SCIENCE

The Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) bioenergy research center, has launched a two-minute animated movie describing the JBEI mission to advance the development of liquid fuels derived from the solar energy stored in plant biomass. The movie is available on a new JBEI YouTube channel and can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/user/JointBioenergyInst 

In addition, JBEI has also launched new social media channels, including Facebook http://www.facebook.com/jbei.org, Twitter http://twitter.com/#%21/jbei_, and YouTube http://www.youtube.com/user/JointBioenergyInst as part of an effort to inform and educate the public about the scientific opportunities and technological challenges presented by efforts to convert lignocellulosic biomass into transportation fuels for cars, trucks and aircraft. 

There’s enough power in an hour’s worth of global sunlight to meet an entire year’s worth of human energy needs. Through photosynthesis, a substantial portion of this solar energy has been captured and stored in lignocellulosic biomass, Earth’s most abundant organic substance. Harnessing even a tiny fraction of this stored solar energy could meet much of the nation’s annual transportation energy needs without producing carbon emissions that contribute to global climate change. Biofuels are the top candidates for accomplishing this. However, the commercial production of carbon-neutral, sustainable and cost-effective biofuels that can be dropped into today’s combustion engines and oil infrastructures requires technology-transforming scientific breakthroughs. 

JBEI is a San Francisco Bay Area scientific partnership led by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and including the Sandia National Laboratories, the University of California campuses of Berkeley and Davis, the Carnegie Institution for Science and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Headquartered in Emeryville, JBEI researchers are applying the latest tools of biotechnology, including synthetic biology, to engineer microbes that are able break down lignocellulosic biomass into fermentable sugars, then synthesize those sugars into replacement fuels today’s gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. 

For more information about JBEI and its scientific programs, please visit the JBEI Website at www.jbei.org http://www.jbei.org/.