Inflation Reduction Act Funding for Advanced Biofuels | DE FOA 0003178

Opportunity Information: Apply for DE FOA 0003178

The Inflation Reduction Act Funding for Advanced Biofuels opportunity (DE-FOA-0003178) is a 2024 funding announcement from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) under its Systems Development and Integration (SDI) program. The funding originates from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022, specifically IRA Section 60108(b), which set aside $10 million for new grants supporting industry work in advanced biofuels. Although Congress authorized these funds to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), EPA and DOE established an interagency agreement that transfers the funds to DOE so DOE can run and administer the competitive funding opportunity, with EPA playing a substantial role in shaping and reviewing the work because of EPA's responsibilities under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program.

Programmatically, the FOA is designed to sit at the intersection of three federal priorities: EPA's interest in fuels that qualify under the RFS (especially the "advanced biofuel" category), DOE BETO's Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Grand Challenge, and SDI's longer-term objective of enabling progress toward multiple demonstration-scale integrated biorefineries by 2030. In practice, that means the government is looking for projects that can realistically move advanced biofuel pathways forward toward scalable, integrated demonstration, while also fitting into the regulatory and lifecycle-emissions framework used by EPA for RFS compliance. The FOA is issued as a cooperative agreement, which usually indicates more active federal involvement during execution than a standard grant, such as DOE technical engagement, milestone review, and go/no-go decision points.

A central requirement of the application is that the proposed technology must be framed in terms of how it meets the RFS definition of an "advanced biofuel." Applicants are expected to address three core elements: the pathway must use allowable feedstocks recognized under the program, it must produce allowable fuel types, and it must achieve lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions of at least 50% relative to the petroleum baseline. This requirement is not presented as a vague aspiration; it is a key eligibility and merit consideration, meaning applicants should be prepared to discuss their feedstock sourcing assumptions, conversion pathway, end fuel slate, and how lifecycle emissions would be calculated or substantiated in a way that aligns with RFS expectations. Because the FOA also aligns with the SAF Grand Challenge, applicants pursuing aviation-related fuels would typically be expected to connect their approach to aviation fuel needs and the broader objective of scaling sustainable aviation fuel production, while still meeting the RFS advanced biofuel criteria.

Eligibility is broad and includes state, county, and local governments; special district governments; public and private institutions of higher education; federally recognized tribal governments and other tribal organizations; nonprofits (both 501(c)(3) and non-501(c)(3)); for-profit organizations (including entities other than small businesses); small businesses; and other eligible applicant types. Even with this broad eligibility, the FOA places clear emphasis on meaningful industry participation and domestic execution. The prime recipient and any subrecipients must be domestic entities, reflecting the IRA's general intent to strengthen U.S.-based clean energy manufacturing and deployment and to keep federally funded development work within the United States.

There is also an important structural requirement regarding the role of for-profit industry partners. If the prime recipient is not itself a for-profit industry entity providing technical capability, then the project team must include one or more for-profit industry partners as subrecipients. Those industry subrecipients must collectively account for an aggregate effort equivalent to at least 20% of the total project cost. In effect, the FOA is trying to prevent purely academic or purely governmental projects that are disconnected from commercialization realities, and instead drive projects where companies with hands-on technical and development capability are materially involved in execution, decision-making, and scale-up planning.

Administratively, the issuing office is DOE's Golden Field Office, and the opportunity is categorized as discretionary funding in the energy, science and technology, and other R&D area under CFDA 81.087. The original closing date listed is May 24, 2024, and the opportunity was created on February 22, 2024. The award ceiling is $9.4 million, and DOE anticipates making about five awards. Taken together, those figures signal a relatively small number of fairly substantial projects, which is consistent with a development-and-integration emphasis rather than early-stage exploratory research. The overall intent is to fund a handful of strong, industry-connected projects that can credibly advance integrated biofuel systems while meeting EPA's advanced biofuel definition and supporting national scale-up goals for low-carbon fuels, including sustainable aviation fuel.

• The Golden Field Office in the energy, science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Inflation Reduction Act Funding for Advanced Biofuels" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 81.087.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-02-22.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-05-24. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $9,400,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 5 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For-profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others.

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