In the United States (US), the US Department of Energy (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) has announced US$52 million in funding for six university and industry projects to advance the production of low-carbon intensity, purpose-grown energy crops critical to accelerating a clean energy bioeconomy.
These projects will expand a domestic supply chain of alternative carbon sources essential to biofuels and bioproducts production that can lower net emissions in the transportation and industrial sectors, as well as innovate and grow the US agricultural industry.
Investment in this research supports DOE’s long-term objective to develop technologies that mobilize renewable carbon resources to increase the production of bioenergy and renewable chemicals and materials.
DOE’s investment in biofuels and bioproducts is critical to the federal government’s efforts to support innovative energy research. Expanding our domestic supply chain of energy crops, like algae and switchgrass, will ensure that we can continue to develop cutting-edge technologies that significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, create high-quality jobs across the agricultural industry, and increase our energy independence, said Jeff Marootian, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE).
Across agronomic and geographic landscapes
Prime funding recipients are located in six states with proposed field and pond experiments across 18 states.
These selected projects will support the advancement of low-carbon intensity, purpose-grown energy crops across varied agronomic and geographic landscapes through the generation of data and research findings.
The projects will focus on one or more of the following feedstock resources: microalgae, switchgrass, miscanthus, high biomass sorghum, carinata, camelina, pennycress, and shrub willow.
Support SAF goals
With this funding, these projects will play an important role in supporting the federal government’s Sustainable Aviation Fuel Grand Challenge goal to produce three billion (US) gallons (≈ 11.36 billion litres) of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) annually by 2030 and 35 billion gallons (≈ 132.47 billion litres) annually by 2050, enough to meet 100 percent of the projected domestic aviation fuel demand.
These research projects also support DOE’s “Clean Fuels and Products Shot” by focusing on lowering net emissions in the fuel and chemical industry through alternative sources of carbon to advance cost-effective technologies with a minimum of 85 percent lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2035.
The following six projects were selected:
- Southwest Microalgal Research and Testing (SMaRT) – Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona (AZ); US$10 million. This project will evaluate two main approaches for algae cultivation: 1) Semi-continuous cultivation under nutrient-replete conditions for biomass production and 2) 2-stage cultivation (growth and induction) to enhance the production of lipids. The research will be performed using a variety of raceway sizes, including sloped raceways driven by pumps rather than paddlewheels. One end goal of this project is to integrate empirical data collected at multiple scales with validated computational simulations and hydrodynamic modeling to enable a Digital Twin (or virtual testbed) to help guide, de-risk, and mobilize the algae industry.
- Economical Green Algae Cultivation for Renewable Fuels and Materials – Photosynthex Corporation, Imperial, Texas (TX); US$6.1 million. This project will demonstrate, quantify, and optimize the cultivation of microalgae for the purpose of producing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), bioplastics, and omega-3 fatty acids. The project will grow the high-yielding microalgae in outdoor raceway ponds without plastic liners. Key project objectives include optimizing algae cultivation and harvesting methods to maximize biomass yield and minimize costs. This project will validate large-scale algae production and all biomass produced will be converted for product manufacturing by commercial partners.
- Regional Mobilization of Low-Carbon Intensity Herbaceous Feedstocks for Biofuels and Bioproducts (RM-Herb): Switchgrass, Miscanthus, and High-Biomass Sorghum – University of Illinois – Urbana-Champaign, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois (IL); US10 million. This project will link new and ongoing data streams from commercial-scale fields of miscanthus, switchgrass, and sorghum over nine states to demonstrate yield, composition, carbon intensity (CI), and ecosystem services, filling critical knowledge gaps in sustainable conversion-ready herbaceous feedstocks. A key innovation is leveraging existing fields for field evaluation, ecosystem modeling, and life cycle and techno-economic analysis to determine the site and species-specific carbon intensity.
- Oilseed Crops to Sustain the Environment and Meet Energy Demand (OILSEED) – University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, Minneapolis, Minnesota (MN); US$9.9 million. This project will establish a relay cropping system that produces an intermediate oilseed (camelina or pennycress) as a harvestable winter crop between a summer annual grain and soybean—three crops in two years. In this system, the soybean is inter-seeded into a standing oilseed crop in spring, the oilseed is harvested over the top of the immature soybean, and the soybean matures and is harvested in the fall. This cropping system is expected to produce low carbon intensity scores for the oilseed crops and address intractable environmental problems in agriculture.
- Developing a Reliable Supply Chain of Camelina and Carinata for SAF – Clean Joule, Salt Lake City, Utah (UT); US$7.9 million. This project proposes to conduct cultivation studies of the wheat-camelina system under no-till farming practice and compare it with a baseline of wheat-fallow conventional tilling for the production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Concurrently, the team will evaluate a camelina and soybean relay cropping system in Minnesota, and carinata as a cover crop during winter fallow prior to cotton planting in Alabama. Expected outcomes include optimal cropping systems that will improve soil health and water use efficiency, mitigate GHG emissions, and provide biodiversity for pest control.
- Advancing Commercialization through the Monitoring, Measurement, and Verification of Large, Established Willow Biomass Crops – State University of New York (SUNY), Albany, New York (NY); US$7.9 million. This project will remove barriers to the expansion and commercialization of willow crops through innovations to lower production costs and carbon impact, including UAV precision management, new planting systems, improved genetics, and a prototype harvester. This project offers a unique opportunity to understand the dynamics of a large-scale, commercially managed short-rotation woody crop system that is currently in the second half of its 20-25-year life cycle. The project team will also collect, analyze, and share sustainability data related to willow production.
The six selectees will become members of the new BETO-funded Regional Biomass Resource Hub Initiative (RBRH), led by Idaho National Laboratory (INL).
INL will coordinate collaboration amongst the funding recipients to share experimental plans, report data, and collectively achieve the funding objectives. Selectees will be organized in groups to coordinate feedstock data standards and procedures and to collectively overcome regional resource mobilization challenges and barriers.
The RBRH groups will also work alongside a wide range of stakeholders, including national laboratories, universities, regional landowners, farmers, and policymakers amongst others to ensure the RBRH meets the needs of the industry and communities they serve.
