Dr. Srikant Gir

Position: Professor
School: University of Memphis Engineering Department
Basics: Gir, co-director of research and technology for the Center for Biofuel Energy & Sustainable Technologies at the U of M, has received a $500,000 grant for research and development of a biofuel initiative.

Earmarks are hot-button issues in today’s political landscape, but University of Memphis engineering professor Dr. Srikant Gir wants everyone to know that the $500,000 grant he received for the research and development of a biofuel initiative will have a broad impact.

Calling this grant an earmark that will build a “bridge to everywhere, not the bridge to nowhere” – a reference to the failed Alaska bridge project that became a campaign rallying cry last year – Gir will use the money to further develop technology that converts waste materials into alternative, renewable energy.

The grant, announced last week by U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Memphis, will help Gir and his team of collaborators continue working on the prototype of his converter that takes waste products such as vegetable oil from fryers and turns them into biodiesel for internal combustion engines.

Gir, who also serves as co-director of research and technology for the school’s Center for Biofuel Energy & Sustainable Technologies, has been working on this technology for two years. He said he was elated to receive the grant, especially after laboring to piece together funding from private companies and international researchers.

As he sees it, the research and development of technologies that can help relieve this country’s – and the world’s – dependence on fossil fuels will be good for everyone.

“I am never going to pontificate that we can win this energy battle with just alternative energy alone,” Gir said. “But my concept is this: If we can replace 20 percent, let’s go for 20 percent. Let’s achieve that milestone of 20 percent, 10 percent, 5 percent, whatever that milestone is.”

Local impact

Gir’s prototypical waste-into-fuel converter was designed to be smaller than a typical refinery because he envisions similar machines being placed at numerous locales so businesses can take biomass – the waste from organic matter such as fallen leaves or downed trees – and turn it into energy for their immediate needs.

“Our state is so rich in biomass. It will be our main interest to set up these small refineries,” Gir said. “We cannot set up big refineries because there is no one place where that much biomass is available.”

Larger refineries in fewer places would require more energy to import the biomass, defeating the purpose of developing this renewable energy.

“You cannot transfer biomass hundreds of miles and thousands of miles to process, because the cost of transportation will be very expensive,” Gir said. “Our goal is to go after small refineries like this and set it up where the waste is generated and produce fuel for the local economy, for the local community. There will be local people working and the local people will be using the energy.”

Cohen called Gir’s work important for the university, for the city and for the U.S. because of its potential results.

“At a research university, as the University of Memphis is, it can put you at the front door,” Cohen said. “Turning waste and vegetable fat, which we’ve got plenty of, and biomass, which we’ve got plenty of, is an opportunity to create jobs and energy.”

Training workers

Gir’s mission goes beyond the creation of renewable fuel. He hopes the grant money will jumpstart a host of work force and economic development initiatives at the U of M and in Memphis.

“The main goal is the education of the campus,” Gir said. “The second goal is a tool for work force development. In our country we have very few training centers we can actually train people who have lost jobs, even people in schools when they come out … if they were to get a job in the process industry, there is no training center like this.”

Specifically, he foresees the engineering department becoming a training center where people can spend a semester learning critical technological skills to prepare them for a career in the industry. And, as research and development expands, he sees a time when the manufacture and maintenance of these refineries will create jobs.

“Work force development is going to be a big, big push on this project,” Gir said.

Gir understands that the need for using fossil fuels will never be eliminated, but he figures projects like this are another way to chip away at the global energy problem. The recent grant – earmark though it may be – is a bridge everyone can support.

“If we don’t try, we’ll never do anything,” Gir said. “This is the time to hunker down and start doing something.”