New equipment can help researchers brew biofuel

Clemson University
Published: September 7, 2010

CLEMSON — A new piece of equipment for the Clemson University biosystems engineering program will help researchers conduct novel research on new biomass sources, such as algae and fungi, that may supply biofuels of the future.

“The new $125,000 mobile biofuels processing plant delivered from Piedmont Biofuels in North Carolina is a state-of-the-art pilot facility that will not only give us a valuable research tool for working with plants, microbes and waste oils, but also will be useful to demonstrate biofuels production for local producers, bioenergy industrial partners and to the public,” said biosystems engineer Terry Walker. “We had our initial successful run last week using waste algal and sunflower oils from Martek Biosciences in Kingstree and then used the biofuel to cycle back to a generator to achieve net-zero production.”

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