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AHB Newsletter – Volume 4, No. 3 [Fall 2015]

Editor’s Notes

The purpose-grown poplar tree is getting a lot of attention! More and more people are discovering the benefits of poplar-for-bioenergy as awareness of the AHB project continues to grow.

In this Fall edition of the AHB newsletter read how high school science teachers are learning more about bioenergy, how they can integrate lessons into their curriculum, and stimulate young mind’s by Bringing Bioenergy Into the Classroom.

Teens are also showing an avid interest in discovering what biofuel can do and how they can make a difference in their environment. Read Teens Learn How to Make Biofuel to find out more.

It’s All About the Sugars – The AHB conversion team explains how sugars from poplar feedstock can be processed to make many high value chemicals we use every day.

Meet Miku Lenentine in our latest Graduate Student Spotlight and learn how her work in assessing the social impacts of biofuels in the Pacific Northwest is instrumental to the AHB project.

And, our Extension team has a new video to share on Acetic Acid. This brief visual explanation shows how poplars can be used for another beneficial purpose.

Betsy Fradd
Washington State University

A teacher pours a liquid into a test tube.

Bringing Bioenergy into the Classroom

McLeod and other Puget Sound area science teachers took part in a day-long energy literacy and bioenergy workshop sponsored by Advanced Hardwood Biofuels Northest designed to give teachers more tools to integrate biofuels into their classroom.
Students gathered around a table watching Patricia Townsend make biodiesel.

Teens Learn How to Make Biofuel

Tapping into environmental awareness and the trending Zombie craze, 17-year-old Travis Gylling and two dozen other high school students discovered how relatively simple it is to make biofuel at the annual Teen Conference at Washington State University in Pullman.
Shannon Ewanick standing next to the steam pre-treatment reactor

Conversion Team

Ewanick and the UW conversion team led tours through their labs as part of the AHB annual meeting in Seattle. For the Advanced Hardwood Biofuels Northwest (AHB) conversion team, sugars and how they are treated are pivotal to producing several vital products from poplars.
Miku Lenentine

Graduate Student Spotlight: Miku Lenentine

Miku Lenentine is a predoctoral research associate at the University of Washington. She is assessing the social impacts of biofuels in the Pacific Northwest.