Importance of Public-Private Partnerships in Developing Corn Stover As a Sustainable Bioenergy Feedstock.

For over a decade, DuPont has been investing to develop cellulosic conversion technologies that will bring about the next-generation of biofuels based on crop residues, energy crops and other biomass feedstocks. In 2012, DuPont will begin to demonstrate the commercial viability of cellulosic ethanol by initiating construction of a first-of-its-kind, corn stover biorefinery in Iowa. With corn stover conversion technologies now entering the final stages of development, the remaining technical challenge facing commercialization of cellulosic ethanol is scaling-up reliable, cost-efficient and sustainable feedstock supply chains. Public institutions can play a unique and essential role in feedstock supply chain development, arising from their strengths in the areas of data acquisition and analysis, technology and systems integration, and sustainability assessment. Successful public-private feedstock collaborations, however, require research contributions that are application focused and commercially scalable. Moreover, such collaborations require a level of dynamic partnering exceeding that of typical public sector sponsor-researcher relationships. Ongoing DuPont partnerships with Iowa State University, Colorado State University, Idaho National Laboratory and the Natural Resource Conservation Service will be described to highlight collaborative, public-private efforts that are helping to create a sustainable corn stover supply chain that will support cellulosic ethanol and help to achieve national advanced biofuel objectives.