(l-r) Mechanical engineering doctoral students Sarah Tyree and Madeleine McMahon use a new gas chromatography machine in a lab in the Biorenewables Complex. A strategic plan award last year purchased several pieces of equipment that will expand research capabilities at the Bioeconomy Institute. Photo by Christopher Gannon.
It's not easy to find room in a research project budget to pay for pricy lab equipment. But it's not easy to meet project deadlines when lab instruments are breaking down, either.
An influx of strategic plan funding helped the Bioeconomy Institute bridge that gap, upgrading critical analytical instruments to maintain ongoing research and expand the facility's capabilities. The equipment enhancements will make researchers more efficient and provide the tools for exploring innovative solutions in new areas, said Lisa Schulte Moore, the institute's co-director.
"Our goal at the Bioeconomy Institute is to put Iowa State forward as a leader in the state, nation and world in bioeconomic research. This helps us maintain that capacity and grow it," said Schulte Moore, professor of natural resource ecology and management.
The $300,000 equipment update at the Bioeconomy Institute is one of 19 projects that received nearly $4 million in investments in fiscal year 2024 to support one or more of the 2022-31 strategic plan's five "to be" aspirations. The project aligns with two of them:
- To be the university that creates opportunities and forges new frontiers
- To be the trusted partner for proactive and innovative solutions
Researchers at the Bioeconomy Institute use the equipment to characterize and measure materials, often while converting biomass into fuels, chemicals and other products, said deputy director Ryan Smith.
"You can do a deep dive on the evaluation of inputs and outputs of processes," he said.
Special equipment purchases
The tools are essential for three ongoing projects involving biochar, a carbon-rich form of charcoal that can be used to sequester carbon dioxide in soil while producing bio-based fuels. Those projects include a major carbon removal initiative and studies looking at using willow trees as a feedstock and hog manure as a means to recover nutrients and sequester carbon.
Three of the four instruments purchased with the strategic plan investment replace aging equipment. The fourth item -- an elemental analyzer -- gives researchers a new capacity to conduct low-labor, high-throughput screening of materials throughout the bioproduction process. Smith said that will speed up discovery and possibly lead to new research questions, such as upcycling waste plastic into fuel or other valuable products.
"We can get to answers much more quickly and build different models more efficiently," he said. "It might take two days to test one condition on a larger-scale system, but now we can test dozens of conditions in one day."
The replacement equipment also makes the institute's scientists more efficient, Schulte Moore said. Unreliable older gear brought unexpected delays. And researchers don't have to spend time seeking money to maintain lab infrastructure. The funding agencies that support major research projects often require specific instrumentation, she said.
"We can focus on grants to do the work instead of grants to get the equipment to get the grants to do the work," she said. "I really appreciate Iowa State leadership for recognizing a good investment, both in terms of improving institutional analytical capacity and also for the opportunity to spend more of our time on discovery."
