UTIA Bioenergy Research Programs

• Agricultural Policy Analysis Center (Dept. of Agricultural Economics)
  • From national farm policy to state and regional issues, APAC examines policies, regulations and conditions that affect how farmers operate their business and how the agriculture sector performs. For more than a decade, farmers, policy makers, analysts and others interested in and affected by agriculture-related policies have come to recognize and to depend on the reliable information APAC delivers.
• Bio-based Energy Analysis Group (Dept. of Agricultural Economics)
  • The Bio-based Energy Analysis Group, BEAG, was established in 2004 by the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agricultural Experiment Station. The purpose of BEAG is to provide decision makers in Government and Industry with the most up-to-date economic and environmental analysis of the bio-based industry at the state, region, and national levels. Focus includes supply and demand, costs of production, market opportunities, feasibility analyses, and regional and national economic impacts, along with environmental impact analysis.
• Biomass Processing (Dept. of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science)
  • This website summarizes investigations of integrated size reduction and separation of biomass to improve the production of energy and bioproducts. Scientific results of these studies are presented in a variety of formats, including publications and other resources. These research capabilities may aide gathering additional engineering data on biomass that may be of interest to industries developing biomass-based equipment, processes, and business portfolios.
• Center for Native Grasslands Management (Interdepartmental)
  • The Center for Native Grasslands Management (CNGM) was opened in 2006 by the University of Tennessee to provide the scientific background needed by producers and land managers to enable them to effectively establish and manage native grasslands. High priorities for research include forage production; biofuels production (and strategies for integrating them both); restoration of native grassland communities, particularly oak savannahs and woodlands; and wildlife conservation.
• Food-Based Polymers (Dept. of Food Science and Technology)
  • Research interests of this group include characterization and application of biopolymers in food processing and safety, characterization and application of polysaccharides recognized as beneficial in human diet, and the utilization of waste material from food industry for production of value-added products
    Currently, research focus is directed toward the development of chitosan antimicrobial films and coatings, production, characterization, and applications of chitosan films and fibers, and the development of extraction procedures and characterization of chitosans from fungal biomass
• Forest Products Center (Dept. of Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries)
  • At the University of Tennessee's Forest Products Center, the development of information and technology to advance the efficient and effective use of the forest resource. Forest Products Center faculty and staff are conducting research related to woody crop production, conversion of biomass into fuel and products, composite bioproducts, and other areas.
•  Populus Genomics and Breeding (Dept. of Plant Sciences)
  • The Populus research program focuses on two areas, genomics and molecular phylogeny, and the interface of molecular biology and plant breeding and growth and development of woody plants, particularly Populus . Current projects include transformation of aspen plants for increasing growth rate and for enhanced rooting from hardwood cuttings and understanding adventitious rooting mechanisms, genetic transformation of Populus trichocarpa Nisqually-1 for poplar functional genomics research, and other areas.

Don't see your program listed? Please submit a short description of the program and a webiste URL to bioenergy@utk.edu for inclusion on this page.