Oak Ridge Associated Universities 2006 Annual Report

ORISE Coordinates Peer Reviews
for Research to Develop Cleaner
Fuels
It takes a lot of corn to produce the four billion
gallons of corn grain ethanol each year that fuel
some of today’s automobiles. Yet, the federal
government wants to increase that number to 11
billion gallons per year, not just from corn but
from a variety of plants.
In order to meet its goal, DOE in collaboration
with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
launched an ambitious research agenda in 2006
for developing new technologies that will help
transform plant material into a cleaner burning
alternative to gasoline.
DOE has set a goal of displacing 30 percent of the
2004 U.S. gasoline demand with biofuels, primarily
ethanol, by the year 2030. Corn is just one of the
available feedstocks used to create ethanol.
As DOE’s primary contractor for managing peer
and merit reviews, ORISE arranged for several peer
reviews of the grant applications. DOE is calling
for genomics-based research that will lead to the
improved use of biomass and plant feedstocks
for the production of fuels such as ethanol or
renewable chemical feedstocks.
Up to $3 million was made available by the USDA
and DOE in 2006 for grant awards. Multiyear
funding is expected, and project support is available
for up to three years.
DOE has set a goal of displacing 30 percent of the
2004 U.S. gasoline demand with biofuels, primarily
ethanol, by the year 2030. Biofuels such as ethanol
are made from cellulose—corn, sugar cane,
switchgrass, and the fibrous, woody, and generally
inedible portions of plant matter. Cellulosic
biomass is an attractive energy feedstock because it
is an abundant, domestic, and renewable source that
can be converted to liquid transportation fuels,
according to DOE.
Research is needed to help overcome the
challenges to large-scale production of cellulosic
ethanol, including maximizing biomass feedstock
productivity, developing better processes by which
to break down cellulosic materials into sugars, and
optimizing the fermentation process to convert
sugars to ethanol.
ORISE’s unique PeerNet © database software system
was used to streamline the peer review process
while ensuring integrity and confidentiality of the
grant applications.
Image Information:
Graphic shows how microbes ferment sugars to ethanol,
which is then separated from the mix of ethanol, water,
microbes, and residue and purified through distillation.
Graphic courtesy of Genome Management Information
System, Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
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