The US Department of Energy has announced an investment of almost $80 million under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for advanced biofuels research and fueling infrastructure that will help support the development of a clean sustainable transportation sector. Two biofuels consortia will receive funding to research algae-based and other advanced biofuels as part of the Department’s continued effort to spur the creation of the domestic bioindustry while creating jobs.
Two cross-functional groups will seek to break down critical barriers to the commercialisation of algae-based and other advanced biofuels such as green aviation fuels, diesel, and gasoline that can be transported and sold using the existing fueling infrastructure. The selected projects consist of leading scientists and engineers from universities, private industry, and government, and will facilitate sharing expertise and technologies.
The consortia are the National Alliance for Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts (NAABB), which will receive funding of $44 million, and the National Advanced Biofuels Consortium (NABC), which receives up to $33.8 million.
Led by the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, St. Louis, Missouri, NAABB will develop a systems approach for sustainable commercialisation of algal biofuel and bioproducts. NAABB will integrate resources from companies, universities, and national laboratories to overcome the critical barriers of cost, resource use and efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions, and commercial viability. It will develop and demonstrate the science and technology necessary to significantly increase production of algal biomass and lipids, efficiently harvest and extract algae and algal products, and establish valuable certified co-products that scale with renewable fuel production. Co-products include animal feed, industrial feedstocks, and additional energy generation. Multiple test sites will cover diverse environmental regions to facilitate broad deployment.
Led by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, NABC will conduct research to develop infrastructure-compatible, biomass-based hydrocarbon fuels. The R&D strategy includes investigating six process options: fermentation, catalytic conversion, catalytic fast pyrolysis, hydropyrolysis, hydrothermal liquefaction, and low-cost one-step syngas to distillates. The result will be a sustainable, cost-effective production process that maximises the use of existing refining and distribution infrastructure. NABC will investigate a variety of process strategies and select those closest to larger-scale demonstration. The NABC plans to further develop these strategies to deliver a pilot-ready process, with full lifecycle analysis to measure the environmental benefits.
Collectively, these consortia will be matched by private and non-federal cost-share funds of more than $19 million for total project investments of over $97 million.
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