Bruce E. Dale

University Distinguished Professors College of Engineering

• University Distinguished Professor

• Chemical Engineering and Materials Science

Bio

Bruce E. Dale is a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science. He is interested in how to create very large scale sustainable energy systems. He is currently focused on how wind and solar energy, which are intermittent and variable, and therefore costly to integrate into the grid, can be combined bioenergy produced using sustainable agricultural practices.

The use of energy creates wealth and underpins human well-being. About 85% of all energy used worldwide is from fossil fuels: coal, oil and natural gas. Since these are not renewable, the wealth they create will also end.

Green plants both capture and store solar energy, potentially making them low cost “batteries” to compensate for the deficiencies of wind and solar energy.  Farm level energy production can also provide many economic and environmental benefits.

He received a master’s degree from the University of Arizona (1976) and Ph.D. from Purdue University (1979), both in chemical engineering.

For his contributions to sustainable bioenergy, Dale has been elected a fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineers.  A prolific inventor with 62 patents, he is also a member of the National Academy of Inventors.  With hundreds of publications and his intellectual leadership as founding editor of the journal Biofuels, Bioproducts and Bioenergy, Professor Dale is globally recognized as a pioneer in his field.