PROGRAM DETAILS - U.S. Department of Energy

o March 2008: Joint DOE-USDA Solicitation ($18 million) - 21 selected under Biomass
R&D Initiative on feedstocks, conversion, products and analysis.
o September 2008: University Solicitation - six U.S. universities selected to pursue
innovative biomass conversion technologies (up to $4.4 million).
o October 2008: Pyrolysis Solicitation - five projects selected to advance environmentally
friendly biomass conversion by improving technology to stabilize biomass fast pyrolysis
oils (up to $7 million).
* Established International Biofuels partnerships with critical countries: Brazil; China; the
European Union; and India.
* Established a dedicated sustainability R&D program with over $3.5 million in funding for a
wide range of projects and supported two multi-stakeholder workshops on the ecological
dimensions of biofuels in Spring 2008, along with a National Laboratory Sustainability
workshop in May 2008, which will serve as input to a bioenergy sustainability plan.
* Initiated a testing program with the Vehicles Technology Program to evaluate the effect of
intermediate ethanol blends, E15 and E20 (gasoline blended with fifteen and twenty percent
ethanol, respectively), on vehicles and small engines.
* The Program has grown from 11 FTE's in 2000 to 21 FTE's in 2008 by adding key staff in
infrastructure development, communications, deployment, and platform R&D.
Organizational Strengths
Through the Biomass and Biorefinery Program, the Department has:
* Moved beyond R&D to demonstrate integrated biorefineries at scale.
* Continued R&D on advanced concepts in partnership with the Office of Science.
* Developed expertise in fuel blends in partnership with industry and vehicle technologies.
* Implemented systems integration and stage-gate management of the technologies across the
biofuels supply chain.
* Engaged the financial and engineering communities regarding risk mitigation.
The Program leads interagency and industry partnerships.
* The Biomass R&D Board coordinates biofuels R&D across federal agencies. Co-chaired by
DOE and USDA, the Board is comprised of senior-level representatives from 11 agencies.
The Board meets monthly and released a National Biofuels Action Plan in October 2008.
Seven Interagency Working Groups have been established to implement the Plan.
* The Biomass Technical Advisory Committee is a Federal Advisory Committee to the
Biomass Program and USDA Rural Development. Thirty members from industry, academia,
and non-governmental organizations meet quarterly and provide recommendations.
Leadership Challenges
* Integrated Biorefinery project funding profiles lag budget request and appropriation levels
from FY 2007 - FY 2009. Therefore, there have been significant uncosted balances in FY
2007 and FY 2008 which are likely to continue until demonstration projects begin the
construction phase in FY 2010.