Triacetic acid lactone (TAL) has the potential to serve as a bioderived platform chemical for commercial products, including sorbic acid. However, TAL currently lacks a global market as its chemical synthesis is prohibitively expensive. In this study, researchers from the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI) leveraged BioSTEAM to design, simulate, and evaluate biorefineries for fermentative TAL production from sugarcane.

Effective January 1, 2026, CISPA-Faculty Professor Dr. Andreas Zeller has been elevated to IEEE Fellow. Fellow is the highest grade of membership in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), which is the world's largest professional organization for electrical engineering, computing, and related technical disciplines. Less than 0.1 per cent of the IEEE voting membership receive this prestigious honor each year. Andreas Zeller is recognized for his contributions to analyzing software and its development process. 

Researchers have developed a computational model that identifies the best combination of location and energy technologies to maximize offshore energy production, reducing the financial risk associated with investing in offshore projects. The model accounts for different types of wind and marine hydrokinetic technologies, the best location for co-siting these technologies, and the best size of the relevant technologies.