the ebi: applying bioscience
to the global energy challenge
The Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI), largest public-private partnership of its kind in the world, was created in 2007 to address one of the 21st Century’s greatest challenges – finding a technological solution to the problems associated with climate change, global warming, and the rising price and diminishing supplies of carbon-based fossil fuels.
The partner institutions – the University of California, Berkeley; the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; and the international energy company BP, which funds the research – are addressing bioenergy concerns on several fronts. Their 10-year, $500 million quest seeks sustainable, environmentally friendly plant-based fuels to join a balanced portfolio of responsible, renewable energy sources.
The EBI is comprised of more than 70 programs and projects involving over 300 scientists and students engaged in investigations within five multidisciplinary fields.
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Feedstock Development
Scientists are examining the fuel-producing capabilities of grasses like switchgrass and Miscanthus and other plants that can be grown in a sustainable way, using less or lower-grade land, minimal water and lower energy to create cellulosic biofuel for transport. -more-
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Biomass Depolymerization
Nature has evolved a unique, complex system to break down cellulose for energy, and EBI researchers seek to unlock the mysteries of plant deconstruction, right now the most expensive part of making biofuels. -more-
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Biofuels Production
The conversion of plant sugars into fuels presents another daunting challenge to scientists, working to develop efficiencies and economies that improve the present system of ethanol fermentation. -more-
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Fossil Fuel Bioprocessing
Researchers at the EBI are examining ways in which biological tools, like microbial activity, might maximize the oil that can be recovered from existing wells, reducing the need for drilling new wells and creating a more environmentally friendly extraction process. -more-
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Environmental, Social and Economic Dimensions
A new cellulosic biofuels industry, once established, will have societal dimensions that EBI economists, ecologists and lawyers are addressing to ensure that the field is developed in ways that protect the earth, preserve food supplies, and responsibly utilize natural resources. -more-
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