Check out WTVM’s news segment by Brock Parker. He caught up with NRMDI’s Executive Director, Larry Fillmer, at the recent Energy Conference at Auburn University.
“Most of the situations we’ve seen with oil in the past have all been on the supply side in terms of previous crises that we’ve run into. Now we’re running into the demand side. With the growing demands, particularly in India and China, we’re out-stripping our capabilities,” said Larry Fillmer, executive director of AU’s Natural Resources Management and Development Institute.
You can view the entire video by clicking on the link at the WTVM9 website.
There is also a terrific story on the conference by Amy Weaver in the Opelika-Auburn News. She highlights research underway at Alabama A&M and Tuskegee University as well as Auburn University on a diverse set of agricultural products such as canola, the sweet potato, and algae.
The sweet potato is not a major crop in Alabama, but since it is grown regionally, Dr. Barrett Vaughan said a major research effort is under way at Tuskegee to establish how to get the crop from the field to the fuel tank. He said research across disciplines includes not only finding the plant with the right characteristics to make the best fuel, but also developing the most cost-effective process to make fuel.
Canola is another option, but it is probably even less common in the state than the sweet potato. However, researchers at Alabama A&M have been growing it for some time and have learned quite a bit.
“This year was the year for winter tolerance, drought tolerance, any kind of tolerance you can think of,” [Dr. Ernst] Cebert said, but because of Mother Nature, researchers now know which genetic types of canola can sustain a freeze and a drought.
