From Bureau of Economic Geology, The University of Texas at Austin (www.beg.utexas.edu).
For more information, please contact the author.

Bureau Seminar, April 2, 2010

An overview of the Energy Biosciences Institute

Link to streaming video: available 04.02.2010 at 8:25am

Paul Willems
Energy Biosciences, BP Group

The Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI) is a 10 year research collaboration between BP, the University of California in Berkeley, the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. The EBI is a mission oriented multidisciplinary research institution focused on the application of modern biology to energy problems.

We will start with a discussion of the overall energy landscape and the role bioenergy can play.

This will be followed by a discussion about BP's motivation for creating the EBI, the set up and organization of the institute.

Lignocellulosic biofuels are the main component of our current research agenda. We will discuss the drivers for the broad support for these so called second generation biofuels, their overall potential and some of the issues associated with them.

We will conclude with an overview of the research topics and challenges in the EBI.