On September 25–26, 2019, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s (EERE's) Bioenergy Technologies Office hosted a workshop at Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, IL to identify data and research and development (R&D) needs to enable the use of dedicated energy crops and algae for restoring water quality and enhancing soil health, while creating a new feedstock supply for the bioeconomy. Participants discussed the current state of technologies relevant to both terrestrial and algal biomass, as well as the potential for these technologies to reverse environmental degradation and provide important ecosystem services. If successful, these technologies have the potential to increase availability and reduce costs of bioenergy and bioproducts.
The workshop focused on the current state-of-the-art and R&D needs pertaining to:
- Using dedicated energy crops to improve water quality and soil health (e.g., enhanced soil carbon levels) and provide other benefits
- Algae technologies including direct harvest of algal blooms, turf scrubbers, and macroalgae
- Quantification and valorization of ecosystem services
- Low-cost sensors and data management systems that enable production of dedicated energy crops and algae
- Overcoming challenges of integrating biomass production for restoration with bioenergy feedstock supply chain needs
Agenda
Please find the agenda here.
Presentations
To view presentations from the workshop, visit the workshop presentations web page.
Contact Us
Please direct any and all questions to Camryn Sorg ([email protected]) or Kristen Johnson ([email protected]).