Departments of Agriculture, Energy and Navy issue RFI to advance drop-in biofuels for military and commercial transportation
30 August 2011
Following up on their 16 August announcement of an investment of up to $510 million to produce advanced drop-in aviation and marine biofuels (earlier post), the US Departments of Agriculture, Energy and Navy (USDA, DOE, DON) issued a Request for Information (RFI) laying out the Administration’s goals, assumptions, and tools and requesting specific ideas for how to leverage private capital markets to establish a commercially viable drop-in biofuels industry.
The main objective of this government-industry partnership is the construction or retrofit of several domestic commercial or pre-commercial scale advanced drop-in biofuel refineries. These facilities will produce drop-in advanced biofuels meeting military specifications, will be located in geographically diverse locations for ready market access, and will have no significant impact on the supply of agricultural commodities for the production of food.
Of particular interest to the RFI are the technical, manufacturing and market barriers to establishing a viable business for advanced drop-in hydrocarbon biofuels.
The RFI was released on behalf of the Secretaries of the Departments by the Office of the Secretary of Defense Acquisition Technology and Logistics in coordination with the Defense Production Act Title III executive agent Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
Representatives from USDA, DOE or Department of Navy will be present at the following events and available to answer industry questions: Asia Pacific Clean Energy Summit and Expo, Honolulu, HI 13-15 September; SRI in the Rockies Conference, New Orleans, LA 2-5 October; Naval Energy Forum, Washington, DC 13-14 October; AIChE Annual Meeting, Minneapolis, MN 16-21 October; Global Cleantech 100 Summit, Washington, DC 17-18 October; Florida Energy Summit (Farm to Fuel), Orlando, FL 26-28 October.
Impressive. A BIG shot in the arm of biomass to drop in fuels. And a BIG step away from reliance on foreign oil to fuel our military.
Posted by: Reel$$ | 30 August 2011 at 03:33 PM