Eastern Regional Research Center

Dr. Sevim Erhan, Center Director
Eastern Regional Research Center, NAA, ARS, USDA
600 East Mermaid Lane, Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania  19038
Phone:  (215) 233-6400   FAX:  (215) 233-6777

In the Spotlight Boosting Barley for Bioenergy Hulled winter barley ready for harvest. (D1661-1) Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists Kevin Hicks and David Marshall want winter barley to become a prime-time player in bioenergy production. "The 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act requires production and use of 36 billion gallons of renewable transporation fuels by 2022.  Today we only make 9 billion," says Hicks.  "We see winter barley as the perfect biofeedstock for making biofuels on the East Coast." So Hicks and others in the ARS Crop Conversion Science and Engineering Research Unit in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania, are developing new sustainable technologies to convert varieties of hulled and hull-less winter "energy" barley into fuel ethanol.  This initiative also includes Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University scientists Carl Griffey, Wynse Brooks, and Mark Vaughn, who are supervising ongoing research efforts to develop improved varieties of hulled and hull-less barley. Click here to read all about it in the February 2010 issue of Agricultural Research Magazine!  ___________________________________ "ARS Newsmakers" More Job Security for Elsie the Cow: That’s because Peggy Tomasula, the research leader at our ARS Dairy Processing and Products Research Unit in Wyndmoor, Pa., says food-packaging products could be made from dairy ingredients instead of petroleum-based substances, and she’s written a chapter about that for a new book called “Dairy-Derived Ingredients: Food and Nutraceutical Uses.”  (1/20) Click here to read the full article!  ___________________________________ Fast Pyrolysis ARS Researchers Team Up with Siemens to Make Bio-Based Oil The fast pyrolysis reactor used by research scientists at the Agricultural Research Service, Eastern Regional Research Center in Wyndmoor, PA, has a Siemens PCS7 control system, on the left of the reactor, to control pressures, temperatures, biomass weight, feed speed and the pyrolysis reaction. Research scientists led Dr. Akwasi Boateng at the Agriculture Research Service (ARS), Eastern Regional Research Center (215-233-6493) in Wyndmoor, PA, are producing a renewable bio-oil using an innovative fast pyrolysis method that heats biomass feedstocks in the absence of oxygen. Read the full article in this pdf file. ___________________________________ Farmers See Latest in Bioenergy Research at USDA Lab Marilyn Hershey, Southeastern Pa. Correspondent WYNDMOOR, Pa. - Montgomery County Farm Bureau farmers, energy specialists, and additional participating farmers earlier this month met here at USDA's Eastern Regional Research Center to learn about bioenergy developments and tour the research facilities. The Eastern Regional Research Center (ERRC) was built in 1940 and is the largest USDA facility in the country.  According to Kevin Hicks, research leader, the center employs 290 occupants, 173 of which are award-winning scientists.  The research team is working on 24 individual research projects. "Through research, common sense, and smart people," Hicks said the goal of "bring together food, feed, fuel, and fiber from farms," can be attained. Click here to read the full article from Lancaster Farming. ___________________________________ Brenner Discusses USDA Research, Technology The Entrepreneur by Marc Kramer, The Bulletin Published:  Sunday, September 13, 2009 Few people know that the Department of Agriculture is one of the leading governmental research organizations with a long history of commercializing what is developed in its labs and jointly. Dr. Rick Brenner, who was named the Assistant Administrator in ARS for Technology Transfer in October 2004 and represents the Secretary of Agriculture on issues pertaining to management of intellectual property arising from USDA research, and has the delegated authority for licensing inventions developed through intramural research in any of the USDA agencies, provides insights into the enormous impact his agency has on the economy of the country. Read the full article in this pdf file. ___________________________________ From Lubricants to Packaging Materials:  ARS Scientists Just Say "No" to Petroleum At the NCAUR lab in Peoria, chemist Sevim Erhan (now center director at the Eastern Regional Research Center in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania) formulates a biodegradable lubricant using an ARS patented biobased antiwear additive. (D1643-1) Screech! Few sounds are more nerve-wracking than the scraping of metal on metal. It’s the job of lubricants to prevent that annoying noise by making sure that—when metal touches metal—everything moves smoothly and quietly. Machines that have moving parts—your car’s engine or the hydraulic pump of a huge earthmover, for instance—almost always require lubricants. Most lubricants are made of so-called “base oil” that’s blended with additives to boost performance. In the United States, the demand for additives, already at nearly 2 billion pounds a year, is expected to increase at a respectable 2 percent a year for the next 5 years. That’s why Sevim Z. Erhan and colleagues have developed a new process for making biobased additives, ones suitable for use in formulating greases; crankcase, two-cycle, and marine engine oils; and hydraulic, transmission, and drilling fluids. Read all about it in the September 2009 issue of Agricultural Research Magazine. ___________________________________ USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack visits ERRC Secretary Vilsack visited the Eastern Regional Research Center, NAA, ARS, USDA in Wyndmoor PA on Thursday, July 23, 2009 to review the Center’s pioneering research programs in sustainable bioenergy, food safety, and health-promoting foods.  Accompanying the Secretary was Deputy Undersecretary for Rural Development Cheryl Cook.  The Secretary addressed the entire Center staff at the end of the visit and thanked the staff for helping him achieve his objectives in rural development, sustainable agricultural bioenergy, obesity prevention, food safety and security and for making USDA effective and relevant “everyday and everyway.” Click hereto see photos from the event.

Upcoming Events       February - Black History Month (BHM) February 15 - Closed for President's Day February 23 - BHM African-American Cultural and Art Exhibit from 10 am to 4 pm in the Auditorium 10 Most Recent Publications Additional Publications - We have 7600+ publications online that you can view and print. The following publications are not yet online.  To request a reprint, please email Robert.Downs@ars.usda.gov with your name, address, and reprint number.   REPRINT TITLE AUTHOR 8148 Improving microbial safety of fresh produce using thermal treatment X. Fan, B.A. Annous, and L. Huang 8147 Microbial safety of fresh produce X. Fan, B.A. Niemira, C.J. Doona, F.E. Feeherry, and R.B. Gravani 8146 Microbial safety of fresh produce X. Fan, B.A. Niemira, C.J. Doona, F.E. Feeherry, and R.B. Gravani 8145 Thermal inactivation of Bacillus anthracis Sterne in irradiated ground beef heated in a water bath or cooked on commerical grills V.K. Juneja, A.C.S. Porto-Fett, J.E. Call, H.B. Marks, M.L. Tamplin, and J.B. Luchansky 8144 Effectiveness of cross-flow microfiltration for removal of microorganisms associated with unpasteurized liquid egg white from process plant S. Mukhopadhyay, P.M. Tomasula, D. Van Hekken, J.B. Luchansky, J.E. Call, and A. Porto-Fett 8143 Leakage of intracellular UV materials of high hydrostatic pressure-injured Escherichia coli O157:H7 strains in tomato juice D.O. Ukuku, H. Zhang, M.L. Bari, K. Yamamoto, and S. Kawamoto 8142 Use of 1% peroxyacetic acid sanitizer in an air-mixing wash basin to remove bacerial pathogens from seeds K.T. Rajkowski and K. Ashurst 8141 Identification of extensin protein associated with sugar beet pectin A. Nunez, M.L. Fishman, L.L. Fortis, P.H. Cooke, and A.T. Hotchkiss, Jr. 8140 Effect of salt, smoke compound, and temperature on the survival of Listeria monocytogenes in salmon during simulated smoking processes C.-A. Hwang, S. Sheen, and V.K. Juneja 8139 Fatty acid, phytosterol, and polyamine conjugate profiles of edible oils extracted from corn germ, corn fiber, and corn kernels R.A. Moreau, A.-M. Lampi, and K.B. Hicks

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