The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) awarded $4.36 million in funding to seven projects as part of the 2023 Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) call by the Feedstock-Conversion Interface Consortium (FCIC). Funded and led by BETO, the FCIC is a consortium of researchers at nine national laboratories dedicated to reducing the risk of biorefinery scale-up.
Partnering laboratory researchers will collaborate with award recipients to understand, quantify, and mitigate the risk impact of feedstock variability across the bioenergy and bioproduct value chains. The following projects were selected:
| Selectee | Location | Project Title/Project Description | Federal Cost Share |
| Announced May 2024 | |||
| Alder Renewables | Boulder, CO (80302-6707) | Crude Platform to Enable Feedstock Flexibility for Refinery Integration Alder Renewables and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will work together to understand the impact of feedstock variability on bio-oil produced in the Alder Renewable Crude process. | $420,000 |
| Novastus | Cookeville, TN (38501-2102) | Optimization of Energy-Efficient Dewatering of Municipal Solid Waste Novastus will work jointly with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to better understand the impact of municipal solid waste (MSW) variability in Novastus’s unique drying process. | $545,000 |
| VERDE Nanomaterials | Davis, CA (95618-5487) | Impact of Feedstock Attributes on the Production of Affordable Nanocellulose VERDE Nanomaterials will collaborate with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory (INL), and NREL to improve VERDE’s novel lignocellulosic nanofibril production process. | $420,000 |
| West Biofuels | Woodland, CA (95776-9104) | Feedstock Characterization and Optimization for Gasification to Liquid-Fuel Synthesis West Biofuels and NREL will team up to investigate the impact of feedstock variability on the performance of the West Biofuels fluidized-bed gasification system. | $792,000 |
| Announced August 2023 | |||
| AMP Robotics | Louisville, CO (80027-3155) | Analysis and Testing of Feedstock for Gasification Generated from Novel MSW-Processing Technology AMP Robotics, INL and NREL will collaborate to characterize processed municipal solid waste (MSW) streams produced in AMP’s pilot facility. | $900,000 |
| Rawlings Manufacturing | Missoula, MT (59801-1424) | Improving the Durability and Efficiency of Wood Hogs by Investigating and Mitigating Wear Issues Rawlings Manufacturing will work together with ORNL and Argonne National Laboratory to address material wear issues in Rawlings’ vertical rear maintenance wood grinders. | $780,000 |
| Warren & Baerg | Dinuba, CA (93618-9518) | MSW Debaling and Material Separation Warren & Baerg and INL will join together to design, construct, and test a new head for deconstruction of residue bales from material recovery facilities (MRF). | $500,000 |
Learn more about the FCIC.
FCIC national laboratories partners include Argonne National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, the National Energy Technology Laboratory, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories.