SDSU getting $1.7M in bioenergy research grants

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — The U.S. Department of Agriculture is giving South Dakota State University more than $1.7 million in research grants to spur production of bioenergy and biobased products.

They're part of nearly $36 million in Sustainable Bioenergy Grants awarded across the country that USDA announced Tuesday.

The Brookings university is getting $1 million to design a feedstock production system for bioenergy, just under $600,000 to develop carbon activation technologies and $150,000 to produce polysaccharide (pawl-ee-SAK’-uh-ryd) gums from prairie cordgrass.

The South Dakota School of Mines and Technology is receiving a grant of nearly $43,000 to buy equipment to help develop products from lignocellulosic (lig-noh-sel-yoo-LIS’-tik) biomass and microalgae (my-kroh-AL’-gee).

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