Biofuels and Bioenergy

Large-scale and rapid deployments of renewable power such as wind and solar are driving down both the carbon intensity and price of power. The transition to renewable power will help decarbonize every sector of the economy, which will increase environmental sustainability, energy security and economic competitiveness. However, grid integration challenges and disproportionate renewable power generation and use are preventing the most effective utilization of these resources and technologies to decarbonize fuel reliant sectors, such as the transportation sector, are not as advanced or readily deployable as wind and solar. Therefore, the U.S Department of Energy and its Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) are seeking to exploit the deployment of cheaper and cleaner renewable power to address these challenges and fundamentally change how organic carbon is synthesized from carbon dioxide. Specifically, one strategy that BETO is pursuing is re-imagining the carbon cycle without photosynthesis and it is exploring technologies that can efficiently leverage renewable power to productively utilize carbon dioxide to generate relevant organic chemical intermediates. This presentation will outline the social, economic and environmental implications of decoupling the production of renewable biofuels from the land sector by industrializing the non-photosynthetic conversion of carbon dioxide to useful products. Various

technologies and specific system configurations to enable enhanced carbon cycling to offer land-sparing organic feedstock for the advanced bioeconomy and to create tools that leverage renewable power to increase overall system efficiency, manage carbon, address climate change and support advanced bioproduct pathways for new economic opportunities will be discussed. Also, relevant organic intermediates, based on thermodynamic efficiencies and biological upgrading potential will be examined and contextualized in terms of associated pathway scalability. Finally, BETO’s efforts to exploit inexpensive power to supplement or reduce land use while generating low-carbon renewable biofuels as well as future opportunities and directions will be outlined.