The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) today announced $15 million in funding to develop advanced genetic engineering technologies for plants to increase U.S. bioenergy feedstocks. Bioenergy crops currently supply nearly 5% of the nation’s energy needs and provide an alternate revenue stream for American farmers. ARPA-E’s Plant Engineering to Revolutionize Sustainable Energy Production and Heighten Opportunities for Novel Efficiency (PERSEPHONE) program will develop the high-performing tools and methods needed to help increase crops’ energy potential.
“Smart, innovative, agriculture-focused technologies can strengthen the energy sector and benefit American farmers,” said ARPA-E Director Evelyn N. Wang. “In addition to building resilient energy feedstock, PERSEPHONE’s genetic engineering techniques could enable plants to provide precursors for chemicals and materials for more robust supply chains.”
PERSEPHONE seeks to engineer bioenergy crops to broaden production areas, enhance resilience, and improve productivity. For bioenergy crops such as sorghum, miscanthus, oilseeds, switchgrass, and poplar, PERSEPHONE technologies could be used to strengthen natural traits like drought resistance and nutrient cycling. More advanced bioenergy traits like nitrogen fixation and polymer precursor accumulation face challenges in speed, scalability, and adaptability, which PERSEPHONE projects will seek to overcome.
PERSEPHONE joins other programs like TEOSYNTE and ECOSynBio in the agency’s portfolio of agriculture work to diversify fuel sources and minimize emissions while benefiting American farmers.
Visit the ARPA-E eXCHANGE website for more information about PERSEPHONE, including key guidelines.
ARPA-E is the disruption wing of the DOE that funds and directs the discovery of outlier energy technologies that are strategic to America's energy security. Learn more about these efforts and ARPA-E's commitment to ensuring American-made energy for all through U.S. leadership in developing and deploying advanced energy technologies.
Source : energy.gov