About Us
The Regional Biomass Resource Hub Initiative’s (RBRH) mission is to identify and validate market-driven regional strategies that help mobilize low-carbon intensity, purpose-grown energy crops across varied agronomic landscapes. RBRH does this by generating modeling tools, data, and guidelines that support feedstock supply chain development needed to meet the goals of the Clean Fuels and Products Shot™ (opens in a new window) and the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Grand Challenge (opens in a new window).
The RBRH is focused on the following key areas:
- Demonstrating the long-term yield and sustainability of production crop varieties capable of scaling up prior to or alongside the scale-up of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) production facilities.
- Validating carbon intensity scores to support grower adoption and work to achieve greenhouse gas targets set in the SAF Grand Challenge.
- Expanding potential regional biomass resources (e.g., algae, herbaceous crops, short-rotation woody crops and intermediate crops) and demonstrating production capabilities to enable long-term Clean Fuels and Products Shot™ goals.
- Verifying and validating the effectiveness of improved agronomic practices on reducing the carbon intensity of biomass resources to requisite levels for drop-in biofuels across several regions, feedstock types and growing seasons.
- Demonstrating production scale for production crop varieties shown to meet yield and sustainability metrics to address widescale challenges including pest pressures, drought, logging, large-scale propagation/planting and mechanical harvest compatibility.
- Collecting data in methods consistent with established protocols to support carbon and nutrient flux monitoring and validation, end-user quality specifications, sustainability measurements, and yield requirements.
Research
The Regional Biomass Resource Hub Initiative is conducting research and development to enable the sustainable mobilization of the following purpose-grown energy crops:
- Algae: Algae are simple, plant-like organisms that live in water. They are a diverse group that includes microalgae (microscopic algae), macroalgae, and cyanobacteria (blue-green algae). Purpose-grown algae can be used to produce a variety of products, including biofuels, food and animal feed.
- Herbaceous energy crops: Herbaceous energy crops are annual, biennial, or perennial plants and grasses grown primarily for bioenergy production. These include switchgrass, miscanthus, high-biomass sorghum, wheatgrass, and energycane.
- Intermediate energy crops: Intermediate energy crops are grown between traditional growing seasons. They are typically grown to improve soil health and reduce erosion. Some intermediate energy crops, such as carinata and pennycress, can also be used to produce biofuels.
- Short-rotation woody crops: Short-rotation woody crops are fast-growing hardwood trees that are harvested within five to eight years of planting. These include hybrid poplar, hybrid willow, silver maple, eastern cottonwood, green ash, black walnut, sweetgum and sycamore.
More information regarding the establishment and research needs of these crop groups can be found here: Workshop: Deploying Purpose-Grown Energy Crops for Sustainable Aviation Fuel (opens in a new window).