Technologies

The DOE’s Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) includes a list of feedstock technologies activities that help to improve the efficiency and reliability of feedstocks to be converted into biofuels, bioproducts, and bioenergy.^[1]

Resource mobilization
Supply chain analysis
Harvest and collection
Storage
Transport and handling
Preprocessing and quality improvement
Supply system integration^[2]

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory lists the bioenergy technologies as biofuels, biopower, and bioproducts.

Biofuels are transportation fuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel, created by converting biomass into liquid fuels
Biopower involves converting renewable biomass fuels into heat and electricity using either burning, bacterial decay, or conversion to gas/liquid fuel
Bioproducts involve converting biomass into chemicals for making plastics and other products typically made from petroleum^[3]

The Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) feedstock-conversion interface research and development (R&D) activities are coordinated through the Feedstock-Conversion Interface Consortium (FCIC). The FCIC focuses on identifying feedstock quality and operational factors for developing technologies and strategies to:

manage variability in feedstock materials
model behavior and performance of selected feedstocks in gravity flow and conveyance operations
develop and implement mitigation strategies into the processes of feedstock supply, preprocessing, and conversion
analyze system-wide throughput to benchmark integrated system reliability, process economics, and environmental impacts
Control and optimize processes with in-line sensors and feedback control logic^[4]

BETO’s Feedstock Technologies supply and logistics R&D develops technologies to expand the preprocessing of feedstock streams. The image below is courtesy of Idaho National Laboratory.

Source: Idaho National Laboratory, Feedstock-Conversion Interface Consortium, Department of Energy^[5]

^{Updated by Erin Bennett, January 2024}