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The Initiative

The Biorenewable Resource Consortium (BRC) at Iowa State University is dedicated to the development and utilization of agriculturally derived alternatives to petrochemicals and other nonrenewable fossil resources. This will help redress our national dependence on nonrenewable resources. Funded by the Office of Industrial Technologies in the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Network, the BRC is directed by the Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory with the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station and the University’s Plant Sciences Institute.

Federal support of this initiative began in 2002, and the BRC is now planning, funding, and coordinating research that develops technologies that utilize agricultural commodities as energy sources and chemical feedstocks. Funded projects will seek new chemical products and materials, alternate energy sources, and new crops. The development and utilization of agricultural alternatives to petrochemicals and other nonrenewable fossil resources will have many positive results for the nation’s international economic competitiveness, rural development, and environmental issues. It also offers a promising approach to addressing our national dependency on nonrenewable resources.