Biomass Research and Development Initiative (BRDI)

A joint funding effort between the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for fiscal year (FY) 2012 was recently announced and requires that funded projects integrate all three legislatively mandated technical areas. These areas include: (1) Feedstocks development, (2) Biofuels and biobased products development, and (3) Biofuels and biobased products development analysis.

Feedstocks Development: Research, development, and demonstration activities regarding feedstocks and feedstock logistics (including harvest, handling, transport, preprocessing, and storage) relevant to production of raw materials for conversion to biofuels and biobased products.

Biofuels and Biobased Products Development: Research, development, and demonstration (R,D,&D) activities to support: (i) Development of diverse cost-effective technologies for the use of cellulosic biomass in the production of biofuels, bioenergy, and biobased products; and (ii) Product diversification through technologies relevant to the production of a range of biobased products (including chemicals, animal feeds, and cogeneration power) that potentially can increase the feasibility of fuel production in a biorefinery.

Biofuels and Biobased Products Development Analysis: The intent of this section and integrating all technical areas is to apply systems evaluation methods that can be used to optimize system performance and market potential and to quantify the project's impact on sustainability; therefore, successful applications will consider the life-cycle (cradle-to-grave) impacts including environmental, social, and economic implications that are attributable to the project. Successful projects should include these sustainability data in engineering process models and be used over the life of the project to improve the system and quantify sustainability impacts.