Calvo to Deliver NC State 2011 Borlaug Lecture

Posted on October 19, 2011 by

Dr. Julio César Calvo Alvarado, the Rector (President) of Instituto Tecnologico de Costa Rica, will deliver the 2011 Borlaug Distinguished Lecture on Global Service to Society and Environment at NC State University. The event is open to the campus community and will be followed by a reception and an open circle discussion with President Calvo.

TOPIC: Costa Rica: In the Path of Environmental Sustainability. Lessons Learned.
WHEN: 3:30pm on Monday October 31, 2011
WHERE: Talley Student Center Ballroom, NC State University Campus.

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Additional opportunities to interact with Dr. Calvo

“Forestry Development in Costa Rica” – an open campus disciplinary seminar with Dr. Clavo willl be held from 10:15-11:30 am in Room 1214, Jordan Hall Addition.
College of Natural Resources Roundtable with Dr. Calvo for CNR students and faculty on Tuesday, November 1st from 2:00-3:30pm in Room 4024 Biltmore Hall (The Hines Room).

About Dr Calvo and TEC

Dr. Calvo is President of Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica (TEC), a national autonomous institution, with ca. 6500 students. TEC has undergraduate and graduate programs in a comprehensive array of disciplines: Business, Natural and Social Science and Humanities, and engineering in Agricultural, Forest, Electromechanical, Computer, Construction, Industrial, Design, Production, and Materials Sciences.

Dr. Calvo received his Ph.D in 1991 from Dept. of Forestry at NC State, working under the direction of Professor emeritus James Gregory. He has received Fulbright-LASPAU and NSF Fellowships, and been honored by SIGMA XI, and Agriculture and Forestry Honor Societies. In 1982 he earned an M.S. from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry-Syracuse, and in 1978 his first degree in Forest Engineering from TEC. Professor Calvo works in forest hydrology, natural resources, forest ecology and remote sensing. Previously he was Chairman of the TEC School of Forestry 1983-1987, and again from 2007-2011. From 1997-2002 he was Executive Director of the Tropical Science Center, Costa Rica, and responsible for a Biological Reserves Network, including the Monteverde Cloud Forest Station.

The Noman E. Borlaug Distinguished Lecture on Global Service to Society and the Environment is co-sponsored annually by the College of Natural Resources (CNR) and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) at NC State University.

$4 Million Grant Will Help Ramp Up Southeast Biofuel Production

Posted on October 11, 2011 by

North Carolina State University will use a $4 million grant to study the most efficient, cost-effective and environmentally friendly ways of producing biofuels from trees and from forest harvesting residue.

NC State’s College of Natural Resources is part of the Southeast Partnership for Integrated Biomass Supply Systems, a collaboration of several universities and industry partners who will work on all aspects of the “biofuels pipeline” between the forests where the trees – the biomass feedstock – are grown and the “biorefineries” where the biofuels are produced. The partnership is funded for five years with a $15 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

The research includes understanding the challenges of storing and transporting the biomass, and studying new developments in the production of biofuels. It also includes developing and deploying measures of the environmental and economic impacts of producing biofuel, says Dr. Steve Kelley, professor and head of NC State’s Department of Forest Biomaterials and the principal investigator for the NC State portion of the grant. He adds that the entire biofuel production process must be efficient, scalable and sustainable.

“The Southeast is a veritable ‘wood basket’ that can produce much of the feedstock that shows great promise for production of biofuels,” Kelley says. “Besides the obvious need for energy security, this project will develop economic and environmental measures that can inform the public discussion at the community level, and allow individual communities to evaluate their prospects for job creation and landowner income. We want to create the infrastructure capable of providing the backbone for increased biofuel capacity.”

The partnership will also study the best ways of informing and training forest landowners and local businesses on the “hows” and “whys” of producing, harvesting and transporting different varieties of biofuel feedstock.

The partnership grant was one of five USDA-NIFA grants recently announced – totaling more than $136 million – aimed at developing regional, renewable energy markets, generating rural jobs and reducing U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

Joining Kelley as investigators on the grant are Drs. Robert Bardon, Vincent Chiang, Sudipta Dasmohapatra, Barry Goldfarb, Fikrit Isik, Hasan Jameel, Steve McKeand, Dan Robison, Sunkyu Park, Jose Stape, Richard Venditti and Ross Whetten. They are all faculty members in NC State’s College of Natural Resources.

For more information contact: Mick Kulikowski | NCSU News Services | 919.515.8387

Eco-friendly Super Foam Makes Contaminated Water Fit To Drink

Posted on July 25, 2011 by

Absorbance properties of "super foam" being tested in an NC State forest biomaterials labSuper Foam being tested

Reuters

It began as an experiment to create an absorbent material for the next generation of diapers, but potential uses may be much more far-reaching.

Using by-products of the lumber industry and pulverized crustacean shells, Dr. Joel Pawlak and his research team in the Department of Forest Biomaterials at NC State University came up with an eco-friendly super absorbent foam that has the potential to revolutionize efforts to purify drinking water in developing countries and disaster-stricken areas.

Watch the video – Source: Reuters / July 22, 2011

Energy Interns and Fellows Are Seeing “Green”

Posted on June 23, 2011 by

Solar Suitability Study conducted by Will Dunlop and John Diaz at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

Energy efficiency and maximizing the use of renewable energy resources is on everyone’s minds these days and NC State University is actively engaged in developing and disseminating solutions to our energy challenges.

Energy Interns pass out flyers related to energy conservation and their upcoming workshops

Lauren Lesak and Drew Hatley, interns with the CES in Warren and Franklin Counties, pass out energy conservation and upcoming workshops flyers at a community event.

The College of Natural Resources (CNR) at NC State has placed 42 students in green energy internships and fellowships using a $435,481 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant. Students are working in 16 counties in North Carolina for a total of 21 host organizations.

Three fellows began working in Fall 2010. One of the fellows, Helene Cser, is developing a renewable energy database with analysis tools and another, Jessica Knight, is creating the web interface for the database to help facilitate economic growth within the renewable energy industry sector of North Carolina.

Wood pellets are tested for durability in Javon Carter’s feasibility study.

The third fellow, Javon Carter, has been investigating woody biomass material from Eastern North Carolina to determine its suitability for commercialization as wood pellets.

An Energy Intern works on a wind powered car model

Cory Connell, intern with the CES in Craven County, works on a wind powered car he will make with children at a summer 4-H camp.

Fifteen interns worked part-time during the Spring 2011 semester in the Raleigh area. Among them, Will Dunlop and John Diaz worked at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Division of Waste Management using GIS technology to analyze former landfills for solar farm suitability. Four students worked on a campus tree inventory project designed to calculate the energy savings associated with the trees on campus. Both of these projects have continued into the summer.

This summer, 32 interns are working to promote energy efficiency and assist with small-scale renewable energy installation projects with host organizations such as the NC Cooperative Extension Service (CES), SAS, the NC Solar Center, NC Department of Transportation, HandCrafted Homes and others.

Energy Intern works on a solar powered oven

Austin Harriett, CES intern in Craven County, works on a solar powered oven he will make with children at a summer 4-H camp.

Ten students are working with the Cooperative Extension Service in eight different counties—Craven, Davidson, Franklin, Greene, Hertford, Onslow, Warren and Wilson. Interns in these counties are assisting CES’ efforts to educate the community about ways to increase energy efficiency within homes and businesses and integrate renewable energy there as well. Throughout the summer, interns will prepare presentations for a variety of groups including children, seniors, farmers, and low-income families on specific ways that each group can be more energy efficient.

Companies such as SAS, HandCrafted Homes, Timberline, Jordan Lumber and Owens-Illinois are using the energy interns to find ways to make their plants and facilities more energy efficient.

energy interns measure a tree on NC State's campus as part of a tree inventory

Charles Rudder and Ian McInnis measure a tree for an inventory to determine energy savings gained from campus trees.

The interns were invited to the State’s Sustainable Energy Conference in April that included a session specifically for energy interns. In early June, they were offered a two day Energy Auditor Training on the campus of UNC Chapel Hill at no cost.

CNR student interns are part of a larger state program that includes 28 awarded organizations hosting the energy internship and fellowship program. The program ends in March 2012, by which time some 480 interns and fellows will have worked for the program across the state.

Post submitted by:
Karla Heinen
Dr. Gary Blank
For more information: 919.515.7566

Investing in the Next Generation of Scientists

Posted on June 23, 2011 by

Forest Biomaterials professors Marty Hubbe and Lucian Lucia at NC State University already have busy schedules teaching, conducting research and serving their university. To these duties, they have taken on editing an open access journal BioResources which has seen tremendous growth since they established the journal in July of 2006.

Their work has the professors thinking daily about the future of the field, the challenges ahead and the talented scientists needed to tackle those challenges. In response to this need, they decided to invest some of the journal’s assets in the future by making annual contributions to fund one year scholarships for deserving students majoring in forest biomaterials at NC State.

Paper Science Students Tour Celulosa Arauco

“Not only do we want to benefit the renewable materials community with the journal, but our hope is to leverage the growth of the journal to support students going into the paper & science engineering major.” says Dr Lucia. “We count ourselves as very fortunate to be able to give back and provide scholarships to the meritorious undergrads that come into our Department.”

While they are starting small, the professors hope to grow the fund and increase the number of scholarships available in the future. Contributions to support the Journal and the BioResources Scholarship Fund are welcome. Make a gift to the BioResources Fund

ABOUT BIORESOURCES
BioResources is devoted to the science and technology of using materials, chemicals, or energy derived from predominantly lignocellulosic sources, such as wood, agricultural residues, paper, and related by products for new uses and new capabilities.

With a goal of promoting scientific discourse in an area of research that is critical to the future of us all, BioResources open-access, web-based format means that articles can be downloaded without cost by researchers around the world, helping to speed progress toward the solution of some pressing environmental issues. The journal is also available in print format.