Biobased Fuels with Dr. Joseph Perez

This podcast marks the beginning of a series that is designed to shed some light on the 2011 Annual Meeting and the education courses offered. In this series, we talk to course instructors and get a feel for the topics covered in their courses.

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In this episode, we talk to Dr. Joseph Perez, Senior Research Scientist at Penn State. Dr. Perez is the Chair of the Biofuels and Biolubricants course at the 2011 Annual Meeting. This podcast will look at bio-based fuels, with the second episode on bio-based lubricants to be released at the end of this month.

Biofuels are defined as a wide range of fuels that serve as alternatives to petroleum fuels. They are in some way derived from biomass. The term biofuel covers a wide variety of projects involving the conversion of natural resources to fuels.

Dr. Perez works with biofuels on a daily basis. He leads an initiative at Penn State to make the university "green." The program, conducted by Dr. Perez and the Chemical Engineering Department's Tribology Group, involves overseeing and studying the use of biobased lubricants and biofuels in the university's farm equipment, elevators and campus vehicles. He is also currently involved in a range of biofuel studies that look at improving low temperature characteristics and oxidation stability of biodiesel. Dr. Perez will be teaching a part of the course, and will be accompanied by other individuals who work or conduct research in this field. You can get more information on biofuels, the 2011 Annual Meeting, and the AM education course line up by visiting our website.