Researchers at North Carolina (NC) State University are set to give agricultural leftovers a second life, creating new business opportunities.
With funding from Schmidt Sciences, the NC State team is partnering with Idaho National Laboratory and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to develop an AI-enabled, open-source platform that can analyze the potential to convert agricultural byproducts into biofuels and other bioproducts.
The four-year REFRAME project (Resource Engineering Framework for Responsible, Augmented Modeling and Engagement) supports a circular bioeconomy in which organic waste is transformed into new materials. This approach reduces environmental impact, creates business opportunities for entrepreneurs and opens up new revenue streams for farmers and agribusinesses.
For example, to find the best ways of converting sweetpotatoes and green tops into biofuel, a sustainable aviation fuel company could use the platform to analyze the current yield in an area and identify optimal locations for collection facilities or biorefineries.