Government Resources
Table of Contents
- US Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Office of Biomass Program
- Bioenergy Research Centers
- Clean Cities Program
- US National Laboratories
- US Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency
- Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP).
- US Department of Defense
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
- Federal Aviation Administration
- Continuous Lower Energy, Emissions, and Noise (CLEEN) Program
- Library of Congress
US Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Office of Biomass Program
Every spring, the US Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Biomass Program hosts a FREE 2-day conference and expo exploring biomass as an energy source. The Biomass Program works with industry, academia and national laboratory partners on a balanced portfolio of research in biomass feedstocks and conversion technologies. The Biomass 2009 conference focused on a sustainable biofuels future. Click here for summaries of the workshop discussions and downloadable presentations from the Biomass 2010 conference. Click here for summaries of the workshop discussions and downloadable presentations from the Biomass 2009 conference. Biomass 2008 focused on the role of biofuels in reducing the nation’s addiction to oil. Click here for presentations from the Biomass 2008 conference.
Some presentations from these conferences have been summarized, available by clicking on the categories: Presentations Biomass 2009 and Presentations Biomass 2010 along the right margin of each page on this site.
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All Programs in the U.S Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, are required to conduct a Peer Review of their funded projects on an annual or biannual schedule. The Office of Biomass Program (OBP) conducts these reviews by hosting a series of Project Peer Reviews for each of the technology platforms in the Program. Information and outputs gathered from these Platform Reviews are then considered in the context of the whole program at a separate Program Peer Review Meeting.
The most recent review took place between March and April of 2009, and wrapped up in July 2009 with the overall Program Peer Review. The Peer Review Process helps to ensure that the Biomass Program obtains independent assessments of the current Research and Development portfolio, through a rigorous, transparent, and time-proven process. The information will be useful as the Biomass Program considers future funding and portfolio balance decisions.
Additionally, the Peer Review Meetings provide stakeholders the opportunity to learn about the latest advances in state-of-the-art biomass energy technology developments funded by the Federal government.
The presentations at these reviews provide an indepth, technical view of progress in the various areas funded by this US Department of Energy program and are available online.
Overall Program Peer Review Presentations July 14-15, 2009, Arlington, VA
Integrated Biorefineries March 19, 2009, National Harbor, MD
Infrastructure March 19, 2009, National Harbor, MD
Analysis March 20, 2009, National Harbor, MD
Feedstocks April 8-10, 2009, Washington, DC
Thermochemical Conversion April 14-17, 2009, Denver, CO
Biochemical Conversion April 14-16, 2009, Denver, CO
Bioenergy Research Centers
To focus the most advanced biotechnology-based resources on the biological challenges of biofuel production, the Department of Energy (DOE) established three Bioenergy Research Centers (BRCs) in September 2007. Each center is pursuing the basic research underlying a range of high-risk, high-return biological solutions for bioenergy applications. Advances resulting from the BRCs will provide the knowledge needed to develop new biobased products, methods, and tools that the emerging biofuel industry can use.
The Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) is one of three BRCs established by the Department of Energy Office of Science, and the only one based at an academic institution.
The additional BRCs are the BioEnergy Science Center (BESC) led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
All three centers are working collaboratively to develop a new generation of biofuels.
Each center represents a multidisciplinary partnership with expertise spanning the physical and biological sciences, including genomics, microbial and plant biology, analytical chemistry, computational biology and bioinformatics, and engineering. Institutional partners include DOE’s world-class national laboratories, universities, private companies, and nonprofit organizations.
Clean Cities Program
Clean Cities strives to advance the nation’s economic, environmental, and energy security by supporting local decisions to adopt practices that contribute to the reduction of petroleum consumption. Clean Cities has a network of approximately 90 volunteer coalitions, which develop public/private partnerships to promote alternative fuels and advanced vehicles, fuel blends, fuel economy, hybrid vehicles, and idle reduction. Clean Cities is part of the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Vehicle Technologies Program.
US National Laboratories
All of the National Laboratories have some programs that provide basic scientific research or have other involvement supporting development of advanced biofuels. The following links connect to key programs in this area at each National Lab.
Brookhaven National Laboratory
On the National Renewable Enery Laboratory, Golden Colorado, web site, visitors can find a map that plots locations of ethanol plants and alternative fuel stations, including propane, hydrogen, E85 ethanol blends and other alternative fuels. Link to Map Partial Instructions See the Educational Resources page for other interactive maps.
NREL also teamed with EPA to publish the State Bioenergy Primer, a 104 page book covering everything community leaders need to focus their thoughts on how to incorporate bioenergy into their infrastructure.
NREL’s Biomass Glossary
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Sandia National Laboratory
US Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency
- Producers or entities will be eligible for up to a dollar per dollar match, up to $45 per dry ton, for the value of the biomass that is delivered to a designated biomass conversion facility.
- For example: if a producer is paid $30 per dry ton for the biomass by the conversion facility the producer would be eligible for a $30 per dry ton payment for the costs associated with collecting, harvesting, transporting and storing the product.
- Producers will be eligible for up to two years of payments.
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US Department of Defense
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), The Defense Department has been directed to explore a wide range of energy alternatives and fuel efficiency efforts in a bid to reduce the military’s reliance on oil to power its aircraft, ground vehicles and non-nuclear ships. The goal of the BioFuels program is to develop an affordable and highly efficient alternative process of converting crop oil to a JP-8 surrogate. The primary technical objective of the BioFuels program is to achieve minimum 60% conversion efficiency, by energy content, of crop oil to JP-8 surrogate and identify development opportunities to achieve 90% efficiency. The cost and availability of the necessary feedstock materials will be considered. The development of conversion process technologies compatible with oils from a broad range of crops, potentially including new crop stocks selected specifically for their oil harvest, is preferred. The current deliverable is a minimum of 100 liters of JP-8 surrogate to be tested in a suitable DOD test facility. The desired outcome is a JP-surrogate fuel that is suitable for current JP-8 military applications.
Federal Aviation Administration
The Continuous Lower Energy, Emissions, and Noise (CLEEN) Program is our principal NextGen environmental effort that will develop and demonstrate new technologies, procedures and sustainable alternative jet fuels.
Under the program, the FAA awarded five-year agreements to Boeing, General Electric, Honeywell, Pratt & Whitney, and Rolls-Royce. These companies will match or exceed the awards in this cost-sharing program. The total federal investment is expected to be $125 million, making the total expected value of efforts at least $250 million.
The CLEEN companies will participate in a government-industry consortium. The consortium will work to develop technologies that will reduce noise, emissions, and fuel burn to enable the aviation industry to expedite integration of these technologies into current and future aircraft.
Specifically, CLEEN’s goals include developing and demonstrating by 2015: …
