Energy Department Awards $125-Million in University Grants for Biofuel Research

Universities will play prominent roles in three new research centers on bioenergy, the U.S. Department of Energy said today. The consortia participating in each center will share $125-million over five years to study how to convert plant material other than corn starch into ethanol to fuel vehicles.

One new center will be led by the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Its academic partners will be Illinois State University, Iowa State University, Michigan State University, and the University of Florida.

Another center will be managed by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, an Energy Department facility in Tennessee. Its academic partners will be Dartmouth College, the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Georgia, and the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

A third center will be led by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which is managed by the University of California system. Its academic partners will be Stanford University and the University of California campuses at Berkeley and Davis. —Jeffrey Brainard

Update: More details appear in a new Chronicle article.