The United States (U.S.) Department of Energy (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) plans to support the continued increase of sustainably produced domestic bioenergy from renewable cellulosic feedstocks, such as agricultural residues, annual and perennial dedicated energy crops, and forest resources. DOE is seeking input from producers, industry, academia, research laboratories, government agencies, non-governmental organizations, environmental groups, and other bioenergy stakeholders regarding landscape design approaches that integrate cellulosic feedstock production into existing agricultural and forestry systems while maintaining or enhancing environmental and socio-economic sustainability including ecosystem services and food, feed, and fiber production.
DOE is aware of promising advancements that support the objective of designing sustainable, multi-functional landscapes that supply cellulosic bioenergy feedstocks while maintaining or enhancing environmental sustainability. These advancements include the development of relevant spatial models and decision-support tools, modeling studies that demonstrate potential environmental improvements from biomass production, generation of field data on bioenergy crop and residue recovery performance and sustainability, and development of management practices for bioenergy crop and residue production. However, DOE is not aware of many initiatives that apply the current set of tools and knowledge to proactively design these multi-functional landscapes for increased cellulosic feedstock production, validate the environmental and social sustainability impacts at a watershed or comparable scale, and assess the feedstock characteristics and logistics systems (e.g., harvesting, preprocessing, and transport) associated with those landscape designs. DOE is seeking information on cost-effective, feasible approaches for testing the landscape design approach for increasing cellulosic feedstock production at a watershed, multi-landowner, or comparable spatial scale through a combination of modeling, data collection, field research, and engagement with landowners and other relevant stakeholders.
This is a Request for Information (RFI) only. DOE will not pay for information provided under this RFI and no project will be supported as a result of this RFI. This RFI is not accepting applications for financial assistance or financial incentives. DOE may or may not issue a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) based on consideration of the input received from this RFI.
Information on where to submit questions regarding the content of this RFI and where to submit questions regarding submission of responses can be found in the full RFI posted on the EERE Exchange website at https://eere-exchange.energy.gov.
Responses to this RFI must be submitted electronically to BETOLandscapeDesignRFI@ee.doe.gov no later than 5:00pm (EDT) on September 2, 2014. Responses must be provided as attachments to an email. It is recommended that attachments with file sizes exceeding 25MB be compressed (i.e., zipped) to ensure message delivery. Only electronic responses will be accepted.
THIS RFI IS NOT A FUNDING OPPORTUNITY ANNOUNCEMENT (FOA). THEREFORE, DOE IS NOT ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS.