Inside Iowa State

Sept. 12, 2008

ISU wins $18.5 million grant for biorenewable chemicals center

by Mike Krapfl, News Service

The National Science Foundation on Sept. 5 awarded Iowa State and its research partners a five-year, $18.5 million grant to establish the NSF Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals (CBiRC). It is one of five such centers the NSF is launching this year.

Iowa State will lead the 10 institutions affiliated with the center. Brent Shanks, professor of chemical and biological engineering, will be its director and Basil Nikolau, the Frances M. Craig Professor in the departments of biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology and food science and human nutrition, will be the deputy director. Another 16 Iowa State faculty members are expected to be affiliated with the center.

"This award is a great endorsement of the work our faculty, staff and students have been doing in biorenewable technologies," said president Gregory Geoffroy. "And the new Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals is a tremendous opportunity for Iowa State to work with partners in the United States and Europe to create a culture of innovation that can develop a sustainable chemical industry."

Shanks, a former employee of Shell Chemicals, said it will take a lot of research, education and training to develop a sustainable and biorenewable chemical industry. The petrochemical industry has been developing catalysts and other technologies for producing fuels and chemicals from fossil fuel molecules for about 80 years, he said. Researchers working with bio-based molecules are just starting to develop the catalysts and technologies necessary to produce chemicals.

But, he noted that investments in the university's Bioeconomy Institute and its Plant Sciences Institute helped attract the faculty and research capabilities necessary for the new center.

Community of centers

The award is part of NSF's Generation Three Engineering Research Centers program. The third-generation centers are designed to create university and industry partnerships in research and education that promote innovation, and produce engineering graduates who will contribute to a U.S. competitive advantage in a global economy. (The first generation of centers was established from 1985 to 1990; the second from 1994 to 2006).

The initial NSF grant supports five years of work, with a renewal possibility for another five years. After 10 years, the center is to be self-supporting. Iowa State -- through the offices of the executive vice president and provost, vice president for research and economic development, and the colleges of Engineering, Agriculture and Life Sciences, and Liberal Arts and Sciences -- also is committing $600,000 per year for the center.

CBiRC's academic partners are:

• University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
• Rice University, Houston
• University of Wisconsin, Madison
• University of Virginia, Charlottesville
• University of California, Irvine

Affiliated faculty also will come from:

• University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
• Salk Institute for Biological Studies, San Diego
• Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, Berlin
• Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby

"This award is a great endorsement of the work our faculty, staff and students have been doing in biorenewable technologies. And the new Engineering Research Center for Biorenewable Chemicals is a tremendous opportunity for Iowa State to work with partners in the United States and Europe to create a culture of innovation that can develop a sustainable chemical industry."

President Gregory Geoffroy