By Lynn L. Bergeson

On January 23, 2020, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced the availability of more than $96 million in funding for bioenergy research and development (R&D) in support of the U.S. bioeconomy. DOE’s funding efforts also align with its own goal to provide secure, affordable, and reliable domestic energy options for consumers and business. This funding opportunity announcement (FOA) aims to advance DOE’s Bioenergy and Technology Office’s (BETO) objectives of: (1) reducing the price of drop-in biofuels; (2) enabling high-value products from biomass or waste resources; and (3) lowering the cost of biopower. Topic areas within this FOA include:

• Up to $8 million for scalable carbon dioxide (CO₂) electrocatalysis technologies for generating chemical building blocks;

• Up to $14 million for algae bioproducts and CO₂ direct-air-capture and efficiency;

• Up to $28 million for scale-up of bench applications of biofuel and bioproduct processes;

• Up to $5 million for low-emission, high-efficiency residential wood heaters;

• Up to $18 million for waste to energy strategies for a bioeconomy, including strategies for municipal solid waste, wet wastes, and municipal wastewater treatment;

• Up to $15 million for biopower and products from urban and suburban wastes (North American Multi-University Partnership for Research and Education), with a focus on using plastic waste to make recycled products and to produce low-cost biopower; and

• Up to $8 million for bio-restore -- biomass to restore natural resources -- to quantify the economic and environmental benefits associated with growing energy crops, with a focus on restoring water quality and soil health.

According to DOE’s FOA, the application process will consist of two phases: a concept paper and a full application. Phase one of the process (the concept papers) are due on March 5, 2020, and phase two (full applications) are due on April 30, 2020. Further details are available here.