Show Me the Money: DOE Announces Funding of Up to $85 Million for Algal and Advanced Biofuels
7/17/2009

The U.S. Department of Energy ("DOE") yesterday announced funding of up to $85 million over a three-year period from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act ("ARRA") for the development of algae-based biofuels and advanced, infrastructure-compatible biofuels. DOE wants leading scientists and engineers from universities, private industry, and government to collaborate in developing a thriving domestic biofuels industry . The collaborations will allow different sectors in the biofuels industry to work together on new technologies for producing advanced biofuels that can be brought to market without requiring major modifications to the existing fueling infrastructure. Examples of advanced biofuels include green aviation fuels, green gasoline, and green diesel from a variety of biomass feedstocks.

Today's Funding Opportunity Announcement targets two crucial areas:

• Algal Biofuels Consortia (one or two awards of between $25 million and $50 million to develop cost-effective, algae-based biofuels). The DOE has three primary topics of interest:
  • Growing different strains of algae;
  • Harvesting and extracting the lipids and carbohydrates from algae; and
  • Conversion techniques to produce biofuels from algae.