Ethanol Blog

LINCOLN, Neb. (DTN) -- Seventeen advanced biofuels projects received $118 million from the U.S. Department of Energy on Thursday, to accelerate a number of projects at universities and private companies, according to a DOE news release.

In all, the DOE awarded about $22.5 million to nine integrated biorefinery projects in California, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina and Utah.

Those projects include pre-pilot scale-put technologies for algae-based jet fuel, renewable diesel sustainable aviation fuel, renewable gasoline, marine fuel from biomass, as well as work on corn-stover sustainable aviation fuel.

Sixty-eight percent of the funding, or $80 million, was awarded to a Thomaston, Georgia,-based AVAPCO LLC. According to the company's website, AVAPCO was founded in 2011 with the mission of converting biomass into biofuels, biochemicals and renewable materials with net-zero emissions, http://www.granbio.com.br/….

Four companies, including three ethanol producers, received about $10 million for emissions-reduction projects. That includes Omaha-based Green Plains Inc.; Lincolnway Energy LLC in Nevada, Iowa; Marquis Inc. in Hennepin, Illinois; and RenewCO2 Inc. in Cranford, New Jersey. RenewCO2 Inc. is honing a technology that converts CO2 from ethanol into carbon-negative chemicals.

"By investing in these technologies, the projects will create good-paying jobs in rural and underserved communities in nine states," DOE said.

The DOE said the award recipients submitted plans to collaborate with local school districts to educate and "train the bioenergy workforce" of tomorrow.

"Additionally, the funded projects align with renewable fuels goals in the first-ever 'U.S. National Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonization,' a multi-agency framework for reducing emissions, creating a robust transportation workforce and securing America's energy independence. The projects also support the U.S. Sustainable Aviation Fuel Grand Challenge goal of enabling the production of 3 billion gallons of sustainable aviation fuel annually by 2030 and 35 billion gallons annually by 2050."

DOE said the projects would help the Biden administration's goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.

See the projects: https://www.energy.gov/…

Todd Neeley can be reached at todd.neeley@dtn.com

Follow him on Twitter @DTNeeley

(c) Copyright 2023 DTN, LLC. All rights reserved.