The Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI)

The Energy Biosciences Institute, now in its 7th year, is home to over 100 faculty and more than 300 graduate students, post-doctoral scholars, and other researchers working on over 60 different projects and programs. Devoted to the application of biology to the energy sector, the EBI explores the entire value chain for bioenergy production including feedstock production, conversion technologies, economics, and social, legal and evironmental impacts. The EBI is the leading research center on the energy grass, Miscanthus, and has explored many different perennial grasses and trees for bioenergy production under a variety of conditions including marginal lands. Data from the EBI Energy Farm and auxiliary sites throughout the U.S. have provided unique insights into the yields and environmental impacts on soil and water of sustained perennial energy grass cultivation. EBI researchers have published over a hundred papers in biomass depolymerization and biofuel production, pioneering new biochemical and catalytic conversions including a novel hybrid route from sugar to jet and diesel fuel. Contributions from EBI economists and legal scholars have influenced policy and standard setting – activities critical to increasing the role of bioenergy in the global renewable energy portfolio. With more more than 50 patents pending, the Institute received its first full patent award in 2013.