposed to during outdoor activities.

"You can choose what water you drink. You can choose what you eat. But you can't choose what air you breathe," says McKinney, explaining his interest in the field. "This work combines nature, ecology and chemistry - all the things I like."

The EPA estimates Americans spend roughly 90 percent of their time indoors, and indoor air pollution - caused by sources ranging from paints to cleaning solvents, personal care products to furnishings - has been linked to a wide variety of adverse health effects. Children, the elderly, and those with chronic ailments like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are particularly vulnerable, perhaps in part due to their weaker immune systems and increased time spent indoors.

Many people don't realize the amount of chemicals they introduce into their homes every day. For example, dry-cleaned clothes can emit perchloroethylene, a chemical that has been shown to cause cancer in animals. Studies indicate that people breathe low levels of this chemical in homes where dry-cleaned goods are stored.

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McKinney is currently establishing the "fingerprint" of chemicals in the type of foam materials that are commonly present in furniture cushions.

McKinney of Kansas City, Mo., and a junior in environmental engineering at Missouri S&T, is receiving more than $45,000 to support his education and research through the EPA's Greater Research Opportunities Research Fellowship. Prior to receiving the fellowship, McKinney received funding for his research through Morrison's National Science Foundation CAREER award, which recognizes a young researcher's dual commitment to scholarship and education.

"Internet for energy" concept gains strength with new NSF center

2009-02-03T16:57:29Z

Missouri University of Science and Technology is one of seven universities in the United States and Europe involved in a new National Science Foundation research initiative that aims to transform the nation's power grid into an Internet for energy that will speed renewable electric-energy technologies into every home and business.

]]> Missouri S&T is one of five U.S. universities in the NSF's Energy Research Center for Future Renewable Electric Energy Delivery and Management (FREEDM) Systems. The new center will be led by North Carolina State University and also includes universities in Germany and Switzerland.

The center will be supported by an initial five-year, $18.5 million grant from NSF with an additional $10 million in institutional support and industry membership fees. More than 65 utility companies, electrical equipment manufacturers, alternative energy start-ups and other established and emerging firms have committed to joining this global partnership, according to the NSF.

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"We're excited to be playing a lead role in helping to solve the nation's energy infrastructure problems in collaboration with our university and corporate partners through this new initiative," says Dr. Mariesa Crow, the Fred W. Finley Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Missouri S&T and director of the university's Energy Research and Development Center. "Our university has a long tradition of excellence in power engineering, and our expertise in that area, combined with our emphasis on addressing the pressing energy issues of our time, allow us to make unique contributions to this research effort."

Transforming the nation's power grid is vitally important as alternative-energy technologies prepare to flood the marketplace. Center researchers foresee widespread adoption of plug-in hybrid cars over the next several years, for example, but today's power grid would not be able to handle energy demand during peak charging times, such as when people return home from work in the evening. The smart grid developed at the center will also allow consumers to sell energy back to the power companies when demand is low, preparing the utilities for times when demand is greatest.

At Missouri S&T, Crow is joined by faculty from electrical and computer engineering and computer science to develop next-generation power transformers, distributed power grid intelligence, and ways to incorporate wind power and new energy storage technologies. Working with Crow are Drs. Badrul Chowdhury (professor of electrical and computer engineering), Keith Corzine (associate professor of electrical and computer engineering), Mehdi Ferdowsi (assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering), Jonathan Kimball (assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering) and Bruce McMillin (professor of computer science).

Joining North Carolina State and Missouri S&T in the FREEDM project are Arizona State University, Florida A&M University, Florida State University, RWTH Aachen University in Germany and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Switzerland.

More information about the research may be found on the FREEDM center website, www.freedm.ncsu.edu.

How to build a smarter power grid

2009-01-26T15:14:00Z

Using thousands of brain cells from laboratory rats, researchers at Missouri S&T hope to design a more intelligent power grid. They envision a more flexible system that is capable of responding to uncertainty and circumstances - much like the brain itself.

]]> By growing brain cells on networks of electrodes, the researchers are developing a "biologically inspired" computer program to manage and control complex power grids in Mexico, Brazil, Nigeria and elsewhere. It will allow scientists to track and manage the changing levels of power supply and demand.

Ganesh Kumar Venayagamoorthy, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, and his team are partnering with the Laboratory for Neuroengineering at Georgia Tech, where the living neural networks have been developed and are housed and studied. A high-bandwidth Internet2 connection will connect those brain cells over 600 miles to Venayagamoorthy's Real-Time Power and Intelligent Systems Laboratory.

Missouri S&T researchers will transmit signals from that lab in Rolla, Mo., to the brain cells in the Atlanta lab, and will train those brain cells to recognize voltage signals and other information from Missouri S&T's real-time simulator.

Traditional artificial neural networks (ANNs) have been around for years. Modeled after the brain, they are designed to recognize patterns and learn over time. But they don't work well with complex systems, Venayagamoorthy says.

"As electric power and energy systems get larger and larger, the dynamics become more complicated, and the neural networks have to be scaled up," he says. "But as they scale up, they break down. It becomes more difficult for neural networks to learn and change in real time."

Through this research, Venayagamoorthy and his colleagues hope to develop what he calls BIANNs, or biologically inspired artificial neural networks. Based on the brain's adaptability, these networks could control not only power systems, but also other complex systems, such as traffic-control systems or global financial networks.

Working with Venayagamoorthy on this project at Missouri S&T are Donald Wunsch, the Mary K. Finley Missouri Distinguished Professor of Computer Engineering, and Keith Corzine, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering.