Charleston Leader

U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies (CJS), announced an award from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for an advanced renewable bioenergy research project at West Virginia University (WVU) Davis College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

This award, secured through a Congressionally Directed Spending (CDS) request made by Senator Capito in Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24), will fund the acquisition and operating costs of a liquid chromatograph/mass spectrometer (LC/MS) for research using organic biomass as a potential source of renewable energy.

“WVU has been the leader on critical research that has produced essential breakthroughs,” Senator Capito said. “In my conversations with WVU, they identified this project as a pressing need and opportunity for research. Pairing the university’s prowess with our state’s legacy as an energy producer makes WVU the perfect candidate to take on this challenge. As a member of the CJS Appropriations Subcommittee, I will continue to work with our federal partners and leaders at our world-class research institutions to deliver the resources that explore new technologies and research in West Virginia.”

The details of the individual award are as follows:

$233,000 NIST CDS award to WVU (Morgantown, W.Va.) to acquire a liquid chromatograph/mass spectrometer (LC/MS) that will support research and technology development projects by a consortium of faculty from three divisions within the Davis College of Agriculture Natural Resources and Design. All participating faculty are involved in various research projects that utilize diverse approaches to directly or indirectly contribute to developing plant- and biomass-derived renewable bioenergy and biomaterial products and technologies. The participating faculty use a large group of plant and biological materials for the proposed bioenergy research including wood, agricultural, forest biomass; novel biofuel and biomass crops; conventional and genetically engineered crops; food waste and byproducts of food processing; soil samples from fields; environments used for production; harvest of biomass crops; carbon sequestration.