The Department of Energy will give $125 million to fund a biofuel research center that will be lead by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The Bioenergy Science Center will also receive $61 million from the state of Tennessee and will be owned by the University of Tennessee.

The center will conduct research centered around converting cellulose from switchgrass and poplar trees into ethanol. Areas of research include developing plants whose cellulose and lignin can be more easily broken down into sugar, organisms that can break down the plants into fuel, and new processes for breaking down plant cell walls to get to the cellulose more easily.

Cellulosic ethanol is more than likely the fuel that will be powering flex fuel vehicles in the future since corn-based ethanol lacks the energy density to make it practical to displace even a small percentage of petroleum. Research like this is key to creating sustainable transportation, and public funds should be directed here with the intent to license the technology to companies to get back some of the tax dollars.

Also participating in the project are Dartmouth College, the University of Georgia, the Georgia Institute of Technology, the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and companies ArborGen. Verenium and Mascoma.