Description
Plan and direct biofuels research, development, and scale-up programs that evaluate alternative feedstocks and process technologies for near-term commercial deployment.
- • Approve experiments on biomass and pretreatment technologies.
- • Oversee development of lab-scale models of industrial processes, such as fermentation.
- • Direct creation of computational tools to improve biofuels R&D.
- • Provide technical guidance and mentorship to research and engineering staff.
- • Approve and monitor experimental plans for biofuels R&D.
- • Deliver R&D findings and recommendations to senior management and stakeholders.
- • Guide protein functional analysis and engineering for feedstock processing and biofuel creation.
- • Lead development of separation processes to recover biofuels.
- • Guide methods to recover ethanol and other fuels from complex bioreactor liquid and gas streams.
- • Establish methods to estimate biomass pretreatment efficiency.
- • Review and authorize solvent and product recovery experiments in lab or field settings.
- • Sponsor applied research on transport, thermodynamics, mixing, filtration, distillation, fermentation, extraction, and separation.
- • Direct design of chemical conversion processes, including etherification, esterification, interesterification, transesterification, distillation, hydrogenation, oxidation, reduction of fats and oils, and vegetable oil refining.
- • Oversee testing of new or alternative feedstock fermentation processes.
- • Review and interpret data on fluid dynamics, water treatment, and solvent extraction and recovery.
- • Manage biodiesel and biofuels prototyping and development projects.
- • Prioritize and propose new products, processes, technologies, or applications based on research findings.
- • Coordinate research to develop energy crops with improved yield, adaptability, resistance, processing traits, and reduced environmental impact.
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Last reviewed: Jan 2026
