Facilities

NLR's bioenergy and bioeconomy research facilities enable discoveries at the frontier of science and empower researchers to design and optimize biomanufacturing technologies to increase domestic production of critical minerals, materials, chemicals, and fuels.

Across nearly 50,000 ft2 of usable space, NLR's bioenergy and bioeconomy research facilities enable researchers to evaluate and characterize biomass, waste, mineral, and material feedstocks and products as well as enzymes, catalysts, microbes, and metabolites. In these facilities, NLR researchers also develop, scale up, and optimize processes, technologies, and equipment at laboratory to pilot scales. They include extensive lab- and pilot-scale biochemical and thermochemical conversion capabilities.

Government agencies, universities, and industries work with NLR to use these flexible facilities to evaluate and validate their process options. Explore some of our featured bioenergy and bioeconomy laboratories and equipment.

Photo of interior of industrial, two-story building with high-bay, piping, and large processing equipment. Three workers in hard hats.

Advantaged Chemical Conversion Pilot Plant

NLR's Advantaged Chemical Conversion Pilot Plant enables researchers, industry partners, and stakeholders to test a variety of integrated, advantaged chemical conversion processes and technologies.

Several engineers work on a large, multilevel Davison circulating riser, with laptops on tall tables in the center. The riser features colorful scaffolding, pipes, tubes, and control panels with dials and monitors.

Davison Circulating Riser

NLR's Davison circulating riser enables researchers to study catalytic fast pyrolysis of biogenic feedstocks and refinery coprocessing with petroleum feedstocks in a pilot-scale fluid catalytic cracking system.

Researchers working in the Thermal Catalytic Process Development Unit.

Thermal and Catalytic Process Development Unit

NLR's Thermal and Catalytic Process Development Unit enables researchers and industry partners to test, develop, and de-risk reactors, filters, catalysts, and other bioenergy conversion unit operations based on thermochemical conversion of biomass.

Scientist collects a pure metal solution from an experiment on the pilot-scale multi-column chromatography system.

Special-Purpose Laboratories

NLR's researchers leverage a suite of specialized laboratories and instruments for bench-scale experiments and advanced analytics—enabling end-to-end process optimization and integrated R&D.

Work With Us

Learn how to work with NLR to develop, translate, and de-risk bioeconomy innovations for market readiness.

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Last Updated July 16, 2026