BEE 4860 - Industrial Ecology of Agriculturally Based Bioindustries

Spring. 3 credits. Letter grades only.

Prerequisite: one year of calculus, some knowledge of MATLAB.

L. P. Walker.

Agricultural-based biofuels and bioproducts systems are very complex and highly integrated. Each of these subsystems are composed of a number of biological, chemical, and physical processes that can be interconnected to a multitude of ways to generate the essential material and energy flows for the production of biofuels and bioproducts. For this course an input/output modeling methodology is employed to develop and manipulate the structure of complex agriculturally based bio-industries and to generate the material, energy, and monetary flows. Students use linear algebra and state space tools in the MATLAB toolbox to simulate static and dynamic behavior of these complex webs of connected processes and to conduct life-cycle analysis of these complex webs.

Outcome 1: Course improves your ability to identify, formulate, and solve engineering problems.

Outcome 2: Course enhances your ability to create sustainable solutions in the context of a complex natural environment.