Research

Research efforts are a valuable component of the ABE department mission to the students, faculty, state, region, and world. The research program areas of the department include natural resources (the protection and conservation of soil and water resources); biorenewable processing (the development of value-added product such as ethanol and its by-products, biomass conversion, and vegetable oils); power and machinery systems (the development of advance hydraulic systems, global information systems related to agriculture commodities, and machinery design); structures and ventilation (the analysis of building trusses and structure components, livestock housing ventilation systems, and the effect on production and animal well-being): and environment (the investigation of mitigation technologies to reduce odor and gasses from livestock facilities, modeling livestock odors, and manure handling systems.

Research is aimed at improving performance and reducing cost at all levels of production with minimal environmental impact. Research is conducted in university labs, and in the field either at four Research and Extension Centers or on producer farms. In addition to research conducted in South Dakota, several faculty members have projects involving international collaboration, for example in developing biofilter systems on livestock barns in Denmark. Research cooperation with industries that involve agricultural commodities and production has broadened the scope of agricultural engineering research, especially in the development of monitoring sensors and process control systems.