DOE, USDA Hand Out $24M in Biomass Grants

The Department of Energy and the Department of Agriculture gave out $24 million in biomass research grants on Friday [November 13, 2009] to boost research ranging from more efficient ways to turn biomass into fuel, chemicals and energy to better breeds of switchgrass and other feedstocks.

Friday’s grants ranged in size from $1 million to $4.2 million, and most of it -$19.5 million – comes from USDA. The idea is to promote technologies to make bioenergy, as well as bio-based chemicals and products, cheaper and easier to adopt.