DOE to spend $61.4M on biofuels research

© Shutterstock

On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Energy announced it would be providing $61.4 million in funding for research, development, and deployment of technologies that produce low-cost, low carbon biofuels.

The funding is aimed at finding renewable resources to power heavy-duty vehicles like airplanes and ships that are difficult to electrify and to accelerate the country’s path to a net-zero emissions economy by 2050, the DOE said.

“Biofuels are one of our most promising paths to zero-carbon aviation and shipping, so it’s time to double down on R&D and begin to deploy these technologies at scale,” said Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “This funding is critical for decarbonizing the transportation sector—the largest source of our nation’s greenhouse gas emissions—and delivering good-paying union jobs and clean air and water to American communities.”

Topic areas for the “Bioenergy Technologies Office Scale-Up and Conversion” funding opportunity include high-impact biotechnology research, development, and demonstration to bolster scientific and engineering knowledge on how to produce low-carbon biofuels at a lower cost.
The effort is supported by Airlines for America.

“On behalf of Airlines for America’s member airlines, we applaud Secretary Granholm and the DOE for helping to lead the way to a more energy secure and sustainable future, including through support for the further development and deployment of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF),” said A4A President and CEO Nicholas E. Calio. “We have made tremendous progress in developing safe and environmentally beneficial SAF, and to achieve our recently announced industry goal of having 2 billion gallons of cost-competitive SAF available to U.S. airlines in 2030 as a waypoint for achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, the nascent SAF industry needs just this kind of support.”

Interested parties should submit a concept paper by April 30, 2021, and a full application by June 21, 2021.