DOE in 13 January 2010 announced about $80 million for biofuels projects, split between three consortia. WSU is one of several groups involved in each consortia and will receive funding as part of the two groups co-led by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, which is getting $14 million overall. For more details, see the DOE press release http://www.energy.gov/news2009/8519.htmFor WSU Tri-Cities, it means $620,000 of research funding as part of the National Advanced Biofuels Consortium. The work will be done by the WSU Center for Bioproducts and Bioenergy team based at the Bioproducts, Sciences, and Engineering Laboratory on the Richland campus.
“This is only the start of more great things to come in the BSEL building,” said Birgitte K. Ahring, director of WSU’s Center for Bioproducts and Bioenergy and Battelle Distinguished Professor. “This opportunity lays the groundwork for amazing partnerships nationwide and will help us find new ways to make fuels from non-food plants.”
The Bioproducts, Sciences, and Engineering Laboratory opened in May 2008 on the WSU Tri-Cities campus. Construction of the $24.8 million facility was a partnership between WSU and Battelle, which operates PNNL for the U.S. DOE. The building allows the organizations to work together to develop solutions to some of the nation’s largest energy problems, to strengthen opportunities to move technology into industry and to provide students with a hands-on educational experience (www.tricity.wsu.edu/bsel).
For the Pullman campus, $495,000 from the National Alliance for Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts consortium is for algae research to be conducted in the WSU College of Agriculture, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences, under Professor David Kramer with the Institute of Biological Chemistry. Kramer is a WSU “innovator” whose research focuses on increasing plant productivity and redirecting photosynthetic energy toward new and efficient biochemical pathways in effort to harness bioenergy. For more details on Dr. Kramer’s research, visit http://www.theinnovators.wsu.edu/F09-Oct20/default.aspx
WSU Tri-Cities is located along the scenic Columbia River in Richland, Wash. Established in 1989 with upper division and graduate programs, WSU Tri-Cities expanded in 2007 to a full four-year undergraduate campus offering 17 bachelor’s, 13 master’s, and six doctoral degrees. Learn more about the fastest growing and most diverse campus in the WSU system at www.tricity.wsu.edu
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory http://www.pnl.gov is a Department of Energy Office of Science national laboratory where interdisciplinary teams advance science and technology and deliver solutions to America's most intractable problems in energy, national security and the environment. PNNL employs 4,650 staff, has a $918 million annual budget, and has been managed by Ohio-based Battelle since the lab's inception in 1965.
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