The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy has announced its intent to issue a second funding opportunity to support the scale-up of biofuel and bioproduct biorefineries.

The DOE issued an initial funding opportunity announcement (FOA) in April 2021 and in August 2021 announced funding for 11 projects designed to support research and development to improve and produce algae and municipal solid waste (MSW) feedstocks for the production of biofuels, biopower and bioproducts. A statement released by DOE on Oct. 29 explains that the initial FOA was targeted towards applicants who still needed to assemble design packages.

The second FOA, funded by the Bioenergy Technologies Office, aims to accelerate the scale-up of biofuel and bioproduct biorefineries. The DOE said this includes efforts for pre-pilot, pilot and demonstration scale projects and will allow for both projects that are in the planning phase as well as those that already have a design package and are ready to construct, including previously funded awards that were selected under previous FOAs for design work.

The new FOA will cover two BETO programs: Advanced Algae Systems and Systems Development and Integration. Both topic areas support the White House’s priority for advancing the domestic bioeconomy and support BETO’s program goal to achieve $2.50 per gallon gasoline gallon equivalent (GGE) minimum fuel selling price (MFSP) and at least a 70 percent reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030, according to the DOE’s notice.  

The DOE also noted that the FOA is specifically designed to support the production of low-GHG fuels for aviation, long-haul trucking, and marine transport.

EERE plans to issue the full FOA in December. Additional information is available on the Grants.gov website.