DENVER—A consortium led by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory will receive up to nearly $34 million in federal stimulus funds to work on ways to make fuel from plant materials that can be used in existing pipelines and refineries.
A second group that includes Colorado State University and Colorado-based Solix Biofuels Inc. will receive $44 million to develop commercial biofuel from algae.
The National Advanced Biofuels Consortium is led by NREL in Golden and its primary research partner, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The group will spend about a year investigating six process options.
One or two of the processes will be chosen for a larger-scale demonstration project.
The second consortium is led by the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center of St. Louis. Solix, one of the participants, is working to commercialize algae-based fuels. It is a private company spun off from Colorado State through its Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory.
