Notice of Intent (NOI) DE-FOA-0001581 to Issue Funding Opportunity Announcement DE-FOA-0001232

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) intends to issue, on behalf of the Bioenergy Technologies Office, a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled “Project Definition for Pilot and Demonstration Scale Manufacturing of Biofuels, Bioproducts, and Biopower (PD2B3)”. This FOA supports technology development plans for the manufacture of drop-in hydrocarbon biofuels, bioproducts, or intermediates in a pilot- or demonstration-scale integrated biorefinery. Scale-up and validation of these process technologies is essential to enable the industry to build future pioneer- and commercial-scale manufacturing facilities. Plans for facilities that use cellulosic biomass, algal biomass, or biosolids feedstocks will be considered under this funding opportunity. Under this FOA, applicants must address one comprehensive topic area with three main priority areas. These priority areas are: 1. Pilot scale production of biofuels from high impact cellulosic, algal, or biogas feedstocks. 2. Demonstration scale production of biofuels from high impact cellulosic, algal, or biogas algal feedstocks. 3. Production of biopower, or biofuels from biosolids and other waste streams. EERE envisions awarding multiple financial assistance awards in the form of cooperative agreements. The estimated period of performance for the design phase of each award will be approximately 1-2 years. Selected projects will participate in a down-select review at the end of the design phase and may be allowed to continue to a second construction and operations phase. This notice of intent (NOI) is issued so that interested parties are aware of the EERE’s intention to issue this FOA in the near term. All of the information contained in this NOI is subject to change. EERE will not respond to questions concerning this NOI. Once the FOA has been released, EERE will provide an avenue for potential applicants to submit questions. EERE plans to issue the FOA in May of 2016 via the EERE Exchange website https://eere-exchange.energy.gov/. If applicants wish to receive official notifications and information from EERE regarding this FOA, they should register in EERE Exchange. When the FOA is released, applications will be accepted only through EERE Exchange.