The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy has announced plans to issue a second funding opportunity to support the scale-up of biofuels and bioproducts biorefineries.
The DOE issued an initial Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) in April 2021 and in August 2021 announced funding for 11 projects designed to support research and development to improve and produce algae feedstocks and municipal solid waste (MSW) for the production of biofuels, bioenergy and bioproducts. A statement released by the DOE on Oct. 29 explains that the initial FOA was for applicants who still needed to assemble design packages.
The second FOA, funded by the Bioenergy Technology Office, aims to accelerate the scale-up of biofuels and bioproducts biorefineries. The DOE said this includes efforts for pre-pilot, pilot and demonstration scale projects and will enable both projects that are in the planning stages as well as those that already have a design set and are ready. to be built, including previously funded awards that have been selected under previous FOAs for design work.
The new FOA will cover two BETO programs: Advanced Algae Systems and Systems Development and Integration. Both thematic areas support the White House priority to advance the national bioeconomy and support the BETO program goal of achieving a minimum fuel selling price (MFSP) of $2.50 per gallon of gallon equivalent of fuel. (GGE) and a reduction of at least 70% in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. by 2030, according to DOE advice.
The DOE also noted that the FOA is specifically designed to support the production of low-GHG fuels for aviation, long-haul trucking, and marine transportation.
EERE expects to release the full FOA in December. Additional information is available on the Grants.gov website.