Oak Ridge National Laboratory and University of Tennessee have received in excess of $200 million in funding from the State of Tennessee and U.S. Department of Energy to accelerate the commercialization of biofuels and chemicals from cellulosic biomass.

Improved Switchgrass Varieties Delivered to 25Farmer Network Participants

April 23, 2009

Memphis Bioworks Foundation is partnering with Ceres, Inc. to produce commercial demonstration plots of new biomass/bioenergy crops developed by the company. Ceres, Inc. is a California-based plant biotechnology company that is applying modern breeding and genetic tools toward developing a new generation of bioenergy crops. Ceres is working with farmers identified through the 25Farmer Network in conjunction with the Tennessee Department of Agriculture. Two varieties of switchgrass seed for 6 commercial demonstrations across West Tennessee have been delivered to farmers for planting in mid-May, 2009.

AgBioworks
http://www.agbioworks.org