Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center

MSU is partnering with the University of Wisconsin-Madison to establish the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC), one of three U.S. Department of Energy Bioenergy Research Centers (BRC) created in 2007. The center, based in Madison, is funded with $125 million over 5 years. MSU is using approximately $50 million for basic science research aimed at solving some of the most complex problems in converting natural materials to energy.

The long-term goals of the GLBRC are to improve:

• energy and fuel biomass characteristics of plants
• procedures for processing biomass from plants
• biological and chemical processes to convert biomass into energy, fuels and chemicals
• economic and environmental sustainability of the biomass-to-biofuel pipeline.

To achieve these goals, the GLBRC will use biological, physical and computational approaches to get rid of the factors that limit biofuel production. The GLBRC is focusing on producing biofuels from corn stover, switchgrass and poplar.

Visit them on the web at: http://www.greatlakesbioenergy.org/