Design, fabrication and operation of a biomass fermentation facility. First quarterly report, October 1-December 31, 1978

The objective of this project is to design, fabricate, and operate a fermentation facility which will demonstrate on a pilot-scale level (3 oven-dry tons (ODT) per day of feedstock) the economic and technical feasibility of producing anhydrous ethyl alcohol from lignocellulosic biomass residues (wood, corn stover, and wheat straw principally). The resultant process development unit (PDU) will be flexibly designed so as to evaluate current and projected unit operations, materials of construction, chemical and enzymatic systems which offer the potential of significant technological and economic breakthroughs in alcohol production from biomass. The principal focus of the project is to generate fuels from biomass. As such, in addition to alcohol which can be used as a transportation fuel, by-products are to be directed where possible to fuel applications. The project consists of two parts: (1) conceptual design, and (2) detailed engineering design. The first quarter's activities have focused on a critical review of several aspects of the conceptual design of the 3 ODT/day PDU, viz.: (1) biomass cost, availability, and characterization; (2) pretreatment processes for lignocellulosic residues; (3) hydrolytic processes (enzymatic and acidic); (4) fermentation processes; (5) alcohol recovery systems; (6) by-product streams utilization; and (7) process economics

Case to Cause: Back to the Future

This article reopens the historic debate about the roles of micro and macro practice in social work and encourages the profession to find ways to achieve a better balance between case and cause in education, practice, and research. To this end, it traces the history of the case versus cause debate including conceptual frameworks for rebalancing social work education: Bertha Capen Reynolds, C. Wright Mills, and William Schwartz, highlights three alternative approaches for resolving the dualism put forward over the years; separation, merger and interconnection; and identifies four model that help to bridge the gap by taking both the individual and the social structures into account: ecological, financial capabilities, trauma theory and oppression. This historical analysis offers promising directions for the social work profession as it tackles 21st–century social challenges, including growing inequality and austerity–driven public policies