The Auburn University's Department of Biosystems Engineering has been awarded $4.9 million to help develop systems which will handle, deliver and lower the cost of biomass feedstock from the seed to the pump.
Feedstock is raw material, usually plant or agricultural waste, that can be processed into fuel.
"Our feedstock is going to be woody biomass with the kind of the trees and things we have all around us here in the South," said Steven Taylor, head and director of the department of biosystems engineering.
Biomass is a clean, renewable energy source that can help diversify transportation fuels in the U.S., according to the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) News Web site.
Auburn University was one of the five projects awarded the federal grant by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for the biofuel project.
The awards are part of the DOE's continuing efforts to reduce the U.S.'s dependence on foreign oil, spur the creation of the domestic bio-industry and provide new jobs in many rural areas of the country, according to a U.S. DOE press release.
The projects were selected because of their ability to stimulate the design and demonstration of a comprehensive system to handle the harvesting, collection, processing, transport and storage of sufficient volumes of sustainably produced feedstocks, according to the DOE press release.
The feedstock will be used to produce ethanol.
"The target goal for the DOE is to produce 32 billion gallons of biofuel by the year 2022," Taylor said. "We produce nine or 10 billion right now, so that is a long way to go."
President Obama announced at a press conference in May his administration is taking several steps to progress biofuels research.
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