Federal Government Devotes $24 Million to Biomass Research and Development

While solar power comes from sunlight and wind power comes from wind, biomass is a fascinating alternative energy because it can come from so many different sources – and the federal government is looking into many of them.

The U.S. Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Energy (DOE) recently announced projects selected for more than $24 million in grants to research and develop technologies producing biofuels, bioenergy and high-value biobased products.

Of the $24.4 million, the DOE will invest up to $4.9 million and the USDA will contribute up to $19.5 million. Advanced biofuels produced through this funding are expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50 percent compared to fossil fuels.

“The selected projects will help make bioenergy production from renewable resources more efficient, cost-effective and sustainable,” said Energy Secretary Steven Chu. “This work will also benefit rural America by leading to new processing plants and new opportunities for U.S. farmers and foresters.”

The organizations conducting these projects must contribute a minimum of 20 percent of matching funds for research and development projects and 50 percent of matching funds for demonstration projects. Selected projects are aimed at increasing the availability of alternative fuels and biobased products that are produced from a diverse group of renewable sources.

“Innovation is crucial to the advancement of alternative, renewable energy sources, and these awards will spur the research needed to make significant progress in bioenergy development,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

Projects selected for awards include:

• GE Global Research: to develop detailed and simplified kinetic models of biomass gasification that will enable the widespread design of feedstock-flexible biomass gasifiers that are cost-effective and scaled.

• Gevo, Inc.: to develop a yeast fermentation organism that can cost-effectively convert cellulosic-derived sugars into isobutanol, a second generation biofuel/biobased product.

• Itaconix: to develop production of polyitaconic acid from northeast hardwood biomass. Polyitaconic acid is a water soluble polymer with the potential to replace petrochemical dispersants, detergents, and super-absorbents.

• Yenkin-Majestic Paint Corporation: to demonstrate, at scale, the operation of a dry fermentation system that uses pre- and post-consumer food wastes from supermarkets and restaurants, waste sawdust, grass, leaves, stumps and other forms of wood waste to produce biogas, heat, and electrical power.

• Velocys, Inc.: to improve biorefinery economics through microchannel hydroprocessing. This project will explore the unique capabilities of heat and mass transfer inherent in microchannel reactor technology with advanced catalysts to intensify chemical processes.

• Exelus, Inc: to develop a Biomass-to-Gasoline (BTG) technology that represents a fundamental shift in creating biofuels. The technology uses unique, engineered catalysts that facilitate new reaction pathways to liquid motor fuels from biomass.

• Purdue University: to develop an analysis of the global impacts of second generation biofuels in the context of other energy technologies and alternative economic and climate change policy options.

• University of Minnesota: to assess the environmental sustainability and capacity of forest-based biofuel feedstocks within the Lake States region, addressing uncertainties about expanding feedstock harvests -- including environmental impacts, economic feasibility and avoided fossil-fuel CO2 emissions.

• Consortium for Research on Renewable Industrial Materials: to compare the life cycle environmental and economic impacts for collecting forest residuals, short rotation crops, mixed waste, and biomass from fire risk reduction activities on federal lands for conversion to fuels via biochemical, pyrolysis and gasification systems.