Contact:Skip Derra, News Service, (515) 294-4917 [email protected]
ENERGY EXPERTS AT IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY
AMES, Iowa -- As summer heats up so are concerns about the U.S. energy situation. Here are experts from Iowa State University who can speak about the issues surrounding U.S. energy production, consumption and policies.
CONVENTIONAL ENERGY
Energy industry
Gerald Sheble, professor of electrical engineering, (515) 294-3046.Sheble studies the emerging electrical power market and recently published a book on the topic. He also researches power network security issues.
Sam DeMarie, assistant professor of management, (515) 294-5526. DeMarie has studied the energy industry, especially in the western United States. He has studied the industry and can speak about energy issues in the U.S.
Nuclear energy
Daniel Bullen, associate professor of mechanical engineering, (515) 294-6000.A proponent of nuclear power, Bullen says it is one of our country's best solutions to becoming energy independent. Bullen is a member of the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board. He was reappointed by President Clinton in May 2000 to the board, an independent agency that evaluates the Department of Energy's activities in high-level radioactive waste management.
Fossil energy
Robert Brown, professor of mechanical engineering and chemical engineering, and director of IPRT's Center for Sustainable Environmental Technologies, (515) 294-8733; (515) 294-7934. The center supports development of new technologies to improve the performance of fossil-fueled power plants. Brown's research projects involve fluidized-bed combustion, control of sulfur and nitrogen emissions from coal-fired power plants, hot-gas clean-up for advanced power systems, industrial ecology applied to power plants and advanced power plant monitoring equipment. He has consulted with industry and municipalities on combustion technology and pollution control, including dioxin emissions from incineration of solid wastes.
Air pollution
Matthew Potoski, assistant professor of political science and public administration, (515) 294-2935.Potoski's research focuses on how states develop, implement and enforce policies, particularly environmental policies regulating air pollution.
Iowa Energy Center
Floyd Barwig, director, (515) 294-0111.The Iowa Energy Center conducts and sponsors research on energy efficiency and conservation, helps develop alternate energy systems and assesses technology related to energy efficiency and alternative energy production. The center has two research and demonstration facilities -- the Biomass Energy Conversion (BECON) facility in Nevada, Iowa, which focuses on making value-added biofuels and chemicals from Iowa's biomass resources; and the Energy Resource Station, Ankeny, Iowa, which focuses on building efficiency, specifically heating, ventilation and air conditioning.
Energy economics
Bruce Babcock, professor of economics; director of the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development, (515) 294-6785.Babcock studies the economics of bioenergy and biobased products. Babcock has conducted extensive research in the areas of agricultural production economics and agricultural policy. He has studied the impact of price volatility on supply and demand of bioenergy and biobased products.
Phillip Baumel, distinguished professor of economics, (515) 294-6263.Baumel's research focuses on transportation and marketing of agricultural products with emphasis on rail freight shipping. Baumel also studies rural transportation problems.
Mike Duffy, professor of economics; associate director, Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture; professor-in-charge, Beginning Farmer Center, (515) 294-6160.Duffy studies the cost of energy for farmers and the economics of producing biobased fuels, especially switchgrass. Researched switchgrass with Charles Brummer.
William Edwards, professor of economics; extension economist, (515) 294-6161.Edwards studies the cost of energy for farmers. His book, "Farm Management," is in its fourth printing.
Conservation
Roger Smith, professor of industrial education and technology, (515) 294-7001. Smith researches efficiency, design and conservation for manufacturing operations.
Marilyn Bode, adjunct associate professor of human development and family studies, (515) 294-5327. Bode's research focuses on household/personal energy conservation.
Mary Yearns, associate professor of human development and family studies, (515) 294-8520. Yearns studies home and small business energy conservation and organization.
Cost of energy
Maurice MacDonald, professor and chair, human development and family studies, (515) 294-1983. MacDonald's research focuses on personal and family budgeting. He can speak about the impact of rising energy costs on budgets and offer tips on how to minimize the impact.
Cynthia Fletcher, professor of human development and family studies, (515) 294-8521.Fletcher's research focuses on welfare and immigrant populations in Iowa. She can discuss the impact of rising energy costs on low-income families.
Mark Oleson, assistant professor of human development and family studies, (515) 294-8644. Oleson can speak about the impact of rising energy costs on consumers' abilities to stay on budget and continue to pay down debt.
Home efficiency
Carol Meeks, dean of the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, (515) 294-0860. Meeks can talk about ways to make homes more energy efficient, design trends in housing and efforts to improve manufactured housing.
Energy and the elderly
Charles (Chip) Hatcher, assistant professor of human development and family studies, (515) 294-8889. Hatcher¥s research focuses on the elderly and their needs. He can talk about the impact of rising energy prices on the elderly and on retirement savings and budgeting.
ALTERNATIVE ENERGY
Bioenergy and biobased products
Robert Brown, professor of mechanical engineering and chemical engineering, and director of IPRT's Center for Sustainable Environmental Technologies, (515) 294-8733; (515) 294-7934.
Bioenergy converts biomass resources (crops, agricultural wastes and manure) into heat, power and fuels. Biobased products are chemicals and materials produced from biomass resources. Brown has been pursuing the use of Iowa biomass resources for production of both energy and chemicals since 1992. As CSET director, he helps develop projects ranging from storage and harvesting of biomass to producing hydrogen for use in fuel cells. Brown's research focuses on thermal conversion of biomass to heat, power and chemicals. He developed a gasifier that is being demonstrated by a seed corn company in Toledo, Iowa, and one being used in Henan, China, to provide cooking gas to small villages as an alternative to open cooking fires of coal or corn cobs.
Charles Brummer, associate professor of agronomy, (515) 294-1415.Brummer conducts bioenergy crop research. He studies switchgrass (and reed carnarygrass) as a viable alternative energy source to coal. Brummer also performs evaluation, production, collection and breeding of switchgrass and reed canarygrass for biofuel traits. Research is part of the Chariton Valley Resource Conservation and Development program in southern Iowa (conducted with Mike Duffy, economics).
Larry Johnson, professor of food science and human nutrition; director of the Center for Crops Utilization Research, (515) 294-4365.Johnson develops value-added products and processes for corn and soybeans for food, feed and industrial products. He holds several patents for extraction and processing technologies, and was invited to speak on U.S. research priorities for biorenewables at Royal Swedish Academy in January 2001. A focus of CCUR is to develop agricultural substitutes for petrochemicals. CCUR research includes vegetable oil for biodiesel fuel, lubricants, solvents and plastics; starch conversion to ethanol fuel; soy protein for plastics and adhesives; and crop residues for biofuels and chemicals.
Tom Richard, associate professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering, (515) 294-0465.Richard's research is in microbial bioconversion of biomass, agricultural byproducts and manure for nutrient, energy, and organic matter recovery and value-added manufacturing.
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