Chevron announced yesterday the strategic research alliance between Chevron and the Georgia Institute of Technology, and Chevron’s intentions to contribute up to $12 million over five years for research into and development of these emerging energy technologies.

This announcement comes a week after Chevron announced it had formed a biofuels business unit in the US to advance technology and pursue commercial opportunities related to ethanol and biodiesel production in the region.

The focus of the joint research between Chevron Technology Ventures (CTV), a subsidiary of Chevron Corporation, and Georgia Tech’s Strategic Energy Institute is to develop commercially viable processes for the production of transportation fuels from renewable resources such as forest and agricultural waste.

Chevron vice president and chief technology officer Don Paul said the research alliance underscored Chevron’s commitment to expand and diversify the world’s energy sources and represented an ambitious effort to achieve breakthrough technology in the development of cellulosic biofuels.

Through a process called aqueous phase reforming, researchers will develop processes to directly convert biomass such as wood or switchgrass into hydrogen or hydrocarbon transportation fuels.

The study will help researchers determine the feasibility of producing commercial volumes of cellulosic biofuels or hydrogen from biomass and also understand the conditions needed for large-scale production facilities.

CTV vice president of Biofuels and Hydrogen Rick Zalesky said once developed, second generation processing technology would allow waste products to be converted into renewable transportation fuels, opening the door to a new phase in alternative energy.

Chevron expects to spend about $400 million during 2006 in the development of alternative and renewable energy technologies and in delivering energy efficiency solutions.