FOA: Algae Biofuel Yield (ABY)

The objective of the Advancements in Algal Biomass Yield (ABY) funding opportunity is to demonstrate, at a process development unit scale of one (1) acre cultivation equivalent, algal biofuel intermediate yield of 2,500 gallons of biofuel feedstock (or equivalent dry weight basis) per acre per year by 2018. The Biomass Technologies Office believes this target is an important milestone in reducing the cost of algal biofuels to cost-competitive levels on the way to achieving 5,000 gallons per acre by 2022. This FOA will focus on a longer-term (up to 60 months) effort to integrate research and development on comprehensive mid-scale processes from strain development to production of biofuel intermediates. This will complement and build upon the current body of research to support enhanced algal biomass yields. The FOA establishes one comprehensive topic area encouraging integrated research that focuses on the following three main priority areas: 1 ? Improvements in Algal Biomass Productivity; 2 ? Improvements in Preprocessing Technologies; and 3 ? Technical Advances that Enable Integration of Algal Biomass Unit Operations.