Amendment 000001: The purpose of this amendment is to remove the Risk Mitigation Plan for Topic Areas 1b and 1c; update Appendix G - Acceptable Feedstocks, to correct an error and reconcile Topic Area 3a requirements with the text of the FOA; and update Appendix H - Supplemental Content Requirements and Instructions. See FOA DE-FOA-0002396/00001 for details.
Building a clean and equitable energy economy and addressing the climate crisis is a top priority of the Biden Administration. This FOA will advance the Biden Administration’s goals to achieve carbon pollution-free electricity sector by 2035 and to “deliver an equitable, clean energy future, and put the United States on a path to achieve net-zero emissions, economy-wide, by no later than 2050.“[1] The Department of Energy (DOE) is committed to pushing the frontiers of science and engineering, catalyzing clean energy jobs through research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RDD&D), and ensuring environmental justice and inclusion of underserved communities.
In support of these Administration priorities, the Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) is focused on developing technologies that convert domestic biomass and other waste resources (e.g., municipal solid waste, biosolids) into low-carbon biofuels and bioproducts. These bioenergy technologies can enable a transition to a clean energy economy, create high-quality jobs, support rural economies, and spur innovation in renewable energy and chemicals production – the bioeconomy. The activities funded through this opportunity will mobilize public clean energy investment in the biofuels, chemical and agricultural industries, accelerate the deployment of bioenergy technologies, and support achieving economy-wide net-zero emissions by 2050.
This FOA supports high-impact technology RDD&D to accelerate the bioeconomy and, in particular, the production of low-carbon fuels for the aviation industry. BETO is focusing on applied RDD&D to improve the performance and reduce cost of biofuel production technologies and scale-up production systems in partnership with industry. By reducing cost and technical risk, BETO can help pave the way for industry to deploy commercial-scale integrated biorefineries and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from hard to decarbonize sectors, such as aviation. The Program is focused on developing and demonstrating technologies that are capable of producing low-carbon drop-in biofuels at $2.50 per gallon gasoline equivalent (GGE) by 2030, as well as associated renewable chemical co-products to achieve this target.[2] BETO is focused on biofuel production pathways that can deliver at least 70% lower lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions than petroleum.
The research and development (R&D) activities to be funded under this FOA will support the government-wide approach to the climate crisis by driving the innovation that can lead to the deployment of clean energy technologies, which are critical for climate protection. Specifically, this FOA will support high-impact RDD&D focusing on the production of low-GHG fuels for the aviation industry, as well as the long-haul trucking and marine industries by soliciting proposals to scale-up technologies; cost effectively produce biomass derived sugars as an intermediate for the production of biofuels and bioproducts; and support cost effective separation technologies. In addition, the FOA will support increasing the efficiency of residential wood heaters and the production of renewable natural gas.
An informational webinar will be held on April 16th, 2021 at 3:00 PM ET. The webinar will review the Funding Opportunity Announcement and Merit Review process, but will only discuss Topic Area 1: Scale-up of Biotechnologies specific requirements due to the complex nature of the topic area. Please note, there are no particular advantages or disadvantages to the application evaluation process with respect to participating in the webinar. Your participation is completely voluntary. Please register for the webinar at: https://www.energy.gov/eere/bioenergy/events/webinar-scale-biotechnologies
The informational webinar slides have been uploaded to the Announcement Documents section below. The informational webinar recording has been posted to YouTube. Interested parties to this FOA can view the webinar at the following link:
https://youtu.be/3fGLrGbYpy4
Questions regarding the FOA must be submitted to FY21BETOMultiTopicFOA@ee.doe.gov.
Answers to the questions will be posted to an excel spreadsheet found in the announcement Documents section of the FOA posting.
EERE Exchange is designed to enforce the deadlines specified in this FOA. The “Apply” and “Submit” buttons will automatically disable at the defined submission deadlines. Should applicants experience problems with EERE Exchange, the following information may be helpful.
Applicants that experience issues with submission PRIOR to the FOA deadline: In the event that an applicant experiences technical difficulties with a submission, the applicant should contact the EERE Exchange helpdesk for assistance (EERE-ExchangeSupport@hq.doe.gov). The EERE Exchange helpdesk and/or the EERE Exchange system administrators will assist applicants in resolving issues.
Applicants that experience issues with submissions that result in late submissions: In the event that an applicant experiences technical difficulties so severe that they are unable to submit their application by the deadline, the applicant should contact the EERE Exchange helpdesk for assistance (EERE-ExchangeSupport@hq.doe.gov). The EERE Exchange helpdesk and/or the EERE Exchange system administrators will assist the applicant in resolving all issues (including finalizing submission on behalf of and with the applicant’s concurrence). Please note, network traffic is at its heaviest during the final hours and minutes prior to submittal deadline. Applicants who experience this during the final hours or minutes and are unsuccessful in uploading documents will not be able to use this process.
[1] Executive Order 14008, “Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad,” January 27, 2021.
[2] U.S. Department of Energy (2020), Bioenergy Technologies Office 2019 R&D State of Technology, DOE/EE-2082, https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2020/07/f76/beto-2019-state-of-technology-july-2020-r1.pdf