Steve Mosher
Industrial Technical Consultant, Alphinity, Inc.
Steve Mosher has a Bachelors Degree in Architectural Engineering from Kansas State University. Steve's professional work experience initially started working for a mechanical, electrical, and plumbing consulting engineering firm for the first 2 years after graduating college where he specialized in mechanical design. From there Steve made an industry transition to the chemical engineering field where he has worked for the last 22 years. Various industries served in his career: Semiconductor, Power Generation, Food and Beverage, Oil and Gas, Manufacturing, Agriculture, Pharmaceutical, and Institutional operations.
Membranes for Biomass Conversion to Fuels
Biomass is in play as raw material for a sustainable fuel production meeting demands for transportation and heating, when biomass is utilised in a sustainable way not disregarding the need for food. Residual material like agricultural non-food by-products and wood will suffice as raw material for i.e. bioethanol 2. generation, bio- diesel, and bio-butanol. The latter two functioning as fuel for aircrafts, but they do not in the quantities presently available meet the demand. Biomass that might enable enough raw material can be achieved in the form of algae. Micro-algae can obtain a biomass production per acre that is several hundred times the production of any other plant and even produce compounds like crude oil. Technologies for harvesting micro algae and extracting crude fuels can elegantly be designed with the aid of membranes in various forms. Also covered in this presentation is ways to use membrane bioreactors in combinations with appropriate unit operations to convert biomass to sugar and subsequently to biofuels like bio-ethanol, bio-diesel, hydrogen, and methane – the latter by using a novel technology – Bioelectrochemical conversion of CO2 to methane actually converting CO2 into a fuel by a very low cost fermentative operation, where membranes are crucial.