Eagerly-awaited Technology Turns Garbage into Fuel

May 19, 2014 10:01 AM

The 2014 UMBC team preparing for the match at the New York Athletic Club.

UMBC student Nicholas Pascarella created a short video on UMBC’s chess program and the current team, including its participation in the 2014 Final Four of College Chess match held at the New York Athletic Club in April.  This match has been held each year since 2001 and determines the U.S. college team chess champion.  In the 14 years that it has been held, UMBC has won six times and placed second six times.

Nicholas is a rising junior majoring in Media and Communication Studies.

UMBC graduate student Omar Shehab received a travel grant to attend two co-located events, the 14th Canadian Quantum Information Summer School and the 11th Canadian Quantum Information Student Conference. Both events are organized by the Fields Institute and will be held at the University of Guelph.

Omar is a fourth year PhD student in Computer Science working with by Professor Samuel Lomonaco. His Ph.D.research involves determining the quantum computational complexity of topological problems. He is also interested in quantum games, randomness and cryptography. This summer he will be working as a Visiting Research Assistant the USC Information Sciences Institute facility in Arlington, Virginia.

MLLI Associate Professor Sara Poggio, as the co-chair of the International Immigration Section of the Latin American Studies Association, will organize a pre-conference for the Latin American Studies Association Congress titled, “International Migration,” at the Palmer House Hilton Hotel in Chicago on Wednesday, May 21. This complete day event is sponsored by the Office of the Provost at UMBC. Additional information can be found here.

Denis Provencher, an associate professor of MLLI, gave the keynote address at an event series, “Rethinking Homosexuality in Islam”, organized by the College of Arts and
Science at Boston University on April 21. Provencher is currently finishing a new book based on language, sexuality, Islam, and Maghrebi cultures in France. He also participated as a speaker at an event organized by the University of Miami in April honoring the work of the Moroccan writer and filmmaker Abdellah Taďa.

Story by Max Cole

The Special Collections department of the Albin O. Kuhn Library, in partnership with the history department and the Center for Digital History Education, is happy to announce that the Joseph L. Arnold papers are now open for research use. The collection will be a valuable resource for researchers and students of Baltimore history.

The Joseph L. Arnold papers contain more than three decades of research on Baltimore history by the urban historian and longtime UMBC History Department faculty member. Within this collection are Dr. Arnold’s manuscripts for two works on the history of Baltimore, one organized chronologically and another thematically by ethnic/social groups. The bulk of the collection is Dr. Arnold’s extensive Baltimore subject files, mostly containing reproductions from 19th century editions of the Baltimore Sun interspersed with his hand-written notes on various topics.

Joseph Larkin Arnold (1937-2004) was a prominent urban historian and a key leader at UMBC for most of his career. Dr. Arnold joined the faculty of UMBC—then a very young institution—in 1968 after earning a PhD in social history at the Ohio State University. In his three and a half decades at UMBC, Dr. Arnold fulfilled a variety of campus leadership roles, including a term as Acting Librarian in 1979-1980.

For more information about the collection, click here.

One of the most difficult parts of turning a town's waste into usable energy isn't the process itself—it's winning over community members who are most affected by landfills, according to Andy Gotsch, process engineer for Fiberight, a Maryland-based clean-technology startup that transforms waste into renewable biofuels.

You would think the myriad logistical and technical obstacles facing the clean-technology company would be the largest hurdles to the company’s success. But, in large part, the sheer innovation of the processes Fiberight uses has caused some people to become uneasy and mistrustful of the science behind transforming post-recycled municipal solid wastes and other organic feedstock into next-generation renewable biofuels.

“The hardest thing for us to do was to convince the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] that we’re actually recycling because the first thing people think when they hear we’re making trash into energy is incineration,” Gotsch says.

But since Fiberight launched in 2007, it’s made strides in getting buy-in from agencies and the community. Recently, the biofuels company was guaranteed a $25-million loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s biorefinery program.

Making Use of an Abundant Resource: Trash. Fiberight produces cellulosic ethanol and biogas through a series of complex processes. These are built on a customized sorting procedure, pulping, enzymatic hydrolysis, and advanced recycling techniques. In other words, the company takes a community’s trash and transforms it into usable biofuel.

The company first established its pilot plant in Lawrenceville, Va. seven years ago, after purchasing a facility the previous owner had been using to process fiber to create organic insulation.

Courtesy Fiberight

“Fiberight purchased that plant and saw value in what the fiber could do, which in our case is convert it into C5 and C6 sugars [C5 (pentose) and C6 (hexose) act similar to yeast in creating alcohol—or cellulosic ethanol in this case], and then later ferment it into ethanol or butanol, depending on what the market’s striving for,” Gotsch says.

A Need for Manpower. Fiberight’s team of engineers and scientists developed and streamlined procedures to achieve expected results and turn a profit. But finding capable hands to manage engineering operations had been a perennial challenge.

Fiberight CEO Craig Stuart-Paul attempted to supplement a shortage in manpower by hiring an independent professional engineering agency to manage drafting and designing the recycling facilities. Ultimately, the strategy backfired because of cost overruns and less-than-positive results. The cost of a single phone call to the agency outweighed the return on investment.

Fiberight had a firm understanding of its own processes and design, but they needed the right people and tools. At that point, Gotsch and several other in-house engineers were brought on board, two of whom use Autodesk Plant Design Suite 2014—particularly AutoCAD Plant 3D—to save costs and close the gap between Fiberight and larger firms.

Drawing on the Benefits of Building Information Modeling. Fiberight is on a tight deadline to open its first commercial facility in Blairstown, Iowa later in 2014, and—using its BIM capabilities—AutoCAD Plant 3D is making it possible to improve collaboration with vendors and contractors.

Plant 3D has built in ASME and ANSI industry standards for equipment, which makes ordering parts more efficient and accurate. For instance, the Iowa facility will use a lot of stainless-steel piping, and when Gotsch routes pipes, the software knows the exact flange size and bolt-hole locations.

Courtesy Fiberight

“It’s not about ballpark quotes,” Gotsch says. “The company gets exact estimates, which helps Fiberight with savings and costs—because with construction, there are always cost overruns.”

After Gotsch sends the components out in a 3D model, the vendor or contractor can import the model, and it gives them accurate take offs—pipe locations, distance lengths, and elbows.

One of the big components to designing a plant like Fiberight’s facility in Iowa is having P&IDs (piping and instrument diagrams), effectively supplied by AutoCAD P&ID. The software demonstrates the benefits of BIM by allowing you to click on and identify specific pieces of equipment labeled in the P&ID and tabulate everything from manufacturer information, flow rates, and design sizing.

“We were actually able to route the pipe on the pipe rack in our 3D model, pull out the pipe rack, send it to our pipe-rack vendor, and they were able to give us a quote within a day based on constructability and installation,” Gotsch says.

Blairstown: A Key Partner. Fiberight chose Eastern Iowa for its facility because legislators there have mandated that local communities and governments bring their trash to a more sustainable outlet such as Fiberight, which can recycle waste in a cleaner and greener format. Of the trash Fiberight takes in, only 15 to 20 percent goes to a landfill—it’s eliminating 80 percent of the waste.

“The biggest thing is educating people,” Gotsch says. “In Iowa, we’re putting together an action group that’s going to go around and educate the community on our process.”

Courtesy Fiberight

This strategy has already paid off after CEO Craig Stuart-Paul spoke at the Marion Economic Development Co. annual meeting. The Marion City Council approved tax-increment financing worth $850,000 for a facility measuring 50,000 square feet in the Eastern Iowa town. This second location will play a crucial role in supporting the role of the Blairstown facility when it opens later this year.

Challenging the Status Quo. Not every process is smooth sailing for the clean-tech startup, though. It can be challenging for Gotsch to get his hands on customized equipment from vendors because Fiberight takes an unorthodox approach in integrating components.

“Some of the equipment has long lead, meaning it’s going to take eight months to construct one of these things,” Gotsch says.

For instance, Fiberight uses a specialized washing tunnel for processing municipal solid waste into feedstock for the production of compressed biogas and cellulosic ethanol. The company that supplies the washing tunnel builds them for naval ships, which use them to wash bulk loads of clothing in a centralized unit.

Fiberight, however, had different plans, and approached the company by saying, “We want to use your washer tunnel, but not for clothes—for trash,” Gotsch recalls. Much like the community in Iowa that will eventually benefit from Fiberight’s new facility, many suppliers required some assurance.

According to Gotsch, Fiberight spent a lot of time educating its partners on the company’s process of converting waste into fuel and the need to wash the garbage beforehand. Fiberight also spent time convincing them the washer tunnel supplier’s equipment could be used as Fiberight planned. “They don’t feel comfortable with it because they’ve never done it,” he says.

Courtesy Fiberight

With plans in the works for the Blairstown plant, this could be a potentially serious obstacle. “If we’re trying to get this plant up and running before the end of this year, that makes things really tight,” Gotsch says. “One of the biggest challenges is trying to schedule when we’re going to order equipment so that it cascades in the order that we need to receive it.” Fortunately, by developing strong relationships with suppliers, Fiberight is getting a firmer idea of when equipment will be available.

Adapting Practices. Fiberight has seen its processes change over the past seven years because the company is always trying to improve the process, whether at its pilot plant in Virginia or with its forthcoming facility in Iowa. “We’re always trying to consolidate the amount of equipment we need,” Gotsch says. “The bigger the plant is, the more equipment there is, the more expensive it is, the longer it takes to get a return on investment. So, our job is not only to make sure that the plant works, but also to make sure it runs safely and is cost effective.”

In addition to paring down equipment, Gotsch and his team are changing mass and energy parameters in equipment to yield a higher conversion rate and increase profits.

Learn more about eliminating waste and saving money in construction projects by reading about BIM for prefabrication. And to learn more about Fiberight’s story, check out this video from Autodesk:

The Protein Society announces its 2014 award recipients

The 28th Annual Symposium of the Protein Society Awards

BALTIMORE, MD – The Protein Society, the only international society devoted to furthering research aimed at understanding proteins, announces the winners of The 2014 Protein Society Awards. The awards will be conferred at the 28th Annual Symposium of The Protein Society (July 27-30, 2014, San Diego, CA, USA). Plenary talks from each recipient are scheduled throughout the 3.5 day event.

The Carl Brändén Award, sponsored by Rigaku Corporation, is given to an outstanding protein scientist who has also made exceptional contributions in the areas of education and/or service to the science. The 2014 recipient of this award is Dr. Stephen H. White (University of California, Irvine) in recognition of his many contributions to the field of membrane protein folding, his long service to the protein science community, and his skills as an educator of graduate students and postdocs in particular. His research has provided much fundamental insight into the thermodynamics of folding in and on the membrane. Dr. White has made major contributions to multiple scientific societies, including The Protein Society, and --among other service activities-- maintains the widely-utilized Membrane Proteins of Known 3D Structure website.

The Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin Award, sponsored by Genentech, is granted in recognition of exceptional contributions in protein science which profoundly influence our understanding of biology. The 2014 award will be presented to Dr. Judith Frydman (Stanford University) for exceptional contributions to our understanding of protein folding in eukaryotic cells. Dr. Frydman uses creative combinations of biochemical, genetic, biophysical, and computational analysis to dissect the mechanisms by which cells manage misfolded proteins, with a particular focus on the group II cytosolic chaperonin TRiC.

The Hans Neurath Award, sponsored by The Neurath Foundation, recognizes individuals who have made a recent contribution of unusual merit to basic research in the field of protein science. In 2014 the Hans Neurath Awardee is Dr. James H. Hurley (University of California, Berkeley) for his ground-breaking contributions to structural membrane biology and membrane trafficking. Throughout his career, Dr. Hurley has produced fundamental insights about proteins that function at the membrane-solvent interface, including how signaling molecules interface with and are regulated by lipids, mechanisms of vesicle formation by ESCRT machinery, and, most recently, the regulation of clathrin coated vesicle formation and the initiation of autophagy.

The Christian B. Anfinsen Award, sponsored by The Protein Society, recognizes significant technical achievements in the field of protein science. The recipient of this award in 2014 is Dr. Robert Tycko (National Institutes of Health) for his seminal contributions to the development of modern solid state nuclear magnetic resonance methods for structural investigations of proteins and influential studies on amyloid fibrils associated with neurodegeneration and disease. Dr. Tycko's achievements in this area are highlighted by his recent presentation of the first detailed structure of β-amyloid fibrils from Alzheimer's disease brain tissue and evidence for structural variations that underlie prion diseases.

The Emil Thomas Kaiser Award, sponsored The Protein Society, recognizes a recent, highly significant contribution to the application of chemistry in the study of proteins. The 2014 awardee is Dr. Carol Fierke (Dept. of Chemistry, University of Michigan). Dr. Fierke is being recognized for her exceptional contributions to our understanding of the metal homeostasis, and to understanding of the structure and mechanism of ribonuclease P. Her research has combined metallochemistry, biochemistry, genetics and a wide range of spectroscopic techniques to uncover details of metal affinity, substrate specificity, and roles to catalytic activity in numerous biologically and medically important enzymes. Amongst her groundbreaking achievements include the development of protein-based metal biosensors and techniques for monitoring metal ions in vivo for probing metal transport and toxicity.

The Stein & Moore Award, sponsored by The Protein Society, is named for Nobel laureates Dr. William Stein and Dr. Stanford Moore. The award venerates their contribution to understanding the connection between chemical structure and catalytic activity of the active center of the ribonuclease molecule. The 2014 awardee is Dr. Nikolaus Pfanner (Institute for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Freiburg) in recognition of his contributions to understanding pathways of cellular sorting that underlie the biogenesis of mitochondria. His pioneering research includes the first comprehensive proteomic analysis of mitochondria, the discovery of three new pathways of mitochondrial import, and the reconstitution of mitochondrial import channels and unraveling mechanisms of protein translocation.

The Protein Science Young Investigator Award, named for the academic journal of the Society, recognizes an important contribution to the study of proteins by a scientist still in the early stages of an independent career. The 2014 awardee is Dr. M. Madan Babu (MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge UK). Dr. Babu is being recognized for his contributions to our understanding of the principles of regulation in biological systems – especially in the fields of intrinsically disordered proteins and gene regulation. He was appointed in 2006 as one of the youngest independent group leaders in the Structural Studies division at the LMB. Dr. Babu employs an interdisciplinary approach, combining computational and experimental methods to investigate regulatory processes at multiple scales of complexity (ranging from the molecular to the genome level) across a wide range of model organisms.

Delegates, exhibitors, sponsors and the press can learn more about the 28th Annual Symposium at The Protein Society web site http://www.proteinsociety.org/symposium or by calling (443) 543-5451.

The Protein Society is the leading international Society devoted to furthering research and development in protein science. Founded in 1986, the purpose of the Society is to provide international forums to facilitate communication, cooperation and collaboration with regard to all aspects of the study of proteins. In support of these goals, the Society publishes Protein Science, the premier journal in the field, hosts an annual international symposium, and facilitates the education of early-career protein scientists across all lines of discipline. The Protein Society members represent a wide spectrum of academic, industry, governmental, and non-profit institutions from more than 50 countries around the world. Media inquiries can be directed to Jody McGinness, Executive Director at (443) 543-5452

Monday, May 10th UMBC held a forest dedication ceremony with Dr. Hrabowski, along with local political and community leaders.

Speakers included President Hrawbowski, Baltimore County Councilman Tom Quirk, Delegate Steve DeBoy, Delegate James Malone, student representative Jack Nuemeier (The Garden at UMBC). UMBC's architect Joe Rexing, grounds manager Donna Anderson, landscape architect Phil Cho, and sustainability coordinator Tanvi Gadhia along with students Julianna Brightman and Kelsey Donnellan also represented UMBC in receiving the Tree Campus USA award from the Arbor Day Foundation.

Photography by Marlayna Demond.

Below is some of the text from the coverage in the Baltimore Sun.

UMBC has designated 11 acres of forest as a conservation area through Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR), which protects it from development and requires that trees remain on the land.

Joe Rexing, campus architect, said the conservation area, which is located on the edge of the campus near Wilkens Avenue and Interstate 695, between Poplar Avenue and Center Road on the outer loop of Hilltop Road, is part of a university plan to make the campus more sustainable.

"It provides us with an opportunity to protect, observe and conserve our natural environment," Rexing said the designation will protect Herbert Run, a stream that flows past the campus through Arbutus and is a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay. Such forests are necessary to protect the habitat around the stream, Rexing said.

"It's very much a part of a more comprehensive statewide push to improve Chespeake Bay water quality, "