DOE funding for biofuels research

It seems like you can hardly turn around these days without hearing about another grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to fund biofuels research. As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the DOE has funded two major consortia to advance the commercialization of biofuels. At least one of the consortia, led by the Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, will be focusing on algae-based biofuels. One of the interesting features of these grants is that they include significant collaboration among universities, federal labs, and private industry, and they seem focused on getting a product to market rather than solely on fundamental research.