ExxonMobil, Iowa State Partner For New Biofuels Research Program

Representatives from ExxonMobil and Iowa State University met in late-October to talk about the new ExxonMobil Biofuels research program being implemented at the school.

Juan Proano Aviles, a graduate student in mechanical engineering and Robert Brown, Director of the ExxonMobil Biofuels program, discussed the details which will focus on two separate studies associated with the fast pyrolysis of biomass: the process of rapidly heating biomass without oxygen to create liquid bio-oil.

Researchers can use corn stalks, grass, wood chips, and other agricultural waste products in the process. This new refinement process would be an upgrade from the current process of traditional transportation fuels and chemicals.

Aviles is just one of the graduate students working on the lab and pilot scales of the research program hoping to use this project as his dissertation in the next two years. Although ExxonMobile is providing some resources, Aviles said students are one of the projects most valuable assets.

Brown said the Biorenewables Research Laboratory was definitely a selling point to ExxonMobile when they were selecting a facility for their program. The complex was finished in 2010 and houses agriculture and bio systems as close partners with this project. The separate interdisciplinary programs being in the same vicinity help provide resources for students.

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