More Funding For Cellulosic Ethanol Research

The U.S. Department of Energy announced that it is giving $36bn in federal grants to six small scale projects across five states whose objective is to produce drop-in advanced biofuels and other bio-based chemicals. The ultimate goal of the projects is to improve the economics and efficiency of cellulosic ethanol, also known as second-generation ethanol, which converts non-food biomass into biofuels as well as bioproducts and biochemicals.

Secretary of Energy Steven Chu said the funding will help diversity the department’s Biomass Program portfolio and include fuels and chemicals beyond cellulosic ethanol.

The projects that received the funding were:

General Atomics: San Diego, California (up to $2 million)

Genomatica, Inc.: San Diego, California (up to $5 million)

Michigan Biotechnology Institute: Lansing, Michigan (up to $4.3 million)

HCL CleanTech, Inc.: Oxford, North Carolina (up to $9 million)

Texas Engineering Experiment Station: College Station, Texas (up to $2.3 million)

Virent, Madison: Wisconsin (up to $13.4 million)

Article by Antonio Pasolini, a Brazilian writer and video art curator based in London, UK. He holds a BA in journalism and an MA in film and television.