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| Dr. Duane Dombek | Polymer Additives
from Corn
MATRIC
has teamed with the Iowa Corn Promotion Board (ICPB) and the New Jersey
Institute of Technology (NJIT) in a project to develop market
opportunities for isosorbide, a polymer precursor or additive. Isosorbide
can significantly improve the characteristics of plastics, but a practical
large-scale process must be developed before it can be made available for
polymer uses. MATRIC has been working on the chemistry and separations
technology for such a process. This project is supported by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture and the ICPB.
Substantial progress has been made in this project, including the preparation of large laboratory-scale quantities of isosorbide. A laboratory process for crystallization of the product has been demonstrated to give very pure product, and a number of samples have already been provided for customer evaluation and application studies. Work is now in progress on an improved crystallization process for more economic operation. Knowledge gained in scaling up the reaction and separation steps has been useful in developing a preliminary integrated process design. This information has been incorporated into a conceptual process flowsheet. Preliminary process economics are very encouraging. | |||||
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| Dr. Duane Dombek | Construction Nearing
Completion 
Excellent progress has been made in construction of a biodiesel
plant scheduled to start production in Cashton, Wisconsin later this year.
The plant will be owned and operated by BEST Energies, Inc., a bioenergy
company based in Madison, Wisconsin. MATRIC developed the process
technology for the plant, which is expected to produce eight million
gallons of biodiesel fuel from soybean oil per year. The new process was
developed within a strategic partnership established between MATRIC and
BEST Energies in the bioenergy area. MATRIC serves as the Research,
Development and Engineering resource in the partnership, and BEST is the
commercial partner. MATRIC is leading the detailed engineering effort for
the plant and providing engineering construction support for the
project.
Many activities are being pursued at an increasing pace as the startup approaches, including acquisition of the final equipment items. Operations and safety training will begin soon. MATRIC has provided a substantial amount of support to ensure that the process will achieve ASTM D 6751 and BQ-9000 standards. The process technology package developed for this plant has high potential for incorporation into existing plants and for additional new plants. See BEST's biodiesel information sheet for more information. MATRIC continues to develop further process improvements in our continuous biodiesel pilot plant, with a focus on process efficiency, feedstock costs, and on meeting the changing market requirements. | |||||
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| Dr. Duane Dombek | Technology to Process
Agriculture Wastes 
MATRIC
is collaborating with West Virginia State University to investigate
anaerobic digestion as a technology to reduce problems caused by
agricultural waste. For several years, WVSU has led the Bioplex
Project, an investigation of the anaerobic fermentation of poultry
litter. Farmers must dispose of livestock waste material, but spreading it
on fields leads to nutrient runoff problems and potential seepage into
water systems. The Bioplex unit is demonstrating that these problems can
be overcome by anaerobic fermentation, which breaks down the waste
material into harmless and potentially valuable products such as
fertilizer and energy sources.
MATRIC's activities so far have focused on separations and engineering studies of the products of the digestion process. The gas produced contains a significant concentration of methane, and studies have investigated the potential to upgrade the energy content of this gas for specific applications. The liquid effluent of the process consists of a mix of many components, and initial studies have identified potential techniques to separate some of them into products that will have useful applications. These studies are continuing with the goal of enhancing the overall economic return for the process. | |||||
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| Dr. Duane Dombek | Conversion of
Low-Value Plant Materials into Liquid Fuel 
Most
ethanol in the U.S. is currently produced from corn starch. The future for
fuel ethanol, however, is in processes that produce it from
lignocellulose, which can be obtained from a great variety of biomass,
including agricultural, forest, and urban wastes. MATRIC has initiated
studies in this area, and has identified a concept that has potential to
be very economical. This approach uses organic solvents to break apart the
rigid lignocellulosic structure, making the cellulose available for
enzymatic conversion. A successful process based on this technology would
make use of a very large biomass resource.
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| Dr. Duane Dombek | Collecting and
Purifying Methane 
Municipal landfills produce millions of cubic feet per day of
biogas, which consists of methane diluted with carbon dioxide and smaller
amounts of other contaminants. The number of sources of this biogas is
huge. Methane is an important fuel for use in heating of homes and other
buildings, in the operation of various types of equipment, and in the
generation of electricity. An economical system for collecting and
purifying the biogas from these landfills would allow this large energy
source to be tapped. Methane is a much more powerful greenhouse gas than
is carbon dioxide, so there is an additional justification for the capture
and combustion of this biogas.
Through its partnership with NG Innovations, MATRIC is developing technology for the purification of natural gas at the well-head. This technology is also being looked at for the landfill application, where very similar separation and purification considerations apply. This technology has the potential to make a very substantial biomass energy resource available for clean energy. | |||||
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| Jane Copley |
Computer Science, Software Engineers and Electrical Engineers with
previous aerospace experience needed for major project supporting NASA.
Choose Morgantown/Fairmont or Charleston, West Virginia location. Top
performers a must. Equal opportunity employer. Send resumes to careers@
matricresearch.com.
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