CBE faculty are part of two renewed DOE Biotechnology Research Centers

The Department of Energy has announced $590 million in funding to renew four Biotechnology Research Centers across the United States, including two in which University of Wisconsin-Madison chemical and biological engineering faculty participate.

The centers include the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLRBC), led by the University of Wisconsin-Madison in partnership with Michigan State University and the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI) led by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Karen and William Monfre Professor Brian Pfleger and Hunt-Hougen Associate Professor Reid Van Lehn serve as co-investigators for GLRBC as well as Associate Professor Vatsan Raman, Assistant Professor Ophelia Venturelli and Assistant Professor Philip Romero, CBE faculty affiliates.

The center will receive a five-year funding extension to continue developing sustainable alternatives to gasoline, diesel and other hydrocarbon fuels as well as products currently made from petroleum. In 2023, the center will receive $27.5 million dollars, and could receive up to $147.5 million over five years contingent on the availability of Congressional funding.

The extension will allow scientists at GLBRC to continue foundational research to enable the breakthroughs needed for the cost-effective conversion of non-food plants into low-carbon replacements for jet fuel, diesel and other fossil fuels. Those biofuels are a key component of plans to decarbonize the transportation sector and advance a sustainable, safe and secure bioeconomy.

GLBRC researchers are also working to increase plant productivity and develop cost-effective processes to convert as much of the plant material as possible into chemicals used to make products like polyester, nylon, lubricants and plastics.

Over the past 15 years, GLBRC’s academic and industrial partnerships have yielded more than 1,700 scientific publications, 260 patent applications, 113 licenses or options and five startup companies. Besides MSU, the center includes collaborators at Princeton University, the University of British Columbia, Texas A&M University and Michigan Technological University.

Brian Pfleger and Richard L. Antoine Professor George Huber are investigators with CABBI, which also received a five-year extension.

CABBI integrates advances in agronomics, genomics, and synthetic and computational biology to increase the value of energy crops—using a “plants as factories” approach to grow fuels and chemicals in plant stems. They also research techniques to convert biomass into valuable chemicals while ensuring that its products are ecologically and economically sustainable. The goal of this holistic approach is to reduce U.S. dependence on fossil fuels.

UW-Madison is one of over 20 partner institutions collaborating on CABBI. The other two Bioenergy Research Centers renewed by the DOE are the Center for Bioenergy Innovation, led by DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the Joint BioEnergy Institute, led by DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

“To meet our future energy needs, we will need versatile renewables like bioenergy as a low-carbon fuel for some parts of our transportation sector,” says U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm, who announced the renewals. “Continuing to fund the important scientific work conducted at our Bioenergy Research Centers is critical to ensuring these sustainable resources can be an efficient and affordable part of our clean energy future.”

A previous version of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center press release was published by University Communications. A previous version of the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation press release was published by CABBI.

Featured image caption: Researchers at DOE-funded bioenergy research centers are finding ways to turn non-food crops, like this switchgrass, into renewable energy sources. Credit: Chelsea Mamott/Wisconsin Energy Institute.