DARPA Bio-Diesel Proposal
The IAS provided program development funds and two Red Team Review members (Rob Duncan and Steve Obrey) for a New Mexico State University (NMSU)-led response submitted to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in 2008 entitled "Processes for the Affordable Manufacture of Algal-Derived JP-8 Surrogate." The effort was lead by P. Lammers, S. Deng, M. Starbuck and N. Khandon at NMSU and also included researchers at the University of New Mexico (UNM), New Mexico Tech, Michigan State University, Princeton University and Western Refining, El Paso, TX.
There were 17 proposals submitted and two were funded. During a telephone debrief with DARPA Program Director Douglas Kirkpatrick, the New Mexico proposal was said to be "one of the best" from a technical standpoint. However, it was not selected for funding.
We have attempted to follow up on this DARPA effort. On June 2, 2008, Lammers, Deng and Khandon submitted a $937.5K proposal responding to a Department of Energy (DOE) solicitation for Biomass Conversion to Fuels. This proposal seeks funds to support biochemical analysis, quantitative modeling and simulation of algal production bioreactors to take advantage of the new NMCAC supercomputer. Also proposed are novel algal oil extraction and conversion technologies. If awarded, this grant could take effect on Oct. 1, 2008.
Deng and Lammers are founding participants in the SW Center for Sustainable Algal Biofuels being coordinated with others including Sandia Laboratories, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), NASA-Ames, Carbon Capture Corporation, Arizona State, NMSU, U. Texas, and U. Hawaii. This group will coordinate writing of a DOE Roadmap document with the goal of federal funding for a Bioenergy Research Center for Algal Biofuel Development. I will be working for IAS as a member of this group.
Finally, the NMSU/Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)/Center for Excellence in Hazardous Materials Management (CEHMM) group has also submitted a $1.5M request to the NM-Energy Innovation Fund with a 50% match from Western Refining, total $3M.
Contact: Pete Lammers, plammers@nmsu.edu
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