WASHINGTON (July 16, 2024) — Five teams of researchers working to develop the science to create energy, animal feed, and other essential products from sustainable materials have been selected to join the Virtual Institute on Feedstocks of the Future (VIFF). The institute is a partnership between Schmidt Sciences and the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) to enhance collaboration across scientific and technological disciplines with the ultimate goal of transforming natural materials, or biomass, into key products in a circular, fossil-fuel-free economy.
Byproducts from industry, agriculture, forestry and cities are abundant and can be leveraged as starting materials for products in a more sustainable, circular bioeconomy. Replacing petroleum-based feedstocks has the potential to increase the environmental sustainability of manufacturing; increase local sourcing in the industry; provide new revenue sources for farmers, ranchers and municipalities; and support supply-chain resilience.
“Carbon is all around us, whether it’s the byproduct of an orchard harvest or solid waste from cities, but right now, it’s too expensive to extract and use,”, said Schmidt Sciences program scientist Dr. Genevieve Croft, who is directing VIFF. “Turning the carbon we have into the carbon we want is a critical challenge. VIFF aims to accelerate the timeline of the science needed through interdisciplinary research collaboration.”
“Feedstocks – from agricultural residues, like corn stover, or forestry residues, like sawdust – have potential to become useful products, though the process to get there can be logistically and financially challenging,” said FFAR Scientific Program Director Dr. John Reich. “VIFF focuses on driving collaboration to catalyze innovative solutions.”
Schmidt Sciences and FFAR have committed up to a total of $47.3 million over five years to the five projects below to create VIFF.
BioCircular Valley
Led by: Blake Simmons, Biological Systems & Engineering, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory & Corinne Scown, Energy Biosciences Institute, University of California, Berkeley
To bring economic livelihood and sustainability to California’s North San Joaquin Valley, one of the country’s most vital agricultural regions, the BioCircular Valley team aims to generate public datasets to map underused biomass, catalog conversion technologies that can turn that biomass into products and quantify how much those processes can yield.
Wet Agricultural Value Enhanced Separations
Led by: Luke Williams, Idaho National Laboratory & Owen McDougal, Food and Dairy Innovation Center, Boise State University
The team is using advanced material separations and drying, product characterization, and feedstock formulation to convert food production and processing wastes into clean energy and water. The techniques aim to reduce shipping and food production costs and fossil fuel consumption and promote sustainable operations.
Dairy Industry Waste Valorization
Led by: Gregory Stephanopoulos, Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology & Anand Sundaresan, Green Plains, Inc.
This project aims to address a serious environmental and economic problem – the creation of acid whey in the yogurt and cheese production process – by turning acid whey into nutrients for animal feed using microbes.
Sargassum Biorefinery
Led by: Jose Avalos, Princeton University; Shishir Chundawat, Rutgers University & Loretta Roberson, Marine Biological Laboratory
With coastal communities facing significant environmental and economic challenges from excessive seaweed, this team is using a carbon-neutral or negative refinery-style process to convert Sargassum seaweed into fuel, animal feed, and other useful products.
Center for Mineral and Oxide Removal from Biomass
Led by: George Huber & Styliani Avraamidou, Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Working with abundantly available municipal solid waste and contaminated, highly variable biomass, this project is turning those materials into pellets that can be used to make low-carbon fuel, chemicals and other products.
