DOE to Provide Up to $33.8M to Further Development of Enzymes for Cellulosic Biofuels

27 August 2007

The US Department of Energy (DOE) published a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) that will make available up to $33.8 million to support the development of commercially viable enzymes to enable bio-based production of renewable biofuels such as cellulosic ethanol.

This FOA targets systems to hydrolyze and saccharify cellulosic biomass feedstocks, specifically enzyme, enzymes or enzyme systems capable of producing C5 and C6 monomeric sugars from pre-treated lignocellulosic biomass.

Saccharification enables the biorefining process by breaking down pre-treated cellulosic material into more simple sugars, allowing them to be further processed through fermentation and ultimately turned into biofuels such as ethanol.  Enzymes developed under this FOA must prove durable and effective in process-relevant conditions.

Meeting the goal of producing ethanol from lignocellulosic biomass cost competitively by 2012, meeting the 20 in 10 goals of 35 billion gallons of alternative fuels production of which a significant fraction needs to be cellulosic based ethanol, and achieving the 60 billion gallon goal projected for 2030 will require significant technology improvements including improved enzymatic hydrolysis and saccharification in biological processes. To date a number of advances have been made that reduce the cost of these enzyme processes, but their use in process relevant conditions, at low cost remains to be achieved. Therefore, there is a need for a better “toolbox” of enzymes to meet the increasing demands of the future.

—FOA

While the entire process for lignocellulosic fuel involves the integration of feedstock handling and processing; pretreatment and hydrolysis; conversion technologies leading to production of alcohols and biofuels such as ethanol; and separation and purification of the biofuel product, this FOA is only focused on the enzymes involved in the hydrolysis and saccharification of pre-treated lignocellulosics under process relevant conditions.

The ability of fermentative organisms to utilize the saccharification products from the enzyme hydrolysis will be evaluated independently by projects selected by DOE under another FOA.

With a minimum 50% industry cost-share, this funding will total nearly $68 million to further enzyme commercialization efforts. This funding aims to further reduce costs of enzyme system preparations in process-relevant conditions.  Since 2000, DOE enzyme development advancements have yielded thirty-fold cost reductions mainly on enzyme production.

The awards have a ceiling of $15 million and a floor of $5 million.

Letters of intent are due September 10, 2007, and completed applications are due October 30, 2007. Projects are expected to begin in Fiscal Year 2008 and continue through Fiscal Year 2011.  Funding is subject to Congressional appropriations.

Resources:

• Development of Saccharifying Enzymes for Commercial Use Funding Opportunity Number: DE-PS36-07GO97034