Amendment 000001 - DOE is amending this FOA to extend the Full Application Submission Deadline, update the Replies to Reviewer Comments deadline, update the Expected Date for DOE Selection Notifications, and update the Expected Timeframe for Award Negotiations.
Inflation Reduction Act Funding for Advanced Biofuels FOA
DE-FOA-0003178
BETO’s 2024 Systems Development and Integration (SDI) FOA is funded by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022. IRA Section 60108(b) authorized funds to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for new grants to industry in advanced biofuels. EPA and DOE entered an Interagency Agreement to transfer the funds to DOE and allow DOE to manage a FOA with substantial involvement from EPA. The FOA’s topic areas are of mutual interest for both the EPA’s priority in the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program and DOE BETO’s priority in the Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Grand Challenge as well as SDI’s priority in supporting four demonstration-scale integrated biorefineries by 2030. For both topic areas of this FOA, the application must discuss how the proposed technology would meet the RFS definition of advanced biofuel, which means using allowable feedstocks, producing allowable fuel types, and with lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions reductions of at least 50% compared to petroleum baseline.
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 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 to the benefit of all Americans. For over a decade, EPA’s RFS program has helped develop the market for advanced biofuels, including the current production of billions of gallons of biomass-based diesel and renewable natural gas. These fuels reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% compared to the petroleum fuels they replace.
As shown in the RFS Program: Standards for 2023-2025 final rule, the RFS continues to expand by increasing renewable volume obligations, while monitoring how renewable fuel production impacts the environment, national energy security, national infrastructure, the cost of fuels to consumers, and the impacts on job creation, agricultural commodity prices and supplies, rural economic development, and food prices.
There is a need for more feedstocks and conversion technologies to enable more advanced biofuels with the lowest cost of production and the greatest reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. 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. This FOA will support the Biden Administration’s action items to produce 3 billion gallons of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) per year and reduce aviation emissions by 20% by 2030 towards unlocking the potential for a fully zero-carbon aviation sector by 2050.
This FOA also supports high-impact technology R&D to accelerate the bioeconomy. BETO is focusing on applied RD&D to improve the performance and reduce the 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 the aviation industry. Additionally, this FOA will reduce risks in processing or co-processing biointermediates in legacy refinery infrastructure.
- Topic Area 1: Pre-pilot Scale-Up of Integrated Biorefinery Technologies
- Topic Area 2: Biointermediate Processing Toolbox
Questions regarding the FOA must be submitted to IRAAdvancedBiofuelsFOA@ee.doe.gov.
The eXCHANGE system is currently designed to enforce hard deadlines for Concept Paper and Full Application submissions. The APPLY and SUBMIT buttons automatically disable at the defined submission deadlines. The intention of this design is to consistently enforce a standard deadline for all applicants.
Applicants that experience issues with submissions PRIOR to the FOA Deadline: In the event that an Applicant experiences technical difficulties with a submission, the Applicant should contact the eXCHANGE helpdesk for assistance (exchangehelp@hq.doe.gov). The eXCHANGE helpdesk and/or the EERE eXCHANGE System Administrators (eXCHANGE@ee.doe.gov) will assist the Applicant in resolving all issues.
Applicants that experience issues with submissions that result in a late submission: In the event that an Applicant experiences technical difficulties with a submission that results in a late submission, the Applicant should contact the eXCHANGE helpdesk for assistance (exchangehelp@hq.doe.gov). The eXCHANGE helpdesk and/or the EERE eXCHANGE System Administrators (eXCHANGE@ee.doe.gov) will assist the Applicant in resolving all issues (including finalizing the submission on behalf of, and with the Applicant's concurrence). DOE will only accept late applications when the Applicant has a) encountered technical difficulties beyond their control; b) has contacted the eXCHANGE helpdesk for assistance; and c) has submitted the application through eXCHANGE within 24 hours of the FOA's posted deadline.
Please see the full FOA in the DOCUMENTS section below.
The required Concept Paper due date for this FOA is 03/22/2024 at 5PM ET. The Full Application due date for this FOA is 6/14/2024 at 5PM ET.