Ag Tech Investments News

To support the optimization of integrated biorefineries (IBR), The Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA-NIFA) and the Energy Department (DOE) jointly announced $22.7 million. USDA-NIFA is providing up to $2.9 million in funding and DOE is providing majority funding with up to $19.8 million.

Federal support for first-of-a-kind IBRs could significantly reduce the technical and financial risks associated with the operation of commercial scale biorefineries. Via stakeholder engagements through a request for information (RFI) and a Biorefinery Optimization Workshop, to economically and sustainably overcome technology barriers, the DOE's Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) has identified, areas in which DOE and USDA-NIFA can effectively support technology development and engineering solutions.

BETO and USDA-NIFA were coordinate ad co-funded this funding opportunity announcement (FOA). Projects which focused on addressing challenges encountered with the successful scale-up, and reliable, continuous operation of IBRs and lowering technical and financial risk, it seeks applications. Meritorious proposals may be recommended for funding by either of the participating agencies, ipon conclusion of the review process.

This FOA invites applications for the four topic areas such as:
1: Industrial separations within an IBR.
2: 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.
3: Analytical modeling of solid materials (dry and wet feedstocks, and/or residual solids remaining in the process) and reactor feeding systems.
4: High value products from waste and/or other under-valued streams in an IBR.
Source: https://energy.gov/