Since Alabama has so many engineering needs in preserving and enhancing its environment and natural resources, Biosystems Engineering remains focused on ecological engineering. This focus area includes traditional land and water conservation engineering along with watershed and stream protection and restoration. These land and water engineering efforts will encompass agricultural, forestry, and other natural resource problems. This focus area also includes management of agricultural waste products and the application of geospatial technologies to improving management decisions for our environment and natural resources.

Current and recent projects in this area include:

• Erosion and recreational trails: construction and maintenance practices to minimize watershed impacts
• Monitoring off-trail sediment production of the Kentuck ORV system
• Alternative forest road stream crossing structures to reduce water quality impacts
• Sediment movement and export from biomass reduction operations
• Subsurface Drip Irrigation techniques and precision agriculture
• Long-term study of constructed wetlands for treating agricultural wastes
• Techniques for sludge removal from animal waste lagoons
• Development and evaluation of TMDL planning and assessment tools and processes
• Family and community development through integrated watershed management and education in the middle Jequitinhonha river valley, Minas Gerais, Brazil
• Alley cropping for environmental and economic sustainability of hillside farming
• Soil erosion and water quality under cattle grazing
• Certified Animal Waste Vendor training for ADEM's AFO/CAFO program
• CREES' national Animal Waste Initiative
• University Parkerson Mill Creek Restoration
• Field Test of Geo-textile Filtration Tube for Dewatering Dairy Lagoon Sludge
• Juniper Creek Clean Water Partnership Pollution Prevention Project

Biological Engineering involves applying biosystems engineering principles to the solution of problems involving biological organisms and their environments. Biological engineering combines knowledge of process design with biological principles to develop the processing methods to produce new products from bioresources. Biological engineering develops microbiological processes to produce foods, biochemicals, enzymes, and pharmaceuticals. Biological engineering develops basic processes that occur at the genetic or cellular level and then deploys these processes at industrial scales.

Food Engineering involves applying engineering principles to basic food science problems and scaling up these processes in a safe, cost-effective manner for efficient manufacture and distribution. This focus area will include work in bio-sensors, food safety, and bio-based products development. New initiatives in this focus area will lead the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering and the College of Agriculture into high visibility research and outreach that can make significant impacts on the Alabama economy.

Current projects in this area include:

• Rheological properties of food and biological materials
• Postharvest handling and storage of bioenergy crops
• Densification of bioenenergy crops
• Compaction behavior, pelleting and utilization of solid animal manure
• Demonstration of pellet furnace and use of biofuel pellets as energy efficient fuel source

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:

• Dr. Sushil Adhikari, P.E.
• Dr. Oladiran Fasina, P.Eng.
• Dr. Tim McDonald
• Dr. Steve Taylor, P.E.
• Dr. Yifen Wang
• Dr. Bill Batchelor
• Dr. Jeremiah Davis, P.E.
• Dr. Jesse Campbell

Current and recent projects in this area include:

• Gasification of woody biomass and warm gas cleanup
• Renewable hydrocarbon fuels from catalytic pyrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass
• Biodiesel production from algae
• Photocatalysts for hydrocarbons production
• Hydrogen production from bio-oil
• Utilization of low quality heat for cooling applications
• 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

While other units in the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering Fultonare focused on automotive and transportation needs, Biosystems Engineering complements those efforts by focusing on engineering for off-highway vehicle systems. This includes machines and systems used in agriculture, forestry, construction, and recreation. By working in this area, Biosystems Engineering brings to bear its unique relationships with the National Soil Dynamics Laboratory, the USDA Forest Service, and Caterpillar Corporation to address contemporary problems in safety, performance, and productivity of off-highway vehicle systems. This work will include continued development and deployment of geospatial tools and sensors for precision agriculture/precision forestry techniques, improved sensors and controls for machine optimization, management and processing of vehicle performance information, design improvements for greater vehicle safety and performance, and reduced environmental impacts from vehicle operation.

Faculty working in this area include:

• Dr. Tim McDonald
• Dr. Steve Taylor, P.E.
• Dr. Yin Bao

Current and recent projects in this area include:

• Precision agriculture and precision forestry
• Improving transport efficiency and cost of forest product transport systems
• Variable rate nitrogen application systems
• Subsurface drip irrigation systems integrated with precision agriculture techniques
• Improving forest machine operator protective structure resistance to thrown objects
• Modeling rollover behavior of excavator-based forest machines
• Portable timber bridge systems for temporary stream crossing structures
• Developing yield mapping systems for forest harvesting machines
• Standard plans for portable timber bridges using sawn lumber from western lumber species
• Variable rate forestry herbicide application systems
• Mapping and performance monitoring for manual herbicide spraying operations
• Energy requirements for tillage in forestry site preparation