Department of Mechanical Engineering

Robert C. Brown

Anson Marston Distinguished Professor in Engineering
Bergles Professor in Thermal Science
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering
Professor of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering

Director, Bioeconomy Institute
Director, Center for Sustainable Environmental Technologies

3022 Black Engineering
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011
or
411 Marston Hall
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011
515-294-7934
e-mail: rcbrown@iastate.edu

Education
Michigan State University, Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, 1980
Michigan State University, M.S., Mechanical Engineering, 1977
University of Missouri, B.S., Physics, 1976
University of Missouri, B.A., Mathematics, 1976

Areas of Interest
Gasification and fast pyrolysis of biomass; biorenewable resources; biofuels and biopower; fluidized beds; hot gas cleaning.

Links
Personal Page
Bioeconomy Institute
Center for Sustainable Environmental Technologies

Biosketch
Dr. Brown is the founding director of the Bioeconomy Institute (BEI) at ISU, a university-wide initiative that coordinates research, educational, and outreach activities related to biobased products and bioenergy.  The BEI has helped established several new research enterprises at ISU including the NSF-sponsored Center for Biorenewable Chemicals, the Biobased Industries Center, the New Century Farm, the Biorenewables Research Laboratory Building, and the Harvest, Storage, and Transportation Consortium.

Dr. Brown also helped establish ISU’s Biorenewable Resources and Technology (BRT) graduate program, the first such degree-granting program in the United States.  His publications include Biorenewable Resources:  Engineering New Products from Agriculture, a textbook for students interested in the Bioeconomy, as well as several book chapters on related topics. 

Dr. Brown’s other administrative duties include directing the Center for Sustainable Environmental Technologies, a $3 million per year research enterprise focusing on thermochemical processing of biomass and fossil fuels.  The center has pioneered a variety of innovative technologies including syngas fermentation, bio-oil fermentation, use of  biochars as soil amendment and carbon sequestration agent, and thermally ballasted gasification.

Dr. Brown has published over 100 refereed papers and has received over $30 million in cumulative research funding.  He is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineering, a Distinguished Iowa Scientist of the Iowa Academy of Science, and the recipient of the David R. Boylan Eminent Faculty Award for Research at ISU in 2002.  He received an R&D 100 Award from Research and Development Magazine in 1997. 

Selected Publications

  • Wright, M. and Brown, R. C., Comparative economics of biorefineries based on the biochemical and thermochemical platforms, Biofuels, Bioprocessing, and Biorefineries 1, 49-56, 2007.

  • Brown, R. C., Hybrid thermochemical/biological processing of biomass, Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology 137-140, 947 – 956, 2007.

  • Zhang, R., Wang, Y., and Brown, R. C. Steam reforming of tar compounds over Ni/Olivine catalysts doped with CeO2, Energy Conversion and Management, 48, 68-77, 2006.

  • Xu, M., Brown, R. C., and Norton, G., Effect of sample aging on the accuracy of the International Energy Agency’s tar measurement protocol, Energy & Fuels 20, 262-264, 2006.

  • Brown, R. C., Chapter 19. Resource Availability, Section 19.4 Biomass, CRC Handbook of Energy Conservation and Renewable Energy, Kreith, F. and Goswami, Y., Eds., CRC Press, 2006.

  • Brown, R. C., Chapter 24. Biomass Energy Conversion, Section 24.2 Power Generation, CRC Handbook of Energy Conservation and Renewable Energy, Kreith, F. and Goswami, Y., Eds., CRC Press, 2006.

  • Brown, R. C., Chapter 24. Biomass Energy Conversion, Section 24.3 Bio-fuels, CRC Handbook of Energy Conservation and Renewable Energy, Kreith, F. and Goswami, Y., Eds., CRC Press, 2006.

  • Brown, R. C., Biomass Refineries based on Hybrid Thermochemical/Biological Processing– An Overview, in Biorefineries, Biobased Industrial Processes and Products, Kamm, B., Gruber, P. R., Kamm, M., Eds., Wiley-VCH Verlag, Weinheim, Germany, 2005.

  • Xu, M., Brown, R. C., Norton, G., and Smeenk, J., “Comparison of a solvent-free tar quantification method to the International Energy Agency’s tar measurement protocol, Energy & Fuels 19, 2509-2513, 2005.

  • Cummer, K. and Brown, R. C., Indirectly heated biomass gasification using a latent heat ballast.  Part 3:  Refinement of the heat transfer model, Biomass and Bioenergy 28, 321–330, 2005.

  • Zhang, R., Cummer, K., Suby, A., and Brown, R. C., Biomass-derived hydrogen from an air-blown gasifier,” Fuel Processing Technology 86, 861-874, 2005.

  • Norton, G. A. and Brown, R. C., Wet chemical method for determining levels of ammonia in syngas from a biomass gasifier,  Energy & Fuels, 19, 618-624, 2005.

  • Khiyami, M. A., Pometto III, A. L., Brown, R. C. , Detoxification of corn stover and corn starch pyrolysis liquors by ligninolytic enzymes of Phanerochaete chrysporium, Journal of  Agricultural and Food Chemistry 53, 2969-2977, 2005.