The Biomaterials Program is devoted to assisting companies in the development and commercialization of industrial products using agricultural materials and agricultural byproducts. Our network, across multiple University of Nebraska departments, helps us assist clients in all areas of product development from, conception to manufacturing.
Contact Loren Isom (402-472-1634 or loren.isom@unl.edu) to get started!
Extrusion
The Biomaterials Program has a long history of excellence in extrusion research. We have a wide range of laboratory extrusion equipment, including a C. W. Brabender single screw, conical twin screw and segmented parallel twin extruders. We also have an InstaPro commercial extruder at our pilot plant in Mead, Nebraska at the Eastern Nebraska Research, Extension and Education Center.
The advantage of working with small laboratory equipment is that it does not take as much material to conduct product development work as it would with pilot plant scale equipment and we can process several different formulations in the same day. Once the desired formulations are selected, we also can produce small quantities of product for initial product testing.
Extraction & Evaporation
Our ThermoScientific® Accelerated Solvent Extractor 350 and Genevac Rocket Evaporators allow for a quicker turnaround for processing samples.
Other available equipment:
- Parr 4520 Bench top 1L Reactor
- Accuthermal Fluidized Temperature Bath
- Nitrogen Sample Concentrator
Enzymatic Hydrolysis & Fermentation
The Biomaterials Program has extensive experience in pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis of grains and lignocellulosic biomass and can assist in the development of pretreatment strategies to prepare biomass for subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation. We have three 3L Eppendorf® Bioreactors for small-scale continuous, fed batch and batch fermentations.
Other available equipment:
- Infors-HT Techfor-S 42L Compact Fermenter
Centrifugation
Our Optima XPN-90 Ultracentrifuge offers researchers the ability to separate and purify biological molecules and particles with high precision, safety, and efficiency.
Analytical
We offer a number of instruments to help with the acurate and speedy analysis of samples.
- Thermo ISQ Single Quadropole GC/MS
- Thermo Ultimate 3000 LC
- Agilent 1260 Infinity LC
- Differential Scanning Calorimeter
- To see other available equipment for analyses please see our Food Analysis Facility page
Research
The Biomaterials Program three active research areas emphasize value added processing technologies for agricultural materials and agricultural byproducts. These research programs have been, and continue to be, central to the Program's mission to improve the economy of the Great Plains Region by developing new uses for raw agricultural materials since our inception in 1988.
