Developing, implementing, and supporting sustainable energy sources is one of USDA’s top priorities. NIFA-funded researchers from USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) at the Eastern Regional Research Center in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania, developed a way to produce a renewable fuel called bio-oil from agricultural and food waste. A key part of this bio-oil production project is a new high-output mobile processing unit that was funded by NIFA. The mobile reactor travels from farm to farm, converting biomass into energy-dense bio-oil right on the farm, eliminating the need to ship agricultural waste to refinery plants at high cost.
NIFA originally published this impact in the NIFA 2016 Annual Report. Want to read about more impacts like this? Check out Fresh from the Field, a weekly bulletin showcasing transformative impacts made by grantees funded by NIFA.
