Bioenergy Day events at MSU set for Oct. 17

Contact: Jim Laird

STARKVILLE, Miss.--Mississippi State University will participate in the first-ever National Bioenergy Day next week.

The land-grant institution's Sustainable Energy Research Center and the MSU Energy Institute will host an open house and tours on Thursday [Oct. 17] from 1-4 p.m. at the SERC pilot scale facility, which is located at 250 Research Blvd. in the Thad Cochran Research Park.

The 7,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art pilot scale facility houses technology for converting biomass to transportation fuels. MSU scientists and engineers are taking research from the laboratory into the commercialization process, and are working closely with industry partners to move new products and processes to the marketplace, according to a university official.

"We have created a facility to take work developed in bench-top reactors and scale up these processes to an intermediate or pilot scale. This scale serves as an intermediate to full production of new biofuels," said SERC director Glenn Steele.

"There are a number of industries in our state and the region that may benefit from the availability of this pilot scale equipment at Mississippi State," added the William L. Giles Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering.

Bioenergy Day visitors will have a chance to see biofuels production firsthand, and learn more from MSU faculty, staff and students about bioenergy's wide-ranging impact.

According to National Bioenergy Day organizers, bioenergy produces a significant amount of the nation's renewable energy, and supplies full-time jobs for tens of thousands of Americans.

For additional information, please contact Steele at steele@ei.msstate.edu or 662-325-8701.