B&C® Biobased and Sustainable Chemicals Blog

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced on June 25, 2024, that it will soon publish a request for information (RFI) in the Federal Register, beginning a 60-day public comment period. According to APHIS, the RFI will explore options to reduce the regulatory burden for modified microbes. APHIS states that it developed the RFI in response to stakeholder requests. Specifically, APHIS will request comments to help identify: According to...

On May 31, 2024, the Department of the Treasury (Treasury Department) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued Notice 2024-49 for the Clean Fuel Production Credit. The Inflation Reduction Act allows a credit for the production of clean transportation fuels beginning on January 1, 2025. For purposes of the Clean Fuel Production Credit, transportation fuel is divided into two broad categories of fuel: sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and non-SAF transportation fuel. According to the IRS,...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced on May 30, 2024, that it recently reviewed the following plants modified using genetic engineering to determine whether they pose an increased plant pest risk relative to non-modified comparators: APHIS states that it found that “these modified plants were unlikely to pose an increased plant pest risk compared to other cultivated plants.” As a result, they are not subject to regulation...

On May 23, 2024, the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology (NSCEB) issued a press release applauding its Congressional Commissioners — Senators Alex Padilla (D-CA) and Todd Young (R-IN) and Representatives Stephanie Bice (R-OK) and Ro Khanna (D-CA) — for introducing the legislative recommendations from its first report. The press release states that recognizing that food security and agricultural supply chains are key elements of national security, NSCEB developed...

On June 12, 2024, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office’s (BETO) Chemical Catalysis for Bioenergy Consortium (ChemCatBio) will hold a webinar on artificial intelligence (AI) for catalysis. BETO states that “AI has the potential to play a crucial role in accelerated catalyst design, discovery, and optimization of chemical processes for decarbonization.” Using AI tools such as machine learning, deep learning, and large language models, “researchers can uncover...

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) announced on May 23, 2024, that it released a Summary Report from a September 2023 Request for Information (RFI) on building supply chains to meet Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Grand Challenge goals. The RFI requested input from industry, academia, national laboratories, government agencies, and other stakeholders to identify opportunities for developing effective supply chains capable of meeting the SAF Grand...

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) announced on May 22, 2024, that it awarded $2.18 million in funding to four additional projects as part of the Feedstock-Conversion Interface Consortium (FCIC) 2023 Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) call. BETO states that the FCIC, funded and led by BETO, is a consortium of researchers at nine national laboratories dedicated to reducing the technical risks of biorefinery scale-up. BETO notes that...

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) announced on May 7, 2024, the release of the “Progression of Net-Zero Emission Propulsion Technologies for the Off-Road Sector Request for Information” (RFI). Jointly released with DOE’s Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) and Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office (HFTO), the purpose of the RFI is to understand the off-road sector alternative propulsion technology preferences, technologies that seem most...

On April 22, 2024, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), General Services Administration (GSA), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) issued a final rule amending the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to restructure and update the regulations to focus on current environmental and sustainability matters and to implement a requirement for agencies to procure sustainable products and services to the maximum extent practicable. 89 Fed. Reg. 30212. The final rule adds several...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced on April 23, 2024, that it is funding more than 700 clean energy projects to lower energy bills, expand access to domestic biofuels, and create jobs and new market opportunities for U.S. farmers, ranchers, and agricultural producers. According to USDA, many of the projects are funded by President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, “the nation’s largest-ever investment in combating the climate crisis.” USDA is providing $238 million in...