On Wednesday, February 8, 2012, ARPA-E issued a Request For Information (RFI) focused on accelerating the development of transformative market-ready non-photosynthetic biofuel technologies. ARPA-E’s Electrofuels program has successfully supported several technologies on the lab-scale that allow microorganisms to combine chemical or electrical energy with carbon to create liquid transportation fuels. Now, ARPA-E is seeking input from industry, academia, and other interested stakeholders on the steps and challenges necessary to scale-up and apply these and related technologies in a commercial-scale facility. More information is available in the RFI.

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ARPA-E Awardees Attract Another $100 Million to Advance Clean Energy Technologies

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Speaking at the National Clean Energy Summit 4.0 today in Las Vegas, Nevada, Vice President Joe Biden announced another promising milestone for the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E): five innovative companies that received seed funding from ARPA-E in 2009 and 2010 have now attracted more than $100 million in outside private capital investment.

Washington, DC – At a Recovery Act Cabinet Meeting today, Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced that the U.S. Department of Energy is awarding $106 million in funding for 37 ambitious research projects that could fundamentally change the way the country uses and produces energy. Funded through DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), the $106 million is awarded to projects that could produce advanced biofuels more efficiently from renewable electricity instead of sunlight; design completely new types of batteries to make electric vehicles more affordable; and remove the carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants in a more cost-effective way.