Biofuels Projects Land US$6 Million In DOE, EPA Funding

The US Department of Energy (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have announced US$6 million in funding for three projects to advance biofuel development and support domestic energy and emissions innovation. Financed through the Inflation Reduction Act, the initiative supports research to improve the performance and reduce the costs of high-impact biofuel production technologies, scale up production systems in partnership with industry, and foster the US bioeconomy.

Located across three states, the selected projects align with the DOE’s Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Grand Challenge goals by developing technologies that use biomass and waste feedstocks. Responsibly sourced US biofuel production is intended to strengthen rural economies, enhance energy independence, and increase the domestic availability of cleaner fuels. Additionally, the projects provide the energy and industrial sectors with new technologies designed to meet the EPA’s Renewable Fuel Standard Program requirements, thereby reducing emissions, expanding the renewable fuels sector, and decreasing reliance on imported transportation fuel, heating oil, and jet fuel. The funding also reflects projections from the DOE’s 2023 Billion-Ton Report, which estimates domestic resource availability of 134 million tons (122 million tonnes) of agricultural residues and 32 million tons (29 million tonnes) of wet waste in the near term.

This funding opportunity addresses advanced biofuel development in the pre-pilot scale-up of integrated biorefinery technologies, targeting projects that have completed Technology Readiness Level 3 and are advancing to TRL 4-5 to pilot a single process step prior to TRL 6 integrated piloting. Selected feedstocks align with the Renewable Fuel Standard Program’s definitions for advanced biofuels.

The three selected projects receive federal cost shares through this funding announcement.

Air Company Holdings, located in Brooklyn, New York, received US$2 million for its project titled “Biogenic CO2 to Drop-in Sustainable Aviation Fuel.” The project team plans to scale up a carbon dioxide (CO2) hydrogenation reactor with a specific focus on catalyst yields and overall reactor flow schemes, data that will be critical for planning capital expenditures and equipment. The reactor is part of the company’s process to convert biogenic waste carbon dioxide into 100% drop-in sustainable aviation fuel. Pre-screening testing indicates that the resulting SAF meets the compositional and physical properties required for conventional jet fuels, and the project will generate SAF samples to support an American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) International qualification program.

Erg Bio Inc. of Dublin, California, was awarded US$1,998,184 for the project “Demonstration of the ASPIRE Feedstock Flexible Biomass Deconstruction and Conversion Technology at the Pre-pilot Scale.” The team will develop the Advanced Solvent Pretreatment for Integrated Biorefineries technology, which has demonstrated high fermentable sugar release efficiencies from mixed woody feedstocks, agricultural residue mixtures, sorghum bagasse, and sugarcane bagasse with a greater than 99% solvent recovery rate at the laboratory scale. The ASPIRE process utilizes distillable solvents at moderate temperatures and pressures integrated with a consolidated bioprocessing host that secretes saccharolytic enzymes to liberate and ferment sugars into ethanol.

Terragia Biofuels of Hanover, New Hampshire, received US$1,998,349 for its project titled “Continuous Conversion of Corn Stover to Ethanol Using Engineered Thermophilic Bacteria.” The project aims to advance the conversion of corn stover to ethanol via consolidated bioprocessing using engineered thermophilic bacteria. Key objectives include implementing consolidated bioprocessing at industrially relevant solids loadings using continuous processing and developed bacterial strains, demonstrating a twofold or greater reduction in reaction time with cascade continuous operation, operating at a 0.5 dry ton per day pilot scale, projecting favorable economics through technoeconomic analysis, and promoting a broader understanding of the bioeconomy, biofuels, and related workforce development.