The US Department of Energy will provide $6m for projects that deliver commercial-scale, low-cost lignocellulosic biomass feedstocks to biorefineries in the country.

This funding will support the development of integrated, cost-effective supply chain systems that lower time and costs to produce affordable, clean transportation energy options.

DoE is expected to select one or two multi-year projects that will be required to make a cost share contribution.

Cost sharing will include 20% towards research and development activities and 50% for demonstration activities.

This funding opportunity will focus on key challenges in large-scale biomass feedstock transportation, such as format and quality variability, storage stability, bulk and energy density, handling characteristics, and variable conversion performance.

According to a study conducted by the DoE’, biofuels could replace a third of the petroleum used in the US transportation system.

The expansion, however, will require leveraging existing infrastructure as well as designing and deploying new, cost-effective supply chain technologies that integrate harvesting, collection, preprocessing, transportation, and storage of the fuels.