AgBioResearch Biofuel Expert Co-authors Scientific American Cover Story
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EmailBruce Dale has spent his entire 30-plus-year career studying ways to turn biomass (plant leaves and stems, tree trunks and branches) into biofuels.
Bruce Dale, MAES chemical engineering and materials science researcher and associate director of the Office of Biobased Technologies, who also serves as editor-in-chief of Biofuels, Bioproducts & Biorefining (Biofpr), has spent his entire 30-plus-year career studying ways to turn biomass (plant leaves and stems, tree trunks and branches) into biofuels. He rarely passes up an opportunity to explain the concepts behind cellulosic ethanol, no matter how large or small the group. So it's no surprise to see "Grassoline at the Pump," an article he wrote with George Huber, of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, as the cover story in the July 2009 issue of Scientific American.
"We can produce ethanol and other transportation fuels from cellulosic materials," Dale said. "One of the most important things that we as scientists can do is to help everyone understand the difference between making biofuels from grain and making biofuels from cellulose."
Huber, an expert in thermochemical approaches to biofuel production, asked Dale to lend his expertise in biochemical approaches and help write the article.
"I gave it the name and a beautiful piece of literature was born," Dale added with a laugh.
"Grassoline at the Pump? is available online.
