Great Lakes Bioenergy Center gets $50 million

Ethanol Producer Magazine
June 2010
By Luke Geiver
Posted June 7, 2010

Michigan State University and the University of Wisconsin have received $50 million in funding for the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center. The Center, a co-hosted facility between the two universities, received the funding from the U.S. DOE. The main goal of the center is to improve second generation biofuel feedstocks for ethanol production, including everything from genetic improvement of the biomass, processing technologies and environmental sustainability.

Spread over a period of five years, a significant portion of the funding has already been used to speed up and bolster this research, said Steven Pueppke, director of MSU’s office of Biobased Technologies. “This additional funding to MSU does have broader ramifications,” said Pueppke. “I do not have exact job numbers, but I know that several hundred direct jobs have been created by the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center.” Along with job creation, Pueppke said the funding helps with future biofuels job growth. “The new funding is good, too, in that it attracts bright young scientists into biofuels research. We are happy that this opportunity is at MSU, and we hope that they will make career-long contributions in addressing the nation’s biofuels needs.”

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