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For Immediate Release

November 12, 2009

DOE and USDA Select Projects for more than $24 Million in 

Biomass Research and Development Grants

Washington, DC – The U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Energy today announced projects selected 

for more than $24 million in grants to research and develop technologies to produce biofuels, bioenergy 

and high-value biobased products. Of the $24.4 million announced today, DOE plans to invest up to 

$4.9 million with USDA contributing up to $19.5 million. Advanced biofuels produced through this 

funding are expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50 percent compared to fossil fuels. 

“The selected projects will help make bioenergy production from renewable resources more efficient, 

cost-effective and sustainable,” said Energy Secretary Steven Chu. “This work will also benefit rural 

America by leading to new processing plants and new opportunities for U.S. farmers and foresters.” 

“Innovation is crucial to the advancement of alternative, renewable energy sources, and these awards 

will spur the research needed to make significant progress in bioenergy development,” said Agriculture 

Secretary Tom Vilsack. 

Projects announced today must contribute a minimum of 20 percent of matching funds for research and 

development projects and 50 percent of matching funds for demonstration projects. Funding is provided 

through USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) and DOE’s Biomass Program. 

Selected projects are aimed at increasing the availability of alternative fuels and biobased products that 

are produced from a diverse group of renewable sources of biomass. 

Projects selected for award today include: 

BIOFUELS AND BIOBASED PRODUCTS:

USDA Awards

z GE Global Research (Irvine, CA) up to $1,597,544: to develop detailed and simplified kinetic 

models of biomass gasification. A fundamental modeling capability will enable the widespread 

design of feedstock-flexible biomass gasifiers that are cost-effective and scaled to match the 

regional distribution of biomass feedstocks. 

z Gevo, Inc. (Englewood, CO) up to $1,780,862: to develop a yeast fermentation organism that can 

cost-effectively convert cellulosic-derived sugars into isobutanol, a second generation 

biofuel/biobased product. As an advanced biofuel, isobutanol strikes a unique balance between 

high octane content and low vapor pressure, it can be converted into hydrocarbons, and as a 

biobased product it can be used as a chemical precursor for numerous high-value products such as 

isobutylene and PET plastic products. 

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z Itaconix ( Hampton Falls, NH) up to $1,861,488: to develop production of polyitaconic acid 

from northeast hardwood biomass, using an integrated extraction-fermentation-polymerization 

process. Polyitaconic acid is a water soluable polymer with a 2 million metric ton per year market 

potential as a replacement for petrochemical dispersants, detergents, and super-absorbents. 

z Yenkin-Majestic Paint Corporation (Columbus, OH) up to $1,800,000: to demonstrate, at scale, 

the operation of a dry fermentation system that uses pre- and post-consumer food wastes from 

supermarkets and restaurants, waste sawdust, grass, leaves, stumps and other forms of wood waste 

to produce biogas, heat, and electrical power. Yenkin-Majestic will use these products to 

demonstrate a distributed stand-alone system for the operation of a large industrial facility. 

z Velocys, Inc. (Plain City, OH) up to $2,651,612: to improve biorefinery economics through 

microchannel hydroprocessing. This project will explore the unique capabilities of heat and mass 

transfer inherent in microchannel reactor technology with advanced catalysts to intensify chemical 

processes, resulting in more efficient conversion of cellulosic residues to liquid transportation 

fuels. 

DOE Awards

z Exelus, Inc. (Livingston, NJ) up to $1,200,000: to develop a Biomass-to-Gasoline (BTG) 

technology that represents a fundamental shift in process chemistry and overall approach to 

creating biofuels. The technology uses unique, engineered catalysts that facilitate new reaction 

pathways to liquid motor fuels from biomass. The BTG process replaces conventional hightemperature processes like gasification and pyrolysis with a series of mild, low-temperature 

reactions. The self-contained process uses minimal water and no acids or chemical additives. 

BIOFUELS DEVELOPMENT ANALYSIS:

USDA Awards

z Purdue University (West Lafayette, IN) up to $933,883: to develop an analysis of the global 

impacts of second generation biofuels in the context of other energy technologies and alternative 

economic and climate change policy options. This project will modify, extend and link 

established modeling frameworks to capture the strengths of each framework in a hybrid, 

multidisciplinary system. 

z University of Minnesota (St. Paul, MN) up to, $2,715,007: to assess the environmental 

sustainability and capacity of forest-based biofuel feedstocks within the Lake States region. This 

project will address key uncertainties about expanding feedstock harvests in the northern Lake 

States, including environmental impacts, economic feasibility and avoided fossil-fuel CO2 

emissions. 

DOE Awards

z Consortium for Research on Renewable Industrial Materials (Washington, Idaho, North 

Carolina, Mississippi, and Tennessee) up to $1,430,535: to compare the life cycle environmental 

and economic impacts for collecting forest residuals, short rotation crops, mixed waste, and 

biomass from fire risk reduction activities on federal lands for conversion to fuels via 

biochemical, pyrolysis and gasification systems. National estimates of biofuel production will be 

based on stratified biomass collection and processing implementation scenarios that can be 

evaluated against the Renewable Fuel Standard greenhouse gas emission objectives. 

FEEDSTOCK DEVELOPMENT:

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USDA Awards

z Agrivida (Medford, MA) up to $1,953,128: to develop new crop traits that eliminate the need for 

both expensive pretreatment equipment and enzymes. Transgenic switchgrass will be engineered 

with cell wall-degrading proenzymes that are dormant when the plant is in the field, but activated 

after harvest, under processing conditions with specific temperature and pH. 

z Oklahoma State University (Stillwater, OK) up to $4,212,845: to develop best practices and 

technologies necessary to ensure efficient, sustainable and profitable production of cellulosic 

ethanol feedstocks. Utilizing large-scale feedstock production research, the economic and 

environmental sustainability of switchgrass, mixed-species perennial grasses and annual biomass 

cropping systems will be evaluated, and the synergy between bioenergy and livestock production 

will be explored. 

DOE Awards

z The University of Tennessee (Knoxville,TN) up to $2,345,290: to compare three varieties of 

switchgrass using various management practices, harvesting equipment and harvesting timelines 

in Eastern Tennessee. This 2,000-acre demonstration-scale project will use field plots ranging in 

size from 10 – 50 acres that incorporate different varieties of switchgrass seed: the current Alamo 

variety, the Ceres EG 1101 improved Alamo variety, and the Ceres EG 1102 Kanlow variety.

U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Public Affairs, Washington, D.C.

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