Partner With NREL To Advance a Low-Carbon and Circular Bioeconomy
NREL collaborates with industry, government agencies, academia, national laboratories, and nonprofits to address critical challenges in the development of sustainable biofuel and bioproduct technologies.
NREL's diverse and passionate workforce fuels the world-class research and development our partners demand.
Join us in a research partnership to enhance existing technologies or develop new innovations. Some of the ways we can partner together include:
- Strategic public-private partnerships
- University partnership programs
- Programs for entrepreneurs
- Technology licensing agreements.
Learn more about partnership opportunities with NREL.
Leverage NREL's Bioenergy Powerhouse for Your R&D Needs
Partners can leverage NREL facilities to test feedstocks, processes, technologies, and equipment at laboratory to pilot scales or apply data, tools, and models to analyze bioenergy research pathways and technologies.
Using NREL's Scale-Up and Piloting Facilities To Enhance Bioenergy Technologies
Our experimental capabilities allow scaling from lab bench to pilot scale for biochemical and thermochemical technology pathways. NREL's Integrated Biorefinery Research Facility and Thermal and Catalytic Process Development Unit feature end-to-end processing.
Our facilities are undergoing renovation to provide first-of-a-kind capabilities for next-generation technology development at relevant industrial scales.
And your partnership with NREL isn't limited to just bioenergy R&D. Using multidisciplinary approaches, NREL deploys its deep technical expertise and unmatched breadth of capabilities to drive innovation that integrates across the spectrum of clean energy, renewable electricity, and energy efficiency.
Partnerships for Success
Collaboration with public and private partners allows essential resources and industry perspectives to power our research and improve the bioeconomy. Learn how NREL and its partners have worked together for technological, scientific, societal, and market impacts.
Case Study: NREL Partners Pioneer Pathway to Platform Chemical 2,3-Butanediol
NREL's bioprocess engineering team has collaborated with Crysalis BioScience to commercialize production of 2,3–Butanediol (2,3-BDO). Crysalis is using waste sugars from the food and beverage industry as a carbon source for this fermentation using an organism developed by NREL bioscientists.
The product (2,3-BDO) can be used as a platform chemical and upgraded to fuels, such as sustainable aviation fuel, or as a bio-based intermediate for production of butadiene—an important polymer for manufacture of tires and other durable products.
Case Study: Amazon and BOTTLE Consortium Partner To Create a Bio-Based, Circular Economy for Plastic Packaging
The NREL-led BOTTLE™ consortium and Amazon joined forces to advance the adoption of bio-based plastics in packaging applications by creating a polyester-agnostic recycling infrastructure that can recycle both bio-based and petroleum-based polyester plastics in one integrated system.
The BOTTLE team created EsterCycle™, a mixed polyester recycling platform. If implemented into our current plastics supply chain, EsterCycle has the potential to reduce emissions by 45% and reduce fossil fuel depletion by 35% (when compared to the virgin production of the polyesters recycled in the process) while maintaining economic viability.
Case Study: NREL Partners With ExxonMobil for Long-Term Sustainability
In collaboration with ExxonMobil, NREL is exploring a wide range of low-carbon and carbon-negative technologies for production of fuels, chemicals, and bio-based products. This 10-year, $100 million partnership was initiated in 2022 with the goal of accelerating ExxonMobil's progress toward its long-range goals for sustainability.
The project is managed by a steering committee that selects projects that are of interest to ExxonMobil and leverage NREL expertise in thermochemical and biochemical biomass processing.
Read more about how NREL and its partners are enabling a low-carbon, circular bioeconomy.
Contact Us
Interested in partnership or business development opportunities with the NREL bioenergy R&D team? Please contact us.
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