Spring Algae Bloom: an Inside Look at the DOE’s New Algal Fuels Consortium, the NAABB.
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) was a cold Wednesday afternoon in January when the news came through that a consortium called the National Alliance for Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts had received a $44 million grant from the Department of Energy. Another group called the National Advanced Biofuels Consortium had won the other. In all, DOE said it would invest $80 million in a consortia approach to solving technical challenges such as outlined in the Algal Biomass Roadmap process, commenced in late 2008.
…The huge number of partners and the scope of the work seeming daunting — who would get such a large group to work together effectively, and on a three-year timeline instead of the more elongated timelines sometimes associated with the national labs and academia. Algal research pioneer Dr. Richard Sayre at the the Donald Danforth Center in St. Louis, who is leading science for the project, quickly identified Dr. Jose Olivares at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, as the principal investigator and driving force behind the consortium.
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Like a lot of people, the Digest is highly curious about how exactly the consortia came together, what it aims to achieve, how the DOE process worked, and what innovations we might expect from the team over the next few years. We spoke this week with Dr. Olivares at LANL to learn more about the mysterious workings of the DOE grant process, and the goals and timelines for the consortium.
Digest: How did the consortium come together. What was the basic approach?
JO: “It’s the first time I’ve put a consortium together. You learn as you go. We had several principles. One, inclusiveness, to make sure you had a broad perspective, from the national labs, academia and industry. READ MORE
Related posts:
- Inside DOE: A Look at How the $564 Million Integrated Bioenergy Grant Process Operated
- National Algae Association Forms Buying Consortium
- Algal Biomass Association’s Executive Director Mary Rosenthal Testifies Before Congress on Benefits of Algae-Based Fuels
- Growing Green: Bodega Algae and Bigelow Laboratory Collaborate to Develop Algal Biofuel Technology in New England
- US Dept of Energy Sets $85 Million for Development of Algal Based and Advanced Cellulosic Biofuels
