Blue Biofuels, a company producing biofuels using cellulose-to-sugar (CTS) technology, has received a USD 206,500 grant from the Department of Energy (DOE) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. This brings the company's total funding to USD 4.9 million.

The company intends to use the funds to continue to scale and optimize its patented CTS process and move closer to commercialization. Furthermore, Blue Biofuels also plans to use the findings and data from this project to pursue subsequent DOE SBIR Phase II and III grants.

Founded in 2012, Blue Biofuels has developed a patented CTS technology. The technology has near-zero carbon footprint and is capable of converting a range of plant materials, including grasses, forestry products, and agricultural waste such as sugarcane bagasse and wheat straw, into sugars and lignin. The sugars are then processed into biofuels, such as ethanol and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), while the lignin can also be processed into a variety of products.