This fund funding opportunity announcement (FOA) will support municipalities and transit authorities with waste-to-energy solutions for converting organic waste into feedstocks for various clean transportation fuel products that can benefit local energy economies.

Organic waste streams from food waste, wastewater sludge, and industrial operations represent major sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and contribute to air and water quality degradation. Significant costs are associated with the management of these waste streams, including treatment, stabilization, hauling and disposal or tipping costs. This funding will also benefit communities by reducing other impacts associated with waste collection and landfilling of these wastes, including reducing heavy vehicle traffic, odors, and litter.

Topic Areas

The FOA supports two Topic Areas focused on aiding local communities develop strategies to manage their waste feedstocks use and create unique processes to produce low-carbon biofuels that reduce GHG emissions. Recognizing that communities may be at different stages in their sustainable waste management planning efforts, this FOA seeks a phased approach to address the above challenges through two Topic Areas:

• Topic Area 1: Feasibility Study Development Analyses – Topic Area 1 is aimed at helping move communities beyond a conceptualization phase by supporting more in-depth feasibility or scoping analysis. Often, staff and organizational capacity in communities (particularly in rural, remote, Tribal, or smaller communities) is limited. While technical assistance programs can accomplish some of these objectives, direct financial assistance can close this capacity gap. This Topic Areas will include activities such as feasibility studies, identification of transportation use cases, and sustainability indicator baselining. This topic aims to achieve the following three outcomes: explore the potential for local beneficial utilization of waste; quantify the transportation energy savings compared to current practices/fuel usage; and identify and quantify local environmental and social sustainability challenges and opportunities.
• Topic Area 2: Design Work and Experimental Validation – Topic Area 2 is targeted towards communities that have previously completed feasibility analysis and are seeking funding to further refine their project concept. Municipal and non-profit staff capacity and availability of funding often makes detailed design work out of reach for many communities and this topic aims to close that gap.

By the end of the project (Phase 1), recipients from Topic Area 2 will have done the following:

• Completed a Front-End Loaded – 3 (FEL-3) Basic Engineering Design Package
• Performed a detailed siting analysis that considers a variety of factors, including localized air quality (VOCs, particulate matter, and NOx, at a minimum), net impact on traffic, noise, odors, and other sustainability indicators identified through the prior feasibility analysis.
• Conducted a limited (up to 50% of the budget) amount of experimental work. The intent of this experimental work is to generate the data needed to refine the engineering design and/or data needed for permitting or air quality analysis.

At the conclusion of Phase 1, and subject to a down-select process, recipients will have the opportunity to construct and operate a pilot-scale system. Up to an additional $10,000,000 in federal funds will be available for these activities.