News

Virtual Forum: Transportation Design & Policy for Sustainable Healthy Cities (Pt.2)

March 23, 2017

Join us Friday for a discussion on: Transportation Design & Policy for Sustainable Healthy Cities, Pt. 2:

Potential Outcomes from (Shared, Electric) Automated Vehicles

Led by: Frank Douma (University of Minnesota) Dr. Kara Kockelman (University of Texas at Austin)

Friday March 24, 2:30 to 4:30PM Central

To view or join the discussion on FridayJoin Here, Access Code: 383-419-437. To view presentations ahead of time:  https://utexas.app.box.com/s/ehnbzp0cjbii3fmm4wysowjg6wgp5a57

These lectures and discussions are part of a course offered by the MSSTEP Program and the Sustainable Healthy Cities Network, Infrastructure Transformations for Sustainable Healthy Cities: Design and Policy.

Frank Douma, Senior Fellow
Frank Douma
Kara Kockelman Profile Image
Dr. Kara Kockelman

News

Student Feature: Turning waste into biofuel by Shilva Shrestha and Xavier Fonoll at UMich

March 22, 2017

Shilva Shrestha, a current PhD student, and Xavier Fonoll, a post-doctoral fellow, in Professor Lutgarde Raskin’s research group at the University of Michigan, started a collaborative project between the University of Michigan, the University of Hawaii, and the University of Barcelona.  They started working as a visiting master’s student and a visiting PhD student, respectively, at the University of Michigan in the summer of 2014. Impressed with the work atmosphere, rigor, and diverse approaches to research in the Raskin research group, both of them decided to take their collaboration further and returned to the University of Michigan after finishing their degrees at the University of Hawaii and the University of Barcelona, respectively, to start another phase of their research careers. Here is a brief introduction to their current work:

Annual worldwide waste generation is expected to increase by 70% by 2025. At the same time, there has also been a paradigm shift in our approach to waste treatment, transitioning from simple landfill disposal or incineration to utilizing waste to produce fuels and chemicals. Anaerobic digestion (AD) has been a popular technology to transform organic wastes into energy in the form of biogas. However, without government subsidies and appropriate governmental policies for promoting methane based biofuel, the economic viability of AD is often limited. Producing high-value chemicals from organic waste streams using anaerobic technology has the potential to increase the economic value of AD technology, and also addresses concerns of environmental sustainability by proper waste management, preventing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and decreasing resource depletion through the reduced use of petrochemical, plant, and animal oil sources. Anaerobic microbiomes can be used to produce medium chain fatty acids (MCFAs) by chain elongation of short chain carboxylates, the intermediates of AD. MCFAs are saturated fatty acids and have chain length from six to twelve carbons and can be used as the precursors for liquid fuels (alcohols and alkanes), animal feed additives, antimicrobials, fragrances, pharmaceuticals, and dyes.

 

To maximize the production of MCFAs, a two-phase bioreactor system is being built. The results from Shilva’s and Xavier’s previous collaborative project, in which rumen content was used as inoculum and co-substrate to overcome the slow hydrolysis of lignocellulosic substrates, fostered the idea of designing the first bioreactor. The first bioreactor hydrolyzes organic waste and subsequently ferments the soluble products to VFAs. It mimics the behavior of the rumen (cow stomach) and the design intends to shape the reactor microbiome to be as similar as the rumen microbiome with high levels of hydrolytic microorganisms. The second bioreactor supports the chain elongation reaction using the VFAs produced in the first bioreactor.


News

External Advisory Committee visits University of Minnesota for annual review meeting

March 13, 2017

On March 7-8, the SRN's External Advisory Committee (EAC) met with lead faculty and staff in Minneapolis. The EAC, led by Raj Rajan from Ecolab, has members from industry, government and academia who review the Network's progress.Faculty presented research results and outreach activities from the past year, and the EAC provided feedback on how the Network can further be improved. This feedback will be given to the National Science Foundation as well.
More information about the EAC can be found here.
from left to right: Sarah French, Sharon Roerty, Tannie Eshenaur, Judith Qualters, Robert Johns, Paige Novak, Armistead Russell, Anu Ramaswami, Patricia Culligan, Raj Rajan, Angie Fyfe, Shaoyi Li, John Abraham, Tim Hillman, Katja Kruit

News

Virtual Forum: Transportation Design & Policy for Sustainable Healthy Cities – Part 1

March 09, 2017

Join us Friday for a discussion on: Transportation Design and Policy for Sustainable Healthy Cities, Pt.1: Outcomes from Land Use, Transit, and Bicycling

Led by: Anu Ramaswami (University of Minnesota)
Discussing: Summary of lessons from previous classes on Energy, transitioning to Transportation, Wedge analysis paper (2:30-3:00)

Jueyu Wang and Greg Lindsey (University of Minnesota)
Discussing: Bikesharing (3:00-3:40

Xinyi Wu & Jason Cao (tent) (University of Minnesota) Discussing: Land Use and Transit (3:45-4:25)

Closing Discussion (4:25-4:30)

Friday March 10, 2:30 to 4:30 PM Central

To view or join the discussion on FridayJoin Here, Access Code: 383-419-437.

These lectures and discussions are part of a course offered by the MSSTEP Program and the Sustainable Healthy Cities Network, Infrastructure Transformations for Sustainable Healthy Cities: Design and Policy.


News

Virtual Forum: Chan, Orlove, Curley and Feiock discuss Energy and Urban Infrastructure

March 02, 2017

Join us Friday for a discussion on: Energy and Urban Infrastructure

Led by: Gabe Chan (University of Minnesota)
Discussing: Community Solar, Financing and Equity (2:30-3:00)

Ben Orlove (Columbia University)
Discussing: Decision Architecture, Messaging and Energy Conservation (3:00-3:30

&
Cali Curley & Rick Feiock (Florida State University) Discussing: Field Insights Energy Conservation, and future work on Demand Response (3:30-4:00)

Friday March 3, 2:30 to 4:30 PM Central

To view or join the discussion on FridayJoin Here, Access Code: 383-419-437.

These lectures and discussions are part of a course offered by the MSSTEP Program and the Sustainable Healthy Cities Network, Infrastructure Transformations for Sustainable Healthy Cities: Design and Policy.

Photo of Professor Gabe Chan
Professor Gabe Chan, University of Minnesota
Professor Rick Feiock, Florida State University
Photo of Cali Curley
Professor Cali Curley, Florida State University
Benjamin Orlove
Professor Ben Orlove, Columbia University