National Biofuels Energy Laboratory

Biofuels continue to offer opportunities to diversify our nation’s energy supplies away from imported oil. Biodiesel can be manufactured from soybeans, other oilseeds, or from waste grease from restaurants. Ethanol can be manufactured from corn and sugar crops. Grasses and agricultural waste can be used to make ethanol, or to make syngas that can be used as a feedstock for hydrogen. Municipal and animal waste can be a source of methane, hydrogen or syngas.

In 2006, NextEnergy established the National Biofuels Energy Laboratory (NBEL) as an independent laboratory to focus on biofuel production and end-use technologies. The goal was to establish a well-equipped facility for applied research and product development that would serve the scientific community, technical developers and the industry as a whole.

Seeded with a $2 million grant from the US Department of Energy, NBEL includes a consortium of key stakeholders, including Chrysler, Bosch, Delphi, Volkswagen, Biodiesel Industries, Monsanto, Art Van, Clean Emission Fluids, Next Diesel, Cummins-Bridgeway, Wayne State University, the US Department of Energy, and the US Army Tank-Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC).