MSU’s Bioeconomy Institute is going green.
The center is among a group of businesses — including the Prima Civitas Foundation in East Lansing — that received a $1 million grant from the Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration earlier this month to fund an additional research center to develop green energy technology.
The Bioeconomy Institute, located in Holland, Mich., opened in 2009 and conducts research related to sustainable energy, including ethanol and alternative fuels production.
MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon said in a statement the grant will allow the university to remain an outlet for job creation and expansion through technology.
“This will certainly support the development of green jobs across the state,” she said.
Upon completion, researchers at the new center are expected to work toward “scaling up” sustainable technologies, a process that takes small lab inventions from emerging businesses and prepares them for large-scale commercial use, said Paul Hunt, the senior associate vice president for research and graduate studies.
Researchers at the site also will offer support to entrepreneurs with sustainable business ideas, he said.
“This might involve taking a process that has been tested at one gram and ramping it up significantly,” he said.
Giving start-up companies the opportunity to test their technology in a real-world setting is critical, Hunt said.
“It is essential for companies in the state to have the ability to do that kind of scale-up,” he said.
Director of” MSU AgBioResearch”:http://agbioresearch.msu.edu/index.html Steve Pueppke said finding technologies that work outside a laboratory is a vital component of his department’s work.
Pueppke’s office works alongside other MSU researchers to develop agricultural technologies using renewable energy.
“These funds allow us to do important things, things that scientists think are going to work,” he said. “This is the most important thing we do.”
Pueppke also cited the “experimental validity” the center will provide.
Using the center’s resources, Pueppke said entrepreneurs and scientists will see their ideas and inventions play out right in front of them.
“In the world of science, that’s kind of the standard,” he said.
Education junior Jordan Parks said he thinks MSU will play an important role in producing sustainable technologies at the center.
“You know they’re doing something to help the environment,” he said. “I think that’s a great start, by turning up the scale (on new green technologies).”
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