FY23 Conversion Research and Development Funding Opportunity Announcement | DE FOA 0002946

Opportunity Information: Apply for DE FOA 0002946

The FY23 Conversion Research and Development Funding Opportunity Announcement (DE-FOA-0002946) is a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) funding call administered through the DOE Golden Field Office. It is designed to move key conversion technologies closer to real-world deployment by reducing technical uncertainty and cost risk in two areas that matter for decarbonizing fuels and chemicals. The overall intent is to accelerate technologies that turn waste and renewable carbon resources into low-carbon fuels and products that can compete with petroleum-based incumbents while delivering substantial lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions. The FOA is positioned as part of a broader government-wide climate effort focused on innovation that can unlock near- and mid-term commercialization pathways, especially for sectors that are difficult to decarbonize, such as aviation.

At a high level, the opportunity targets two conversion pathways. The first pathway centers on gasification and the production of clean syngas that can be upgraded into liquid transportation fuels. The second pathway focuses on microbial or biocatalytic routes for producing renewable chemicals, with an emphasis on technologies that have credible commercialization potential rather than purely exploratory biology. Across both pathways, DOE is looking for R&D that meaningfully improves process performance and reliability while addressing practical barriers that currently limit scaling, integration, and cost-effective operation. The FOA explicitly highlights the need to push beyond laboratory proof-of-concept and tackle the real constraints that show up when processes meet heterogeneous feedstocks, industrial operating conditions, and downstream upgrading requirements.

Topic Area 1, titled "Overcoming Barriers to Syngas Conversion," concentrates on improving the economics and reliability of gasification and syngas cleanup systems. While syngas upgrading has been studied extensively, this FOA emphasizes that syngas cleanup remains a major bottleneck due to the complexity of the process and the variability of renewable and waste feedstocks. The core R&D need here is contaminant removal: developing or improving cleanup approaches that make syngas suitable for downstream catalytic upgrading without excessive cost, downtime, or performance degradation. Projects in this area are expected to remove technical barriers that prevent consistent conversion of biomass and waste-derived syngas into low-carbon fuels. A specific outcome DOE calls out is enabling conversion of acceptable biomass and waste feedstocks into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) with a 70% reduction in lifecycle GHG emissions, signaling that the agency is prioritizing pathways that can deliver deep emissions cuts and meet stringent fuel quality requirements.

Topic Area 2, titled "Opportunities for Decarbonization of the Chemicals Industry Through Biocatalysts," is organized into two subtopics that map to different stages of technology maturation. Subtopic 2a focuses on improving biological production performance at the host or system level, such as engineering microbial strains or cell-free (enzymatic) systems to increase key production metrics including titer, rate, and yield. The application is expected to clearly explain why the proposed biological improvements matter for commercial relevance, and reviewers will weigh whether the work is likely to accelerate commercialization on a near-term horizon of roughly 10 years. In other words, it is not enough to show that a microbe can make a molecule; the work needs to credibly move the process toward industrially meaningful productivity and economics.

Subtopic 2b is aimed more directly at commercialization-enabling development, emphasizing bioprocess improvements, scale-up, and process integration at larger scales. This includes fermentation development, scaling strategies, and producing enough material for validation with partners. The FOA strongly signals the importance of industry engagement here: applicants are expected to describe industrial partnerships and how those partners will use produced volumes for validation, qualification, or other steps that de-risk adoption. In practice, this subtopic is geared toward bridging the gap between promising biochemical pathways and the operational realities of manufacturing, including stable runs, integrated separations or downstream processing considerations, and demonstrations that align with partner needs.

From an administrative standpoint, awards are expected to be made as cooperative agreements, which typically means DOE anticipates substantial involvement during project execution (for example, through milestones, go/no-go decision points, and ongoing technical engagement). The opportunity sits under the Energy funding activity category (CFDA 81.087). The award ceiling listed is $4,000,000, with an anticipated 11 awards. Eligibility is broad and includes state and local governments, public and private institutions of higher education, tribal governments and tribal organizations, nonprofits (both 501(c)(3) and non-501(c)(3)), and for-profit entities including small businesses. The FOA was created on March 21, 2023, with an original closing date of June 16, 2023. Questions are directed to FY23conversionFOA@ee.doe.gov.

Overall, this FOA is best understood as a targeted push to make two decarbonization routes more investable and more buildable: cleaner, more upgrade-ready syngas from renewable and waste feedstocks to support low-carbon fuels like SAF, and higher-performing, more scalable biocatalytic production routes that can displace fossil-based chemicals. The common thread is practical, commercialization-oriented R&D that reduces the technical and economic barriers that keep promising conversion concepts from becoming reliable industrial processes.

• The Department of Energy, Golden Field Office in the energy sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "FY23 Conversion Research and Development Funding Opportunity Announcement" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 81.087.
• This funding opportunity was created on Mar 21, 2023.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jun 16, 2023. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $4,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 11 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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