Des Moines Register
10-24-06
ISU pursues role as biorenewables industry leader
President Gregory Geoffroy says the university wants to team with oil companies
and others.
By ANNE FITZGERALD
REGISTER AGRIBUSINESS WRITER
Ames, Ia. - Iowa State University hopes to partner with various major oil
companies, agribusinesses and other land-grant universities to capture a leading
role in the biorenewables industry, ISU President Gregory Geoffroy said
Monday.
Speaking at a town hall meeting on the Ames campus, Geoffroy also said that
the university's role in the burgeoning industry extends beyond corn-based
ethanol to other sources of bio-based energy, including wind, solar and cellulosic,
or biomass.
"Wherever possible, we intend to be players in those areas as well," he said,
addressing a standing-room-only crowd of more than 300 students and faculty
and staff members.
Wendy Wintersteen, dean of ISU's College of Agriculture, said the meeting
was intended to broaden participation in the multidisciplinary campaign to expand
ISU's standing as a leader in bioenergy. "Really, it's a call to action," she said
after Geoffroy's address.
Representatives of Conoco-Phillips will visit the Ames campus on Wednesday to
discuss potential research partnerships, Geoffroy said. That will follow recent
visits by officials from Archer Daniels Midland Co., the nation's largest producer
of corn-based ethanol, and other companies.
Last week, ISU, partnering with the University of California and the J. Craig
Venter Institute, emerged as a contender for a $500 million biosciences energy
institute planned by BP, one of the world's largest petroleum companies. That
was one of five institutions or partnerships - two in the United Kingdom, where
BP is based, and three in the United States - invited to submit proposals for the
project.
State lawmakers and the federal government also will play a key role in ISU's
work in biorenewables, Geoffroy said.
On Nov. 28, ISU will host a statewide summit in Ames on policy and program
recommendations related to biorenewables for the 2007 Legislature. The
university is also vying for major grants from various federal agencies, he said.
The U.S. Department of Energy, for instance, plans to award $250 million in
grants to create centers for research into converting cellulosic biomass into fuel.
ISU hopes to win one of the awards and explore partnerships with other
universities.
"It's very unlikely that any single university will have all the talent the (Department
of Energy) is looking for," Geoffroy said.
Geoffroy said that biorenewable energy is one of numerous fields in which ISU
excels, but bioenergy is clearly the star on campus these days. High oil prices,
President Bush's support and other factors have helped catapult the issue to the
top of Geoffroy's agenda for ISU.
"Iowa State is as well-positioned as any institution ... to take advantage of all of
these opportunities," he said. "And we intend to.
"This train is moving very, very fast, not just here at Iowa State but across the
entire country. Part of the problem is how to keep up with it."
Robert Brown, director of Iowa State's Office of Biorenewables Programs,
said Iowa is "starch-ready right now. We need to be cellulose-ready."
Brown said he expects to see commercial production of cellulosic fuels as soon
as 2010.
"If you would have asked me four months ago, I wouldn't have said 2010," he
said.