Seven projects across Wisconsin have been selected for funding under the Wisconsin Forward Agriculture (Forward Ag) Use-Inspired Research & Development grant. Awardees of the grant will receive a total of $510,000 to advance their initiatives. Therefore, funded projects range from converting waste to value, to supply chain optimization, and different uses of whey. Therefore, they include projects from different areas of the state. The entities funded include research universities, primarily undergraduate institutions, and small businesses.
Project Leads and Collaborators for the Seven Awards
Lead: John Hendrickson, UW-Madison in Dane County
Project: “Feasibility Study and Business Planning for a Wisconsin Flax Fiber Supply Chain”
Collaborators: Midwest Linen Revival, Ewetopia, UW Small Business Development Center, Biolin Research Inc., and UW-Extension
Lead: George Huber, UW-Madison in Dane County
Project: “Scalable Non-Enzymatic Valorizing Wisconsin Cheese Whey into Low-Calorie Sweeteners Tagatose via Modular Chemical Processing”
Collaborators: Babcock Dairy Plant, Center for Dairy Research, Orochem Technologies, and Galasys Inc.
Lead: Arul Jayapal, EQRx in Outagamie County
Project: “AI-Driven Supply Chain Optimization for Wisconsin’s Circular Agricultural Bioeconomy”
Collaborators: AK Pizza, Burnett Dairy Cooperative, WEDC, and UW-Milwaukee Connected Systems Institutef
Lead: Bernard Lager, Arise Nutrition, LLC in Wood County
Project: “Membrane-Enabled Valorization of Wisconsin Red Beet Sidestreams into Betalain Colorants and Fermentation Sugars”
Collaborators: UW-Madison Food Science Lab, GEA, Standard Process Inc., UW-Madison Fermentation Expert–Victor Ujor, and UW-Madison Beet Expert–Irwin Goldman
Lead: Gulustan Ozturk, UW-Madison in Dane County
Project: “Membrane-Based Recovery of Polyhydroxybutyrate from Delactosed Whey Permeate: Integrating Techno-Economic Analysis for Sustainable Bioplastic Production”
Collaborators: Center for Dairy Research, American Dairy Products Institute, Ourobio, Actus Nutrition, and UW-Madison
Lead: Steven Ricke, UW-Madison in Dane County
Project: “Black Soldier Fly Bioconversion of Waste Products to Valued Added Animal Feed Supplements”
Collaborators: AgriGro, Cobb-Vantress, LLC, Harvest Fuel Inc, UW-Madison Poultry Research Lab Building, and the UW Biotechnology Center
Lead: Joseph Sanford, UW-Platteville in Grant County
Project: “Waste-to-worth: Converting Low-Value Waste Streams to Biochar for Biogas Desulfurization”
Collaborators: UW-Madison, Dallman East River Dairy, Clasen Quality Chocolate, and Alsum Farms, Inc.
