Dec 01, 2020

Student Poster Session Highlights Biorenewable Research on Campus

A student poster session highlighted a recent workshop hosted by the Center for Biorenewables

Fourteen posters were presented in a virtual poster session on Tuesday, November 10, 2020 as part of the Center for Biorenewables’ “Future of Bioenergy and Biorenewables” workshop series. The goal of the poster session was to facilitate networking and share the excellent work happening in biorenewables across the university, as well as to broaden participation in the Center for Biorenewables and bioenergy. Poster presenters were given two minutes to introduce their posters at the beginning of the session, and later led breakout rooms to further discuss the topics of their posters.

“The posters were an outstanding showcase of some of the work going on at Penn State” said Daniel Ciolkosz, co-director of the Center for Biorenewables. “The discussions with the students in the various breakout rooms added significantly to the quality and value of the event.”

The students’ posters covered a wide range of research from across the university and beyond. Topics including bio-based feedstocks, biomaterial conversion methods, renewable fuel utilization, and pathways for acceptance and utilization were all discussed. A full list of posters and their presenters is provided below. Three prizes for best poster presentation were awarded based on both the oral and visual presentation of the poster. Winners were:

First place: Aditi Arya, graduate student in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering
Second place: Serenah Pauliuc, undergraduate student at Penn State Berks
Third place: Aditya Lele, graduate student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering

List of poster presentations and presenters:

Glucose Yield from Torrefied Wheat Straw and its Relationship with Order of Alkaline Pretreatment Jaya Tripathi

Assessment of Potential Human Health Consequences Associated with Processing and Handling of Switchgrass Biomass Pankaj Kuhar

Atomistic Scale Simulations for Exploring Biofuel Upgrading Using Cu-Based Chemical Looping Cycle Wenbo Zhu

Breeding Resilient, Disease-Resistant Switchgrass Cultivars for Marginal Lands Jeremy Sutherland

Exploring Wood Energy Utilization for Heating Wisconsin Public Schools (K-12) Bethany Kautz

Integrated Simulation Modeling of Supply Chain Impacts from Genetic Improvements in Switchgrass Haley Stauffer

Modeling Cotreatment-Assisted Anaerobic Digestion of Switchgrass-Based Poultry Litter Matthew McVey

Production of Cellulase and Hemicellulase in DDGS-based Media by Optimizing Nitrogen Sources and Salts Attia Iram

ReaxFF-based molecular dynamics study of bio-derived polycyclic alkanes as potential alternative jet fuels Aditya Lele

Sustainable Transformations of Kraft Lignin to Produce Photoactive Polymers Aditi Arya

Use of Coated Cellulose Nanomaterials to Enhance the Mechanical Properties of 3D Printed Biocomposites Evan Battisto

Sustainable Coatings and Adhesives Based on Polysaccharide Polyelectrolyte Complexes Wei-Shu Lin

Effect of Moisture on the Tensile Properties of Composites with Bio-based Fibers and Matrix Serenah Pauliuc

Carbon Redirection Evaluation of High-Rate Contact Stabilization Process Leiyu He

“Congratulations to the winners,” said poster session chair Jaqueline O’Connor, “and thank you to all who participated in this year’s event!”