Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced up to $35 million in funding for bioenergy feedstock technologies and algae research and development. This funding opportunity announcement (FOA) supports the White House priority for advancing the domestic bioeconomy, as well as the Bioenergy Technologies Office’s goals of improving the performance and lowering the cost and risk of technologies that can be used to produce biofuels, biopower, and bioproducts.

Topic Areas include:

• Characterization of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) to Enable Production of Conversion-Ready Feedstocks (up to $15M):

(a) Measurement of variability of key MSW characteristics within and across unique MSW streams

(b) Development of novel methods for rapid/real-time measurements.

• Algae Productivity Exceeding Expectations (APEX) (up to $20M):

(a) Improvements in productivity with traditional carbon dioxide (CO₂) supply

(b) Improvements in productivity with Direct Air Capture (DAC) of CO₂ from ambient air.

The Feedstock Technologies Topic Area will focus on the characterization of MSW streams. Projects will work on understanding MSW variability and informing the steps necessary to produce conversion-ready feedstock. The Advanced Algal Systems Topic Area looks to improve seasonal productivity of algae via a diverse portfolio of strains and improvement approaches. Projects will develop tools to accelerate current and future strain and cultivation improvements.

The application process will include two phases: a concept paper and a full application. Concept papers are due on February 1, 2021, and full applications are due on April 5, 2021.

For more information, please visit the EERE Program Information Center and Grants.gov.