Updated SF-424A Budget Justification Workbook template uploaded 9/30/24.
The Technologies to Emend and Obviate SYnthetic Nitrogen’s Toll on Emissions (TEOSYNTE) program aims to lower nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from the cultivation of corn and sorghum used for United States ethanol production by 50%. The program will emphasize plant and microbial bio-design strategies that lower the application of synthetic nitrogen (N) fertilizer on corn and sorghum fields while maintaining crop yields and reducing 50% of N2O emissions. Lowering the requirements of synthetic N fertilizer will also lower costs to farmers, as the cost of fertilizer is a significant portion of the operating expenses of a farm. This program will enable technologies to reduce N fertilizer consumption and N2O emissions. These technologies will transform agriculture and lower the N2O contribution to the carbon intensity (CI) of ethanol produced today for light duty vehicles and in the future for sustainable aviation fuel.
Category A: Crop breeding and genetic engineering approaches that alter plant physiology or plant architecture to reduce the requirement of applied N or to prevent N loss to the environment. Examples of these approaches may include, but are not limited to, improving crop N incorporation to a lower applied N rate, or employing biological nitrification inhibition to lower the amount of applied N and reduce N2O emissions.
Category B: Microbial approaches to increase the delivery of N to plants. Examples of these approaches may include, but are not limited to, microbial engineering or microbiome design of N2-fixing endophytic or free-living diazotrophs or utilizing engineered microorganisms, including fungi, to improve soil N mineralization and/or delivery of N to the plant.
Category C: Systemic approaches to facilitate delivery of N by designed interactions between plant and microbe. Proposed projects in Category C may combine the approaches of Categories A and B or focus specifically on the plant-microbe interface. Examples of these approaches may include, but are not limited to, combining plant modifications that improve N uptake with microbial modifications that enhance N delivery, or identifying and enhancing interactions between plant roots and diazotrophic microbes to facilitate the delivery of N.
Category D: Other technologies for coupled N fertilizer reduction and N2O emissions mitigation that do not fit within Categories A, B, and C, if they include elements of plant and/or microbial bio-design.
Concept Paper decisions are available in Exchange as of 9/23/24.