BETO announces its intention of funding the optimization of integrated biorefineries

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The Demonstration and Market Transformation (DMT) Program culminates the Research, Development, and Demonstration (RD&D) work of all other programs in the Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) of the U.S. DOE. Its goal is to de-risk bioenergy production technologies by validated proof of performance at the pilot, demonstration, and pioneer scales, and to remove any additional barriers to commercialization. BETO achieves these goals through public-private partnerships that build and operate integrated biorefineries (IBRs). Robust scale-up of biorefinery technologies is essential for enabling the industry to build commercial-scale manufacturing facilities.

Figure 1. DMT supports cost-shared, first-of-a-kind facilities to de-risk new technologies and bring industry beyond the valley of death (extracted from DOE web page about DMT)

Against this background, the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) intends to issue, on behalf of the BETO and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, a funding opportunity announcement (FOA) entitled  “Integrated Biorefinery Optimization” (see press release and the full NOI).

The information available about the FOA is summarized in the following table:
Purpose
It will support research and development of technologies that will improve the quality of feedstock characterization and reliability of operations, decrease the Capital Expenses (CapEx) and Operating Expenses (OpEx) and, thereby, increase the performance efficiencies of biorefineries resulting in continuous operation and production of biofuels, bioproducts and biopower at prices competitive with fossil-derived equivalents.
Areas of Interest
1. Robust, continuous handling of solid materials (dry and wet feedstocks, biosolids, and/or residual solids remaining in the process) and feeding systems to reactors under various operating conditions.
2. High value products from waste and/or other under-valued streams in an integrated biorefinery.
3. Industrial separations within an integrated biorefinery.
4. Analytical modeling of solid materials handling and reactor feeding systems
Feedstocks and products
Plans for processes that convert woody biomass, agricultural residues, dedicated energy crops, algae, municipal solid waste (MSW), sludge from wastewater treatment plants, and wet wastes, into biofuels, biochemicals, and bioproducts will be considered under this FOA.
Schedule
The FOA is expected to be posted on the EERE Exchange in December 2016.
The estimated period of performance for each award will be approximately 36 months.
Financing model
EERE envisions awarding multiple financial assistance awards in the form of cooperative agreements. 

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