Purdue Researcher Earns $750K DOE Career Award
A Purdue University assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering plans to use giraffe, wildebeest, zebra and horse dung to create efficient biofuels. The proposal has secured a U.S. Department of Energy Career Award of $750,000 over five years to fund the project.
“Nature and biological processes are good at fixing carbon dioxide and turning it into biomass. But we want to break the chemicals in that biomass back into sugars that we can convert into a wide array of products,” Kevin Solomon said in a news release.
With this award, Solomon says he plans on developing CRISPR Cas9 gene-editing technologies and other approaches to create fuel or medicines in a one-step process.
"Kevin’s work holds the potential to turn plentiful, renewable resources into valuable products that improve the quality of life for humans,” said Bernie Engel, associate dean of research and graduate education for Purdue’s College of Agriculture in a news release.