NCERC

By: Jackie Hayes, Director of Business Development & Client Relations

For over fifteen years, NCERC has provided Ethanol Demonstration Kits to K12 teachers, FFA leaders, and community organizations that utilize them as a tool to showcase the benefits of agribusiness and bioprocessing. The “demo kits” uniquely provide an immersive view of the corn-to-ethanol process through showing the learner the different inputs and outputs of the process, including the feedstock, fermentation ingredients, co-products, and the finished product.

When the NCERC team recently realized that our supply had dwindled to just a few kits left, we took it as an opportunity to give the demo kits an update while staying authentic to the tried and true model we had perfected several years ago.

With an updated, clearer design, a new batch of demo kits were recently built by NCERC Visiting Research Fellow Krystin Polhemus, Postdoctoral Research Fellow Dr. Mingjun Ma, and Marketing/PR Intern Allison Simpson. New fermentation ingredients were sourced as well to eliminate the former need of a Safety Data Sheet (SDS) accompanying each kit, making it more user-friendly and improving the shelf life.

The new and improved demo kits are now available for order on NCERC’s website and we recently launched an online contest that started on April 5 and will conclude on Wednesday, April 27. Through the contest, we’re asking for nominations of worthy teachers and giving away a demo kit and $100 gift card for school supplies.

The demo kits provide students with an example of a product that is made with a domestically-grown and renewable feedstock, processed domestically in America’s Heartland, fuels our vehicles, and eliminates millions of Greenhouse Gas emissions from the transportation sector. Not to mention, it contributes significantly to the economic health of small, rural communities across the Midwest, as well as cities across the country. What an incredible example of agribusiness!

To order your Ethanol Demonstration Kit, or to purchase one for a worthy teacher, visit https://www.siue.edu/ncerc/about/demonstration-kits.shtml.

To participate in the contest and submit a nomination, please fill out this form: https://forms.gle/XBoMsVH8ZXFobN577