For the first time in its history, ASU topped $300 million in research expenditures in one fiscal year, according to a statement released Tuesday.
The news comes just one day after ASU was awarded $10.3 million in U.S. Department of Energy stimulus funds — a number that will be entered into the 2010 fiscal year.
Sethuraman Panchanathan, deputy vice president of research and economic affairs, said that out of more than 3,000 applicants nationwide, just 37 projects were awarded funds. Only 13 awarded were university-led proposals.
“We are the only university in the country that won [Department of Energy funds for] two projects,” Panchanathan said.
The newest grants will fund projects for renewable energy, he said. One focuses on creating fuel from solar energy and the other is working on a new type of batteries. ASU has already done extensive research in these areas, but the proposed projects are new, he added.
“It puts Arizona on the map as one of the leading states working in the area of renewable energy,” Panchanathan said. “For us to be on the forefront is going to attract a lot of companies in the future.”
The funds will allow ASU to hire researchers and contribute to education by taking on student researchers, he said. There are both direct and indirect economic benefits of receiving the funds, he added.
“We’ve had tremendous success already with projects [funded by] the Department of Energy,” he said. “The success of these projects is going to launch us toward getting even larger and even bigger projects in the area of renewable energy.”
Willem Vermaas, a professor at the School of Life Sciences, said the funds will help his research team develop fatty acids from solar energy, which could be used for fuel.
What sets his research apart from other fuel projects, he said, is the inclusion of photosynthetic bacterial substances called cyanobacterium, which are different from other bacteria like algae.
“We secrete the material that you want from the cells,” Vermaas said. “We don’t need to harvest a lot of cells.”
Cyanobacterium takes in solar energy and carbon dioxide and releases fatty acids into its cells, he said. Instead of harvesting a lot of the bacteria, like an algae researcher would, the team can take the fatty acids directly from the cells.
“This is the system that goes beyond biomass,” Vermaas said. In algae-fuel projects, researchers must grow a lot of algae — biomass refers to the amount gathered. Vermaas said in his research he has to collect a relatively small amount of cyanobacterium biomass.
Researchers can also metabolically engineer cyanobacterium, meaning they can modify metabolic pathways, which he said makes the process easier.
Though complex, Vermaas’ research could mean a lot for Arizona’s economy, he said.
If the project leads to a larger-scale process of utilizing solar energy for producing fatty acids used for fuel, it could create many jobs, he said.
Reach the reporter at ndgilber@asu.edu.
