ConocoPhillips (Houston, Tex.; www.conocophillips.com) has signed a $5-million, multi-year sponsored research agreement with the Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels (C2B2; Boulder; www.colorado.edu/che/c2b2), a research center of the Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory (www.coloradocollaboratory.org), to develop new ways to convert biomass into low-carbon transportation fuels.
The Collaboratory, a joint venture of the University of Colorado at Boulder, Colorado State University, the Colorado School of Mines, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) formed C2B2 in March 2007, to conduct research at all four institutions. The new collaboration will build on a variety of active research projects being conducted by Colorado scientists and students to develop new sources of transportation biofuels. The first project will involve converting algae into renewable fuel.
Headquartered at the University of Colorado at Boulder, C2B2 was founded in March 2007 by the Collaboratory to increase the production and use of energy from renewable resources and has several dozen industrial co-venturers. The Collaboratory established a second center in April 2008, the Center for Revolutionary Solar Photoconversion, or CRSP, to convert solar energy to low-cost electricity and fuels. ConocoPhillips plans to construct a technology research facility and global learning center in Louisville, Colorado which is expected to open in 2012.