Tech Transfer – Turning Waste into Gold

Guest: Mike Alder, Director of BYU Technology Transfer Office; Brian Woodfield, PhD, Professor of Chemistry, BYU Throughout the ages, alchemists have sought to turn common, inexpensive metals into precious gold. They often turned to magic and mysticism but never did manage to turn iron into gold. Chemists at BYU are doing a form of alchemy involving valuable petroleum products like diesel fuel and lubricants. Typically, you’d need a barrel of oil drilled out of the earth to make that stuff. But BYU chemist Brian Woodfield can make diesel fuel or paraffin wax out of cow manure and human sewage. No petroleum required. More information about technology developed at BYU is available at techtransfer.byu.edu.