Joint funding opportunity announced for biorefineries

In Washington, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) announced a joint funding opportunity to support Integrated Biorefinery Optimization. DOE has funded biorefinery technology development projects since 2002 to meet two EERE performance goals: 1) reduce dependence on imported oil, thereby enhancing energy security; and 2) spur the creation of a sustainable domestic bio-industry. USDA-NIFA has funded programs and projects that target vital topical areas related to the development of regional systems for the sustainable production of biofuels, industrial chemicals, biopower, and biobased products; as well as investing in America’s scientific corps and developing workforce in bioenergy, bioproducts, and the bioeconomy. Robust scale-up of commercially viable biorefinery technologies will help USDA-NIFA meet two important goals: 1) to enhance energy security through the reduction in the dependence on foreign oil; and 2) to spur the creation of a sustainable domestic bioeconomy. This work supports NIFA’s mission to accelerate deployment of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies to strengthen U.S. energy security, economic vitality, and environmental quality.

Federal support for first-of-a-kind Integrated Biorefineries (IBRs) could significantly reduce the technical and financial risks associated with new technology deployment, thus accelerating the growth of the U.S. bioeconomy, reducing costs to consumers, enabling reductions in environmental pollution in the transportation sector and improving energy security.