DOE awards $97M to 33 bioenergy research and development projects
01 August 2020
The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced more than $97 million in funding for 33 projects that will support high-impact technology research and development to accelerate the bioeconomy. These projects will improve the performance and lower the cost and risk of technologies that can be used to produce biofuels, biopower, and bioproducts from biomass and waste resources.
The selected projects will address a variety of research and development areas, including:
Scale-up of bench applications to reduce scale-up risks for biofuel and bioproduct processes;
Waste-to-energy strategies including strategies for municipal solid waste, wet wastes, like food and manures, and municipal waste water treatment;
Cost reduction of algal biofuels by improving carbon efficiency and by employing direct air capture technologies;
Quantification of the economic and environmental benefits associated with growing energy crops, focusing on restoring water quality and soil health;
Development and testing of low-emission, high-efficiency residential wood heaters;
Innovative technologies to manage major forms of urban and suburban waste, with a focus on using plastic waste to make recycled products and using wastes to produce low-cost biopower; and
Scalable CO2 electrocatalysis technologies.
| Selectee | Project title | Federal share |
| Topic 1:Scale-Up of Bench Applications | ||
| University of Alabama | Innovation and optimization of the Szego Mill for reliable, efficient, and successful up-scaling of the deacetylation and mechanical refining process for biofuel production | $3,053,043 |
| University of North Dakota | Scale-Up of the Primary Conversion Reactor to Generate a Lignin-Derived Cyclohexane Jet Fuel | $3,745,000 |
| Earth Energy Renewables, LLC | Scale-up and Qualification of Net-Zero Sustainable Aviation Fuels from Wet Waste | $4,000,000 |
| Global Algae Innovations | Scale-up of Novel Algae Drying and Extraction Unit Operations | $4,000,000 |
| North Carolina State University | Scaling Up Biocrude Derived Anode Material (BDAM) | $3,999,938 |
| Oregon State University | Microchannel Reactor for Ethanol to n-Butene Conversion | $4,000,000 |
| Research Triangle Institute | Integrated Separations to Improve Biocrude Recovery for Biofuels and Bioproducts | $3,690,002 |
| Georgia Institute of Technology | Conversion of 2,3-Butanediol to Biojet Fuel: Scale-up and Technoeconomic Analysis of Energy-Efficient Separations and Fermentative Diol Production | $3,001,359 |
| Topic 2: Waste to Energy Strategies for the Bioeconomy | ||
| AMP Robotics | Artificial Neural Network for MSW Characterization | $1,886,922 |
| Gas Technology Institute | Decontamination of Non-recyclable MSW and Preprocessing for Conversion to Diesel | $2,500,000 |
| UHV Technologies | Advanced Sensing for Characterization and Sorting of Non-Recyclable Plastics Using Sensor Fusion with Artificial Intelligence | $2,500,000 |
| University of Cincinnati | High Precision Sorting, Fractionation, and Formulation of Municipal Solid Waste for Biochemical Conversion | $2,089,767 |
| University of Maryland - College Park | Innovative Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) Production with Microbial Electrochemical Technology (MET) Incorporation for Community-Scale Waste Valorization | $1,985,230 |
| Princeton University | Synergistic Thermo-Microbial-Electrochemical (T-MEC) Approach for Drop-In Fuel Production from Wet Waste | $2,500,000 |
| University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | Process Optimization and Real-Time Control for Synergistic Microalgae Cultivation and Wastewater Treatment | $2,000,000 |
| Utah State University | Synergistic Municipal Wastewater Treatment Using a Rotating Algae Biofilm Reactor | $1,877,735 |
| Topic 3: Algae Bioproducts and CO2 Direct-Air-Capture Efficiency | ||
| Global Algae Innovations | Production of Algae Biofuel and Bioproducts with CO2 Direct Air Capture | $2,000,000 |
| Montana State University | Transforming High pH/High Alkalinity Cultivation through Beneficial Microbiomes and Improved Pond Design | $2,000,000 |
| Arizona State University | ASU’s Polymer-enhanced Cyanobacterial Bioproductivity (AUDACity) | $1,999,051 |
| University of California - San Diego | Biomolecular Films for Direct Air Capture of CO2 | $2,000,000 |
| MicroBio Engineering, Inc. | Microalgae Commodities Production with a Direct Air Capture Process | $1,999,882 |
| Lumen Bioscience, Incorporated | Alkaline Carbon Capture and Expression-Streamlined Spirulina Cultivated in Air for Reliable Bioproducts, Oil, and Nutrition | $2,000,000 |
| Duke University | Development of High Value Bioproducts and Enhancement of Direct-Air-Capture Efficiency with a Marine Algae Biofuel Production System | $1,967,473 |
| Topic 4: Bio-Restore: Biomass to Restore Natural Resources | ||
| University of Nebraska - Lincoln | EXCHANGE: Expanding the Conversion of Habitat in the Northern Great Plains Ecosystem | $3,200,000 |
| Mississippi State University | PoSIES: Populus in the Southeast for Integrated Ecosystem Services | $2,035,602 |
| University of Florida | Evaluation of Energycane for Bioenergy and Sustainable Agricultural Systems (EC-BioSALTS) | $3,992,520 |
| Topic 5: Efficient Wood Heaters | ||
| NTRE Tech LLC | Advanced Low-Emission Residential Fluid-Bed Biomass Combustor | $2,431,05 |
| Ohio State University | Simulation-Driven Design Optimization and Automation for Cordwood-Fueled Room Heaters | $2,500,000 |
| Topic 6: Biopower and Products from Urban and Suburban Wastes: North American Multi-University Partnership for Research and Education | ||
| University of Michigan | Integrated biochemical and electrochemical technologies (IBET) to convert organic waste to biopower via North American research and educational partnerships | $5,000,000 |
| University of Wisconsin at Madison | Multi-University Center on Chemical Upcycling of Waste Plastics (CUWP) | $10,000,000 |
| Topic 7: Scalable CO2 Electrocatalysis | ||
| Dioxide Materials | Electrolyzers For CO2 Conversion from BioSources | $2,500,000 |
| University of Delaware | Electrochemical Production of Formic Acid from Carbon Dioxide in Solid Electrolytes | $2,497,686 |
| Opus 12 | PEM CO2 Electrolyzer Scaleup to enable MW-Scale Electrochemical Modules | $2,500,000 |
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