Director
Dr. Frederick C. Michel
Phone: 330-263-3859, Email: michel.36@osu.edu
Dr. Michel is an Associate Professor in the Department of Food Agricultural and Biological Engineering and an Adjunt Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the Ohio State University, and his lab is located at the Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC) in Wooster- Ohio . He received his Ph.D in Chemical Engineering with a minor in Microbiology from Michigan State University . His research areas are focused on improving the processing of agricultural and industrial organic byproducts through the development of new or improved bioprocessing technologies. Specific research activities include the development of DNA/RNA based analytical tools for the investigation of microbial community structure and function in composts and amended soils; engineered processes for efficient conversion of dairy and hog production wastes into composts and other value-added, transportable and stable products that reduce water and air pollution; and characterizing the effects of composting and other waste management processes on xenobiotic chemical fates, plant disease suppressive microorganisms, antibiotics and human and animal pathogen persistence.
Graduate Students
Eddie F. Gomez
Phone: 330-263-3866, Email: gomez.69@osu.edu
Eddie is a graduate student in the department of Food Agricultural and Biological Engineering at the Ohio State University under Dr. Fred C. Michel’s supervision. Eddie came from Costa Rica to join the Bioprocessing Lab in 2007 for his master’s studies, which finished in 2010 in FABE and he is currently pursuing his PhD in the same department. His Bachelor of Science was obtained from Earth University in Costa Rica in Agricultural Sciences and Conservation of Natural Resources. At EARTH, Eddie worked on the development of an EM-Compost organic fertilizer from ripe banana peels. During his Master’s Eddie studied the methanogenic structure in anaerobic digesters and during his PhD studies his research is focused on the study of the mineralization of biodegradable polymers in different environments. Eddie is passionate on improving the quality of life in rural areas of developing countries. He is also interested on waste management as a tool for minimizing the impact of human activities on the environment, on their health and to generate income for local families. His areas of interest include residue-based energy production via anaerobic digestion and production of biodegradable materials from agricultural residues for small-scale manufacturing of different products.
David A. Ramirez
Phone: 330-263-3866, Email: ramirez-cadavid.1@osu.edu
David is a graduate student in the Bioprocessing Lab under Dr. Fred C. Michel’s supervision. David is a Bioengineering from University of Antioquia in Colombia. He started working on the Bioprocessing Lab in 2009 when he conducted his senior thesis focused in the stimulation of lignin degrading enzymes production from Phanerochaete chrisosporium in liquid cultures under different visible wavelengths. He obtained his Bachelor of Science in 2009. Later in 2012 he obtained his Master of Sciences in FABE. During his master studies, David worked on the development and optimization of the ethanol production process from starch by hydrodynamic cavitation at pilot and commercial scale. He is currently pursuing his PhD degree focused on the development of a new bioprocessing strategy for the production of advance biofuels from cellulosic materials by hydrodynamic cavitation. Additionally, he is working for Arysdine Company as process engineering for the validation of the hydrodynamic cavitation for the optimization of ethanol production from starch at commercial scale plants. Besides, he has also helped in the rubber extraction from Russian dandelion roots, one of the projects in the Bioprocessing Lab. David is an active student with interest in the development of bioprocess for biofuels and bioproducts production, metabolites and enzyme production, bioprocess modeling, and bioprocess optimization.
Post-Docs
Dr. Yun Ma
Phone: 330-263-3866, Email: ma.688@osu.edu
Yun is a visiting scholar from Zhejiang University of Technology of China, where she is an associate professor. Her Bachelor and Ph.D degree were obtained from Zhejiang University in Environmental Science in 2000 and 2005, respectively. During her Ph.D program Yun studied the enantiomer separation and enantio-selective environmental behavior of typical chiral herbicide of dichlorprop and metolachlor. Her current research focuses on fate, transport and biodegradation of pesticides in the environment. Her areas of interest include evaluating toxicity of environmental pollutants and controlling pollution by micro-biological degradation.
Yun came from China to join the Bioprocessing Lab in August 2012. During this time Yun has been involved in researching of herbicides used of lawn care and gardening during composting and their impacts on compost quality. Her project also involves the enrichment, isolation and identification of novel microorganisms able to biodegrade herbicide herbicides during composting.
Staff
Dr. Sukhbir Grewal
Phone: 330-202-0355, Email: grewal.9@osu.edu
Sukhbir has been a member of the Bioprocessing Lab from Spring 2008. Her Bachelor of Science and Master of Science were obtained from Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India in Botany (Hons.) and her PhD was obtained in the same university in Plant Pathology with a minor in biochemistry and plant physiology. In the Bioprocessing Lab Sukhbir has been working on various projects in compost research and on rubber production. She has conducted bench scale compost experiments to study the fate of Aminocyclopyrachlor and Clopyralid herbicides during the process of composting and tested the effects of these contaminated composts on plants. In the rubber production, she has been part of the team to grow, harvest and process Russian dandelion’s roots to extract rubber and Inulin. She has been responsible for the extraction of rubber using mechanical as well as using Accelerated Solvent extraction (ASE) and Inulin.
Besides these projects, she has been helping in different projects involving: simultaneous saccharification and fermentation for ethanol production from corn and the quantification of products, co-products and by-products of the process; acid and alkaline hydrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass using pressure tubes and MARS microwave for energy uses. She also has experience in biomass enzyme hydrolysis. I have experience on Cellulose and starch enzymatic hydrolysis. She has also been involved on experiments involving lignin degrading microorganisms. She has conducted molecular biology experiments to study identification of microorganisms using 16S rDNA genes as well as genes for lignin degrading enzymes using PCR and sequence analysis. She has also been helping and supervising graduate and undergraduate students and visiting scientists in the Bioprocessing Lab.
Jesse Rossington
Phone: 330-263-3866, Email: rossington.1@osu.edu
Jesse began working at the Bioprocessing Lab as a Research Technician during the summer of 2011 after earning his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the College of Wooster in Wooster-Ohio. Jesse had previously worked for Dr. Fred C. Michel on an internship basis during the summers of 2009 and 2010, and later collaborated with him for his senior thesis. His research has focused on the roots of Taraxacum kok-saghyz, or TKS, the Russian dandelion. These roots contain natural rubber as well as inulin, a potentially valuable carbohydrate.
Composting Research Group
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