by Shane Henson — January 23, 2013—The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that $25 million has been awarded to four projects in four states to fund research and development of next-generation renewable energy and biobased products from a variety of biomass sources.
The projects are funded by the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture through the Biomass Research and Development Initiative, which was founded in part to facilitate the development of diverse cost-effective technologies for the use of cellulosic biomass in the production of biofuels and/or biobased products. According to the USDA, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will make additional awards through this program.
Grant recipients are required to contribute a minimum of 20 percent matching funds for research and development projects and 50 percent matching funds for demonstration projects. Awardees must pursue projects that integrate science and engineering research in three areas: feedstocks development, biofuels and biobased products development, and biofuels and bioproducts development analysis.
The following projects have been selected for awards: Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas, which will seek to make the oilseed crop camelina a cost-effective biofuel and bioproduct feedstock; Ohio State University in Wooster, Ohio, which will focus on an anaerobic digestion system for the production of liquid transportation fuels and electricity from animal manure, agricultural residues, woody biomass, and energy crops; Ceramatec Inc. in Salt Lake City, Utah, which will convert lignocellulosic biomass to infrastructure-compatible renewable diesel, biolubricants, and biopower; and the USDA-Agricultural Research Service in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania, which will develop an on-the-farm distributed technology for converting forest residues, horse manure, switchgrass, and other perennial grasses into biofuels and high-value specialty chemicals.
