On August 2, 2016, DOE announced up to $11.3 million in funding to support the development of biomass-to-hydrocarbon biofuels conversion pathways. Three projects will receive the funding under MEGA-BIO: Bioproducts to Enable Biofuels to produce high-value bioproducts as well as economically competitive biofuels. The projects selected to receive this funding are:

• The Dow Chemical Company, working with LanzaTech and Northwestern University, to develop a process to convert biomass-derived synthetic gas to fatty alcohols as a pathway to biofuels.

• Amyris, Inc., along with Renmatix and Total New Energies, to develop a process to produce farnesene from cellulosic sugar.

• Research Triangle Institute, as well as Arkema and AECOM, to determine the technical, environmental, and economic feasibility of recovering mixed methoxyphenols from biocrude alongside biofuel production.