DOE offers $96 million for bioenergy R&D projects

The U.S. Department of Energy on Jan. 23 announced it will award up to $96 million for bioenergy research and development to reduce the price of drop-in biofuels, lower the cost of biopower, and enable high-value products from biomass or waste resources. Awards will be made under seven different topic areas.

The topic areas include:

Scale-up of bench applications: Up to $28 million will be awarded to projects that reduce the scale-up risk of biofuel and bioproduct processes. The DOE expects to make six to nine awards under the topic area. The minimum award will be $3 million, while the maximum will be $4 million.

Waste to energy strategies for a bioeconomy: Up to $18 million will be awarded to projects that address ways to use materials that are currently “waste” to make energy and new products. This includes strategies for municipal solid waste; wet wastes like food and manures; and municipal waste water treatment. The DOE intends to make seven to 15 awards under this topic area. The minimum for each award will $1 million. The maximum is $2.5 million.

Algae bioproducts and CO2 direct-air-capture and efficiency: Up to $14 million will be awarded to projects that aims to lower the cost of algal biofuels by improving carbon efficiency, and/or by employing direct air capture technologies. The DOE plans to make five to eight awards under this topic area. The minimum award is $1 million, and the maximum is $2 million.

Bio-restore: Biomass to restore natural resources: Up to $8 million will be awarded to projects that quantify the economic and environmental benefits associated with growing energy crops, with a focus on restoring water quality and soil health. The DOE expects to make two to four awards under this topic area. The minimum award is $2 million, with the maximum at $4 million.

Efficient wood heaters: Up to $5 million will be awarded to projects that develop and test low-emission, high efficiency residential wood heaters. The DOE plans to make two to five awards under this topic area. The minimum award is $1 million. The maximum award is $2.5 million.

Biopower and products from urban and suburban wastes: North American multi-university partnership for research and education: Up to $15 million will be awarded to developing innovative technologies to manage major forms of urban and suburban waste. The topic area focuses on using plastic waste to make recycled products and using wastes to produce low-cost power. The DOE plans award one project focused on biopower from organic wastes with $5 million, and one project based on waste to plastics products with $10 million.

Scalable CO2 electrocatalysis: Up to $8 million will be awarded to projects that aim to develop low temperature, low pressure CO2 electrocatalysis technologies for generating chemical building blocks. The DOE is expected to make four to six awards under this topic area. The minimum award is $1.5 million, while the maximum is $2.5 million.

The funding opportunity includes a minimum 20 percent cost share. The deadline to submit concept papers is March 5. Full applications must be submitted by April 30. Selected projects are expected to be notified in late July, with award negotiations expected in September. A full copy of the funding opportunity announcement (FOA) is available on the DOE EERE Exchange website.