OSU, SNU Researchers Turn to Sunlight to Enrich Biofuel

BY SILAS ALLEN
The Oklahoman
5/15/2013

STILLWATER — Researchers from Oklahoma State University and Southern Nazarene University are looking for a new way to enrich biofuel.

OSU chemistry professor Jimmie Weaver and Southern Nazarene professor Lisa Crow will investigate a method for using sunlight to enrich the energy content of biofuel. Weaver and Crow will conduct the research over the summer at OSU’s chemistry department.

Weaver said the project is a part of the larger national effort to explore the use of plant material to create an energy source.

Most of that conversation has centered on what materials are available, Weaver said. But the idea of how to make chemical changes to plant-based oils to enrich them with more energy content has received less attention.

Most of the efforts to enrich biofuels through chemical means have run into the same roadblock, Weaver said — it takes quite a bit of energy to do it, which offsets any potential energy gains the process might offer.

Weaver and Crow hope to use energy from sunlight to change the molecular structure of the oils, creating a fuel that produces more energy when it’s burned.

That fuel would provide a more efficient option in cases where biofuels are already used for transportation or other uses, Crow said.

“In those cases where it’s worth using them, it would be nice to have a more efficient way to put them to use,” Crow said.

The project is being funded by an $8,000 grant from the National Science Foundation’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research. The program gives grants designed to broaden participation in research and science education.

The grant isn’t designed to allow researchers to see the project through to completion.

It covers about two months of research — enough to allow researchers to work through the early stages to see if the project will be viable.

Having the early stages of the project complete would allow researchers to compete for federal research grants, which would allow for longer-term work, Weaver said.

Part of the purpose of the grant is to allow students and faculty members from smaller universities to participate in research. Although Southern Nazarene isn’t a research university, its undergraduates do participate in research projects, Crow said. And once those students graduate, many of them go to major research universities like OSU for graduate school, she said.

Weaver said developing a relationship with those undergraduates is an important part of the project.

As undergraduates, they’re limited in the amount of research they can do. But when they become graduate students, they make up a key part of the university’s research efforts.

“We’re in constant need for good graduate students,” he said.