South Central Region

Sun Grant Program

The U.S. Department of Agriculture-National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA-NIFA) through the South Central Region Sun Grant Program (SCR-SGP) awards grants to five 1-year regional projects that focus on providing education and training to graduate students from a college or university within the SCR-SGP who are conducting research related to biofuel, bioenergy, or bioproduct. Each project will receive up to $53,400, which will be used for graduate student assistantship and research support.

 

The 2024-2025 South Central Sun Grant Competitive Research Support recipients are:

• Dr. Hasan Atiyeh, Oklahoma State University, together with his graduate student, Manoj Gyawali, aim to enhance butanol yield and reduce carbon emissions by developing a co-fermentation system for non-detoxified switchgrass hydrolysate and gases using improved lignocellulosic biomass-derived microbial inhibitory compounds-tolerant Clostridium strains.
• Dr. Xianghong Qian, University of Arkansas, and Zhexi Zhu (graduate student) will investigate the fundamental processes during lignocellulosic biomass conversion to levulinic acid using their patented polymeric catalyst.
• Dr. Jason Quinn, Colorado State University, collaborates with his graduate student, Smith Pittman, to conduct a comprehensive financial risk assessment for potential sustainable aviation fuels producers in the South Central Region of the U.S., with a focus on the cultivation of purpose-grown crops.
• Dr. William Rooney, Texas A and M University, in collaboration with Edgar Correa (graduate student) seek to apply multi-trait genomic prediction on photoperiod sensitive (PS) biomass sorghum to accelerate identification of superior pollinator parents, apply genomic prediction models to other PS biomass sorghum programs, and provide guidance for other hybrid bioenergy feedstocks crops to apply multi-trait genomic prediction to accelerate the development of improved feedstock material.
• Dr. Donghai Wang, Kansas State University, and his graduate student, Roselle Barretto, will employ unfolding agents to modify hempseed protein structure and molecular weight, using lignin-based epoxy resin as a chemical crosslinker to bolster protein bonding strength.