$40 million USDA grant announced for UW-led research
Rick Gustafson and Renata Bura
The University of Washington and Washington State University are leads for two separate grants of $40 million each that will use Pacific Northwest woody biomass to expand what’s been a Midwest-centric biofuels industry into Washington, Oregon, Idaho, western Montana and northern California.
The five-year awards are the largest announced on Sept. 28 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Grants of between $15 million and $25 million are going to each of three other projects led by institutions in Tennessee, Louisiana and Iowa.
“These grants will help us develop our own regional industry and create jobs,” says Richard Gustafson, principal investigator of the UW-led grant and a UW professor of forest resources. “For the UW-led grant alone, a successful demonstration project over the next five years will lay the foundation to build five commercial biorefineries and cultivate 400,000 acres of poplars, resulting in 1,500 direct jobs, mostly in rural areas.”
Research Focus
The Biofuels and Bioproducts Laboratory is interested in all aspects of the bioconversion of lignocellulosic material to biofuels and bioproducts. We work with many types of biomass, from wood waste to agricultural residues (wheat straw, sugarcane bagasse) to energy crops (Giant reed, Arundo donax). By utilizing plant biomass that is either of low value for other products or can be grown on marginal land with minimal energy inputs, we can ensure that the biofuels and bioproducts produced are sustainable both environmentally and economically.
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