Washington, DC – The US Department of Energy has made a number of grants to various projects to accelerate the production of sustainable biofuels. Awards totalling $118m were made to 17 companies and academic groups to help scale up biomass to biofuel projects.
One of these grants, for almost $5m, was made to Algenesis, and includes the its biodegradable algae-based PU as well as work on jet fuel. Algenesis is a spin-out of the University of California, San Diego, and has already commercialised various products made from its algal polyols, including biodegradable shoes.
Also of potential interest to the polyurethane sector is the project at Cranston, New Jersey-based RenewCO2. The company has developed a way to convert waste CO2 from bioethanol production into monoethylene glycol via electrolysis, potentially cutting the carbon emissions of the corn fermentation process by almost half. It will receive a grant of almost $500k.
A full list of the funded projects can be found on the DOE website.
