Research Focus
Modeling the economic and environmental impacts of advanced pathways to bio-based fuels and products.
Projects
- Environmental and cost impacts of feedstock-flexible biorefineries
- Life-cycle cost and environmental impact assessment of ionic liquid-based biorefineries producing advanced biofuels and bioproducts
- Matching local waste biomass resources with grid, industrial, and community needs in California for sustainable distributed generation through 2050
- Enabling anaerobic digestion for municipal solid waste-to-energy
- Quantifying the potential impact of engineering salt- and drought-tolerant feedstocks
Featured Media
JBEI Pretreatment and Process Development Team Honored by Secretary of Energy
JBEI Expert Corinne Scown explains Techno-Economic Analysis
JBEI’s Corinne Scown honored by Berkeley Lab for her Exceptional Achievement
Scown was recognized with the “Early Scientific Career” award for significant scientific or technical contributions leading to important progress in an area of research or toward completion of a project (typically 0-5 years Postdoctoral).
Leaving on a Biofueled Jet Plane
From Sugarcane to Jet Fuel
Researchers Find Sweet Source for Aviation Biofuel
Location Key to Calculating Biofuel Carbon Footprint
Alumni Honored at 2014 CEE Alumni Awards Luncheon
Featured Publications
- “A hybrid biological-chemical approach offers flexibility and reduces the carbon footprint of bio-based plastics, rubbers, and fuels”, ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering (2018)
- “Strategies for near-term scale-up of cellulosic biofuel production using sorghum and crop residues in the US”, Environmental Research Letters (2018)
- “Temporal and geographic drivers of biomass residues in California”, Resources, Conservation, & Recycling (2018)
- “Drop-in biofuels offer strategies for meeting California’s 2030 climate mandate”, Environmental Research Letters (2018)
- “Life-Cycle Greenhouse Gas and Water Intensity of Cellulosic Biofuel Production Using Cholinium Lysinate Ionic Liquid Pretreatment”, ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering (2017)
- “Bioenergy potential from food waste in California”, Environmental Science & Technology (2017)
- “From Sugars to Wheels: The Conversion of Ethanol to 1, 3‐Butadiene over Metal‐Promoted Magnesia‐Silicate Catalysts”, ChemSusChem (2016)
- “Transforming biomass conversion with ionic liquids: process intensification and the development of a high-gravity, one-pot process for the production of cellulosic ethanol”, Energy & Environmental Science (2016)
- “Upgrading Lignocellulosic Products to Drop?In Biofuels via Dehydrogenative Cross?Coupling and Hydrodeoxygenation Sequence”, ChemSusChem (2015)
- “Novel pathways for fuels and lubricants from biomass optimized using life-cycle greenhouse gas assessment”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2015)
- “Role of Lignin in Reducing Life-Cycle Carbon Emissions, Water Use, and Cost for United States Cellulosic Biofuels”, Environmental Science & Technology (2014)
- “Achieving Deep Cuts in the Carbon Intensity of US Automobile Transportation by 2050: Complementary Roles for Electricity and Biofuels”, Environmental Science & Technology (2013)
- “Lifecycle Greenhouse Gas Implications of US National Scenarios for Cellulosic Ethanol Production”, Environmental Research Letters (2012)
- “Water Footprint of US Transportation Fuels”, Environmental Science & Technology (2011)
- “Grand Challenges for Life-cycle Assessment of Biofuels”, Environmental Science & Technology (2011)