This funding opportunity announcement (FOA) supports high-impact technology research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RD&D) to accelerate the bioeconomy via the production of low-carbon fuels for the aviation, marine, rail, and heavy-duty industries, and renewable chemical production with dramatically reduced lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared to the petroleum incumbent. DOE’s Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) is focused on RD&D to improve the performance and reduce cost of biofuel and renewable chemical production technologies and scale-up production systems in partnership with industry. By reducing cost and technical risk, BETO can help pave the way for industry to deploy commercial-scale integrated biorefineries and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from hard-to-decarbonize sectors, such as the aviation industry. Under the current BETO vision, these biomass feedstocks will be developed for use in the production of renewable fuels and chemicals through a variety of conversion technologies. BETO is focused on developing and demonstrating technologies that are capable of producing low-carbon, cost-effective biofuels and products by 2030, via production pathways that can deliver at least 70% lower lifecycle GHG emissions than petroleum. BETO further aims to support the demonstration of 4-5 fully integrated biorefineries, thereby increasing the number of proven pathways to produce sustainable aviation fuels, as well as sustainable marine, heavy-duty truck, off-road vehicle, and rail fuels, by 2030.

This FOA continues BETO’s multi-year biorefinery scale-up strategy to fill the RD&D-to-industry pipeline as technologies are ready to scale, ultimately demonstrating feedstock conversion or production pathways to support commercialization of sustainable transportation fuels and renewable chemicals.

There are three topic areas in this FOA:

Topic Area 1: Pilot Scale-up of Integrated Biorefineries – Topic Area 1 will identify, evaluate, and select applications proposing project definition, development, and execution plans for the scaling of pre-pilot biofuel and bioproduct technologies to pilot scale, including only the following activities:

• the manufacturing of sustainable aviation fuel, heavy-duty truck fuel, off-road vehicle fuel, sustainable marine fuel, and/or sustainable rail fuel;
• fuels may be liquid or gaseous at standard temperature and pressure;
• novel process technologies that leverage existing first generation, grain starch, biorefinery assets and infrastructure; and/or
• novel process technologies that leverage U.S.-produced, oilseed crops that meet all other metrics of Topic Area 1, including achieving at least 70% GHG reductions. This activity may include the utilization of oil-seed cover crops, the co-processing of intermediates and oilseed oils, blending of SAFs from various feedstocks, among other innovative concepts.

Topic Area 2: Demonstration Scale-up of Integrated Biorefineries – Topic Area 2 will identify, evaluate, and select applications proposing project definition, development, and execution plans for the scaling of pilot biofuel and bioproduct technologies to demonstration scale, including only the following activities:

• the manufacturing of sustainable aviation fuel, heavy-duty truck fuel, off-road vehicle fuel, sustainable marine fuel, and/or sustainable rail fuel;
• fuels may be liquid or gaseous at standard temperature and pressure;
• novel process technologies that leverage existing first generation, grain starch, biorefinery assets and infrastructure; and/or
• novel process technologies that leverage US-produced, oilseed crops that meet all other metrics of the topic area, including achieving at least 70% GHG reductions. This can include the utilization of oil-seed cover crops, the co-processing of intermediates and oilseed oils, blending of SAFs from various feedstocks, among other innovative concepts.

Topic Area 3: Scale-up of Organic Chemical Pathways – Topic Area 3 supports scale-up activities for the production of organic chemicals from renewable biomass and waste feedstocks that can replace those currently derived from petroleum. The U.S. bulk chemicals industry accounted for 274 million metric tons (MMT) of CO2 emissions in 2020. This substantial carbon footprint can be broadly attributed to a combination of the fossil carbon input required in production as well as the high energy requirements to convert that carbon to the targeted product. While other sectors of the economy can completely decarbonize at the point of end-use, most of the organics, petrochemicals, and polymer resins produced and used in the US today will remain carbon-based for the foreseeable future. These chemicals make up approximately 40% of the overall GHG footprint of the chemicals industry, and the use of alternative carbon feedstocks such as biomass, municipal solid waste, and CO2 provides an opportunity to not only reduce the carbon footprint of the input material but also a route to conversion strategies of that require less energy. In 2004, DOE published a report highlighting top value-added chemicals from biomass. In the ensuing decades, process technology to produce organic chemicals from renewable feedstocks has matured. Such technologies are the target of Topic Area 3 and are essential for achieving a net-zero economy by 2050.

To that end, Topic Area 3 supports the scale-up of processes to pilot- (TRL 6) or demonstration-scale (TRL 7) integrated processes to produce organic chemicals from renewable carbon and waste feedstocks through biochemical, thermochemical, or electrochemical conversion technologies. This Topic Area targets process technologies which convert acceptable feedstocks into chemicals that displace their incumbent fossil-derived counterparts and achieve at least an 85% reduction in lifecycle GHG emissions.

Topic Area 3 is intended for projects that have all prior-scale data and are ready to design, construct and operate a pilot- or demonstration-scale facility. Projects selected under Topic Area 3 may have an opportunity to construct and operate their designed pilot- or demonstration-scale facility.