The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) intends to issue, on behalf of the Bioenergy Technologies Office, a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled “Project Definition for Pilot and Demonstration Scale Manufacturing of Biofuels, Bioproducts, and Biopower (PD2B3)”.

This FOA supports technology development plans for the manufacture of drop-in hydrocarbon biofuels, bioproducts, or biopower in a pilot- or demonstration-scale integrated biorefinery. Scale-up and validation of these process technologies are essential to enable the industry to build future pioneer- and commercial-scale manufacturing facilities. Plans for facilities that use cellulosic biomass, algal biomass, or biosolids feedstocks will be considered under this funding opportunity.    

Under this FOA, applicants must address one comprehensive topic area with three main priority areas:

  1. Pilot-scale production of biofuels from high impact cellulosic, algal, or biogas feedstocks  
  2. Demonstration-scale production of biofuels from high impact cellulosic, algal, or biogas feedstocks  
  3. Production of biopower, bioproducts, and biofuels from biosolids and other waste streams. 

EERE envisions awarding multiple financial assistance awards in the form of cooperative agreements with an estimated period of performance of approximately one to two years for the design phase of each award. Selected projects will participate in a down-select review at the end of the design phase. The review will evaluate projects against predetermined criteria and, in turn, reduce the number of projects that move into the construction and operations phase. The review aims to generate a number of robust projects that will be better prepared to execute the second phase of the project and receive Phase II funding.

This Notice of Intent (NOI) is intended to make interested parties aware of EERE’s intention to issue this FOA in the near term. All of the information in this NOI is subject to change. EERE will not respond to questions concerning this NOI, however, once the FOA has been released, EERE will provide an avenue for potential applicants to submit questions.

The FOA is expected to be posted on the EERE Exchange on or about May 2, 2016. To see the full NOI, visit the EERE Exchange website. To receive official notifications and information regarding this FOA, applicants should register in EERE Exchange. When the FOA is released, applications will only be accepted via EERE Exchange.