49 Projects from the Energy Biosciences Institute
The Energy Biosciences Institute, a first-of-its-kind, half-a-billion-dollar partnership between energy giant BP and the labs of UC Berkeley, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Lawrence Berkeley National, has published its list of the first 49 projects it will fund to the tune of $20 million. Christopher Somerville, director of the institute, told us in an interview last November that they have been working on this list for months; it includes projects like researching the guts of termites to learn about breaking down cellulose, as well as those that review current biofuels laws and regulations.
Somervile had also expressed concern that the negative mainstream media discussion of corn ethanol could poison the whole concept of biofuels before researchers ever got a chance to develop more environmentally attractive practices. But at the institute, he said, they will actually be looking at biofuel options from dedicated energy crops that have a 10-fold-plus energy return and no run-off. These 49 projects will do much to provide education for the public and shape the future of the industry.
The focus of the projects varies: Eight of them look at which plants and feedstocks are the most efficient to make biofuels (four of which look at the energy crop Miscanthus), 19 of them examine the best ways to break down biomass, five focus on the most efficient ways to produce biofuels, and 17 of them look at the societal, environmental and economic impacts of the industry.
While the hardcore science will provide the keys for the industry, this latter category has often been overlooked by researchers, and we’re particularly interested in seeing the results of some of these investigations. Specifically the research is looking into issues like how much land is available for biofuel production, and how will biofuel production effect the land and the availability of food crops. The institute says “the answers may assist policymakers as they attempt to regulate this transitioning industry.” With all the rhetoric and politics surrounding biofuels this election season, we definitely need answers to these questions.
Read details of all the projects here.
