Overview

Replacing fossil feedstocks with renewable biomass sources will be a key element of a successful circular bioeconomy. This change has the potential to increase environmental sustainability and local sourcing in manufacturing; provide new revenue sources for farmers, ranchers, and municipalities; and support supply-chain resilience. The carbon needed for bioproducts abounds in the environment, but much of it is locked into materials that are not yet cost-effective to use. Efficiently deconstructing complex biomass into useful carbon building blocks, or “turning the carbon we have into the carbon we want,” will require new scientific approaches and interdisciplinary collaboration. 

If we are to move towards a more sustainable and circular bioeconomy, we must consider nontraditional biomass sources that do not substantially compete with food production, and that divert waste from unproductive or environmentally harmful pathways. New and creative research will be required to bring these “future feedstocks” into use.

Schmidt Sciences’ Virtual Institute on Feedstocks of the Future (VIFF), with support from the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR), aims to expand the science, technology, and engineering available to advance the use of future feedstocks in bioproduction, creating new economic and environmental benefits.

VIFF focuses its efforts on interdisciplinary research and uncommon partnerships. VIFF’s research efforts leverage innovations in biology, chemistry, biochemistry, and genetic engineering, but also mechanical and process engineering; agriculture, rural development, and economics; and computer modeling and data management. Individually and collectively, VIFF research projects will work to advance science, technology, and engineering for society.

VIFF is a consortium of consortia, consisting of five complementary, interdisciplinary, and regionally distributed teams of researchers and partners. Independently, these teams will focus their innovative research approaches on different obstacles and opportunities relevant to specific future feedstocks, processing and conversion approaches, and regional biomass utilization. Collectively, they will share knowledge and joint efforts to help build a future in which nontraditional and waste biomass feedstocks bring us closer to a sustainable and circular bioeconomy.

VIFF Projects

The five projects comprising VIFF bring together dozens of researchers from nearly 30 institutions, including universities, national laboratories, nonprofit research organizations, private companies, federal agencies, and regional economic development groups. Each project both pursues independent research goals and also contributes to the overarching VIFF mission of expanding the science, technology, and engineering available to advance the use of future feedstocks in bioproduction, creating new economic and environmental benefits.

Sargassum Biorefinery (SaBRe)

PI: José Avalos (Princeton University)

Co-PIs: Shishir Chundawat (Rutgers University) & Loretta Roberson (Marine Biological Laboratory)

Sargassum blooms in the Caribbean have caused severe ecological and economic crises, expected to reach the Southern Atlantic and Gulf Coast region of the United States. Advances in science, technology, and engineering could turn this crisis into an opportunity.

Led by Princeton University, in partnership with Rutgers University, University of California, Los Angeles, University of Puerto Rico, Marine Biological Laboratory, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, the SaBRe team aims to develop a Sargassum seaweed biorefinery process that integrates various conversion technologies to produce a diverse array of products. Their consortium integrates research ranging from basic Sargassum biology to synthetic biology, enzyme and metabolic engineering, catalyst development, and process optimization, all supported with techno-economic analyses and life cycle assessments. Achieving their goals will turn Sargassum from a nuisance causing environmental and economic devastation in coastal communities into a renewable feedstock of the future for biomanufacturing.

Center for Mineral and Oxide Removal from Biomass (C-MORE)

PI: George Huber (University of Wisconsin Madison)

Co-PI: Styliani Avraamidou (University of Wisconsin Madison)

Biomass has a high content of minerals and metal oxides (MMOs). During the thermochemical conversion of biomass into fuels and chemicals, MMOs deactivate catalysts and plug reactors, severely limiting biomass conversion into low carbon fuels and chemicals. Research advances to overcome these challenges could unlock the potential of low-carbon biomass.

Led by the University of Wisconsin Madison in partnership with Anellotech, University of Kansas, Michigan Tech University, University of Idaho, Iowa State University, and Idaho National Laboratory, the C-MORE team aims to develop the scientific and engineering principles to convert heterogeneous and contaminated biomass and municipal solid waste into demineralized biogenic pellets for use in making a variety of low-carbon liquid transportation fuels, chemicals, and materials. Achieving this vision will enable the use of these abundant materials as practical and economical feedstocks in large-scale biorefineries.

BioCircular Valley (BioCirV)

PI: Blake Simmons (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

Co-PIs: Corinne Scown (University of California Berkeley) & Karen Warner (BEAM Circular)

Robust, feedstock-flexible technologies capable of achieving competitive costs and high yields of critical biological building blocks for bioproducts do not currently exist at scale. Integrating knowledge around long-term availability and variability in feedstocks with yields from technologies that are affordable and scalable can change the status quo.

Led by researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California Berkeley, in collaboration with partners at UC Agriculture & Natural Resources, UC Merced, and BEAM Circular, the BioCirV consortium aims to generate new field and laboratory data to develop a digital “bioeconomy cartography” tool for California’s Northern San Joaquin Valley (NSJV). The publicly available datasets generated through the project will integrate (1) seasonal and long-term availability and variability of underutilized biomass feedstocks from the NSJV with (2) compatibility and product yields from conversion technologies. This tool will advance the NSJV’s economic and sustainability goals by providing community leaders, industry partners, and other stakeholders with datasets rich in actionable economic and environmental information.

Dairy Industry Waste Valorization (DIWAV)

PI: Gregory Stephanopoulos (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Co-PI: Anand Sundaresan (Green Plains, Inc.)

Dairy industry waste is an environmental threat and a financial strain to the industry. The composition of this waste prevents its direct disposal, making wastewater treatment the costly, but standard approach. Given the lack of alternative methods to create value from dairy industry waste, it represents an underutilized resource with significant potential.

Led by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in partnership with Green Plains, Inc., the DIWAV team aims to develop a commercially viable, environmentally friendly, advanced biomanufacturing platform for the microbial conversion of acid whey from yogurt and cheese production into valuable carotenoids for fish and poultry feeds. With successes in metabolic engineering, process engineering, and product development, acid whey could be turned from a serious environmental and economic challenge for cheese and yogurt producers into a future feedstock for valuable products. 

Wet Agricultural Value Enhanced Separations (WAVES)

PI: Luke Williams (Idaho National Laboratory)

Co-PI: Owen McDougal (Boise State University)

Many industrial food and beverage processes suffer from high wastewater treatment and disposal costs and a failure to derive value from wasted byproducts. New approaches to integrating emerging technologies with existing operations could change this scenario.

Led by Idaho National Laboratory and Boise State University, in partnership with Southern Fabrication Works, Southern Renewable Energy Utility Systems, Garrison Minerals, and Food Physics, the WAVES consortium aims to use advanced material separations and drying, product characterization, and feedstock formulation to convert waste biomass from food production and processing into clean energy and water. Key obstacles they will address include biomass heterogeneity, contamination, and temporal variation. Achieving this team’s goals will reduce shipping costs for these prospective feedstocks, in turn reducing fossil fuel consumption, lowering domestic food production costs, and promoting sustainable plant operations through access to clean recovered water.

VIFF Scientific Advisory Board

The VIFF Scientific Advisory Board plays an essential role in the success of VIFF by advising Schmidt Sciences on VIFF research and future directions for the program.

Biosciences

The Biosciences Institute aims to apply the full potential of biology toward solving many of today’s most pressing challenges. We strive to advance our understanding of biology and facilitate the transition of biological innovations into the real world for public benefit.