Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

The S-1054 Multistate Research Project Annual Meeting, held in the conference room of the Holiday Inn Express, 2920 Clairmont Rd NE, Atlanta, was called to order by chair person, Dr. Sharma, at 9:00 am on Monday, May 6th, 2013. Dr. Daubenmire was acknowledged for her arrangements for the meeting room, refreshments and hotel reservation discount. A motion to accept the printed agenda was made by Dr. Sharma and seconded by Dr. Yang. Motion passed. Welcome and introductions were made by each participating member. Dr. Chen reported that UT, Austin is not a land grant university, so he will not have travel funds in the future. Dr. Sarmadi from UW, Madison also faces funding cuts. Conference call was made by Dr. Sharma to Dr. Robert Shulstad, Adminstrative Advisor at 10:00 am. Dr. Shulstad welcomed the attendees and explained the reason for the conference call. The content of the call covered the S-1054 project, the time frame, budgets cuts changing emphases, such as resources, food security, food safety, nutrition, STEM program which is related to global agriculture production problem program, extension, new agriculture education, sustainable application, sustainability minority program, and critical agriculture production. The funding to the land grant universities is shrinking. There was also discussions on the Farm Bill and DOE funding. The project is from Jan.1st, 2013 to Dec. 30th, 2018. Each station needs to write its own report. USDA requires an annual report for this project.

Goals are 1). To develop value added bio-products  fibers, textiles; barrier fabrics and novel finishes; scaffolds for tissue engineering; biothermoplastics and thermosets; crop covers and mulches; 2). Make textile industry sustainable  materials from agricultural byproducts and coproducts; cleaner processing technologies Four objectives: Objective 1. To develop novel biobased polymeric materials (NE, GA, TX, WI, MT, NY and CA) Dr. Yang will produce fibrous product and polymers. Dr. Yang is doing D-lactide PLA. Dr. Sarmadi can make plasma treatments and make hydrophobic and hydrophilic products. He can do film, yarns, paper or non-woven fabric  continuous and stationary treatments with small samples under vacuum. Dr. Sharma is working on Algae cells, low energy tech. extracts protein and lipids for fibrous products. Use algae cells to producing other plastics. Investigating odor from algae extracts and other properties of algae extracts. Algae particle size (less than 10 micron) is crucial in developing algae-based fibers and films. This can be achieved through jet milling other advanced milling processes. Drs Sharma and Annis can do physical and mechanical testing. Put lab characterizations on the website lab from all members so other members can have access for the technical supports. UGA has ultraviolet fadeometer and weatherometer for fabric colorfastness testing Cotton fibers were discussed by Dr. Chen, Dr. Sarmadi and Dr. Yang. Dr. Chen will develop regenerated cellulose from lignocellulosic agricultural byproducts. Dr. Hayes is able to do biodegradation. Recommended Dr. Eric Belasco  Montana State University to do life cycle analysis Objective 2. To develop and evaluate biobased fibrous products for eco-friendly crop protection (TN, WA, NY, WI and MT) Dr. Hayes and Dr. Yang are collaborating and working together on biodegradable non-woven mulches from PLA, polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) and their blends. Dr. Hayes reported his research on biodegradability of agricultural mulches from PLA and PHA. It has half year and one year service life and into soil, hopefully into carbon dioxide. However, the byproduct of degraded material is resistant to weathering and biodegradation in the soil. Due to the USDA funding is toward fruits and vegetables, growers use those mulches. It requires sociologists, material science, soil science. Field testing studies are done in TN, WA and TX. Using road covers on growing fruits and vegetables, scientists will continue to research on PLA and PHA. The changes of mulches will not be seen within 1 or 2 years, but the materials should begin to be biodegraded into a new biological eco-system in the soil. Starting 1980, these mulches have been used. However, its field testing varied due to soil types and consistency, focusing on WA and TN now considering the cool air in WA. So far, the altitude is not considered, even it is doing at SE region. So far the material did not want to be biodegradable and is sunlight resistant. Dr. Hayes recommended Dr. Thomas Marsh from Washington State University to do evaluation on landfill wastes. Dr. Hayes is also writing a proposal to do some nano fibers textile products. Dr. Hayes and colleagues are working together for biodegradable products. Dr. Yang is doing poly-lactic acid, needs others to assist to improve the functionality of PLA, because PLA is very easy to be biodegradable. D-lactide based PLA can be degraded into herbicides. Dr. Sarmadi suggested the material to treat (plasma) with argon under an atmospheric pressure; then the increase of surface area will facilitate microbial and water activities. Will this process be done by growers or not? It is done in production. For example, PLA can be made to be fibrous products or not. PHA is biodegradable, may not work well in compost condition. Dr. Sharma mentioned that algae protein may help the PLA to bind and become extrudable to be fibers. Dr. Sarmadi mentioned that the use of isolate the bacteria to work on polyester. Objective 3. To develop and evaluate biobased products for health and safety applications (NE, WI, TN, WA, CA, MT and NY) Dr. Sarmadi talked about using plasma to create new fiber product and designs for textile and apparel products to address fire safety issues. Many articles have been published in this area. Dr. Yang mentioned that surface treatment to address safety issues. Dr. Yang has done the experiment and published the paper. Dr. Sharma is proposing pine needle as a new fiber product for textile and apparel products to address fire safety issues. Pine needle is a herbicide itself, no weeds will grow under pine needle. Cotton, linen and rayon have been used in this area. We are searching more new materials to be biobased products for health and safety applications. Testing need to be more specific for different uses, such as pillow case is totally different from childrens wear. Keep open for other group members to do the development of nanofibers from proteins and starches and characterize their effectiveness for bacteria catching efficiency. Objective 4: To develop and evaluate methods to remove dyes and finishing chemicals from textile waste water (WI, GA, NE, CA and MT) Dr. Sarmadi presented on Titanium Oxide Catalyst under Ultraviolet Radiation done by his research group. Developed a mathematical model to evaluate dyes and finishing chemicals from textile waste water. Also it is to use this system to catch the heat. Using titanium oxide catalyst under ultraviolet radiation voltage and current methods to measure the relationship between absorbance and wavelength in the textile waste water in WI, the most commonly used dyes  reactive Red 120, Blue 19 and Black 5 disappeared in the waste water within two days. Within two - five days dyes molecules are destroyed in deionized water. No trace of the organic molecules is found in the dye water. Photo-Electro Catalytic Oxidation (PECO) of reactive dyes as the control group. Measure the pH. Use 7 volts in a semi-closed fish tank. UV of treated waste water is identical as the deionized water. The reduction of pH from alkaline into neutral, it indicated that CO2 reduction. NMR also indicated that there is no organic molecules. There is a relationship between concentrations of the dyes with the absorbance numbers. Colorfastness of dyes will be applied. In the future, all kinds of dyes will be tested. Acidic dyes, organic dyes, natural pigments will be tested. Effects of salt conc. in the water was also investigated in the relation with current usage. Overall suggestions made by Dr. Sarmadi, Dr. Hayes, Dr. Sharma, and Dr. Yang for the collaborations of the Project S-1054 1. Closely collaborative works together and communicate the collaborated project continuously 2. Make it a major project, instead of several small projects 3. Make each objective stronger by each others assistance 4. Facilitate letter supports, funding for travel, techniques, methodologies and laboratories supports, and analysis improvements. 5. Labs inventory accessibility on the websites for all the committee members are needed 6. Need an agriculture economist to evaluate the economics of the products and processes development 7. Need an extension specialist to assimilate the research information to educate textile industries.