In Washington, U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry\u00a0today announced $40 million in Department of Energy awards for the establishment of four DOE Bioenergy Research Centers (BRCs), which will provide the scientific breakthroughs for a new generation of sustainable, cost-effective bioproducts and bioenergy.<\/p>\n
The following centers were selected based on an open competition using outside peer review: the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, led by the University of Wisconsin-Madison in partnership with Michigan State University; the Center for Bioenergy Innovation, led by DOE\u2019s Oak Ridge National Laboratory; the Joint BioEnergy Institute, led by DOE\u2019s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; and the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation, led by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.<\/p>\n
The centers\u2014each led by a DOE National Laboratory or a top university\u2014are designed to lay the scientific groundwork for a new bio-based economy that promises to yield a range of important new products and fuels derived directly from nonfood biomass. Initial funding for the four centers will total $40 million for FY 2018, with plans for a total of five years of funding.\u00a0Specific funding amounts for 2018 and beyond will be finalized as part of future federal budget processes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe revolution of modern biology has opened up vast new opportunities for the energy industry to develop and utilize products derived from biomass as a sustainable resource,\u201d said Secretary Perry.\u00a0 \u201cThese centers will accelerate the development of the basic science and technological foundation needed to ensure that American industry and the American public reap the benefits of the new bio-based economy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The current awards represent a follow-on phase to the original DOE Bioenergy Research Centers program, established by the Office of Biological and Environmental Research within DOE\u2019s Office of Science in 2007.\u00a0 The original program consisted of three centers, including those mentioned above led by the University of Wisconsin-Madison in partnership with Michigan State University, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.<\/p>\n
Over ten years, these three BRCs produced multiple breakthroughs in the form of deepened understanding of sustainable agricultural practices, major reengineering of plant feedstocks, development of new methods of deconstructing feedstocks, and reengineering of microbes for more effective fuel production. \u00a0In all, the three original BRCs produced 2,630 peer-reviewed publications, 607 invention disclosures, 378 patent applications, 191 licenses or options, and 92 patents. Through this work, they transferred substantial insight and expertise to industry through cooperation with both large and small companies.<\/p>\n
In the next phase, the centers will build on this record of accomplishment and expand from a focus on biofuels to include the development of bio-based chemicals and other bio-based products.\u00a0 The three are joined by a fourth center, led by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, with a specialty in the direct production of drop-in fuels and chemicals using plants themselves as sustainable biofactories.<\/p>\n
CABBI joins the BRC family
\nIn this newswave, DOE announced the $104 million Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI), pending Congressional appropriation, a collaboration between Illinois\u2019 Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE) and the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB). CABBI includes 16 partner institutions. Evan H. DeLucia, the G. William Arends Professor of Plant Biology and Baum Family Director of iSEE, will serve as CABBI Director.<\/p>\n
CABBI researchers will develop fuels and products by integrating three highly interconnected DOE priority areas:<\/p>\n
GROWING THE RIGHT CROPS (Feedstock Development) \u2014 Led by Stephen Moose, Professor of Crop Sciences at Illinois, scientists will integrate recent advances in genomics, synthetic biology, and computational biology to increase the value of biomass crops. Feedstock researchers will use the \u201cplants as factories\u201d paradigm, in which biofuels, bioproducts, and foundation molecules for conversion are synthesized directly in plant stems.<\/p>\n
TURNING PLANTS INTO FUEL (Conversion) \u2014 Led by Huimin Zhao, Steven L. Miller Chair in Chemical Engineering at Illinois, experts will further develop a versatile, automated \u201cbiofoundry\u201d for rapidly engineering microbial strains that can efficiently produce diverse, high-value molecules such as biodiesel, organic acids, jet fuels, lubricants, and alcohols. Using the design-build-test-learn framework, research in the Conversion theme will overcome the challenges associated with driving biological systems to produce non-natural compounds.<\/p>\n
DETERMINING THE ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECONOMIC BOTTOM LINE (Sustainability) \u2014 Led by Madhu Khanna, ACES Distinguished Professor in Environmental Economics in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at Illinois, researchers will provide an overarching framework for viewing outcomes from the Feedstocks and Conversion themes through an environmental and economic lens. Experts will design a closed-loop and integrated research program for CABBI.<\/p>\n
Partner institutions include Brookhaven (N.Y.) National Laboratory; the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory\u2019s Joint Genome Institute in Berkeley, Calif; the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s Agricultural Research Service in Houma, La., and Peoria, Ill.; Iowa State University; Princeton University; Mississippi State University; the University of California-Berkeley; West Virginia University; Boston University; the University of Wisconsin-Madison; Colorado State University; the University of Idaho; the University of Florida; the University of Nebraska; the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle; and the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology in Huntsville, Ala.<\/p>\n
From BESC to CBI
\nThe Center for Bioenergy Innovation, led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is one of four bioenergy centers chosen by DOE to advance a new biobased economy with the production of fuels and other products directly from nonfood biomass. In many ways, it is the successor to the ORNL-led BioEnergy Science Center (BESC), which demonstrated scientific breakthroughs in its mission to overcome the natural resistance of plants to being broken down and converted into useful bioproducts.<\/p>\n
CBI will pursue a host of new technologies to alleviate critical cost barriers to sustainable, economically viable production of biobased products and advanced biofuels. The center will focus on creating robust high-yielding feedstock plants, using genetic studies to accelerate the domestication of perennial plants. CBI will create biocatalytic methods for high-yield production of advanced biofuels that can be blended with existing transportation fuels. Researchers will also study ways to develop valuable byproducts from lignin left over after biomass processing.<\/p>\n
CBI\u2019s proposal includes partners from University of Georgia, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Dartmouth College, GreenWood Resources, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Pennsylvania State University, Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, University of California-Riverside, University of Colorado-Boulder, University of North Texas, University of Tennessee, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Colorado State University and West Virginia University.<\/p>\n
JBEI returns<\/p>\n
With the announce, work will continue at the Joint BioEnergy Institute, led by Berkeley Lab. JBEI partners include Sandia National Laboratories; the University of California (UC) campuses at Berkeley, Davis, San Diego, and Santa Barbara; the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; Clemson University; Iowa State University; and TeselaGen Biotechnology Inc.<\/p>\n
JBEI was among three BRCs established by DOE a decade ago to accelerate fundamental research in advanced, next-generation biofuels, and to make such technology cost-effective and widely available.\u00a0Since its founding, JBEI research has yielded 672 peer-reviewed publications, 85 licenses, 23 patents, and five startups. In that time, JBEI has contributed many scientific achievements, including:<\/p>\n
Engineering bioenergy crops to increase sugar-containing polymers and decrease lignin in plant cell walls
\nDeveloping an affordable and scalable ionic liquid pretreatment technology
\nDeveloping microbial routes for the conversion of biomass-derived sugars into advanced, \u201cdrop-in\u201d blendstocks for gasoline, diesel, and jet fuels
\nReaction from the stakeholders
\n\u201cCollaboration has been at the core of GLBRC\u2019s efforts from Day One, and it will continue to drive the goals of this new center and help us realize our vision of developing bio-based sources of fuels and chemicals,\u201d says Tim Donohue, GLBRC director and UW\u2013Madison professor of bacteriology.\u00a0\u201cWe are in a unique position to not only address a major societal challenge, but to create new revenue sources and economic opportunities for farmers, rural communities and a new generation of bio-refineries, as well as to create new, locally produced and cost-effective products for consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cOur team of leading researchers is excited to use new approaches in biology to address the basic research challenges in developing real-world applications in the future sustainable bioeconomy,\u201d said CBI Chief Executive Officer Gerald Tuskan. Tuskan was a member of the team that discovered a breakthrough poplar gene that makes it easier for bioconversion \u2014 GreenWood Resources licensed it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Feedstocks theme will be at the cutting edge of bioenergy crop production\u201d, said Kimberlee K. Kidwell, Dean of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) at Illinois, which is providing significant field space, lab space, and researchers for CABBI.\u00a0\u201cWe have truly set our sights on the future of agriculture, from the genomic level to crops in the field to final products that will play a significant role in our nation\u2019s energy profile,\u201d Kidwell said.<\/p>\n
\u201cJBEI has established a strong track record of producing technologies that make biofuels research easier and that help transform the U.S. bioeconomy,\u201d said Jay Keasling, JBEI\u2019s chief executive officer. \u201cWe are very excited to receive this award for continued funding. This third phase of funding will allow JBEI to expand its basic research mission to biomanufacturing of both biofuels and bioproducts from biomass. Ultimately, JBEI\u2019s research will make biofuels affordable and create new renewable bioproducts for consumers and jobs in the agriculture and biotechnology sectors.\u201d<\/p>\n
The BRC backstories
\nOver GLBRC\u2019s 10-year history, it has built academic and industrial partnerships that have yielded more than 1,000 scientific publications, 160 patent applications, 80 licenses or options, and five start-up companies. Additional university collaborators include the University of British Columbia, Texas A&M University and Michigan Technological University. Building on past accomplishments, GLBRC\u2019s next phase will focus on producing dedicated bioenergy crops on non-agricultural lands, maximizing the production of specialty fuels and bioproducts from those crops, and building a comprehensive understanding of the fi eld-to-product pipeline to maximize the sustainability and economic benefits offered by a future cellulosic bio-industry. Together, these efforts have the potential to spur a new bio-refinery industry equipped to create valuable products from as much of a crop\u2019s biomass as possible.<\/p>\n
During its 10 years of research led by ORNL, BESC scientists targeted methods to more easily convert biomass into biofuels by developing better plants, microbes and enzymes, and improved technologies to characterize and pretreat biomass. BESC and its 17 partner institutions produced more than 929 peer-reviewed publications, 190 invention disclosures, 60 patent applications, 21 licenses, and received 22,000 citations of its publications.<\/p>\n
The Bottom Line
\nCouple of points.<\/p>\n
First, note the intriguing addition of the University of Illinois for \u201cdirect production of drop-in fuels and chemicals using plants themselves as sustainable biofactories\u201d \u2013 we\u2019ll stand by for more on what that means.<\/p>\n
Secondly, let\u2019s note the transition from BESC to CBI \u2014 the latter will proceed under the leadership of Gerald Tuskan, after 10 years of the Paul Gilna-led BESC,<\/p>\n
However, one caveat. The funding here is for just one year of these BRCs. The Trump budget slashes energy research and these centers will have to compete with all the piggies at the trough in the next four budget seasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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