U.S. DOE Funds 36 New Bioenergy R&D Projects

On Sept. 4, 2018 the U.S. Department of Energy (Washington, D.C., USA) announced it will award 36 projects a combined $80 million to support early-stage bioenergy research and development to enable cost-competitive drop-in renewable hydrocarbon fuels, biobased products and power from non-food biomass and waste feedstocks. The funding supports the DOE’s goal of reducing the cost of biobased drop-in fuels to $3.00 per U.S. gallon by 2022.  

"The selections announced today highlight some of the most innovative and advanced bioenergy technologies that have the potential to produce new sources of reliable and affordable energy for American families and businesses," said U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry. "Developing all of our domestic energy resources is critical to keeping our nation prosperous and secure."

The 36 funding projects stem from four funding opportunities, including BioEnergy Engineering for Products Synthesis, Efficient Carbon Utilization in Algal Systems, Process Developemtn for Advanced Biofuels and Biopower, and Affordable and Sustainable Energy Crops.

Projects selected for funding include (with forest, pulp / organic fiber, papemaking/lignin & related identified industry related operations in bold):

• University of Florida: $1.84 million for intensified biogas conversion to value-added fuels and chemicals.
• Lygos Inc.: $2 million for accelerating engineered microbe optimization through machine learning and multiomics datasets.
• SymoChem: $1.32 million for development of Bacillus as an industrial host for the microbial production of biopolymers.
• University of California, San Diego: $2 million for conversion of cellulosic sugars to high-quality polyurethane foams using synthetic biology and machine learning on algae.
• Iowa State University: $2.5 million for identifying performance advantaged biobased chemicals utilizing bioprivileged molecules.
• University of California, Berkeley: $2 million for design and development of bio-advantaged vitrimers as closed-loop bioproducts.
• Georgia Institute of Technology: $1.02 million for cellulose-chitin composites for performance advantaged barrier packaging bioproducts. 
  
• Arzeda: $2 million for fermentative production of Tulipalin A: a next-generation, sustainable monomer that drastically improves the Performance of pMMA.
• Visolis: $2 million for integrated biorefinery for chemicals and fuels production from waste biomass.
• Xylome Corp.: $1.04 million for biodiesel and higher value products from stillage fiber.
• North Carolina State University: $2.48 million for catalytic upgrading of carbohydrates in waste streams to hydrocarbons.
• Montana State University: $1.48 million for development of a scalable, robust electrocatalytic technology for conversion of CO2 to formic acid via microstructured materials.
• LanzaTech Inc.: $1.5 million for production of bioproducts from electrochemically-generated C1 intermediates.
• Johns Hopkins University: $951,367 for integrating chemical catalysis and biological conversion of carbon intermediates for deriving value added products from carbon dioxide.
• Clemson University: $1.8 million for lignin fractionation and valorization: Focusing on both value and quality.
• Spero Energy Inc.: $1.61 million for SPERLU selective process for efficient removal of lignin and upgrading.
  

Technology Holding LLC: $2.5 million for novel method for biomass conversion to renewable jet fuel blend.

Washington State University: $2.76 million for hybrid HEFA-HDCJ process for the production of jet fuel blendstocks.

Applied Research Associates: $2.36 million for drop-in renewable jet fuel from brown grease via the biofuels ISOCONVERSION process.

Gas Technology Institute: $2.99 million for Cool GTL for the production of jet fuel from biogas.

LanzaTech Inc.: $2.5 million for ultra-low sulfur winterized diesel.

Mosaic Materials: $1.42 million for high-efficiency process for RNG production from biogas using MOF-based solid adsorbents.

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: $1.59 million for maximizing bio-renewable energy from wet wastes (M-BREWW).

Worcester Polytechnic Institute: $2 million for a catalytic process to convert municipal solid waste components to energy.