ConocoPhillips has signed a $5 million, multi-year sponsored research agreement with the Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels, a research center of the Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory, to develop new ways to convert biomass into low-carbon transportation fuels.
The collaboratory, a joint venture of the University of Colorado at Boulder, Colorado State University, the Colorado School of Mines, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) formed the Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels (C2B2) in March 2007, to conduct research at all four institutions.
The new collaboration will build on a variety of active research projects being conducted by Colorado scientists and students to develop new sources of transportation biofuels. The first project will involve converting algae into renewable fuel.
Stephen Brand, senior vice president of technology at ConocoPhillips, said: We are pleased to be launching this promising new research effort in conjunction with C2B2. This agreement with the collaboratory offers a unique opportunity to combine the technical strengths of the member institutions with ConocoPhillips’s spirit of innovation to drive discovery of the next generation of transportation fuels.