Deadline: 3 April 2017
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) are seeking applications for its program entitled “Integrated Biorefinery Optimization.
Federal support for first-of-a-kind Integrated Biorefineries (IBRs) could significantly reduce the technical and financial risks associated with new technology deployment, thus accelerating the growth of the U.S. bioeconomy, reducing costs to consumers, enabling reductions in environmental pollution in the transportation sector and improving energy security.
Topics and Funding
The FOA includes four topic areas as follows:
- Topic Area 1: Robust, continuous handling of solid materials (dry and wet feedstocks, biosolids, and/or residual solids remaining in the process) and feeding systems to reactors. EERE may issue approximately 1-2 awards in this topic area with an anticipated estimated maximum per award amount up to $10,000,000.
- Topic Area 2: High value products from waste and/or other under-valued streams in an IBR. EERE may issue approximately 1-2 awards in this topic area with an anticipated estimated maximum award amount up to $3,000,000.
- Topic Area 3: Industrial separations within an IBR. EERE may issue approximately 1-2 awards in this topic area with an anticipated estimated maximum award amount up to $5,000,000.
- Topic Area 4: Analytical modeling of solid materials (dry and wet feedstocks, and/or residual solids remaining in the process) and reactor feeding systems. EERE may issue approximately 1-2 awards in this topic area with an anticipated estimated maximum award amount up to $1,800,000.
Program Challenges
Many of these challenges are related to:
- Complexity and variability of non-food feedstocks;
- Operational difficulties encountered with handling of solids in the production process;
- Recalcitrance of feedstocks to efficiently convert into products;
- Inhomogeneity of intermediates resulting in non-uniform heat and mass transfer during the manufacturing processes;
- Complex multi-step separation and purification steps;
- Non-monetization of byproducts and residual streams;
- Difficulties in translating bench-scale and pilot-scale learnings to the next step in scale-up such as demonstration-scale or pioneer-scale commercial level;
- Non-competitive cost of bioproducts due to higher capital and operational expenses; and
- Shortage of capital for long-term industrial projects.
Eligibility Criteria
- Individuals
- U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents are eligible to apply for funding as a Prime Recipient or Subrecipient.
- Domestic Entities
- For-profit entities, educational institutions, and nonprofits that are incorporated (or otherwise formed) under the laws of a particular State or territory of the United States are eligible to apply for funding as a Prime Recipient or Subrecipient.
- Nonprofit organizations described in section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 that engaged in lobbying activities after December 31, 1995, are not eligible to apply for funding.
- State, local, and tribal government entities are eligible to apply for funding as a Prime Recipient or Subrecipient.
- DOE/NNSA Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) are eligible to apply for funding as a Prime Recipient or Subrecipient.
- Non-DOE/NNSA FFRDCs are eligible to apply for funding as a Subrecipient, but are not eligible to apply as a Prime Recipient.
- Federal agencies and instrumentalities (other than DOE) are eligible to apply for funding as a Subrecipient, but are not eligible to apply as a Prime Recipient.
- Foreign Entities
- Foreign entities, whether for-profit or otherwise, are eligible to apply for funding under this FOA.
- Incorporated Consortia
- Incorporated consortia, which may include domestic and/or foreign entities, are eligible to apply for funding as a Prime Recipient or Subrecipient.
- Unincorporated Consortia
- Unincorporated Consortia, which may include domestic and foreign entities, must designate one member of the consortium to serve as the Prime Recipient/consortium representative.
How to Apply
Applications must be submitted online via given website.
Eligible Country: United States
For more information, please visit USDA-NIFA Call for Proposals.