DOE Announces More Than $64 Million for Biofuels Research to Reduce Transportation Emissions
The DOE has announced more than $64 million in funding for 22 projects focused on developing technologies and processes that produce low-cost, low-carbon biofuels. Biofuels are made up of renewable resources and can power heavy-duty vehicles that are difficult to electrify with current technologies – including airplanes and ships – to help accelerate America’s path to a net-zero emissions economy by 2050.
These projects fall into five topic areas for the “Bioenergy Technologies Office Scale-Up and Conversion” funding opportunity:
- Scale-Up of Biotechnologies
- Affordable, Clean Cellulosic Sugars for High Yield Conversion
- Separations to Enable Biomass Conversion
- Residential Wood Heaters
- Renewable Natural Gas
“I’m thrilled that the Department of Energy has awarded a grant to Lignolix, a company with roots in Professor Thomas Epps’ lab at the University of Delaware, to support their work to transform plant waste into clean fuels and sustainable materials – another success story out of Delaware's entrepreneurship community,” said U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-DE).
Awards to DOE EPSCoR jurisdictions include:
- University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Clean Combustion Technology with Efficient and Autonomous Wood Heater Operation over the Full Cycle, $1,642,815
- Lignolix, Wilmington, Delaware, Enabling Lignin Valorization with Liquid-Liquid Chromatography, $2,499,196
- Summit Utilities, Yarmouth, Maine, Renewable Power-to-Gas (PtG): A Technical Feasibility and Market Demonstration of Biomethanation as a Means for Biogas Upgrading and Renewable Natural Gas Production, $4,977,437
- D3Max LLC, Grand Forks, North Dakota, Production of Sustainable Aviation Fuels from Corn Stover via NREL's Deacetylation and Mechanical Refining Technology (SAFFiRE), $499,988
- Alder Energy, Charleston, South Carolina, Field-to-Fuel Production of Carbon-Negative Sustainable Aviation Fuel from Regenerative Agriculture Biomass, $4,000,000