ConocoPhillips announced today that it will establish a $22.75 million biofuels research program at Iowa State University focused on developing technologies that produce biorenewable fuels.

ISU will receive an initial $1.5 million grant this year, followed by grants of $3 million per year for seven years. The grant is part of the company’s plan to create joint research programs with major universities to produce methods to diversify America’s energy sources. Robert Brown, Iowa Farm Bureau Director of Iowa State’s office of biorenewables programs, said ConocoPhillips is particularly interested in thermochemical technologies that produce biofuels.

ConocoPhillips will also fund research to understand and support environmental sustainability and rural economies, focusing on crop improvement and production, the harvesting and transportation of biomass and the impacts of biofuels on economic policy and rural sociology.

Although details of the specific projects are still being determined, Brown estimates the company’s research program will encompass 10 faculty members in addition to some graduate students in the first year, with additional researchers being added in subsequent years. ISU’s biorenewables program currently has 145 faculty members and has attracted more than $57 million in research funding since 2002.

For more information, visit www.biorenew.iastate.edu.