In the United States (US), the Department of Energy (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) has announced that it has awarded US$2.18 million in funding to three 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 technical risks 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:
- Analysis and Testing of Feedstock for Gasification Generated from Novel MSW-Processing Technology(US$900 000) – AMP Robotics, Louisville, Colorado (CO) will work with Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to characterize processed municipal solid waste (MSW) streams produced in AMP’s pilot facility.
- Improving the Durability and Efficiency of Wood Hogs by Investigating and Mitigating Wear Issues(US$780 000) – Rawlings Manufacturing, Inc., Missoula, Montana (MT) will work with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) to address material wear issues in Rawlings’ vertical rear maintenance wood grinders.
- MSW Debaling and Material Separation(US$500 000) – Warren & Baerg Manufacturing, Inc., Dinouba, California (CA) will work with INL to design, construct, and test a new head for the deconstruction of residue bales from material recovery facilities (MRF).
