By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton
 
The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) has launched a new, comprehensive web page dedicated to one of its priority subprograms, Renewable Carbon Resources (RCR), which helps develop RCR technologies and creates strategies for bioenergy and bioproducts production. In its May 19, 2023, announcement, BETO states that RCR supports applied research and pilot-scale projects for the production, harvesting/collection, supply logistics, storage, and preprocessing of biomass and wastes to feedstock. According to BETO, RCRs are carbon-based resources generated through photosynthesis (plants and algae) or through waste generation (non-recycled portions of municipal solid waste, biosolids, sludges, plastics, and carbon dioxide and industrial waste gases). The subprogram aims to optimize responsibly the use of each of these resources using sustainability indicators such as land-use changes, greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity, resource conservation, wildlife habitat, fire mitigation, food security, social well-being, and water, soil, and air quality.
 
The newly launched RCR web page is organized around the following activities:

• Production and sourcing;
• Logistics;
• Feedstock-conversion interface;
• Waste management technologies;
• Environmental remediation; and
• Carbon management.

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By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton
 
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) announced on January 20, 2023, that a collaborative team of BETO-funded scientists from Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are searching for carbon utilization technologies that can make better use of the carbon dioxide generated by industry, transportation, and agriculture by transforming it into sustainable aviation fuel and other useful products. According to BETO, the goal is to identify catalysts that can make beneficial products, such as sustainable aviation fuel, efficiently and selectively. BETO states that methanol has “rich potential for uses that contribute to lower greenhouse gas emissions and help in the fight against climate change.” It can generate electricity when used for fuel cells, serve as a heating fuel for boilers, or be used as a sustainable or blended fuel for road, marine, or (potentially) aviation. Additionally, methanol is used as a chemical industry feedstock for the synthesis of formaldehyde, acetic acid, and other health and life sciences products. BETO notes that the long-term challenge of the research will be scaling up scientific findings into commercial applications. With atmospheric carbon dioxide levels on the rise, “innovative research that finds ways to transform CO₂ in the atmosphere into something positive is more important than ever.”

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By Lynn L. Bergeson

On June 23, 2022, DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (EERE) issued a funding opportunity announcement (FOA) of $70 million to establish the 7th Clean Energy Manufacturing Innovation Institute. DOE EERE states that “[t]his new coalition of industry, academia, and government partners aims to develop and scale technologies to electrify industrial process heating and reduce emissions across the industrial sector.” The institute along with a new federal advisory committee, will focus on decarbonization technologies to help the United States reach its net-zero emissions goal by 2050. The Secretary of Energy will appoint 16 to 20 committee members for the federal advisory committee based on individual qualifications and a need to ensure diverse viewpoints, subject matter expertise, and regional knowledge. Nominations are now open until August 1, 2022, and can be submitted here. The new institute will join DOE’s six Manufacturing USA^® institutes funded through EERE’s Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO). DOE will hold an informational webinar on the new institute on July 14, 2022. Concept papers for the institute are due on August 9, 2022.

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By Lynn L. Bergeson and Ligia Duarte Botelho, M.A.

As part of a White House roundtable to launch the Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) Grand Challenge to decarbonize the aviation sector by 2050, on September 9, 2021, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced the availability of $64.7 million in funding for projects focused on the production of cost-effective and low-carbon biofuels. DOE aims to advance technologies to replace petroleum fuels used in heavy-duty forms of transportation, such as airplanes and ships.
 
DOE Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm stated that, although heavy-duty vehicles in the transportation sector such as planes and ships are difficult to electrify, decarbonizing transportation is a critical part of the path to achieve net-zero carbon emissions. Also as part of the SAF Grand Challenge, DOE signed on September 8, 2021, a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The memorandum formalizes the DOE, DOT, and USDA’s collaborative efforts on the required research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) to reach the goals of supplying at least three billion gallons of SAF per year by 2030 and sufficient SAF to meet 100 percent of aviation fuel demand by 2050.
 
DOE selected 22 projects to receive the available funds administered by its Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO). The projects target high-impact bioenergy technology RD&D to increase foundational knowledge and scale up systems to produce low-carbon biofuels at lower costs, covering five topic areas:

• Scale-Up of Biotechnologies;
• Affordable, Clean Cellulosic Sugars for High Yield Conversion;
• Separations to Enable Biomass Conversion;
• Residential Wood Heaters; and
• Renewable Natural Gas.

Additional information about the selected projects is available here.

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By Lynn L. Bergeson

On July 29, 2021, at 1:00 p.m. (EDT), Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm will host a virtual roundtable on the future of manufacturing. Roundtable discussions will focus on the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) efforts to:

• Decarbonize the manufacturing sector in the United States;
• Manufacture clean-energy technologies; and
• Pave the way to a resilient, carbon-neutral economy by 2050.

During the roundtable’s panel discussion, Secretary Granholm will announce several new DOE initiatives pertaining to manufacturing. The panel discussion will feature a diverse range of stakeholders, including government and academia representatives, and DOE private-sector partners.
 
Registration is required.

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By Lynn L. Bergeson
 
On May 14, 2021, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $35 million in funding for 15 research projects focused on reducing the carbon footprint of biofuel production. Housed at colleges, laboratories, and universities in nine states, these projects aim to advance new technologies to decarbonize biorefining processes in the agriculture, energy, and transportation sectors. Funding awards are supported by DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) through its “Energy and Carbon Optimized Synthesis for the Bioeconomy” (ECOSynBio) program. The 15 selected teams will research five methods to optimize biofuel production:

• Carbon-optimized fermentation strains that avoid carbon dioxide (CO₂) waste;
• Engineered organisms that can use a mix of different sources of energy and carbon and avoid evolving CO₂;
• Biomass-derived sugar or carbon oxide gas fermentation with internal CO₂ recycling;
• Cell-free carbon-optimized biocatalytic biomass conversion and/or CO₂ use; and
• Cross-cutting carbon-optimized bioconversion methods that have the potential for high-impact emission reductions.

Additional information about the winning projects is available here.

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By Lynn L. Bergeson and Ligia Duarte Botelho, M.A.

On February 22, 2021, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) announced its comprehensive strategy to decarbonize transportation by 30-85 percent by 2050. A strategy based on research and engineering, it aims to enable industry stakeholders, government bodies, communities, and early adopters to meet their climate goals. In a nutshell, the strategy takes a whole-system approach to pair the best technology with the right application. Chris Gearhart, NREL’s Center for Integrated Mobility Sciences Director, stated that NREL envisions “a mobility system fueled with clean, renewable energy, delivered directly by vehicle electrification, or indirectly by low-carbon, energy dense fuels and renewable hydrogen for those sectors, like marine and aviation, that are harder to electrify.” Johney Green, Associate Laboratory Director for NREL’s Mechanical and Thermal Engineering Sciences, expanded: “The spectrum of technological, social, and environmental shifts happening today requires a novel research agenda.” Keeping long-term trends in mind, NREL’s vision entails a multi-pronged strategy that provides scientific building blocks for advancing research and development (R&D) priorities such as:

• Accelerating vehicle technology innovations;
   
• Increasing transport efficiency;
   
• Maximizing the use of renewable electrons through time; and
   
• Integrating transportation with building, the grid, and renewables to realize system-wide benefits.
   

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By  Lynn L. Bergeson and Ligia Duarte Botelho, M.A.

On December 19, 2020, the Government of Canada’s Department of the Environment published a proposed rule titled Clean Fuel Regulations. The proposed rule addresses Canada’s concerns in achieving its net-zero emissions by 2050 under the Paris Agreement. In an effort to reduce the largest sources of greenhouse gases (GHG), the Clean Fuel Regulations would require liquid fossil fuel primary suppliers to reduce the carbon intensity (CI) of the liquid fossil fuels they produce in and import into Canada from 2016 CI levels by 2.4 g of CO₂/megajoule (MJ) in 2022, increasing to 12 g of CO₂/MJ in 2030. The proposed rule would also establish a credit market whereby the annual CI reduction requirement could be met via three main categories of credit-creating actions:

• Actions that reduce the CI of the fossil fuel throughout its life cycle;

• Supplying low-carbon fuels; and

• Specified end-use fuel switching in transportation.

The Clean Fuels Regulations would also retain the minimum volumetric requirements of at least five percent low CI fuel content in gasoline and two percent low CI fuel content in diesel fuel and light fuel oil that are currently set out in the federal Renewable Fuels Regulation (RFR). The RFR would be repealed, and parties that are not primary fossil fuel suppliers would be able to participate in the credit market as voluntary credit creators by completing certain actions. Further details are available here.

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By  Lynn L. Bergeson and Ligia Duarte Botelho, M.A.

Researchers at Swansea University’s Energy Safety Research Institute have developed a new method that produces spheres that have strong capacity for carbon capture and work at a large scale. Described as “[a] fast, green and one-step method for producing porous carbon spheres, which are a vital component for carbon capture technology and for new ways of storing renewable energy,” the method was developed by a research team that adapted an existing method known as chemical vapor deposition (CVD). This adapted method involves the use of heat to apply a coating to a material using pyromellitic acid as both carbon and oxygen source. Research scientists involved in the development of this new method report that the new approach brings certain advantages over existing methods of producing carbon spheres, including:

• It is alkali-free;

• It does not need a catalyst to trigger the shaping of the spheres;

• It uses cheap and safe feedstock that is readily available on the market;

• There is no need for solvents to purify the material; and

• It is a rapid and safe procedure.

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By Lynn L. Bergeson

On January 29, 2020, Congressman Paul D. Tonko (D-NY) and other House Democrats unveiled a five-year, $760 billion investment framework to repair and upgrade the U.S. infrastructure to create jobs while reducing carbon pollution, improving safety, and supporting economic activity. Called the “Moving Forward Framework for the People,” the plan includes measures to increase climate resiliency and put the United States on a path toward zero carbon pollution from transportation. The House Democratic proposal outlines a number of major investments, which include repairs and upgrades to surface transportation, rail and transit systems, airports, ports and harbors, wastewater and drinking water infrastructure, brownfields, and broadband. According to Congressman Tonko’s press release, the proposed infrastructure framework would:

• Bring existing infrastructure into a state of good repair and enable the completion of critical projects through long-term, sustainable funding;

• Set a path toward zero carbon pollution from the transportation sector, creating jobs, protecting our natural resources, promoting environmental justice, and increasing resiliency to climate change;

• Ensure a transportation system that is green, affordable, reliable, and efficient and provide access to jobs;

• Provide safe, clean, and affordable water and wastewater services;

• Prioritize the safety of the traveling public;

• Help combat climate change by creating well-paying jobs in clean energy, investing in energy efficiency, and reducing GHG pollution;

• Expand broadband Internet access, including adoption for unserved and underserved rural, suburban, and urban communities;

• Modernize 9-1-1 public safety networks;

• Create family-wage jobs using the Davis-Bacon Act and other strong worker protections; and

• Support U.S. industries, including steel and manufacturing, through strong Buy America protections.

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