The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Bioenergy Technologies Office has released two new requests for information (RFIs) related to biomass conversion research and development and community organic waste programs.

The Conversion Research and Development program is working towards improved robustness of microbial cells, improved robustness of catalytic processes, as well as the state-of-technology analyses in the BETO research portfolio. Process robustness has been identified as a key challenge that must be addressed prior to scale-up, which the released “Biomass Conversion Research, Development, and Analysis Programs,” RFI seeks to address. The program is interested in feedback on barriers, capabilities, tools, and other general information needed to prioritize future research and development programs in the areas of organism and catalyst development as well as feedback on which analyses are most useful to the broader bioenergy research and industrial community. Responses are required to be provided as an attachment via email to FY22ConversionRFI@ee.doe.gov.

The second RFI, titled “Community-scale Resource and Energy Recovery from Waste Solutions,” seeks input from industry, academia, research laboratories, government agencies, and other stakeholders on issues related to community programs for organic waste. EERE is asking for feedback to better understand which waste related to economic, environmental, and social impacts are of highest priority to communities, how to make the Conversion R&D program more effective in addressing these challenges, and to identify additional technical assistance needs that are most in demand by rural communities. BETO is particularly interested in five different waste streams including dairy manure, swine manure, food waste, municipal wastewater residuals, and fats/oils/greases. Responses should be provided as an attachment to an email, or in lieu of providing written responses to this community-scale RFI, respondents may request a 30-minute individual discussion with a BETO staff member via email to CommunityWasteRFI@ee.doe.gov.

Responses to both the Biomass Conversion Research, Development, and Analysis Programs RFI and the Community-scale Resource and Energy Recovery from Waste Solutions RFI must be submitted electronically no later than 5 p.m. ET on March 11, 2022.  View the full RFIs on EERE Exchange or Grants.gov.