4 Corners Biocarbon Alliance Sustainable carbon and energy from biorenewables Production Processing Utilization Environmental and Economic Assessment Education

Participants and Contacts KSU – Center for Biobased Polymers by Design* - Sun; Bioprocessing Industrial Value-Added Program MU – Bioprocessing and Biosensing Center - Tan ISU – Office of Biorenewables Programs - Brown UNL – NE Center for Energy Sciences Research - Cassman KU – Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis* - Subramaniam; Transportation Research Institute Diverse interdisciplinary groups at each institution (Agriculture, Engineering, Basic Sciences, Logistics, Transportation, Economics, Policy) * Designates contact representative at each institution

Challenges to Sustainabilty Water use Reducing fossil fuel use Nutrient redistribution Greenhouse gas emissions Educating students about sustainability Public outreach Improved energy efficiency New materials and fuels from renewable carbon Soil and water quality Producing both food and fuel

Advantages for proposal development Education Rural development Connectivity to national labs and industry Center of feedstock production Policy development for the transition to the bioenergy economy Systems approach

Targets for State Support Study group to assess current biofuels/bio-based products sustainability Workshops to identify and develop new models for sustainable carbon and energy from biorenewables Virtual college of biorenewables Coordinated strategic plan for expertise and physical infrastructure Memoranda of understanding among the institutions

Targets for Federal Support IT infrastructure for real time collaborative research and education National center for production-scale environmental assessment of biorenewable feedstocks High-throughput screening of feedstocks catalysts and media for process development University/industry consortia for transport, handling and storage Midwest alliance for biocarbon science and engineering National standards for life cycle assessment

Plan for advancement White paper for research offices Support of state governments Workshop for proposal development

KU – Strengths and Resources Multiscale infrastructure and expertise for catalysis and process engineering research for biomass conversion (NSF ERC) Transportation research for biofuel testing, standards, engine performance and emissions Partnerships with a dozen leading chemical and energy companies

KSU - Strengths and Resources Laboratory and pilot scale biorefinery facilities and instrumentation (bioconversion and thermal processing) Integrated interdisciplinary team for bio- based polymer synthesis, processing, and product design Renewable materials handling and storage

MU - Strengths and Resources Bio-based products research facilities Soybean and corn genomics Biodiesel applications research

ISU - Strengths and Resources Thermochemical processing Economics and policy Soybean Corn genomics

UNL - Strengths and Resources Production scale research facilities & expertise for research in environmental sustainability Catalysis for bioconversions Soybean genetics and biotechnology for improved biodiesel production

Biorefinery Biofuels and biobased materials, transportation fuels. Fine chemical synthesis, biomass is the feedstock of the future. Biomass to biocrude preliminary steps in biorefining (cellulose breakdown, lignin processing, oil separation). Second generation biofuels (mixed alcohols, fatty acid cracking). Subregional approach to diversified biofuel generation Byproduct utilization (these byproducts are now going to be produced on huge scales (like glycerol), how do we turn these byproducts into useful products? Thermochemical processing of biomass.

Feedstocks for Energy Production Optimization of agricultural production for energy Production systems development Distributed direct conversion of biomass to high value liquid fuels Carbon sequestration Genetics

Funding Opportunities Pooled State Funds Farm Bill DOE NSF Private Foundations Industry

Resource Needs Current capabilities are not integrated IT infrastructure for data transfer Memorandum of understanding among the universities Multi-institutional curricular agreements

Infrastructure Cyberinfrastructure (teaching and on-line process optimization) Seminar series Retreat for faculty Existing agricultural production facilities Biomaterials laboratories

Sustainability Role of agriculture in global climate change Environmental sustainability of biofuels Verifiable reduction in green house gas emissions Soil and water quality Energy efficiency Transportation Methodology development for assessing environmental impact at the systems level