Faculty Profile
Tristan Brown
Associate Professor
Department of Sustainable Resources Management
302 Bray Hall
Professional Preparation
- Member of the Missouri Bar, 2009 – present
- PhD, Biorenewable Resources & Technology, Iowa State University, 2014
- JD, University of Missouri, 2008
- BA, Political Science, University of Iowa, 2005
Professional Appointments
- Director of the Bioeconomy Development Institute, SUNY College of Environmental Science & Forestry, 2021 – present
- Associate Professor of Energy Resource Economics, Dept. of Sustainable Resources Management, SUNY College of Environmental Science & Forestry, 2019 – present
- Assistant Professor of Energy Resource Economics, Dept. of Sustainable Resources Management, SUNY College of Environmental Science & Forestry, 2014 – 2019
- SyracuseCoE Faculty Fellow, Syracuse Center of Excellence, Syracuse University, 2017 – 2018
- Graduate Lecturer, Department of Political Science, Iowa State University, 2013 – 2014
- Research Associate, Bioeconomy Institute, Iowa State University, 2011 – 2014
- Research Associate, Department of Economics, Iowa State University, 2009 – 2011
Grants Funded as PI
PI: “Carbon-Negative Renewable Distillate Fuels: Conversion of Willow Feedstocks into Liquid Fuels and Biochar,” USDA AFRI ($999,900).
PI: “Development Of Stochastic Techno-Economic And Life Cycle Models For Quantifying The Economic And Environmental Costs Of Cellulosic Bioenergy,” USDA BRDI ($906,722).
PI: “Quantifying the Comparative Value of Carbon Abatement Pathways Over Different Investment Timing Scenarios,” National Biodiesel Board ($119,381).
PI: “Quantifying the Comparative Value of Carbon Abatement Pathways in Residential Space Heating Over Different Investment Timing Scenarios,” National Grid ($89,213).
PI: "Quantifying the comparative value of carbon abatement pathways over different investment timing scenarios," National Biodiesel Board ($58,585).
PI: “The Embedded Carbon Valuation System as an Alternative to Cap-and-Trade,” Biobased Industry Center ($40,000).
PI: “A Review of the Scientific Literature on Greenhouse Gas and Co-Pollutant Emissions from Waste-Derived Bioenergy Resources,” New York League of Conservation Voters ($34,858).
PI: “Evaluating the Ability of Land to Replicate Indian Point’s Electricity Supply Profile,” Syracuse Center of Excellence ($15,000).
PI: “Energy Education Grant,” Iowa Office of Energy Independence ($13,750).
PI: “Development of Stochastic Techno-economic Model for Short-Rotation Woody Crop Production,” NEWBio ($10,000).
Areas of Research
- Sustainable energy law & policy
- Bioenergy systems analysis
- Techno-economic analysis
- Climate policy
Recent Publications
- Frank, J.R., T.R. Brown, M. Haverly, D. Slade, and R. Malmsheimer. “Quantifying the comparative value of carbon abatement scenarios over different investment timing scenarios.” Fuel Communications. doi.org/10.1016/j.jfueco.2021.100017.
- Ha, H., T.R. Brown, T.A. Volk, R. Malmsheimer, M.-O. Fortier, R. Quinn, and J. Frank. “Economic feasibility of a forest biomass feedstock supply chain in the Northeast United States.” Biofuels, Bioproducts, and Biorefining. doi.org/10.1002/bbb.2316.
- Therasme, O., T. Volk, M.-O. Fortier, Y. Kim, C. Wood, H. Ha, A. Ali, T.R. Brown, and R. Malmsheimer. “Carbon footprint of biofuels production from forest biomass using hot water extraction and biochemical conversion in the Northeast United States.” Energy 241: 122853.
- Frank, J.R., T.R. Brown, R. Bhonagiri, R. Quinn, K. McGiver, M.-O. Fortier, R. Malmsheimer, T. Volk, T. Dapp. “Assessing Indian Point’s Electricity Generation through Renewable Energy Pathways: A Technical and Economic Analysis.” Energy and Environment. Accepted.
- Frank, J.R., T.R. Brown, R. Malmsheimer, T.A. Volk, H. Ha. “The financial trade-off between the production of biochar and biofuel via pyrolysis under uncertainty.” Biofuels, Bioproducts, and Biorefining 14(3): 594-604. (2020).
- Jeong, D., W.E. Tyner, R. Meilan, T.R. Brown, and O.C. Doering. “Stochastic techno-economic analysis of electricity produced from poplar plantations in Indiana.” Renewable Energy 149: 189-197 (2020).
- Quinn, R., H. Ha, T.A. Volk, T.R. Brown, S. Bick, R. Malmsheimer, and M.-O. Fortier. “Life cycle assessment of forest biomass energy feedstock in the Northeast United States.” GCB Bioenergy 12: 728-741 (2020).
- Brown, T.R. “Why the cellulosic biofuels mandate fell short: A markets and policy perspective.” Biofuels, Bioproducts, and Biorefining, 13(4): 889-898 (2019).
- Frank, J.R., T.R. Brown, R. Malmsheimer. “A techno-economic analysis of the financial trade-off between the production of biochar and biofuel via pyrolysis under uncertainty.” Biomass and Bioenergy. Under review (2019).
- Brown, T.R. “Price uncertainty, policy, and the economic feasibility of cellulosic biorefineries.” Biofuels, Bioproducts, and Biorefining, 12:485-496 (2018).
- Brown, T.R., T.A. Volk, R. Malmsheimer, J. Heavey. “A stochastic techno-economic analysis of shrub willow production using EcoWillow 3.0S.” Biofuels, Bioproducts, and Biorefining. DOI: 10.1002/bbb.1897 (2018).
- J.R. Frank, T.R. Brown, R. Malmsheimer. “A financial and technical literature review of biochar production pathways.” Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. Under review (2018).
- T.R. Brown, and O.C. Doering. “Stochastic techno-economic analysis of electricity produced from poplar plantations in Indiana.” Renewable Energy. Under review (2018).
- Razanakoto, A., T.R. Brown. “A comparison of the total energy efficiency and wood consumption from charcoal and fuelwood adoption in Madagascar.” Biomass and Bioenergy. Under review (2018).
- Brown, T.R., R.C. Brown. “What role for the bioeconomy in an electrified transportation sector?” Biofuels, Bioproducts, and Biorefining, 11:363-372 (2017).
- Kieffer, M., T.R. Brown, R.C. Brown. “Flex fuel polygeneration: Integrating renewable natural gas into Fischer-Tropsch synthesis.” Applied Energy, 170: 2008-2018 (2016).
- Hendricks, A.M., J.E. Wagner, T.A. Volk, D.H. Newman, T.R. Brown. “A cost-effective evaluation of biomass district heating in rural communities.” Applied Energy, 162: 561-569 (2016).
- Brown, T.R. “A critical analysis of thermochemical cellulosic biorefinery capital cost estimates.” Biofuels, Bioproducts, and Biorefining, 9(4): 412-421 (2015).
- Brown, T.R. “A techno-economic review of thermochemical cellulosic biofuel pathways.” Bioresource Technology, 178: 166-176 (2015).
- Wang, K., L. Ou, T.R. Brown, R.C. Brown. “Beyond ethanol: a techno-economic analysis of an integrated corn biorefinery for the production of hydrocarbon fuels and chemicals.” Biofuels, Bioproducts, and Biorefining, 9(2):190-200 (2015).
- Zhao, X., T.R. Brown, W. Tyner. “Stochastic techno-economic evaluation of cellulosic biofuel pathways.” Bioresource Technology, 198: 755-763 (2015)
Books and Book Chapters
- Wright, M.M. and T.R. Brown. “Costs of Thermochemical Conversion of Biomass to Power and Liquid Fuels.” In: Brown, R.C., editor. Thermochemical Processing of Biomass. Wiley, 2019.
- Brown, T.R. "Economic comparison of various pathways to pyrolysis-based fuels." In: Wang, K. and R.C. Brown, editors. Fast Pyrolysis of Biomass: Advances in Science and Technology. Royal Society of Chemistry, 2017.
- Brown, T.R., M.M. Wright, Y. Roman-Leshkov, R.C. Brown. “Techno-economic assessment of biorefineries.” In: Waldron, K.W., editor. Advances in Biorefineries: Biomass and waste supply chain exploitation. Woodhead Publishing; 2014.
- Brown, R.C., T.R. Brown. Biorenewable Resources, 2nd ed., 2013.
- Brown, R.C., T.R. Brown. Why are We Producing Biofuels? Ames: Brownia; 2012.
Courses Taught
Current courses
SRE 416 Sustainable Energy Policy
SRE 419/619 Energy Policy Assessment Methodologies
SRE 337 Energy Resource Assessment
Past courses
FOR 208 Introduction to Sustainable Energy Resources
ENS 335/535 Renewable Energy (co-lecturer)
BRT 515 Biorenewable Law & Policy
BRT 516 International Biorenewable Law & Policy
BRT 501 Fundamentals of Biorenewable Resources
Current Graduate Advisees
Samuel Asamoah
ssasamoa@syr.edu
- Degree Sought: PHD
- Graduate Advisor(s): Malmsheimer and Brown
- Area of Study: Sustainable Energy
Xiaowei Chen
xchen271@syr.edu
- Degree Sought: PHD
- Graduate Advisor(s): Brown
- Area of Study: Forest Resources Management
Alex Dill
acdill@syr.edu
- Degree Sought: PHD
- Graduate Advisor(s): Brown and Malmsheimer
- Area of Study: Sustainable Energy
Niloufar Mousavi
smousavi@syr.edu
- Degree Sought: PHD
- Graduate Advisor(s): Brown
- Area of Study: Forest Resources Management