Developing sustainable, low-carbon fuels and industrial products is one of society’s greatest challenges. For the past 14 years, the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC), based at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, has been innovating advances toward a society powered by renewable chemicals and fuels derived from non-food plants.
To achieve this new future, GLBRC is laying the groundwork for economically viable and environmentally sustainable biorefineries that use dedicated bioenergy crops grown on land unsuitable for food production — work that could serve as a cornerstone for an emerging bioeconomy, especially in rural communities.