Integrated energy major ConocoPhillips and the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory have entered into a strategic research alliance with the Iowa State University to identify promising cellulosic biomass conversion technologies to further diversify the US's energy sources.
The collaboration will reportedly bring three independently established programs together to help identify the most efficient and cost-effective methods for making liquid transportation fuels from plants. Transportation fuels primarily come from petroleum, corn grain or food crops.
The collaboration between ConocoPhillips, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Iowa State University will develop conversion technologies that will use cellulosic materials as feedstocks for future transportation fuels. The processes that will be examined in this collaboration include gasification, pyrolysis and fermentation.
Stephen Brand, ConocoPhillips’s senior vice president for technology, said: ConocoPhillips is committed to the development of technologies that will convert sustainable non-food feedstocks into transportation fuels that will be critical to the nation’s energy security. We are hopeful that this collaboration will expand the knowledge base and speed the development of these environmental technologies.