The development of cost-effective and energy-efficient processes to transform the cellulosic content of biomass into fuels is hampered by significant roadblocks, including the lack of specifically developed energy crops, the difficulty in separating biomass components, the high costs of enzymatic deconstruction of biomass, and the inhibitory effect of fuels and processing byproducts on organisms producing fuels.
 The Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) draws on the expertise and capabilities of three national laboratories (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)), the University of California campuses at Berkeley (UCB) and Davis (UCD), and the Carnegie Institution for Science to provide the scientific and technology underpinnings needed to convert cellulose into transportation fuels. JBEI’s approach is based in three interrelated scientific divisions and a technologies division. The Feedstocks Division will create the knowledge required to develop improved plant energy crops to serve as the raw materials for biofuels. The Deconstruction Division will investigate the conversion of this lignocellulosic plant material to usable forms of sugars and aromatics. The Fuels Synthesis Division will create microbes that can efficiently convert sugar and aromatics into ethanol, butanol and advanced biofuels. JBEI’s cross-cutting Technologies Division will develop and optimize a set of enabling technologies—including high-throughput, chip-based and ‘omics platforms, tools for synthetic biology, multi-scale imaging facilities, and integrated data analysis. (www.jbei.org)
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