Congresswoman Barbara Lee Announces $3.5M Federal Grant for Research on Low-Cost, Energy-Efficient Fuel Production from Natural Gas
Oakland, CA - Today, Congresswoman Barbara Lee announced that Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) will receive a 3.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency. The grant is part of Energy Department’s efforts to conduct research to promote advanced biocatalyst technologies that can convert natural gas to liquid fuel for transportation.
“I am pleased the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has been selected for this competitive funding,” said Congresswoman Lee. “This investment will allow LBNL to conduct vital research into methods for converting methane into liquid fuel—benefitting the environment, the community, and the economy."
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's project, Enzyme Engineering for Direct Methane Conversion, will re-engineer an enzyme to directly methylate, or bind methane with, a common fuel precursor in order to produce a liquid fuel. Methylation, which does not require the input of oxygen or energy, is a new technique that has never been applied for efficient methane conversion. If successful, LBNL’s process will enable low-cost, energy-efficient fuel production from natural gas.
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Congresswoman Barbara Lee is a member of the House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition and the Bicameral Task Force on Climate Change