The Prairie Research (PRI), Student Sustainability Committee (SSC), Facilities & Services (F&S), Illinois Water Resources Center (IWRC), Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE), and the College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences (ACES), and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) gathered on Feb. 27, 2023, to break ground on installing an underground thermal battery (UTB) at the  Energy Farm in Urbana, IL.

Rain is a blessing and a curse on our research farms.  We cannot grow a crop with out it but when it comes in excessive quantities has a destructive result on University farms.  Our farms are intertwined too so as water flows downhill it passes from one department farm to the next.  This project looks to redesign the Energy Farm waterway and install a waterway on the Animal Sciences farm to the west so that water flow can be channeled to the Embarrass River in a more direct and environmentally sound path.

In April 2017 three faculty members received $14,522 from the University Research Board to conduct preliminary investigations surrounding crop residue as a building material at both small and large scale. The results of those initial investigations proved very positive. This project primarily strives to turn corn stalks into a building project. Students have assisted Associate Professor Mark Taylor, from the School of Architecture throughout the project, giving students research and professional development opportunities.

The AFRI Foundational Program supports grants in the six AFRI priority areas to continue building a foundation of knowledge critical for solving current and future societal challenges. The six priority areas are:

• Plant Health and Production and Plant Products
• Animal Health and Production and Animal Products
• Food Safety, Nutrition, and Health
• Bioenergy, Natural Resources, and Environment
• Agriculture Systems and Technology
• Agriculture Economics and Rural Communities

The Office of Land and Emergency Management provides policy, guidance and direction for the Agency's emergency response and waste programs

The goal of the Environmental Engineering program is to support transformative research which applies scientific and engineering principles to avoid or minimize solid, liquid, and gaseous discharges, resulting from human activities on land, inland and coastal waters, and air, while promoting resource and energy conservation and recovery.

This office establishes partnerships with key public and private stakeholders to develop and demonstrate technologies for producing cost-competitive advanced biofuels from non-food biomass resources, including cellulosic biomass, algae, and wet waste (e.g., biosolids).

The Sustainable Bioenergy challenge area focuses on the societal challenge to secure America's energy future. The challenge hopes to implement regional systems that materially deliver liquid transportation biofuels and reduce national dependence on foreign oil while also producing biopower and biobased products. 

For many years, the UI has grown significant quantities of biomass plant products at the Energy Farm on South Farms. There have been a few preliminary attempts to identify a post-research use for this material, including the cancelled Vet Med Combined Heat and Power (CHP) project and a study of the compatibility with existing boilers at Abbott Power Plant.  Meanwhile the biomass material continues to be stockpiled at the Energy Farm. This project is looking to convert the existing (and future) biomass from the Energy Farm into power for the on-site Energy Farm facility.