The US Department of Energy is awarding $21 million to five projects aimed at developing systems for supplying large amounts of biomass feedstock for cellulosic biofuel.

The selected projects will design and demonstrate systems to harvest, collect, process, transport and store cellulosic feedstock such as agricultural waste, energy crops like switchgrass and forestry waste.

The awards will be made to two universities, Auburn University in Alabama and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in New York to investigate wood-based feedstock.

The three other awards will go to the private sector – Agco Corporation will develop systems for crop residues and energy crops, FDC Enterprises will work on harvesting and biomass harvesting machinery, while Genera Energy will look at the supply of switchgrass.

For further information:
www.energy.gov

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