The US Department of Energy (DOE) will award $590 million to renew its four existing Bioenergy Research Centers (BRCs). This funding will help support the Department’s research into the next generation of sustainable, cost-effective bioproducts and bioenergy from domestic biomass resources.

Each of the four centers, led by a National Laboratory or University, support the science behind a bio-based economy and aims to break down the barriers to building a strong domestic bioenergy industry.

The centers include:

• The Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI), led by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign;

• The Center for Bioenergy Innovation (CBI), led by DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory;

• The Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC), led by the University of Wisconsin-Madison in partnership with Michigan State University; and

• The Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), led by DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Continued investment in these centers is designed to yield a range of important new products and fuels derived directly from non-food plant biomass, such as switchgrass, poplar, energy cane, and energy sorghum.

Over the past fifteen years the BRCs have led in the development of basic science innovations across the bioenergy sector, from exploring more sustainable agriculture practices to designing microbial processes to produce a range of products, such as fuels, chemicals, and materials from dedicated bioenergy crops.

The decision to renew the four BRCs followed a successful review by a panel of outside peer reviewers on each center’s past five years of performance. Initial funding for the four centers will total $110 million for Fiscal Year 2023, outyear funding will total up to $120 million per year over the following four years and is contingent on availability of funds.