USDA and DOE fund biomass research

Nov. 25, 2009, Washington, D.C. – The U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Energy have
selected projects to receive $24.4 million in grants to research and
develop technologies to produce biofuels, bioenergy, and high-value bio-based
products. The DOE will invest up to $4.9 million, and the USDA up to $19.5
million. The projects must contribute a minimum of 20% of matching funds for
research and development projects and 50% of matching funds for demonstration projects.

The selected projects are aimed at increasing the availability of alternative fuels
and bio-based products that are produced from a diverse group of renewable
sources of biomass from both agriculture and forestry. Some examples of
selected projects are provided below.

The University of Minnesota at St. Paul, Minnesota, can receive up to $2,715,007 to
assess the environmental sustainability and capacity of forest-based biofuel
feedstocks within the Great Lake states region. This project will address key
uncertainties about expanding feedstock harvests in the northern Great Lake states,
including environmental impacts, economic feasibility, and avoided fossil-fuel carbon
dioxide emissions.

Itaconix of Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, can receive 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-soluble polymer with a 2-million tonne/year market potential as a
replacement for petrochemical dispersants, detergents, and super-absorbents.

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Yenkin-Majestic Paint Corporation of Columbus, Ohio, can receive 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. It will use these products to demonstrate a
distributed stand-alone system for the operation of a large industrial
facility.

The Consortium for Research on Renewable Industrial Materials, based in Washington, Idaho,
North Carolina, Mississippi, and Tennessee, can receive 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.