Ready to fill your tank with something other than gasoline? Next generation biofuels got a boost earlier this year when the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI) funded its first batch of research. The EBI, supported with a $500 million gift from global energy giant BP, unites researchers from a variety of disciplines at UC Berkeley, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) to develop alternative fuels. In a highly competitive process, the institute allotted roughly $20 million to kick-start 49 projects, two led by engineering faculty:

Project: Microbial characterization facility  

Principal investigator: Adam Arkin, professor bioengineering and LBNL faculty scientist in physical biosciences

Goal of project: Using the ethanol-producing bacterium Zymomonas mobilis, implement a system to determine which genes and pathways promote and inhibit growth of fuel molecules. Then engineer these pathways to improve and increase production of microbe-based biofuels.

Timing: Researchers expect the work to have significant impact on the energy economy in 5 to 10 years.

Arkin says: “We are creating a foundation technology and approach that we hope will support many other scientists within the institute and biofuels field.”

Project: Life-cycle environmental and economic decision-making for alternative biofuels

Principal investigator: Arpad Horvath, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering

Goal of project: To develop calculator tools and a database to assess the entire life cycle of a biofuel—from growing crops to burning the fuel—to help industry and government select the best biofuel based on true economic and environmental costs.

Timing: Researchers hope to have preliminary models and results in three years.

Horvath says: “We want to avoid making the wrong choices in biofuels. We want to avoid creating more harm than benefit.”

Go to http://www.energybiosciencesinstitute.org/index.php for more.