SAAFA: USA

​USDA Announces Investments in Bioenergy Research and Development

In the frame of President Obama’s strategy to spur innovation of clean bioenergy in the United States and reduce dependence on foreign oil, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced $25 million to fund research and development of next-generation renewable energy and high-value biobased products from a variety of biomass sources.
Four projects have been selected for funding through USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA):

• Kansas State University (5 M$) to make the oilseed crop camelina a cost-effective biofuel and bioproduct feedstock - Camelina production will be incorporated into a cropping system with wheat-based crop rotations in Montana and Wyoming;
• Ohio State University (6.5 M$) for an anaerobic digestion system for the production of liquid transportation fuels and electricity from animal manure, agricultural residues, woody biomass and energy crops - the novel anaerobic digestion system will be integrated with partial oxidation and Fisher-Tropsch technologies to produce gasoline;
• Ceramatec, Inc. (6.5 M$) for the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to infrastructure-compatible renewable diesel, biolubricants, animal feed and biopower - new hybrids of energy sorghum will be developed, and other biomass resources include switchgrass and forestry residues, the biomass will be converted to hydrocarbons using innovative pretreatment, fermentation and electrochemical technologies;
• USDA-Agricultural Research Service (6.8 M$) to develop an on-the-farm distributed technology for converting forest residues, horse manure, switchgrass and other perennial grasses into biofuels and high-value specialty chemicals - the process will use a patent-pending unit that will mimic the petroleum industry's catalytic cracking process.

Grant recipients are required to contribute a minimum of 20 percent matching funds for research and development projects and 50 percent matching funds for demonstration projects.

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