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ACREC: The Past, Present and Future—A Legacy of Innovation and Progress for Rendering
Annel K. Greene, Center DirectorClemson University Animal Co-Products Research & Education Center
May 1999
3:47 AM
Early steps toward development of ACREC
• Dr. Pearl posed the concept in Fall 2002
• Consulted with Clemson University administrators
• February 23, 2003 – Discussion forum
Early steps toward development of ACREC
• Research needs at the time were related to non-nutritional applications for rendered products
• Concern on future related to the feed rule
Early steps toward development of ACREC
• Research areas chosen by the renderers were:• Feed safety - thermal processing, chemical, etc.
• Environmental – protection and remediation
• New product development – materials, polymers, textiles
Early steps toward development of ACREC
• Developed structure, procedures, formats, timelines, by-laws, legal
• Officially named: Animal Co-Products Research & Education Center (ACREC)
• First proposals submitted March 26, 2004• Initiated first research projects in May, 2004
• Progress reviewed in the FPRF meetings
Early steps toward development of ACREC
• Steering Committee visit • October 11, 2004
• Toured laboratories
• Toured National Brick Research Center
• Held discussions with funded researchers
• Held barbecue with FPRF, faculty and students
Early steps toward development of ACREC
• Steering Committee visit – October 11, 2004
• Signed agreement in Fall 2005
• Approved by the Clemson University Board of Trustees in October 11, 2005
• Obtained South Carolina Commission on Higher Education approval
Early steps toward development of ACREC
• Concept papers/proposals – FPRF meeting at Lake Las Vegas – October 21, 2005
• November 1, 2005 – first ACREC Governing Board meeting – Madren Center Board Room
• First ACREC Research Committee meeting held December 7-8, 2005 at Valley Proteins plant in Ward, South Carolina
Animal Co-Products Research & Education Center (ACREC)
Dedication Conference – March 27-29, 2006
ACREC today
• A total of 122 research projects have been conducted or are in progress
• At least 77 graduate students have been directly involved in research projects related to rendering challenges since inception
• At least 14 post-doctoral scholars have conducted research on rendering challenges
ACREC today
• More than 2000 undergraduate students have been introduced to the rendering industry through classroom instruction
• More than 350 undergraduate students have conducted research related to the rendering industry
ACREC today
• Many of our graduates are now employed in the rendering industry or related industries such as pet food, animal feed, wastewater, etc.
ACREC today
• 43 faculty directly involved conducting studies• From 4 different colleges
• From 16 different departments
• 16 of the ACREC faculty sought tenure during this timeframe
• 6 out of 7 currently funded projects are by faculty who have been at Clemson less than 10 years
ACREC today
…to boldly go where no one has gone before…
Dr. Srikanth Pilla
• Assistant Professor of Automotive Engineering at the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR)
Dr. Srikanth Pilla
• Making biodegradable plastic laminates for automobiles using rendered animal proteins
• Has made a major breakthrough in advancing “self-healing” technologies
Dr. Srikanth Pilla
• Advantages for rendering – potential to create new high value outlets for animal proteins
• Could result in high value “disappearance” of a large volume of animal proteins
Dr. Andrew Hurley
• Assistant Professor of Packaging Science
• Renderable gloves and bags• polyethylene can be a
problem in rendered fat
• derived from plastic bags in the raw stream
Dr. Andrew Hurley
• Identified a commercially available biodegradable plastic to make renderable gloves and bags
• Material degrades during rendering cooking processes
Dr. Andrew Hurley
• Advantages for rendering –will prevent downgrading of value of animal fats due to “poly” and will prevent glove and other particles contaminating animal feed and pet food ingredients
Dr. Mark Blenner
• Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
• Working to engineer yeast to produce omega-3 poly-unsaturated fatty acids
Dr. Mark Blenner
• The omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oils command a premium price in the market
• Supplies are limited
• Used in aquaculture feeds
Dr. Mark Blenner
• The rendering industry produces millions of pounds of fats but these are a different fatty acid composition than fish oils.
• Working to convert tallow and other rendered fats to omega-3 fatty acids.
Dr. Mark Blenner
• Advantages for the rendering industry –conversion of lower value fatty acids to higher value ones will increase profitability and open new markets.
Dr. Xiuping Jiang
• Professor of Food Science & Professor of Microbiology
• Hydrogen sulfide is a toxic compound formed by bacterial degradation of sulfur containing proteins such as in feathers.
Dr. Xiuping Jiang
• With graduate student Chao James Gong, isolated bacteriophages capable of inhibiting the growth of hydrogen sulfide producing bacteria.
Dr. Xiuping Jiang
• Also isolated bacteriophage capable of inhibiting growth of Salmonella and conducted extensive studies on boot bath sanitation in rendering processing plants.
Dr. Xiuping Jiang
• Advantages for the rendering industry – reduced production of toxic hydrogen sulfide, reduced degradation of incoming raw materials and reduced incidence of Salmonella.
Dr. Charlie Gooding
• Professor of Chemical Engineering
• Conducted the life cycle analysis for rendering operations and products
• Created the carbon footprint calculator that is available on the FPRF website.
Dr. Charlie Gooding
• Engaged hundreds of sophomore and senior chemical engineering students in projects related to rendering.
• Directed a student study on development of high value products from rendered fats.
Dr. David Bruce
• Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
• Conducted the life cycle analysis for using rendered animal fats to produce biodiesel
Dr. David Bruce
• Accounting for all energy inputs and outputs, demonstrated that use of animal fats to make biodiesel has a very favorable final energy balance for the product.
Dr. Alexey Vertegel and Dr. Vladimir Reukov
• Department of Bioengineering
• Created a potent antioxidant from blood
• Have started their own company – VRM – to move their product into the market
Dr. Alexey Vertegel and Dr. Vladimir Reukov
• Working on obtaining FDA approvals
• Benefit for the rendering industry – offers another natural antioxidant product for use in rendered animal products.
Dr. Scott Husson
• Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
• Worked on a project to clean wastewater without the need for chemicals
Dr. David Ladner and Dr. Yi Zheng
• Associate Professor and Assistant Professor of Environmental Engineering, respectively.
• Built on the work of Dr. Husson on membrane wastewater cleaning systems
Dr. David Ladner and Dr. Yi Zheng
• Constructed a field-deployable membrane bioreactor/separator for rendering facility wastewater treatment
Dr. Joseph Thrasher
• Professor of Chemistry
• An article was published by another university stating that feather meal was contaminated with a wide variety of pharmaceuticals and personal care products
Dr. Joseph Thrasher
• Dr. Thrasher and his team of chemistry graduate students refuted that paper and proved that rendered feather meal is safe.
Dr. Christopher Kitchens
• Associate Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
• Investigated the use of carbon dioxide as a green solvent for extraction of rendered fat
Dr. Christopher Kitchens
• Project goal is to allow renderers greater options such as increasing fat extraction when fat prices are at a premium and producing low fat meals which may be of interest to pet food manufacturers
Dr. Christopher Kitchens
• In another project, is extracting valuable fat from DAF sludge
• Investigating conversion of the extracted lipids to fatty acid methyl esters
Dr. Christopher Kitchens
• Is working with Crown Ironworks on pilot scale tests and design of extraction units
• Advantage to rendering industry – increased profitability
Dr. Sudeep Popat
• New Assistant Professor of Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences
• Exploratory project to use microbial fuel cells to further clean wastewater while generating electricity
Dr. Sudeep Popat
• Will also generate value-added chemicals such as hydrogen peroxide which could be used in processing plant sanitation
Dr. Dan Whitehead and Dr. Frank Alexis
• Assistant Professors of Chemistry and Bioengineering, respectively.
• Developing biodegradable materials that selectively capture and destroy malodorous compounds associated with rendering operations
Avian Influenza• Annel Greene, Tom
Scott, Adam Leaphart, Billy Bridges, Laine Chambers
• Conducted study to validate that rendering thermal processes are sufficient to destroy avian influenza
ACREC Request for Pre-Proposals
• Sent to faculty in November – December of each year with late January to early February deadline
• Seek out researchers based on rendering industry’s needs
Research Committee
• Meets Spring and Fall
• Reviews Pre-Proposals in Spring
• Meets with researchers
• ACREC social and dinner
• Ranks pre-proposals
Governing Board
• Meets Spring and Fall
• Manages all aspects of ACREC
• Nine member board
Post-Research Committee
• Work with each researcher to get the full proposal completed and through Sponsored Programs
• Send final proposals to Dr. David Meeker for his final approval
Post-Research Committee
• Write and send award letters to researchers and Sponsored Programs Award office.
• Shepherd the projects through to account set-up.
• Assist as needed with samples, plant tours, etc.
Round table discussions, poster sessions, tours
The Future
• Need to get new technologies into the market
• To this end have a new internship program in which graduate student interns are working with the Clemson University Research Foundation (CURF) and Technology Transfer office to assist researchers.
The Future
• In Spring 2017, two CURF interns were assigned to support faculty at the pre-proposal stage. The interns provided technology evaluations to faculty based upon their pre-proposal submissions.
• A patent landscape was done based on the described proposed research so the faculty would know if similar patents already exist.
The Future
• The project provides researchers preliminary industry market analysis and information on competitive products with reference to patentability.
• The intent is to help the researcher shape the research activity towards a commercialization opportunity.
The Future
• The desire is to engage researchers as early as possible in the pre-proposal stage and throughout the research project to provide continuous feedback on potential industry uses, marketing targets and patentability.
• The objective is to increase the probability of a commercially viable product outcome.
The Future
• External grants• Faculty are garnering increased outside grants to
continue the work; currently overall have obtained approximately 2X the seed money from FPRF through external grants
• Encouraging faculty to continue to apply for grants
The Future
• Seek additional funding• Build partnerships with related industries
• This is beginning to happen through the funded projects
• Feel we can go farther in building new partnerships with the food industry• Initiative in the works
Test tubes, Bunsen burners, chemical engineers, biomolecular engineers, automotive engineers, mechanical engineers, environmental engineers, bioengineers, chemists, food scientists, packaging scientists, microbiologists……
…..and rendering.
To boldly go……..
The Future?
Innovation
The Future?
Innovation to solve rendering challenges
Acknowledgments
Dr. Gary G. Pearl
FPRF membership
Officers of FPRF – past and present
ACREC Research Committee members – past and present
NRA and FPRF staff – past and present
Dr. David Meeker
ACREC researchers and students
Clemson University ACREC
