In Spring 2015, the Southeastern Sun Grant Center announced the availability of its regional competitive grants program with a Request for Applications, which was sent to key contacts at all land-grant universities in the region.
In total, 23 full proposals were submitted by the submission deadline. After extensive review by a panel from academic, business and government sectors with expertise in all the USDA research priority areas, 4 proposals were selected for funding.
Funded Proposals:
- Mechanical Refining Technology to Produce Low Cost Sugars from Biomass – Sunkyu Park, North Carolina State University
- Biomass Inorganic Impurities: Predicting their Release and Evaluating Strategies for their Removal During Gasification – Nourredine Abdoulmoumine, University of Tennessee
- Hemicellulose extraction of biomass to develop high value product and improve biochemical conversion – Richard Venditti, North Carolina State University
- Bioleaching of Biomass to Improve Thermochemical Conversion Efficiency with Reduced Emission – Yi Zheng, Clemson University