Source: US DEPT. OF ENERGY, 5/15/16

The U.S. Department of Energy announced up to $10 million in funding for six projects located in Arizona, California, North Carolina, Delaware, and Illinois. These projects will support the Bioenergy Technologies Office’s (BETO’s) work to develop renewable and cost-competitive biofuels from non-food biomass feedstocks and support the development of a more robust bioeconomy. Learn more about these selections in the progress alert.

The following projects were selected:
• Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona: This project will engineer cyanobacteria for the production of ethyl laurate, which is easily converted to “drop-in” ready biofuels or bioproducts.
• Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona: This project will develop mixotrophic algae that can consume both CO2 and cellulosic sugars, as well as significantly improve algal biomass growth. The potential for this project could reach 5 times the current algal production rates.
• Duke University, Durham, North Carolina: This project will enable a dramatic reduction in costs for commercial-scale biorefineries through “dynamic metabolic control.”
• Lygos Inc., Emeryville, California: This project will develop microbial catalysts to convert renewable cellulosic sugars into higher-value commodity and specialty chemicals.
• White Dog Labs, New Castle, Delaware: This project will develop new metabolic pathways in microorganisms so that they can concurrently consume a cellulosic sugar feedstock and CO2, thus limiting the amount of CO2 released from the process.
LanzaTech Inc., Skokie, Illinois: This project will work on technology to enable manufacturing of the acetone, a high-value industrial chemical building block, via biomass-derived syngas.