Mines Renewable Energy Research Funded Through Seed Grants
Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels announces $500,000 for research

GOLDEN, Colo., Oct. 29, 2007 – A joint center of Colorado School of Mines, University of Colorado at Boulder, Colorado State University, National Renewable Energy Laboratory NREL and industry, has announced $500,000 in grants to 10 teams pursuing renewable energy research.

The Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels (C2B2) was founded in March 2007 by the Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory, a consortium involving all four institutions. The goal is to increase the production and use of energy from renewable resources, said C2B2 Executive Director Alan Weimer, a professor in CU-Boulder's chemical and biological engineering department.

The 10 winning proposals, each for $50,000, were selected by members of C2B2's 27 industry sponsors, including Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Dow Chemical and Shell Global Solutions. CU-Boulder led the way with five funded proposals, CSU and Mines each received two and NREL, a national laboratory of U.S. Department of Energy, was awarded one.

The two Mines awards include a project led by site director John Dorgan to integrate the creation of bio-plastics from plant by-products in existing refineries, while a second project involves the technological and economic analysis of a proposed thermo-chemical plant to produce biofuels from cellulose.

The NREL award, led by site director Al Darzins, involves establishing a bioenergy-focused algae strain collection. Darzins is collaborating with Mines' John Spear and Matt Posewitz to use cell sorting and robotic techniques to rapidly isolate and evaluate different species of micro-algae for their suitability in biofuel production.

“The mission of C2B2 is to improve the fundamental understanding of the conversion of biomass to fuels and products and develop viable technologies that can be commercialized by our industry partners in relatively short order,” said Weimer. “The message from these awards is that C2B2 is thriving, and we have a tremendous amount of interest from the private sector that is only going to grow.”

David Hiller, executive director of the Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory, said each of center's six thrusts — crop engineering, biochemical conversion using enzymes and organisms, thermo-chemical conversion, process engineering, product engineering and system engineering — were funded within the 10 proposals.

The center, which has a current budget of nearly $2 million, is funded by the four institutions, state matching funds and industry sponsor fees. The annual budget is expected to reach $5 million to $10 million in the next several years as sponsored research increases and memberships from industry collaborators grow, Weimer said. C2B2 is headquartered at CU-Boulder.

Weimer, who received one of the 10 awards, will use the funding to explore the use concentrated sunlight to convert algae into intermediate forms of synthesis gas, or syngas, which can subsequently be “shifted” to hydrogen or reformed to liquid fuels. Weimer is collaborating with NREL scientists on the project.

A second award to C2B2 managing director and CU-Boulder assistant professor Ryan Gill involves using genetic tools to engineer microbial communities known as biofilms that adhere to surfaces. More efficient biofilms can increase the production of biofuels made from the cellulose of plant leaves, stems and stalks, said Gill, who is collaborating with CSU co-investigator Ken Reardon on the effort.

Another CU-Boulder project involves developing specialized membranes to separate alcohol — a potent source of renewable energy — and water, which would eliminate the need for energy-sapping distillation processes often used for alcohol fuel production. A fourth CU-Boulder project involves the rapid screening of microbes to find particular types particularly well suited for energy conversion processes. The fifth CU proposal involves the recovery of sugar and enzymes during processes that break down complex carbohydrates like cellulose during biofuel production.

One of the two CSU winning proposals involves the genetic engineering of sugar beets, viewed by many as a model renewable energy crop. The second project, led by CSU site director Ken Reardon, involves new technologies to stimulate algae to produce high levels of oils that can be converted into bio-diesel.

“The biggest winners in the development of C2B2 will be the students,” Weimer said. “I can't imagine why any high school student interested in biofuels and renewable energy would consider leaving the state to attend college elsewhere with the opportunities C2B2 provides at the three Colorado universities.”

Graduate students at four institutions will meet twice a year with C2B2 industry partners to present their research findings, an opportunity CU-Boulder Vice Chancellor for Research Stein Sture said is unusual in the arena of higher education. “The chance for these students to find jobs in their fields when they have finished school is heightened considerably by these interactions with the companies,” said Sture, who also serves as dean of the graduate school.

In addition to fellowships for undergraduates, graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, C2B2 administrators plan to bring in 10-20 top undergraduates from around the nation as part of the Research Experience for Undergraduates Program to work with university and industry researchers, Weimer said. C2B2 administrators also are planning outreach activities to area K-12 schools, he said.

Industry sponsors can participate in discoveries and patents generated with the aim of commercializing the new technologies as soon as possible, said Gill. Sponsors also may enter into individual agreements to fund proprietary research through C2B2.

A podcast on C2B2 featuring Weimer can be accessed on the Web at: http://www.colorado.edu/news/podcasts/. For more information on C2B2 visit the Web at: http://www.colorado.edu/che/c2b2/index.html.

For more information, contact the following institutional C2B2 site directors: John Dorgan, CSM, 303-273-3539, jdorgan@mines.edu; Will Medlin, CU-Boulder, 303-492-2418, will.medlin@colorado.edu; Ken Reardon, CSU 970-491-6505, Kenneth.reardon@colostate.edu; and Al Darzins, NREL, 303-384-7757, al_darzins@nrel.gov.