The Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), is working to convert nonfood bioenergy crops into economically viable, carbon-neutral biofuels and bioproducts currently derived from petroleum, as well as many other bioproducts that cannot be efficiently produced from petroleum.
Ultimately, JBEI aims to:
- Advance basic understanding of plant cell walls, biomass recalcitrance, and microbial physiology.
- Establish predictive biosystems design tools for plants, microbes, and enzymes.
- Develop technologies for feedstock-agnostic deconstruction that liberate high yields of sugars and lignin-derived intermediates suitable for bioconversion.
- Make possible the production of drop-in biofuels at or less than $2.50 per gallon.
- Make possible the production of novel bioproducts.
Research Focus Areas

Developing Better Plants for Biofuels. Building a successful lignocellulosic biofuels industry depends, in part, on developing specialized biofuel crops that are optimized for deconstruction into sugars and fermentation into biofuels and bioproducts. Pictured is sorghum, a bioenergy crop being grown at the University of California, Davis, a JBEI partner. The sorghum flowers are bagged to prevent pollen exchange. [Courtesy LBNL]
Sustainability. JBEI seeks to ensure that bioenergy crops are robust and sustainable. Researchers are using technoeconomic and lifecycle assessment models to (1) predict the impact of JBEI’s scientific and technological breakthroughs on the biofuel selling price and carbon efficiency of conversion to fuels and products and (2) assess the long-term economic and environmental performance of scaled-up production at the U.S. national scale.
Feedstock Development. In developing fundamental understanding of cell wall biology and a suite of plant biosystems design tools, JBEI is creating a knowledgebase for engineering and field testing bioenergy crops. These crops are tailored for facile biomass deconstruction into sugars and lignin-derived intermediates and near full utilization by microbes engineered to produce biofuels and bioproducts. The field tests are also validating low susceptibility to disease and drought. Most of JBEI’s research in this focus area targets sorghum, but other JBEI work examines switchgrass and poplar.

Fatty Acid Synthase. Fatty acids mimic some of the high–energy density properties that characterize hydrocarbon components of petroleum-derived fuels. Pictured is a computational model of the crystal structure of a fatty acid synthase. JBEI research has facilitated the discovery of a variety of enzymes and metabolic pathways that enable the biochemical conversion of fatty acids to a range of industrially relevant compounds. [Courtesy LBNL]
Conversion. JBEI is engineering microbes (e.g., P. putida and R. toruloides) with metabolisms that are able to simultaneously use the sugars and aromatics generated from the deconstruction process and produce a variety of targeted biofuels and bioproducts at industrially relevant titers, rates, and yields. These are products that otherwise would be made from petroleum using traditional chemistry.
Achieving these goals requires integration across all four research focus areas. Biomass deconstruction technology can be improved with engineered crops, the composition of which is matched as closely as possible with the metabolism of the microbes to maximize conversion. Ionic liquids are chosen to maximize product yield and minimize toxicity, which in turn enables process integration and consolidation. Finally, technoeconomic and lifecycle analyses are needed to optimize the sustainability and affordability of the entire process.
Additionally, JBEI is developing new analytical technologies and methods to meet current and future needs in biofuels research to increase sample throughput, decrease reagent use, increase measurement fidelity, and reduce assay time. These analytical technologies provide the high-quality data needed to feed machine-learning algorithms that can systematically direct the metabolic engineering process.
Industry Partnerships
JBEI is committed to transformative research and innovation that results in economic and performance step changes for biomanufacturing. The institute cultivates relationships with industry thought leaders through its advisory committee, biobased targets council, and continual outreach efforts. Robust communication with the private sector ensures that JBEI’s intellectual property (IP) is both cutting edge and industrially compelling, resulting in a rigorous commercialization pipeline consisting of multiple startup companies, licensing agreements, and strategic partnerships. LBNL manages all JBEI-related partnership agreements and IP, regardless of which partner institution owns the IP. In addition, JBEI employs a director of commercialization who coordinates all JBEI industry interactions. These structures enable industry to work with a single institution and point of contact to access all that JBEI has to offer.
Education and Outreach

JBEI’s 2019 Introductory College Level Experience in Microbiology (iCLEM) Program Participants. The iCLEM program has been nationally recognized, and 98% of its alumni attend college with more than 80% majoring in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). [Courtesy LBNL]
JBEI Partners
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley, California; lead institution)
- Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne, Illinois)
- Brookhaven National Laboratory (Upton, New York)
- Iowa State University (Ames)
- Lawrence Livermore National
- Laboratory (Livermore, California)
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (Richland, Washington)
- Sandia National Laboratories (Livermore, California; Albuquerque, New Mexico)
- University of California (Berkeley)
- University of California (Davis)
- University of California (San Diego)
- University of California (Santa Barbara)
- University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources (Parlier)
JBEI Contacts
- https://www.jbei.org
- 5885 Hollis St.
4th Floor
Emeryville, CA 94608 - (510) 486-7315
- Jay Keasling: JDKeasling@lbl.gov