News Release

JBEI wins Biofuels Digest Award for Institutional Excellence

Grant and Award Announcement

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) has been named the 2010 "Government Institutional Research Facility of the Year" by Biofuels Digest, which advertises as the world's most widely read biofuels daily.

"We are proud to receive this honor and are grateful for the U.S. Department of Energy's support that enables our research," says Jay Keasling, JBEI's Chief Executive Officer. "Much of JBEI's successes are due in large part to co-locating our scientists. By bringing together researchers from various institutions and academic disciplines, we have fostered cross-divisional integration that has resulted in significant scientific advancements."

JBEI is one of three Bioenergy Research Centers funded by DOE to advance the development of the next generation of biofuels. It is a scientific partnership led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and including the Sandia National Laboratories, the University of California (UC) campuses of Berkeley and Davis, the Carnegie Institution for Science, and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Biofuels Digest established its annual awards in 2008 to recognize "excellence in the research, development, and commercialization of biofuels, renewable chemicals, and bio-based products." The awards are voted by the Biofuels Digest editorial board, based on nominations submitted by the Digest's readership.

JBEI was recognized specifically for its researchers having been "notably active in the development of novel technologies utilized by, among others, Amyris and LS9."

Since its dedication in December 2008, JBEI research has yielded a number of successes, among them:

  • development of a strain of a E. coli bacteria that can produce biodiesel fuel and other important chemicals directly from biomass

  • creation of an on-line, wiki-based technoeconomic model that enables researchers to pursue the most promising strategies for cost-efficient biorefinery operations by simulating such critical factors as production costs and energy balances under different processing scenarios

  • development of a metabolic flux-based technique that speeds up the search for microbes able to ferment cellulosic sugars under the harsh conditions of biofuels production

  • development of technique based on the natural auto-fluorescence of plant cell walls to fast-track better ionic liquids for biomass pretreatments

  • identification of a trio of bacterial enzymes that can catalyze key steps in the conversion of plant sugars into hydrocarbon compounds for biofuel production

In all, Biodigest named 26 award winners this year with an emphasis on partnerships and collaborations that advanced the commercialization of biofuels. Ensuring that its scientific advances are translated into commercially viable technologies is a critical part of the JBEI mission as well.

"From the beginning at JBEI, we have taken a pro-active approach to partnering with industry," Keasling says.

For example, to help ensure that JBEI science ultimately serves commercial and national needs, JBEI has an Industry Advisory Committee made up of representatives from the entire spectrum of the biofuels industry. In addition,

JBEI has sponsored collaborative research with industry, hosted company employees in JBEI's industry scholar program, named industrial postdoctoral fellowships, and supported seminars and conferences for industry.

"JBEI's collaborations with our industry partners have already led to promising gains," Keasling says, "and we look forward to more as we continue to bring our unique expertise together."

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