DOE Lab To Get the Biofuels Party (Re)started

Biofuels are sure taking their lumps recently. As British Members of Parliament renew polite, but stern calls for a moratorium on first generation biofuels, it may seem like a bad time to break the seal on your spanking new biomass research center. However, the the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Lab (PNNL) is opening a spanking new biomass lab in Richland, Washington that aspires to change the ethanol game for good.

PNNL is opening the $25 million facility with partner - and sweet party school - Washington State University at the college's Tri-Cities campus. Called the Bioproducts, Sciences, and Engineering Laboratory, the center's work will take shots at big ticket energy problems like finding alternatives to fossil fuels and reducing ethanol's troublesome carbon footprint.

Specific projects will focus on perfecting biochemical and thermochemical processes for turning cellulosic biomass into a more eco-friendly ethanol brew. "Cellulosic ethanol is a critical component of the President's comprehensive strategy to diversify our nation's energy sources in a sustainable manner, enhance energy security and address the serious challenge of global climate change," said Andy Karsner, DOE Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

Between games of beer pong, students will have the opportunity to take classes from, and work closely with, PNNL's researchers. And unlike most frat parties, what happens in the lab won't stay in the lab. The spacious 57,000 square foot chemistry set has enough room to allow industrial-size experiments that will help prove a technology's commercial worth.

Word on campus is that students are pretty excited, with one Abercrombied reveler being overheard saying, "Yeah, dude! Whooooo!." Well, he could have been whooing about the announcement, but there's a strong possibility he just misheard the word "ethanol."

*Brew-tiful photo above by Flickr-er lintmachine.