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MSU shares in $375M federal biofuel grant

June 26, 2007

Correction: Colleen McNamara is the quoted member of the Board of Trustees.

Washington — MSU will receive $50 million in federal grants over five years to conduct basic research on biofuels, officials said Monday.

Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman is expected to announce today that MSU and other universities have been selected to share $375 million in federal funding to develop new bioenergy centers for research on cellulosic ethanol and biomass plants.

MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon said she couldn't comment on the deal, which is expected to be announced at a press conference later today.

The Bush administration has touted the research centers as part of its overall strategy to improve the nation's energy security and reduce its dependence on foreign oil by developing alternative fuels from sources such as switchgrass and wood chips.

MSU and the University of Wisconsin at Madison will share in a $125 million federal grant to establish the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, said two officials with knowledge of the grants, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement had not yet been made.

The center is expected to be located in Madison, Wis., and MSU's share of the grant would be $50 million, the officials said.

The center will conduct basic research "to design the microbial and plant systems needed to realize the potential of biofuels," according to an overview of the project that was drafted earlier this year.

The deal recognizes the strides MSU has made in biofuel research, said Colleen McNamara, a member of the MSU Board of Trustees. McNamara said she wasn't briefed on the announcement, but knew it was coming.

"We were doing it early on, before it was the hip thing to do," she said. "It's kind of natural for an agricultural college - we are playing on our agricultural roots.

"They called us a cow college and it's starting to pay off."

Researchers at the center would work to improve the characteristics of biomass plants and the procedures for processing plant biomass, according to the overview.

They also would study the biological or chemical processes used to convert biomass into energy products and "the economic and environmental sustainability of the biomass-to-biofuel pipeline."

Energy Department spokeswoman Megan Barnett said she could not confirm that the universities were receiving the grants. But she said Bodman was anxious to "accelerate basic research in the development of cellulosic ethanol" in hopes of making production costs competitive by 2012.

Managing Editor Kris Turner contributed to this report.

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