DOE Funds Bioenergy Projects At National Labs
The U.S. Department of Energy has allocated funding for two bioenergy projects under the FY 2024 Technology Commercialization Fund. One initiative, led by Argonne National Laboratory and Corumat, aims to develop carbon-negative packaging using organic acids from anaerobic digester broth, reducing landfill waste and greenhouse gas emissions while promoting job growth in underserved communities. The second project, involving Idaho National Laboratory and National Renewable Energy Laboratory, focuses on optimizing corn stover preprocessing for ethanol production, supporting the construction of a 16 MMgy facility in Mason City, Iowa.
The U.S. Department of Energy on June 17 awarded funding to two bioenergy projects. One focuses on the use of organic acids captured from anaerobic digester broth and the other focuses on the integrated processing and hyrothermal pretreatment of corn stover.
Both awards were made by the DOE’s Office of Technology Transitions under the fiscal year (FY) 2024 Technology Commercialization Fund Base Annual Appropriations Core Laboratory Infrastructure for Market Readiness (CLIMR) Lab Call. The agency awarded a total of $41.4 million to 50 projects across 17 national laboratories.
One award will support work by Argonne National Laboratory and its partner Corumat to develop and demonstrate a cost-effective manufacturing technology to produce carbon-negative packaging material to decarbonize the packaging industry. ANL will apply its proprietary separation technology to capture organic acids from an anaerobic digester broth with lower costs and energy consumption. Corumat will deploy this technology along with their patented packaging material manufacturing technology to create a circular carbon negative packaging value chain (CCNPVC). Corumat will use the CCNPVC strategy to reduce/or eliminate solid wastes sent to landfills to reduce GHG emission and support workforce development and job opportunities in disadvantaged communities.
The other award will support work by Idaho National Labotatory, and its partner National Renewable Energy Laboratory, to design a preprocessing system that delivers a conversion ready corn stover formulation that meets uniformity requirements for hydrothermal pretreatment that allows continuous operation. INL will build off their previous work that has demonstrated pilot-scale anatomical fractionation of corn stover and will seek characterize the resulting physical attributes of these fractions and investigate the blending of such fractions for optimal organic recovery and downstream feeding and conversion performance. According to the DOE, this work will ultimately enhance and speed up the final design for corn stover preprocessing and pretreatment for project partner New Energy Blue, which is building a 16 MMgy second generation ethanol facility, New Energy Freedom LLC, in Mason City, Iowa.
Source Link : https://ethanolproducer.com/articles/doe-funds-bioenergy-projects-at-national-labs
