June Segment of Planet Forward’s Innovator of the Year Series Online Now

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Jamie Hestekin and Frank Senso, the host of Planet Forward

Jamie Hestekin, associate professor of chemical engineering and one of Planet Forward’s Innovators of the Year, will be featured on the Planet Forward website for the next 12 months. The June installment, in which Hestekin discusses his team’s plans to improve and commercialize their algae-to-butanol converter, is online now.

You can also see Hestekin and his students in a short video here.

Hestekin and his students are working on a biofuel processing unit, a machine that can turn algae and other biomass directly into fuel. Their goal is to create a fully automated system that farmers could use to turn plants directly into biofuel, which could power farm equipment.

Planet Forward, a project of the Center for Innovative Media at George Washington University, features ideas about energy, climate and sustainability on its website and through television specials, which air on public television stations across the country.