Making Bio Fuels, Textiles and Paper With Eco-friendly Wood Dissolution Process
ScienceDaily.com – May 20
…Héctor Rodríguez and Professor Robin Rogers from Queen’s School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering worked along with The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, to come up with a more cost and energy efficient way of processing wood. Their solution, which is reported in the journal Green Chemistry, may see a new sustainable future for industry based on bio-renewable resources…Professor Robin Rogers said: “This is a very important discovery because cellulose and lignin have a wide variety of uses. Cellulose can be used to make products such as paper, biofuels, cotton and linen, as well as many other commodity materials and chemicals. “Lignin can be used to create performance additives in various applications, such as strengthening cars and airplanes with a fraction of the weight of conventional reinforcement materials. It is also a source of other chemicals which are mainly obtained from petroleum-based resources.”…
Gas prices should level off soon
Montgomery Advertiser – May 20
…Peter Clark, an engineering professor at the University of Alabama who studies fuel price trends, agreed, but with a few strings attached. “This is the Memorial Day bump,” he said. “I don’t think it is going to go much higher this summer.” But he added, “There is no good, solid technical reason for it to go up.” The first, and biggest, explanation Clark had for the upswing was oil future traders, who depend on swings in the market to make a profit. “Those guys make money on big moves,” he said…
Education briefs
Birmingham News – May 20
…Justin Headly and Ramon Gramstad, both seniors in electrical and computer engineering at the University of Alabama, were recently selected from a nationally competitive field to participate in the 2009 NASA Robotics Academy at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville. — As part of the University of Alabama Engineers Without Borders service learning project, the students are submitting regular blog postings on http://uanews.ua.edu/blogs/ewb/. — Members of the University of Alabama Sigma Chi fraternity, in conjunction with UA sororities, recently presented a $32,000 check to Children’s Hospital of Alabama. The proceeds were generated through Derby Days.