Patrick Johnson

Chemical and Petroleum Professor Awarded Research Grant

September 5, 2007 - Patrick Johnson, Assistant Professor in the University of Wyoming College of Engineering and Applied Science Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering was recently awarded a project grant of $484,000 over a four year period from the 2007 North Central Sun Grant Regional Competitive Grant Program for his proposal on Novel Recoverable Enzyme Nanoparticles for Cellulose Hydrolysis. The program is funded by the US Department of Transportation with matching funds of $50,000 by the University of Wyoming School of Energy Resources.

Ethanol is gaining widespread attention as an alternative transportation fuel as a means to reduce foreign dependence on oil and to mitigate total carbon emissions. However, major technological advances are necessary to achieve economical, large scale production from biomass. This project will seek to improve the efficiency of the conversion of cellulosic biomass into ethanol. The project involves developing recyclable biocatalysts for the process of converting cellulose into fermentable sugars for ethanol production. Researchers will be fabricating enzyme nanoparticles with a magnetic core as well as enzymes immobilized on stimuli-responsive polymers.

Patrick Johnson leads the project as principal investigator with Dr. Youqing Shen from the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering and Dr. Song Jin from Western Research Institute and the Department of Zoology and Physiology as co-principal investigators.