U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced the investment of nearly $80 million under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for advanced biofuels research and fueling infrastructure to help support the development of a clean sustainable transportation sector.

The two cross functional consortia were selected for funding, and they are:

• National Alliance for Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts (NAABB) ($44 million).
  Led by the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center (St. Louis, MO), NAABB will develop a systems approach for sustainable commercialization of algal biofuel (such as renewable gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel) and bioproducts. The plan is to integrate resources from companies, universities, and national laboratories to overcome barriers of cost, resource use and efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions and commercial viability. It will develop and demonstrate the science and technology necessary to significantly increase production of algal biomass and lipids, efficiently harvest and extract algae and algal products, and establish valuable certified co-products that scale with renewable fuel production. Co-products include animal feed, industrial feedstocks, and additional energy generation. Multiple test sites will cover diverse environmental regions to facilitate broad deployment.
• National Advanced Biofuels Consortium (NABC) (up to $33.8 million)
  Led by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, NABC will conduct research to develop infrastructure compatible, biomass-based hydrocarbon fuels. The result is expected to be a sustainable, cost-effective production process that maximizes the use of existing refining and distribution infrastructure. NABC will investigate a variety of process strategies and down select to those closest to larger scale demonstration. Moreover, the plan is to further develop these strategies to deliver a pilot-ready process, with full lifecycle analysis to measure the environmental benefits.

Collectively, these consortia will be matched by private and non-federal cost-share funds of more than $19 million for total project investments of over $97 million.

Additionally, Secretary Chu also announced the selection of 8 infrastructure projects to receive up to $1.6 million to support expanded fueling infrastructure for ethanol blends. These projects will expand ethanol blends infrastructure (E85 pumps) at existing retail fueling locations in nine states: Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Missouri, Texas, Virginia, and Washington. Collectively, the projects propose creating at least 45 E85 dispensers and 16 blender pumps along key driving corridors and areas with higher concentrations of flexible fuel vehicles.

The infrastructure projects will be matched with $3.9 million in non-federal cost-share funds, for total projects investments of $5.5 million.

Complete list with project descriptions if available from here. (PDF file)

[source: DoE]