Progress 09/01/10 to 08/31/14
Outputs
Target Audience:Students studying biomass and who want to work in the field in the future. Companies operating in the biomass space who are looking for qualified students for future employment. Teachers at the high school and undergradaute level who want to incorporate biomass case studies in their classes. Economic development and research organizations working in the biomass, bioenergy, bioproducts and biofuels space. Changes/Problems:It becamse clear as case studies were developed that issues related to understanding energy units and conversions was a serious gap for many students. To address this we invested time to develop, test and refine an Energy and Unit Conversions handout.This document includes conversion factors for energy, mass, volume, area, distance, and power, as well as energy content and energy density conversion factors which students can use to convert from physical units (e.g. liters/gallons, barrels, tons) to S.I. (e.g. Joules) and English units (e.g. Btu, kcal). Additionally, commonly accepted energy content values for bioenergy and agricultural crops are included. Since many of the cases require dealing with and converting a range of units, the team decided that a common set of energy content and conversion values was needed to minimize confusion when the cases were implemented in different classes in the newly created Sustainable Energy Management Major and the Renewable Energy minor/option at SUNY ESF. This handout will be made available separately for use in classrooms at the high school, undergraduate and graduate level. The conversion sheet is available in a editable format - .doc - which will allow instructors to modify it to meet their needs. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?As part of this project the Summer Biomass Internship program was created collaboratively by SUNY-ESF, the Syracuse Center of Excellence and the Center State Corporation for Economic Opportunity (CEO). This program provided opportunities for qualified college students to work with an Upstate NY company that is focused on biomass products. One objective was to provide students an opportunity to achieve their career goals by gaining experience in the biomass field while concurrently meeting workplace and industry needs by increasing the quality of postsecondary instruction in bioenergy. This program will help to build on connections between local firms working in the biomass field and college students studying in the region. Lessons learned from the first two years (2011-2012) of the biomass internship program resulted in a much more effective program for 2013 and 2014. Information sheets were developed for both companies and students so that expectations and requirements for involvement in the program were clear (see Appendix A). We drew from material and experience with internship programs run by project partners the Syracuse Center of Excellence and the CenterState Corporation for Economic Opportunity's Project Ion. Having a clear set of guidelines and expectations for the program for both companies and students increased participation in the program. As the project was winding down the summer of 2014 we had several companies contact us about whether they could participate in the internship program again. Unfortunately funds were limited so only two companies could participate in the final year. We also received calls in the spring of 2015 from companies that had participated previously because they were once again interested in engaging in the program. Over the past four years, the program received a very positive response from students with over 100 applicants for positions with 11 different companies (see Table 1 below). Most applicants applied to more than one position resulting in hundreds of applications over this time period. Students applied from the following universities: SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse University, SUNY Cortland, Fordham University, SUNY Buffalo, SUNY Oswego, and SUNY Canton. Feedback from employers was positive as well. Student interns were employed on a variety of projects. Their duties included analysis of bioenergy deployment; determining feedstock harvesting and delivery logistics; calculating bioenergy feedstock sustainability, carbon accounting of bioenergy systems, market development for biomass crops in the region, environmental monitoring, development of educational materials related to bioenergy, and assessment of biomass crops production and growth. Several companies are considering hosting interns in subsequent years beyond the HEC grant funding. At least one intern that we are aware of has been hired back for a subsequent summer of by the company they worked and is in discussions with this company about a full time position after graduation. We did not track each of the interns that were involved in the program to find out what impact this opportunity had in subsequent years. Future internship programs may want to consider this to better understand their impact. Table 1 - Tally of internship applications, participating bioenergy companies, and undergraduate student interns placed Year Number of Companies Number of Applicants* Students Placed 2011 4 8 2 2012 8 32 7 2013 7 45 7 2014 2 21 2 *Students applied for more than one position in years 2012 through 2014. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Feedback was collected from students, teaching assistants, and faculty who participated in the case study lesson plan. Feedback from these field tests was used to strengthen and finalize the cases and their supporting documentation. The finalized cases will be posted at SUNY ESF and made available for use. An example of one case study is included in Appendix D of this report. We have shared information about these case studies with partners at the NewBio regional CAP project (ESF is part of the education team on the NewBio project) supported by USDA as well as other regional CAPs across the U.S. Each of the companies and the interns were asked to provide a brief report on the internship experience with suggestions on how to improve the program in the future. Overall the responses were very positive from the students and the companies. Several of the companies noted that both quantitative and written communication skills were areas that students needed to focus more time and effort on improving. While these are not areas that can be addressed specifically in this internship program, it does provide students with direction for the rest of the education. This input from companies has also been taken into account during revisions of the curriculums of the Sustainable Energy Management major and the minor/option area in Renewable Energy that is offered at ESF. The Renewable Energy option area is open to students in the Environmental Science program and the minor in Renewable Energy is open to any qualifying students at ESF. For example, in both the Sustainable Energy Management and Environmental Science majors a course in technical writing has been incorporated into the curriculum to address the need for improved writing skills. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Over the past several years we've developed a set of comprehensive case studies and associated lesson plans that can be used in undergraduate classes on energy or biomass. We have field tested these cases in various courses on the ESF campus and they have been reviewed by internal and external instructors. The case study titles are: Energy Conversions and Boundaries - Energy Use on a College Campus Biomass Power Plant Options for a LEED Certified Building Securing Biomass Supply for a Large Biomass-to-electricity Plant Community-scale District Heating with Biomass Operating a municipal bio-digester to produce electricity and heat The case studies were developed in collaboration with partners in the central NY biomass and bioenergy community. Case studies were created by faculty and graduate students in the Forest and Natural Resources Management department, the Environmental and Forest Biology Department, the Environmental Science Division, and the campus' Outreach Office at SUNY ESF. The Executive Director of the Office of Energy and Sustainability at SUNY ESF has also played an important role in developing these cases. Further, we solicited and received input from the Biomass Energy Research Center (BERC), ReEnergy Holdings LLC, DoubleAWillow (this nursery operation has over 60 ha of willow nursery beds and the main supplier of shrub willow planting stock in North America), Celtic Energy Farms (this company has over 400 ha of willow biomass crops in NY) and faculty at Cornell University and Northern Illinois University. These valuable connections and interactions continue to strengthen the network of bioenergy industry leaders, practitioners, and educators. The cases have been field tested in shared-resource classes (upper level undergraduate and graduate students): Drs. Volk and Balogh trialed the Energy Conversions and Boundaries case in ENS 325/525 - Energy Systems. Securing Biomass Supply for a Large Biomass-to-electricity Plant and were trialed by Drs. Volk and Balogh in ENS 441/641 - Biomass and Bioenergy. Prof. Kelleher trialed the Biomass Power Plant Options for a LEED Certified Building in ENS 422/622 - Energy Markets and Regulation, and Dr. Balogh and Prof. Kelleher trialed portions of the case studies in FOR 208 - Intro to Sustainable Energy Systems. Operating a municipal bio-digester to produce electricity and heat was utilized in the Spring 2015 semester in ENS 441/641 Biomass and Bioenergy
Publications
- Type:
Other
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2015
Citation:
1. Energy Conversions and Boundaries Energy Use on a College Campus, SUNY ESF, Syracuse, NY
2. Biomass Power Plant Options for a LEED Certified Building, SUNY ESF, Syracuse, NY
3. Securing Biomass Supply for a Large Biomass-to-electricity Plant, SUNY ESF, Syracuse, NY
4. Community-scale District Heating with Biomass, SUNY ESF, Syracuse, NY
5. Operating a municipal bio-digester to produce electricity and heat, SUNY ESF, Syracuse, NY
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Progress 09/01/11 to 08/31/12
Outputs
OUTPUTS: The project had two main goals which will be addressed in this report. The first was to develop a series of industry informed bioenergy case studies based on a holistic systems approach to be infused into energy systems and natural resources courses. The second was to establish and systematize experiential learning opportunities through a collaborative internship program with bioenergy industry organizations and businesses. Bioenergy Case Studies Over the past year months we've made significant progress in developing the case studies, and have begun to field test them in classes at SUNY ESF. Five core case studies now exist in draft form. 1. Energy Conversions and Boundaries - Energy Use on a College Campus 2. Community-scale District Heating with Biomass 3. Biomass Power Plant Options for a LEED Certified Building 4. Securing Biomass Supply for a Large Biomass-to-electricity Plant 5. Biomass Farming and Economic Analysis - Willow Production The case studies were developed in collaboration by faculty and students in the Forest and Natural Resources Management department, the Environmental and Forest Biology Department, the Environmental Science Division, and the campus' Outreach Office. The Executive Director of the Office of Energy and Sustainability has also played an important role in developing these cases. Further, we solicited and received input from the Biomass Energy Research Center (BERC), and faculty at Northern Illinois University. These valuable connections and interactions continue to strengthen the network of bioenergy industry leaders, practitioners, and educators. Two cases have been field tested in shared-resource classes (upper level undergraduate and graduate students). Dr. Volk trialed the Energy Conversions and Boundaries case in ENS 325/525 - Energy Systems, and Prof. Kelleher trialed the Biomass Power Plant Options for a LEED Certified Building in ENS 422/622 - Energy Markets and Regulation. Feedback was collected from students, teaching assistants and faculty who participated in the case study lesson plan. Feedback from these field tests will be used to strengthen and finalize the cases and their supporting literature. Biomass Internship Program Lessons learned from the 2011 biomass internship program resulted in a much more effective program for 2012. Information sheets were developed for both companies and students so that expectations and requirements for involvement in the program were clear. We drew from material and experience with internship programs run by project partners the Syracuse Center of Excellence and the CenterState Corporation for Economic Opportunity's Project Ion. The 2012 program received a very positive response with 34 different applicants for positions with seven different companies. Most applicants applied to more than one position resulting in over 100 applications. Students applied from the following universities: SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse University, SUNY Cortland, Fordham University, SUNY Buffalo, SUNY Oswego, and SUNY Canton. PARTICIPANTS: Bioenergy Case Studies The case studies were developed by Stephen Balogh at SUNY ESF with input from Tim Volk, Chuck Spuches and Michael Kelleher also at SUNY ESF. Tim Volk and Michael Kelleher with assistance from teaching assistant Danielle Kloster implemented the first two case studies in classes this fall. Biomass Internship Program The project team for the 2012 round of internships included Timothy Volk, SUNY ESF; Charles Spuches, SUNY ESF; James Luckett, SyracuseCoE; and Aimee Clinkhammer, SyracuseCoE. Tim Volk reached out to perspective companies that were interested in participating in the internship program. Chuck Spuches did outreach to perspective students interested in participating in the internships. The SyracuseCoE team conducted outreach to potential firms and students. SyracuseCoE used their 300+ collaborators to solicit student and firm participation though social media, eNews, email blasts and more. CenterstateCEO also helped with outreach to perspective firms. Clinkhammer organized the applications and was the liaison to the hosting firms. Clinkhammer, Luckett and Volk ranked the applicants and paired them with hosting firms based on firm and applicant preferences. The following seven biomass firms participated in the 2012 program: Antares Group Incorporated (Chris Lindsey), Mascoma Corporation (Eric Olesen), Mesa Reduction Engineering & Processing (Matt McArdle), New England Wood Pellet (Charlie Niebling), O'Brien and Gere (Chris Calkins), ReEnergy (Lori Russell), Sunoco (Carey Merritt), ACT Bioenergy was the eight firm and listed an internship position but their project fell through before an intern was placed at the company. There were seven student participants: Alex Popov, SUNY ESF, Joseph Gerchman, SUNY ESF, Samuel Lowen, SUNY ESF, Xindi Ji, SUNY ESF, Seth Thomas, SUNY ESF, Daniel Ghitman, Syracuse University, John Buyondo, SUNY ESF TARGET AUDIENCES: Bioenergy Case Studies The case studies that are being developed are targeted at junior and senior undergraduates and graduate students. Faculty and staff involved in teaching biomass and energy courses are also a key audience because these are the people who will implement and disseminate this material. Biomass Internship Program The biomass internship program targets undergraduate and graduate students who have a least one semester of school left before graduation. Notices about the program were distributed widely to engage as many students as possible in the program. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Bioenergy Case Studies Feedback from students and faculty involved in the initial piloting of the case studies will be incorporated into a revised version of these case studies. Biomass Internship Program SyracuseCoE experienced some difficulty in reimbursements at the end of the internships. Although all firms received their reimbursements for their interns, there was some confusion in the proper way to submit time sheets, payroll records and invoices, which resulted in some delayed action at the Syracuse University disbursement office. Next year, proper wording in the internship checklist will hopefully alleviate this issue. The project team also plans to give the hosting firms more time to review the applications next year and potentially build in time for phone interviews for their top three candidates. Many firms expressed concerns in the timeframe they were given to review the applications this year and expressed interest in having the option to interview their top candidates.
Impacts
Bioenergy Case Studies Several of the case study narratives demonstrate potential to be used in multiple and diverse lesson plans. These "core" cases are modular in design, giving the instructor the ability to include or omit specific learning objectives based on his or her interests. Flexible design of the case study lesson plans allow teachers to present the case over a single class period or multiple classes. This should increase the utility of the case study lessons over a wide range of class types and education levels. An additional product of our work to date is the development of an Energy and Unit Conversions handout. This document includes conversion factors for energy, mass, volume, area, distance, and power, as well as energy content and energy density conversion factors which students can use to convert from physical units (e.g. liters/gallons, barrels, tons) to S.I. (e.g. Joules) and English units (e.g. Btu, kcal). Additionally, commonly accepted energy content values for bioenergy and agricultural crops are included. Since many of the cases require dealing with and converting a range of units, the team decided that a common set of energy content and conversion values was needed to minimize confusion when the cases were implemented in different classes in the newly created Sustainable Energy Management Major and the Renewable Energy minor/option at SUNY ESF. This handout will be made available separately for use in classrooms at the high school, undergraduate and graduate level. It too will be refined and developed further based upon the feedback of the students and instructors at SUNY ESF and Northern Illinois University. Biomass Internship Program In 2011 only two interns were placed with companies or organizations working on biomass in the region. Part of this limitation was due to the timing of the finalization of the award, which limited the time frame to recruit both companies and students. With that information in hand and input from project partners who have run or are currently running internship programs, we restructured information provided to both companies and students. We also initiated the internship program much sooner to provide students and companies with more time to engage in the program. Each of the companies and the interns were asked to provide a brief report on the internship experience with suggestions on how to improve the program in the future. Overall the responses were very positive from the students and the companies. Several of the companies noted that both quantitative and written communication skills were areas that students needed to focus more time and effort on improving. While these are not areas that can be addressed specifically in this internship program, it does provide students with direction for the rest of the education. We will also take this feedback from host companies and strive to develop the case studies to help students develop these skills further.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 09/01/10 to 08/31/11
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Summer Biomass Internship Program The Summer Biomass Internship Program, which is run collaboratively by SUNY-ESF, the Syracuse Center of Excellence, and the CenterState Corporation for Economic Opportunity (CEO), provides valuable opportunities for college students to work with a central NY company that is focused on biomass issues, helping to build the relationships between the local firms working in the biomass field and the students studying in the area. This program has so far been very successful, partly because of the rising attention on the field of biomass production. New York State is currently seen as a "rising star" in the field because of their development efforts in the production of heat, power, fuels, and products. It is undoubtedly a swiftly-growing field, and well-trained professionals are in high demand. This internship program will assist in producing the knowledgeable and experienced professionals needed to meet the growing demand of the bioenergy field in the region. This program provides its students with the vital analytical, creative thinking and problem solving skills needed for success in the field. It also serves to provide participant students with an opportunity to achieve their career goals by gaining first-hand experience in their personal areas of interest, thus further preparing them for the job market. PARTICIPANTS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. TARGET AUDIENCES: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
During the summer of 2011, we concluded two internships through the Summer Biomass Internship Program, one with Kimberly Henderson, at the New York Biomass Energy Alliance, and the other with Stefanie Lewis, at Applied Biorefinery and Sciences (ABS). Both internships were completed and highly successful. At the New York Biomass Energy Alliance, Kimberly participated in activities and worked on projects that sought to further enhance local public understanding of the benefits of using sustainable biomass as a source of renewable energy. This internship focused on more of the business/professional end of the biomass field. She performed tasks such as interviewing members of the Alliance to be used for newsletters, drafted multiple press releases and reports, updated references for previous program reviews, conducted extensive research (and created original graphs from information), as well as attended many meetings and conferences where she professionally represented the Alliance and took notes for her supervisors. At Applied Biorefinery and Sciences (ABS), Stefanie worked towards gaining hands-on experience in the area of commercial bioprocess application, including close study of four integral aspects of bioprocess technology: 1) Feedstock Management and Supply, 2) Process Engineering, 3) Mechanical Engineering, and 4) Business Development and Finance. During her internship, she participated in numerous site visits, where she performed such tasks as gathering field data, estimating growth, survival, and solar radiation distribution of trees, inventorying forests using a hand-held GPS receiver to map physical features of the plot, operating an M&K digester system to test mass extraction, performed moisture content tests, extraction experiments, and post-extraction data analysis.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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