Production and Process Engineering
Alabama's mainstay industries (poultry, aquaculture, and forest products)
have many basic engineering needs that occur in their production and processing
phases. Engineering solutions are needed for many problems that occur in the production
of the raw commodities. For example, engineering expertise is needed to improve
the life support systems (feeding, aeration, waste management) for aquaculture
systems while also providing engineering solutions to optimize handling and harvesting
systems. Similar needs exist in the poultry industry and in the forest products
industry. Once the commodity products are taken to processing plants, additional
engineering expertise is needed to improve efficiency, reduce energy use, manage
waste products, improve food or fiber quality, etc.
Additional research is examining methods to add value to biological products.
This includes refining engineered wood composite products, improving the performance
and reliability of structural composite lumber, and developing new methods for
pelletizing biomass and agricultural waste products.
Faculty working in this area include:
Current and recent projects in this area include:
- Postharvest handling and storage of bioenergy crops
- Densification of bioenergy crops
- Poultry house distributed generation using recycled vegetable oils
- Engineering assistance for poultry houses
- Waste-oil-fired furnaces as alternatives for heating poultry houses
- Demonstration of pellet furnace and use of biofuel pellets as energy efficient
fuel source
- Using forest biomass as an alternative energy source
- Modeling localized material properties of southern pine laminating lumber
- Quantifying shear strength of high strength southern pine glued-laminated timber
beams
- Qualification testing of high-strength southern pine glued-laminated timber beams
