University of Kentucky land $1M DOE grant for waste-based biofuels research

In Kentucky, researchers at the University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research (CAER) and the Department of Chemistry have received a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to advance their innovative biofuels research.

The project is titled “Robust Engineered Catalysts for the Conversion of Waste Oleaginous Biomass Feedstocks to Fuel-like Hydrocarbons via Decarboxylation/Decarbonylation” and is funded by DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (EERE).

As part of the project, CAER will partner with Clariant Corp., Saola Energy and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), to develop a robust engineered decarboxylation/decarbonylation (deCOx) catalyst.

Successful development of such a catalyst is a critical step in the scale-up of novel deCOx technology to produce renewable fuels from waste biomass feedstocks, or organic materials considered waste or byproducts.