BETO Releases Bioenergy Workforce Development RFI

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) has released a bioeconomy workforce/career-development Request for Information (RFI). The RFI intends to identify existing bioenergy workforce development assets and gaps in the bioenergy industry and academia. BETO supports groundbreaking technologies to produce biofuels, bioproducts, and biopower (bioenergy) from non-food sources of biomass and waste resources.

One example of how BETO has been instrumental in supporting cutting-edge technology is through the groundbreaking collaboration between DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), LanzaTech, and Virgin Atlantic. This collaboration led to Virgin Atlantic’s ability to fly the first commercial flight fueled by recycled waste gas from a steel mill. LanzaTech first converted the gas to ethanol and then, using technology developed by PNNL, upgraded the ethanol to fuel that has been approved for commercial aviation—an alcohol-to-jet synthetic paraffinic kerosene. You can read more here.

To better understand how to prepare a skilled and diverse future bioenergy workforce, BETO is reaching out to our academic and industry partners to aid in identifying existing bioenergy workforce successes within the bioenergy industry and academic learning environment, as well as gaps that impede skill development and/or recruiting qualified individuals.

The RFI can be found on the BETO website. Feel free to use the RFI Template Word document to respond to the RFI questions. Additional comments and recommendations are welcomed. Submit your response to bioenergizeMe@ee.doe.gov no later than 5:00 p.m. Eastern, November 2, 2020.

Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO)

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE’s) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) establishes partnerships with key public and private stakeholders to develop technologies for producing cost-competitive advanced biofuels from non-food biomass resources, including cellulosic biomass, algae, and wet waste (e.g., biosolids).

BETO works with a broad spectrum of government, industrial, academic, agricultural, and nonprofit partners across the United States to develop commercially viable, high-performance biofuels, bioproducts, and biopower made from renewable U.S. biomass resources that reduce our dependence on imported oil while enhancing energy security.

For further information about BETO, please visit the website here