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Funding Opportunity Announcement up to $7 Million for Biomass Research to Develop Clean and Affordable Biofuels
:: 19 April, 2008
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced the issuance of a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for up to $7 million in federal funding over two years (FY 2008 – 2009) in advanced research and development in converting non-food based biomass to advance clean and affordable biofuels. Combined with private minimum cost share of 20 percent, up to $8.75 million would be invested in this research effort. DOE’s Biomass Program Manager, Jacques Beaudry-Losique, discussed the Biomass FOA in his opening remarks today at DOE’s Biomass 2008: Fueling Our Future conference in Alexandria, VA.
“By expanding the technical diversity and breadth of partners working to advance biofuels development, the Department is striving to change the way we power our nation’s vehicles,” Beaudry-Losique said. “Renewable energy sources must continue to play a growing role as we reduce our dependence on foreign oil, confront global climate change and secure clean reliable supplies of energy.”
Today’s FOA seeks to solicit applications for projects that can improve the conversion of biomass to advanced biofuels via pyrolysis – a process that uses heat to chemically decompose the lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose of biomass materials. DOE anticipates selecting up to five to seven projects under this announcement and will require a minimum of 20 percent cost share from applicants. The research aims to lower the production costs of bio-oils and expand the suite of biofuels produced and available in the United States.
The Department’s advanced research and development funding contributes to President Bush’s goals of making cellulosic ethanol cost-competitive by 2012. This research would also further the Department’s effort to advance biofuels as well as the President’s goal announced yesterday of slowing and stopping the growth of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2025. Funds for 2009 are subject to appropriations from Congress.
About Biomass
Biomass refers to living and recently dead biological material that can be used as fuel or for industrial production. Most commonly, biomass refers to plant matter grown for use as biofuel, but it also includes plant or animal matter used for production of fibres, chemicals or heat. Biomass may also include biodegradable wastes that can be burnt as fuel. It excludes organic material which has been transformed by geological processes into substances such as coal or petroleum.
Biomass is grown from several plants, including miscanthus, switchgrass, hemp, corn, poplar, willow, sugarcane and oil palm (palm oil). The particular plant used is usually not very important to the end products, but it does affect the processing of the raw material. Production of biomass is a growing industry as interest in sustainable fuel sources is growing.
Although fossil fuels have their origin in ancient biomass, they are not considered biomass by the generally accepted definition because they contain carbon that has been "out" of the carbon cycle for a very long time. Their combustion therefore disturbs the carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere.
Plastics from biomass, like some recently developed to dissolve in seawater, are made the same way as petroleum-based plastics, are actually cheaper to manufacture and meet or exceed most performance standards. But they lack the same water resistance or longevity as conventional plastics.
Biomass is part of the carbon cycle. Carbon from the atmosphere is converted into biological matter by photosynthesis. On death or combustion the carbon goes back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. This happens over a relatively short timescale and plant matter used as a fuel can be constantly replaced by planting for new growth. Therefore a reasonably stable level of atmospheric carbon results from its use as a fuel. It is commonly accepted that the amount of carbon stored in dry wood is approximately 50% by weight.
Though biomass is a renewable fuel, and is sometimes called a "carbon neutral" fuel, its use can still contribute to global warming. This happens when the natural carbon equilibrium is disturbed; for example by deforestation or urbanization of green sites. When biomass is used as a fuel, as a replacement for fossil fuels, it still puts the same amount of CO2 into the atmosphere. However, when biomass is used for energy production it is widely considered carbon neutral, or a net reducer of greenhouse gasses because of the offset of methane that would have otherwise entered the atmosphere. The carbon in biomass material, which makes up approximately fifty percent of its dry-matter content, is already part of the atmospheric carbon cycle. Biomass absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere during its growing lifetime. After its life, the carbon in biomass recycles to the atmosphere as a mixture of CO2 and CH4, depending on the ultimate fate of the biomass material. CH4 converts to CO2 in the atmosphere, completing the cycle. In contrast to biomass carbon, the carbon in fossil fuels is locked away in geological storage forever, unless extracted. The use of fossil fuels removes carbon from long-term storage, and adds it to the stock of carbon in the atmospheric cycle.
Energy produced from biomass residues displaces the production of an equivalent amount of energy from fossil fuels, leaving the fossil carbon in storage. It also shifts the composition of the recycled carbon emissions associated with the disposal of the biomass residues from a mixture of CO2 and CH4, to almost exclusively CO2. In the absence of energy production applications, biomass residue carbon would be recycled to the atmosphere through some combination of rotting (biodegradation) and opening burning. Rotting produces a mixture of up to fifty percent CH4, while open burning produces five to ten percent CH4. Controlled combustion in a power plant converts virtually all of the carbon in the biomass to CO2. Because CH4 is a much stronger greenhouse gas than CO2, shifting CH4 emissions to CO2 by converting biomass residues to energy significantly reduces the greenhouse warming potential of the recycled carbon associated with other fates or disposal of the biomass residues.
About Funding Opportunity Announcement
A funding opportunity announcement (FOA) is a notice in Grants.gov of a federal grant funding opportunity. Grants.gov lets organizations apply for grants for over 1,000 grant programs from 26 federal agencies.
Each FOA includes instructions -- a Grant Application Guide, and forms -- a Grant Application Package. NIH FOAs can be program announcements or requests for applications.
Funding Opportunity Numbers (FON) is a number that a federal agency assigns to its grant announcement. FON are currently unique within the Grants.Gov System, (an enhancement is currently in the works that will allow duplicate funding opportunity numbers within the system but they must still be unique within an Agency/Sub Agency.) It must not have special characters other than a “-“ (dash) in the number.
Tags: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) , Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) , biomass , biofuel , global climate change , cellulosic ethanol , gas emissions ,
