Overview

Energy focuses on the application of engineering biology tools and technologies to advance clean and affordable energy sources and to reduce overall energy consumption. To reduce the amount of carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere, energy will need to come from renewable sources, including waste gases (such as carbon dioxide and methane), microorganisms, and plants. Biology can be a source for renewable energy by providing biomass for electricity generation and for the production of highly energy-dense transportation fuels, and used to optimize processes to use less energy.

Societal Challenges & Science/Engineering Aims

Produce affordable and clean energy.

These Science and Engineering Aims are designed to help overcome the identified Societal Challenge:

• Enable production of energy-dense and carbon-neutral transportation fuels from lignocellulosic feedstocks, oil crops, and agriculture and municipal wastes.

• Enable production of energy-dense and carbon-neutral transportation fuels (and other products) from C1 feedstocks (particularly carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and methane).

• Enable the efficient production of biomass for conversion to electricity.

Reduce global energy consumption.

These Science and Engineering Aims are designed to help overcome the identified Societal Challenge:

• Further develop energy-saving processes with biology.

• Produce more energy-efficient crops that require less energy input for cultivation.

• Develop organismal bio-processes that enable the production of energy from (currently) atypical sources.

Footnotes

Societal Challenges in Energy parallel the Sustainable Development Goals identified by the United Nations General Assembly (https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/) and the Horizon 2020 goals identified by the European Commission as part of the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en).