Federal stimulus funding will aid efforts at California’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to provide cutting-edge biofuel development facilities to small businesses and start-ups.
The laboratory recently received an $18 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to establish the Process Development Unit, where researchers will work on developing biofuels for industrial production. The unit-which will be a part of the laboratory’s Joint BioEnergy Institute-is slated to open in six to nine months, according to UC Berkeley professor Jay Keasling, who is CEO of the institute.
Small companies can rent space and equipment to conduct experiments at the unit, which will operate out of the institute’s Emeryville facility, he said. Though the technology to develop biofuels already exists, research at the unit may create a commercial form of the alternative fuel source.
“We engineer microbes to consume sugars and turn them into fuels,” Keasling said. “The technology exists at a small scale. This facility is a place where you would grow these microbes at larger volumes and test how they would scale up.”
The laboratory received a $500 million grant from energy giant BP in 2007 to spearhead an effort aimed at developing biofuels for eventual commercial use.
Industrializing the biofuel technology at the proposed unit will provide incentives for individuals to start their own companies and for small companies to expand, all while stimulating the economy, Keasling added.
“The whole idea is that (the Department of Energy is) supplying money to turn basic science into licensed technology that companies will use,” he said.
Biofuel technology may stand a much better chance of being accepted by consumers if members of the public better understand exactly how the technology works, according to professor Jeff Reimer, chair of the UC Berkeley department of chemical engineering.
“What makes the Process Development Unit special is that members of our community can go in and see what’s happening,” Reimer said. “Imagine 100 years ago, imagine Chevron telling the public their refinery is open to all. People will be able to learn what it takes to manufacture biofuel.”