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Lectures

May 21, 23, and 28, 2007
Introductory Soils Presentation
Soil Properties
Soil Fertility
Carolina Medina - Intern
Several lectures given by Carolina Medina the first full week of our Bioenergy Internship in the realm of soil science. The presentations cover a wide variety of topics pertaining to soils including: importance of soils, topography, climate, vegetation, soil components, soil texture, inorganic matter and organic matter. These lectures provided the interns with basic knowledge about soils.

May 29, June 5 and 6, 2007
Biodiesel Basics.pdf
The Biodiesel Production Process
The Chemistry of Biodiesel
Scott Edmundson - Teaching Assistant, '08 BESS Alumnus
Teaching Assistant Scott Edmundson taught the interns about biodiesel beginning with lectures and culminating in a biodiesel lab, where the interns made there own biodiesel. His lectures covered the basic reasons for biodiesel, the feedstocks, the production process, the chemistry, and the environmental issues.

June 8, 2007
Food vs Fuel Ethanol Debate
Jason Evans - BEST Lab Alumnus
Jason Evans gave one lecture to the interns. He presented to the students a synopsis of the life cycle analysis' of corn ethanol and soy biodiesel, in addition to a cumulation of arguments for and against the traditional biofuels. He pointed out that there are more promising biofuels in existence and several emerging fuels were discussed in the lecture.

July 24, 25, and 26, 2007
Anaerobic Digestion Microbiology
Anaerobic Digestion Process
Anaerobic Digestion Beneftis
James Duncan - Teaching Assistant, '08 BESS Alumnus
Teaching Assistant James Duncan gave three lectures to the interns on anaerobic digestion. His lectures included the microbiology of anaerobic digestion, the feedstocks, the products, utilization of the products, environmental and social impacts. The lectures were thorough and detailed.

July 30, 2007
Carbon Trading
Mark van Soestbergen - International Carbon Bank & Exchange
Mark van Soestbergen gave one lecture to the interns covering the basics of global warming and the greenhouse effect. He then discussed the markets that have emerged to trade carbon, either voluntarily or by mandate of the Kyoto Agreement. These markets enable carbon reduction measures around the world through financial investments made by individuals and organizations in order to achieve reduced botttom line carbon emissions.

August 3, 2007
Solid Waste to Energy and Advanced Thermal Technologies
Dr. Alex Green
Dr. Alex Green presented the interns a detailed description of his past achievements, followed by his current reasearch advances. Currently he is testing methods of pyrolisizing and gasifying solid waste into oils and gas for energy.