<NEW COURSE>
"Biomass in Sustainable Energy: Woodstoves to Jet Fuel"
IS (Interdisciplinary Studies) 1034, 2.0 credits

Biofuels– both traditional and novel– can not only heat buildings but also cool them, power trains, planes, and automobiles, and generate electricity. From simple woodstoves to advanced jet fuels, biomass energy systems hold great potential along with important challenges and limitations– in engineering, ecology, and economics. What opportunities exist? How can these fuels reduce CO_2 emissions and improve rural and national economies? Will their use drive up the cost of food, or make agriculture more sustainable? What engineering and economic hurdles need to be overcome?

This course will integrate basic biology, chemistry, and physics while exploring issues in the production and use of biofuels as part of a sustainable energy system. Lectures and discussions will include active researchers working in areas such as carbon sequestration, biofuel crop breeding and biomass conversion processes, and related issues in ecology and economics. Laboratory projects will explore energy conversion, biomass gasification, and related work. Field trips to research labs, field study sites, and biofuel and biomass energy plants will complement classroom activities. The UMM campus, powered largely by renewable energy, is uniquely positioned for this course: located within minutes of laboratory and field research sites, biofuel factories, and biomass generating plants.