Breakout Session V
Advanced Dry Mill Technology I - Midwest Consortium
Venkatesh Balan
Venkatesh Balan is a visiting associate professor of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Material Science at Michigan State University. His research is concentrated in two areas: Pretreatment, hydrolysis and fermentation of biomass; and Extraction of protein from biomass. Some of his present projects include understanding pretreatment conditions using an ammonia fiber explosion (AFEX) process, high throughput hydrolysis and sugar analysis using micro plate assay, and how saccharificed biomass can be fermented to ethanol and other valuable products which could be used as a fuel blend.
Brent Shanks
Brent Shanks is an Associate Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Iowa State University. Prior to joining the faculty at ISU, he worked at Shell Chemicals for 11 years in catalyst research and development. While working for Shell, he developed and commercialized several catalyst systems and also spent several years as the Chemical Catalysis Department research manager. Dr. Shanks is an expert in the synthesis and application of heterogeneous catalysts for the conversion of biomass-derived molecules into fuels and chemicals. His research examines the catalytic transformation of carbohydrates and their derivatives and triglycerides, including hydrolysis, hydrogenolysis, dehydration, oxidative cleavage, and esterification. Central to his work is the synthesis of catalytic materials having molecularly well-defined reaction domains that can lead to selective conversion of biorenewables. He recently chaired the National Science Foundation workshop on the design of catalyst systems for biorenewables.
Thaddeus Chukwuemeka Ezeji
Thaddeus Chukwuemeka Ezeji, a native of Nigeria, obtained his BS and MS degrees in Food Science & Technology from University of Nigeria Nsukka and University of Ibadan, Nigeria, respectively. In 2001, he obtained his PhD degree in Microbiology from Universität Rostock, Germany, under the mentorship of Prof. Dr. Hubert Bahl. Thereafter, he took up a postdoctoral position in Prof. Hans Blaschek’s laboratory at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign where he carried out studies on the physiology of solventogenic clostridia and downstream processing of acetone butanol ethanol (ABE) fermentation.
Dr. Ezeji is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Animal Sciences, Ohio State University and Ohio State Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC). His research include bacterial strain development, fermentations, bioreactor design and scale-up, Cell immobilization, isolation of enzymes of biotechnological importance, downstream processing, and product development especially bioconversion of agricultural products into value-added products.
David Perkis
David Perkis is a natural resource economist focusing on energy issues with Dr. Wally Tyner’s group in Purdue University’s Department of Agricultural Economics. He is a Ph.D. candidate, studying the application of experimental economic techniques to environmental markets. His current research analyzes economic factors related to increases in ethanol supply levels, focusing on economy wide policy optimization – or designing policies which have the desired ethanol supply outcomes while balancing welfare effects across consumers and producers – as well as firm level production cost impacts of supply chain and market factors. Perkis background spans engineering and the social sciences, as he holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, as well as an M.S. in Economics from the University of Cincinnati and an M.S. from Purdue’s Krannert School of Management. After his initial engineering career in corporate R&D, Perkis has focused on applying mathematical and statistical models to analyze issues with direct human impact across several social science fields.