UM Project To Study Forests For Effort To Create Aviation Fuel From Wood

The University of Montana and its Bureau of Business and Economic Research will receive $500,000 during the next five years to conduct logging-use studies in the Pacific Northwest.

The project is part of a $40 million grant awarded to the Northwest Advanced Renewables Alliance, a group trying to make wood-based jet fuel and petrochemical substitutes economically viable. Headquartered at Washington State University in Pullman, NARA includes a broad consortium of scientists from universities, government laboratories and private industry.

"I am honored and excited to be invited to participate in this project," said Todd Morgan, BBER director of forest products and manufacturing research. "We will learn a great deal about the regional viability and sustainability of a woody-biomass fuel industry, and I’m glad UM will play a role in gathering and sharing that knowledge."

Full Story: http://news.umt.edu/2011/10/100311nara.aspx

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3 UM forestry professors receive $1.1M grant to study biomass

The University of Montana announced Monday that three forestry professors have received a $1.1 million grant to study woody biomass as an economical and efficient energy source.

That research will take place simultaneous to UM’s efforts to switch from using primarily natural gas to woody biomass to heat the campus.

The research project is part of the U.S. Forest Service’s Biomass Research and Development Initiative, which involves four universities, four Forest Service units and six private companies.

By CHELSI MOY of the Missoulian

Full Story: http://missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/article_a8d68a2c-ee30-11e0-9345-001cc4c03286.html