First American Scientific Corp. (fka FASC)

[twojugglers]

Excuse me if this article has already been posted:

UT to research grass as fuel source
Jason Piho
Staff Writer Volume 97 Number 12
Wednesday, September 01, 2004

http://dailybeacon.utk.edu/article.php/16001



The University of Tennessee received $1.7 million in grants for research in processing and using switchgrass, a perennial grass native to the United States, as a fuel.

Burton English, professor of agriculture economics, said the Department of Energy gave the grant to UT for faculty, graduate students and researchers to find lower fuel prices.

The project is focused on the techniques to mechanically separate plant chemical constituents as dry material that can be further purified with a wet chemical process, said Alvin Womac, professor of biosystems engineering and environmental science.

"The biomass chemical constituents can be thought of as building blocks that can be reassembled to form materials other than a plant," Womac said. "The whole concept is based on the fact that different plant's parts have different chemical constituents. We separate the plant parts based on the richness of constituents as a first pass."

English mentioned the monetary advantages switchgrass processing would have over natural gas.

"The benefits to the community are if switchgrass can be converted to electricity, direct combustion or ethanol, this will reduce the price of imported gas," English said. "In addition, this is cleaner than gas."

Womac said the environmental friendliness and sustainability of the biomass processing route is a side benefit.

"This project is one step along the road to a bio-based economy rather than a petroleum-based economy," he said.

Womac said the project is collaborative between UT, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and First American Scientific Co., a maker of biomass and rock grinders.

"FASC is, in kind, contributing an additional $100,000 for engineering and business plan expertise," he said.

Two scientists from Oak Ridge and two from FASC will help various UT facilitates do research on this project. Womac said the project just got underway with its first three-year grant.

Despite the importance of the research project, Womac said most of the grant money will pay for salary for post-doctoral degrees, graduate students, undergraduate students, travel and some supplies.