Courtney Payne

Courtney Payne serves as a senior research scientist and Project Manager IV-Research Support at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), where she has worked since 2007. She leads research activities within the BioEconomy and Sustainable Transportation department, specializing in bioenergy research topics with a focus on biomass compositional analysis and sustainable transportation solutions.

As an analytical chemist, Payne is recognized as an expert in executing and understanding NREL's suite of laboratory analytical procedures (LAPs), having authored multiple procedures and developed improved high-throughput methods. She supervises training for both internal and external clients and manages the biomass analysis sample pipeline while overseeing the work and data quality of eight technicians. Her significant contributions include developing and executing the Biomass Compositional Analysis Service Agreement program, approved by the U.S. Department of Energy for standard compositional analysis services for third-party customers.

Her research interests span bioenergy, feedstock analysis, biofuels, near-infrared spectroscopy, glucan analysis, and perennial crops. The fingerprint analysis of her work shows strong emphasis on Feedstock (100%), near-Infrared Spectroscopy (43%), Infrared Radiation (33%), Glucan (31%), Bioenergy (27%), Perennials (25%), Biofuel (24%), and Poaceae (22%).

With 17 research outputs between 2014-2024, Payne's recent work has focused on sustainable aviation fuel production processes, hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids pathways, and the effects of harvest and nitrogen on bioenergy feedstock quality. Her publications include technical reports, articles in peer-reviewed journals like GCB Bioenergy, and laboratory analytical procedures.

She has collaborated with numerous researchers across multiple institutions, with her work referenced in policy sources and academic networking platforms. Her ORCID identifier is 0000-0002-3731-253X, reflecting her scholarly contributions to the bioenergy field.