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Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED) program. A 13-county region in central Michigan was one of the
successful applicants in the national competition. MSU is one of the partnering institutions in that WIRED grant and is
seeking to help build the bio-economy in the mid-Michigan area. The entire grant spans a number of employment areas
including health care, advanced manufacturing and fuel cell construction.
"We have, under the leadership of our president, Lou Anna Simon, an institutional focus and priority to help pull
together agriculture, science and engineering all of which are strong in our institution to help Michigan build this
bio-economy," Hunt said. "We see it as a potential strength of the state."
Michigan has been hard hit by the downturn in the American auto manufacturing industry. Statewide unemployment hovered
over 7 percent at the end of the year. According to David Hollister, president and chief executive officer of Prima Civitas,
Michigan is focused on diversifying the state's economy. He said that MSU president Lou Anna Simon is determined the
university will lead the world in the post-petroleum economy. Participation in this training program is a step in that
direction.
The six-day program was created by the staff at the National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center in response to numerous
calls and inquiries received by the center, according to Pamela Keck, assistant director of workforce development and
scientific projects for the NCERC. The unusual feature of the NCERC is that it can combine classroom instruction with
up-close observation of a real, working ethanol refinery.
"It's a combination of classroom and plant experience," Keck said. "We start out at the very beginning of the process and
we talk about grain quality, how the grain comes in and how that's important. We spend the whole first day on grinding the
grain. In the classroom we talk about the hammer mill; we talk about how the size of the grain is important; the pros and
cons and where it is in the facility; then we get up and go out into the plant and see it all first-hand.
"The computer controls everything that goes on out in the plant," Keck said. "We copy the first two to four pages off the
computer where you actually see the equipment on a diagram, and we look at that in the classroom. Once we have talked about
everything that we want to talk about, we go out into the plant with those diagrams and say, 'See this thing on this diagram
is that piece of equipment right there and this is how it works.' So we go back and forth in terms of training, with
classroom followed by plant."
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With the grant in hand, Hunt began looking for the best place to get the kind of training he sought. He settled on the
National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center in Edwardsville, Ill.
"The NCERC is particularly interesting in that it has expertise and equipment both for wet mill and dry mill ethanol
production," Hunt said. "Additionally, it is a safe location to expose trainees in the entire process from the truck pulling
up with the corn at one end of the week to a truck leaving with the ethanol at the other end of the week. A combination of
expertise, being able to discuss both modes of ethanol refinement and the comprehensive view that it gives trainees makes it
a very attractive place to do training."
Hunt said that the ethanol training program was a big success. Because they were unable to bring everyone who was
interested in participating and because of the positive experience the first group had, they've scheduled a second session
at the NCERC in late March.
With the ethanol industry booming, Keck has been working to pull together multiple higher education institutions to offer
a two-year degreed program. She has applied for a $1.4 million grant from the National Science Foundation to establish the
NCERC as the nexus of the National Bio Fuels Education Consortium. Keck says the research center has brought together 12
academic institutions (six community colleges and six universities) to design a consistent two-year program for a degree in
associate's and applied science to be an ethanol production operator.
"Someone would go through the program and after two years would have a degree and have an internship experience of three
to six months working in an ethanol plant or in our facility," Keck said. "That individual would be able to walk into any
ethanol plant and start being productive right away."
In addition to SIUE, the university participants are Michigan State University, Iowa State University, the University of
Nebraska, Virginia Tech University and Oklahoma State University. The community college participants are Minnesota West
Community and Technical College, St. Louis Community College, Lewis and Clark Community College, Wilbur Wright Community
College (from the Chicago area), Iowa Central Community College and Northeastern Community College in Nebraska.
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