Over the past two years, the Department of Energy has granted $500 million for biorefinery research and development through the Bioenergy
Technology Office. On Friday January 27th, the Department of Energy announced $118 million in funding for 17 projects ranging from $0.5 million to $80 million with an average grant of $2 million. Projects will investigate approaches to develop domestic supplies of bioenergy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The Department of Energy has a goal to achieve cost-competitive biofuel production by 2030. Awards were for proof of concept, pre-pilot, and demonstration projects including conversion of biomass to aviation fuel for military and civilian use. Production of biofuel will be beneficial to the environment and if financially and technically feasible, advances should reduce diversion of food to fuel. To date the Department of Energy has received minimal returns in the form of commercial production of biofuels compared to the billions “invested”