Prof. Jose A.Olivares of Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), USA paid a visit to Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology (QIBEBT), CAS on June 28th 2010. He gave an impressive presentation titled Introduction to the Biofuels Program at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The seminar was moderated by Prof. XU Jian, Director of BioEnergy Genome Center and Group Lead of Functional Genomics Group. Deputy Director General of QIBEBT ZHAO Xichao received Prof. Olivares.

Prof. Jose A.Olivares serves as the Biofuels Program Lead for LANL, and he is also the Executive Director of the National Alliance for Advanced Biofuels & Bioproducts (NAABB). In this position, he provides strategic and technical management and leadership for the overall programs and interfaces directly with sponsors. He introduced the management, organization and research progress of the programs in the domains of cellulosic ethanol, algal biodiesel and bioproducts. The visit made by Prof. Olivares strengthens the academic exchange, expands the ongoing collaborations and paves the way for future tangible collaboration.

The US Department of Energy announced that it is spending about $80 million of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act money to fund advanced biofuels research for renewable gasoline/diesel and ethanol blends fueling infrastructure. Most of the money is going to two consortia, the National Alliance for Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts (NAABB), which gets $44 million, and the National Advanced Biofuels Consortium (NABC), which gets up to $33.8 million. Another $1.6 million was awarded to expand fueling infrastructure for ethanol blends up to 85 percent ethanol (E85). NAABB will integrate resources from over 30 companies, universities, and national laboratories to overcome the critical barriers of cost, resource use and efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions, and commercial viability.