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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) announced on September 12, 2023, that it awarded $18.6 million in funding for eight university and industry projects to develop biomass feedstocks to produce affordable biofuels and bioproducts that reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. According to BETO, the projects “will create good-paying jobs, support rural economies, and encourage participation of underserved communities, all while putting the United States on a...

By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton   On July 27, 2023, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) announced that its Feedstock-Conversion Interface Consortium (FCIC) recently published eight new technical reports and case studies. According to BETO, the publications examine the environmental and economic impacts of a variety of feedstock characteristics and processing techniques: Life-Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emission Impacts of Forest Residue...

By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton   The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) announced on July 17, 2023, that it will host a Bioenergy Cybersecurity Workshop, a virtual event organized by Sandia National Laboratories on September 11, 2023, to identify cybersecurity risks in biofuel and bioproduct manufacturing, and develop an approach to address these risks. According to BETO, the workshop will raise awareness of the importance of cybersecurity in...

By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton   The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) hosted its 2023 Project Peer Review on April 3-7, 2023. During the event, more than 280 projects in BETO’s research, development, and demonstration portfolios presented their progress and accomplishments to the public and were reviewed by more than 50 external subject-matter experts from industry, academia, and federal agencies. The 2023 Project Peer Review...

By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton   The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) announced on May 30, 2023, that the Chemical Catalysis for Bioenergy Consortium (ChemCatBio) will hold a webinar on June 14, 2023, on “Perspectives on Engineered Catalyst Design and Forming.” ChemCatBio is a consortium of eight DOE national laboratories overseen by BETO. According to BETO, the performance evaluation, and ultimate commercial adoption, of...

By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton   The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced on May 24, 2023, the launch of the Clean Fuels & Products ShotTM, a new initiative that aims to reduce significantly greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from carbon-based fuels and products. DOE notes that this is its seventh DOE Energy Earthshot, which focuses on reducing carbon emissions from the fuel and chemical industry through alternative, more sustainable sources of carbon...

 By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton   The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) has launched a new, comprehensive web page dedicated to one of its priority subprograms, Renewable Carbon Resources (RCR), which helps develop RCR technologies and creates strategies for bioenergy and bioproducts production. In its May 19, 2023, announcement, BETO states that RCR supports applied research and pilot-scale projects for the production,...

By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton   The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) announced on May 15, 2023, that a new workflow developed by researchers at the Agile BioFoundry (ABF), a BETO-funded consortium of national laboratories and Agilent Research Laboratories (Agilent) addresses the need for faster analytical tools. According to BETO, the workflow “combines state-of-the-art analytical technologies with a machine learning-based...

The National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) will hold two public webinars providing an overview of the key activities of U.S. government agencies in tackling the challenge of plastic waste in the environment. NNI states that the plastic waste issue includes more than just solid waste accumulation. According to NNI, the breakdown of bulk plastics to micro- and nanoscale particles in the environment “has further challenged efforts to understand the potential human and environmental impacts of...

By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton   The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) and Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO) will host a workshop on “Transitioning to a Sustainable, Circular Economy for Plastics.” The June 8-9, 2023, workshop will convene stakeholders for a discussion of the current challenges and opportunities in transitioning to a sustainable domestic economy for plastics. According to DOE, it...