Recently Announced Bioenergy Research Centers may Advance the Biomass R&D Technical Advisory Committee Vision

by Chris Lawrence, BCS, Incorporated

On June 26, 2007, Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman announced that the Department of Energy will invest up to $375 million into three Bioenergy Research Centers located in the southeast (Oak Ridge, Tennessee); Midwest (Madison, Wisconsin); and west (Berkeley, California). The purpose of the centers is to focus on the acceleration of research in the development of cellulosic ethanol and other biofuels.

The Bioenergy Research Centers should contribute to the Biomass Research and Development Technical Advisory Committee Vision which states that “by 2030, a well established economically viable, bioenergy and biobased products industry will continue new economic opportunities for the United States, protect and enhance our environment, strengthen U.S. energy security, provide economic opportunity, and deliver improved products to consumers.”[i]

The Vision set forth goals to increase the share of biofuels use in the transportation sector. To do this, the Technical Advisory Committee noted that research must focus on improving plant science in order to increase sustainable biomass production as well as enabling greater conversion of lignocellulosic biomass.[ii] The Research Centers will do research in both of these areas. They will examine the uses of alternative feedstocks, specifically those cellulosic in nature such a poplar and agricultural residues.

The Committee held a series of Regional Roadmap Workshops to outline the technical barriers to its vision and to develop the research agenda to overcome those barriers. The outcomes of these workshops will be used to update the Committee’s Roadmap, which is currently being authored. Barriers identified include addressing a lack of feedstock diversity. The Bioenergy Research Centers should help diversify the feedstocks available for producing ethanol and improve conversion efficiency. According to the DOE Office of Science, “a major focus will be on understanding how to reengineer biological processes to develop new, more efficient methods for converting the cellulose in plant material into ethanol or other biofuels that serve as a substitute for gasoline.”[iii]

Although not specially planned, having Research Centers located in geographically distinct regions will provide an added benefit of including region specific feedstocks into research activities. The region specific nature of biomass feedstocks as well as distribution infrastructure was one of the key reasons the Committee held Regional Roadmap Workshops.  For example, the east has an abundance of woody biomass, currently underutilized due to a lack of available processes to convert them. If these processes existed, growers would have more incentive to produce them.

The announcement of the Research Centers takes a step at addressing one overarching barrier discussed at the workshops, the absence of a long-term National commitment to biomass research and development. Workshop participants noted a lack funding for biomass R&D that result in academia and research laboratories not making major research advances. The barrier also notes a lack of incentive for exploratory R&D. The Research Centers, comprised of 18 leading universities and seven national laboratories will not only focus on basic science but also on high-risk, high-return research.