Green Technology

... "The award, in the neighborhood of $125 million during five years, establishes the DOE Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC), where scientists and engineers will conduct basic research toward a suite of new technologies to help convert cellulosic plant biomass - cornstalks, wood chips and perennial native grasses - to sources of energy for everything from cars to electrical power plants. The other two DOE Bioenergy Research Centers are the DOE BioEnergy Research Center, led by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and the DOE Joint BioEnergy Institute, led by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif. The research portfolio of the DOE GLBRC will focus on breeding new varieties of biomass plants, developing new processing techniques and agents from microbes for breaking down cellulose, improving the microbial and chemical processes that convert biomass to energy products, providing an environmental and economic framework for sustaining the biomass-to-fuel pipeline, and integrating new technologies - including genomics and new computational methods - into bioenergy research. " ...

Via University of Wisconsin-Madison: Major bioenergy initiative takes flight in Midwest

Via DOE: DOE Bioenergy Research Centers: "The mission of the DOE Bioenergy Research Centers is to conduct systems biology research on microbes and plants, with the goal of harnessing nature’s own powerful mechanisms for producing energy from sunlight. A major focus will be on understanding how to reengineer biological processes for more efficient conversion of plant fiber, or cellulose, into ethanol, a substitute for gasoline. "

Via Oak Ridge National Laboratory: DOE bioenergy center: "Funded by the Department of Energy's Office of Science, the DOE Bioenergy Science Center will be located on the ORNL campus in a new facility funded by the state and owned by the University of Tennessee. The center will employ the interdisciplinary expertise of the team's partners in biology, engineering and agricultural science and commercialization to develop processes for converting plants including switchgrass and poplar trees into fuels. "

Via Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: DOE Bioscience Center: "The DOE JBEI researchers will tackle key scientific problems that currently hinder the cost-effective conversion of lignocellulose into biofuels and other important chemicals. They will also develop the tools and infrastructure to accelerate future biofuel research and production efforts, and help transition new technologies into the commercial sector. The goal of the DOE JBEI is to achieve measurable success within the next five years. "