The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, also known as Berkeley Lab, has recently received a contract worth about $18 million as part of the Recovery Act for building a facility meant for the processing and development of sophisticated biofuels. This facility is funded by the Department of Energy (DOE) of the U.S. via its Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). This novel facility is meant to assist in marketing the latest type of biofuels by providing the modern testing services for upcoming technologies. This Advanced Biofuels Process Development Unit (PDU) is said to be the one and only facility of its type that is open for public usage.
Cathy Zoi, Assistant Secretary at DOE for EERE, publicly declared the grant during the Biomass 2010 conference held at Arlington, Virginia, on March 31, 2010. Her organization is said to monitor the Biomass Program of the DOE that received a grant of about $718 million from funds of the Recovery Act. The fund is meant for speeding up the biofuels commercialization process and to promote the sustainability of the bioindustry in the U.S.
Zoi further explained that the Department of Energy aims at formulating sustainable and cost-efficient state-of-the-art biofuels and the investment will be used by the Advanced Biofuels PDU in increasing the testing capacity and in introducing inventive methods on a larger scale. She added that increasing the use of clean energy technologies is vital to meet the challenges of climatic change and to create a sturdy domestic clean energy market.
The Energy Independence and Security Act defines the advanced biofuels as renewable fuels with 50% less emission of greenhouse gas during usage as compared to fossil fuels. The PDU is expected to have the potential to pretreat biomass and bioreactors to produce fungal or microbial enzymes that can digest biomass and convert it into simple sugars that can be fermented. The facility will also be able to ferment sugars or transform them into advanced biofuels and refines these fuels for testing in engines.
The unit is expected to be fully functional by the beginning of year 2011. The company’s location in the East Bay region of San Francisco is yet to be finalized. The Physical Biosciences Division of Berkeley Lab is expected to operate this new facility.