The U.S. Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Energy Wednesday announced a $41 million investment in 13 projects designed to drive more efficient biofuels production and feedstock improvements.

“If we want to develop affordable alternatives for oil and gasoline that will help reduce our dependence on foreign oil, we need investments like these projects to spur innovation in bioenergy,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “By producing energy more efficiently and sustainably, we can create rural jobs, boost rural economies and help U.S. farmers, ranchers and foresters prosper.”

Five projects will be funded through the joint Biomass Research and Development Initiative (BRDI) to develop economically and environmentally sustainable sources of renewable biomass and increase the availability of renewable fuels and biobased products. Those projects include $4.25 million for the Quad County Corn Cooperative in Galva, Iowa to retrofit an existing corn starch ethanol plant to add value to its byproducts, which will be marketed to the non-ruminant feed markets and to the biodiesel industry.

Agricultural Research Service’s National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research in Peoria, Illinois will receive $7 million for a project to optimize rapeseed/canola, mustard and camelina oilseed crops for oil quality and yield using recombinant inbred lines. The oils will be hydrotreated to produce diesel and jet fuel.

A $6 million project at the University of Hawaii will optimize the production of grasses in Hawaii, including napier grass, energycane, sugarcane and sweet sorghum. Harvest and preprocessing will be optimized to be compatible with the biochemical conversion to jet fuel and diesel.

More information on the projects funded can be found here from USDA.