U.S.
Navy, Department of Agriculture and Department of Energy Announce
Funding Available for Commercial Scale Advanced Drop-In Biofuels; Energy
Department Also Announces Additional Biofuel Investments to Drive Cost
Reductions and Technological Breakthroughs
WASHINGTON.
D.C. – As part of the Obama Administration’s commitment to deploying
every available source of American energy and reducing our reliance
on imported oil, U.S. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, Secretary of
Agriculture Tom Vilsack and Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced new
funding available to pursue new innovations in biofuels technologies,
increase production of U.S. biofuels, and strengthen
American energy security. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA),
Navy and Department of Energy are announcing $30 million in federal
funding to match private investments in commercial-scale advanced
drop-in biofuels. The Energy Department is also announcing
a total of $32 million in new investments for earlier stage research
that will continue to drive technological breakthroughs and additional
cost reductions in the industry.
Advancing Commercial-Scale Drop-In Biofuel Substitutes for Diesel and Jet Fuel
In his Blueprint
for a Secure Energy Future released in March
2011, President Obama set a goal of reducing oil imports by one-third by
2025 and laid out an all-of-the-above energy plan to achieve that goal
by developing domestic oil and gas energy
resources, increasing energy efficiency, and speeding development of
biofuels and other alternatives. Domestic oil and gas production has
increased each year the President has been in office. At the same time
we continue to take additional steps to reduce our
reliance on foreign oil. As part of that effort, the Blueprint directed
the Navy, USDA and DOE to collaborate to support commercialization of
“drop-in” biofuel substitutes for diesel and jet fuel.
Competitively-priced drop-in biofuels will help improve America’s
energy security, meeting the fuel needs of U.S. armed forces, as well as
the commercial aviation and shipping sectors. Today’s announcement of
an available $30 million in funding builds on that commitment, helping
to speed the development of biofuels for military
and commercial transportation that will reduce the need for foreign oil
and strengthen rural America. The Funding Opportunity Announcement
(FOA) is available HERE.
Made
possible through the Defense Production Act (DPA), this funding
opportunity enhances national security by supporting the creation
and commercial viability of a defense-critical domestic biofuels
industry to advance alternatives to petroleum. DPA is an authority that
dates back to 1950 and has been used to boost industries such as steel,
aluminum, titanium, semiconductors, beryllium, and
radiation-hardened electronics.
“DPA
is a critical component of strengthening our national security, and
energy is a national security issue,” stated Secretary Mabus.
“Our reliance on foreign oil is a significant military vulnerability and
it would be irresponsible not to address it. Pursuing a viable,
domestic alternative is the best way to preserve the budget for
operational necessities like training and shipbuilding,
and this funding opportunity is an important step in accelerating an
economically self-sufficient alternative fuels market.”
The
FOA comprises a two-phased approach, with government and industry
sharing in the cost. In Phase 1, applicants will submit a design package
and
comprehensive business plan for a commercial-scale biorefinery, identify
and secure project sites and take additional required steps spelled out
in the announcement. Awardees selected to continue into Phase 2 will
submit additional information for the construction
or retrofit of a biorefinery.
Agencies
participating in this initiative will make additional funding requests
to Congress to support the initiative, including President Obama’s
FY 2013 budget request of $110 million.
“This
is an important time for the biofuels industry to step up and show the
Department of the Navy how they have developed biofuels that are
certified
and certifiable for military use,” stated Secretary Vilsack. “The
ability for U.S. industry to make, create and innovate has never been
more important to our national and energy security. I know that through
this DPA effort the nation will be able to harvest
an aviation biofuels industry to satisfy the world’s needs, not just our
U.S. military.”
Investments in Biofuels Research, Development and Demonstration to Drive Cost Reductions, Technological Breakthroughs
Today,
the Energy Department is also announcing new investments in earlier
stage biofuels research that complement the commercial-scale efforts
announced today by the Navy and USDA. Totaling $32 million, these
early-stage, pre-commercial investments are the latest steps in the
Obama Administration’s efforts to advance biofuels technologies to
continue to bring down costs, improve performance, and identify
new effective, non-food feedstocks and processing technologies.
“Advanced
biofuels are an important part of President Obama’s all-of-the-above
strategy to reduce America’s dependence
on foreign oil and support American industries and American jobs,” said
Secretary Chu. “By pursuing new processes and technologies for producing
next-generation biofuels, we are working to accelerate innovation in a
critical and growing sector that will help
to improve U.S. energy security and protect our air and water.”
The
funding announced by DOE today includes $20 million to support
innovative pilot-scale and demonstration-scale biorefineries that could
produce
renewable biofuels that meet military specifications for jet fuel and
shipboard diesel using a variety of non-food biomass feedstocks,
waste-based materials and algae. These projects may support new plant
construction, retrofits on existing U.S. biorefineries
or operation at plants ready to begin production at the pilot- or
pre-commercial scale. This investment will also help federal and local
governments, private developers and industry collect accurate data on
the cost of producing fuels made from biomass and
waste feedstocks. The full funding solicitation is available HERE.
In
addition, the Energy Department also announced $12 million to support
up to eight projects focused on researching ways to develop biobased
transportation
fuels and products using synthetic biological processing. Synthetic
biological processing offers an innovative technique to enable
efficient, cost-saving conversion of non-food biomass to biofuels. These
projects will develop novel biological systems that can
enhance the breakdown of raw biomass feedstocks and assist in converting
feedstocks into transportation fuels.
The
projects will be led by small businesses, universities, national
laboratories and industry and will seek to overcome various technical
and scientific
barriers to cost-competitive advanced biofuels and bioproducts. The full
funding opportunity announcement is available HERE.
The
new investments announced today build on the steps the Energy
Department is already taking to push the boundaries of biofuel
technologies and
move towards commercial-scale production at refineries across the
country. View a fact sheet on some of the Energy Department’s ongoing
efforts HERE.
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