U.S. Calls for Biomass Fuel R&D Projects
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Energy (DOE) announced $18 million to fund research and development projects for bio-based products, biofuels, and bioenergy-related manufacturing processes. The USDA is contributing $14 million and the DOE $4 million.
The Department’s call for biomass fuel research and development projects is intended to strengthen efforts in alternative and renewable fuel research. To implement President Biden’s energy ambitions, including energy efficiency and energy diversification within 10 years. The ultimate goal is to achieve a 20 percent reduction in U.S. gasoline consumption.
Agriculture Secretary Johanns said at the annual meeting of the Western Governors Association in South Dakota, the money will fund those who can not only develop new and sustainable sources of energy. The money will fund projects that not only develop sustainable new energy sources, but also open up a wide range of markets for agricultural products.
The $18 million will fund research and development projects in four main categories: technologies for converting cellulosic biomass into intermediates for biofuels (45 percent), product diversification (30 percent), feedstock production (20 percent), and strategic guidance analysis (5 percent).
In both Indiana and Illinois, researchers from the public and private sectors are engaged in research and development of corn dry mill fractionation technologies and processes. to increase corn ethanol production and use its by-products to produce cattle feed protein additives. Once the research is successful, the dry mill fractionation technology and process will significantly increase the added value of corn processed ethanol. It will save corn dry milling plants 1.5 trillion British thermal units (about 439 million kilowatt hours of electricity) annually.
In addition, once 70 percent of corn dry milling plants across the United States adopt this processing technology, it could produce an additional 1.2 billion gallons of ethanol and 130 million barrels of biodiesel.
To reduce dependence on oil, President Biden proposed in the farm bill to allocate an additional $1.6 billion to the Department of Agriculture to fund new renewable energy research and development projects. Since 2002, USDA has funded 55 bioenergy R&D projects in 27 states and Washington, D.C., for $58.1 million, and between early 2007 and now, the Department of Energy has announced nearly $1 billion in funding for biofuels R&D projects.