Bioenergy research centers would each get $25M under budget proposal

Source: Amanda Peterka, E&E reporter • Posted: Friday, April 5, 2013

The Department of Energy would provide $25 million a year for the next five years to each of its three bioenergy research centers under a proposal announced today.

The funding, which is subject to congressional appropriations, would go toward researching and developing next-generation fuels, DOE said in a statement. The plan would expand on research that the centers have completed in the last five years involving engineering biofuel crops, engineering microbes to produce fuels, and developing methods to grow biofuel crops on lands not used for food production.

“By investing in innovative approaches and technologies at our Bioenergy Research Centers, we can continue to move the biofuels industry forward and grow our economy while reducing our reliance on foreign oil,” Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in a statement.

DOE’s three bioenergy research centers are the BioEnergy Research Center led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory; the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center led by the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in partnership with Michigan State University; and the Joint BioEnergy Institute led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

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