About the SPARC project
The Southeastern Partnership for Advanced Renewables from Carinata (SPARC) is a USDA-NIFA funded Coordinated Agricultural Project (CAP) grant. The grant brings together Southeastern land-grant institutions, industry, and government into a public-private partnership aimed at providing a resilient advanced bioenergy and bioproducts supply chain solution to the burgeoning US bioeconomy. p: SPARC has a twofold mission of removing physical, environmental, economic, and social constraints of regional Brassica carinata production as a renewable fuel, bioproducts and coproducts feedstock and ensuring stable markets for jet fuel and bioproducts through demonstration of enhanced value across the supply chain. We are aligned in our mission to USDA’s focus of delivering regionally appropriate sustainable biomass feedstock for the production of alternative jet fuel in supply chain systems that may be linked to facilities in proximity to civilian or military aviation hubs.
SPARC is composed of six interdisciplinary and multi-institutional teams called ‘workstreams.’ These included:
- Feedstock development
- risk management, and decision support
- Fuel and co-products
- Meal efficiency
- Supply metrics and modeling
- Supply chain, commercialization, and policy engagement
- Extension, education, and outreach
Each workstream convenes subject-matter experts from industry, academia, and government. Quarterly ‘all-teams meetings’ and annual conferences provided cross-worksteam pollination and discussion.