AMO is Hiring

If you are passionate about developing innovative solutions to address the most pressing challenges facing the American manufacturing sector, learn more about current job openings within the Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO).

Recent News and Funding Opportunity Announcements

Charting the Future of American Manufacturing Supply Chains
Earlier this week, as part of a DOE-wide supply chain analysis for the energy sector industrial base for Executive Order 14017, “America’s Supply Chains,” the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) released seven deep-dive assessments of clean energy manufacturing supply chains, three of which were released by AMO. These assessments explore challenges and opportunities to build U.S. supply chains for clean energy technologies, including rare earth magnets for electric vehicles and wind energy, energy efficient semiconductors and power electronics, and platinum group metal catalysts for fuel cells and water electrolysis. Learn more about the White House supply chain reports here, and read the full deep dive assessments here.

Seeking Information on Industrial Decarbonization
AMO recently released a request for information (RFI) to gather input on industrial priorities for decarbonization, including emerging technologies that could be demonstrated or adopted by the industrial sector. The goal of this RFI is to help AMO better understand how America’s manufacturing sector can reduce emissions while creating technologies that will power the clean economy and increase competitiveness on the global stage.
Learn more about this RFI and respond by February 28, 2022.

$7.5 Million for Renewably Supplied District Energy Systems and a Regional Smart Manufacturing Pilot Initiative
AMO announced up to $7.5 million to drive adoption of clean energy technologies that are critical for climate protection. Through the Technical Partnerships funding opportunity announcement (FOA), AMO is seeking applications to deploy renewably supplied district energy systems and integrate smart manufacturing technologies into energy management frameworks.
Learn more about both FOA topics and apply by March 18.

DOE Awards $2.8 Million to Smart Manufacturing Initiatives Across the U.S.
On February 3, the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Clean Energy Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute (CESMII) announced the selection of 10 projects for negotiation for their proposed contributions to smart manufacturing innovation and technology. The projects, awarded across seven states, will focus specifically on research and development, education and workforce development, or smart manufacturing innovation.
Learn more about these projects here.

New Funding for Decarbonization Research
DOE’s Solar Energy Technologies Office has announced $25 million in new funding for projects that advance solar-thermal technologies that can be used to decarbonize steel, cement, ammonia, and other industrial process and projects that advance particle-based systems for thermal energy storage. Submit your letter of intent by March 16.

AMO Highlights

The Latest Manufacturing Energy and Carbon Footprints Are Now Available
Published by AMO every four years, using data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) Manufacturing Energy Consumption Survey (MECS), these footprints show where energy is used and lost in the manufacturing process, along with the associated combustion and process greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Footprints are available for 15 manufacturing sectors, that collectively represent 95% of U.S. manufacturing primary energy use, five manufacturing subsectors, and U.S. manufacturing as a whole in 2018.

In Case You Missed It...
Manufacturing USA has been publishing an ongoing series of feature articles about the impacts being made by all 16 of their institutes. We recommend this recent article that demonstrates how some of the DOE-sponsored institutes within the Manufacturing USA network have been contributing to power the green economy.

Battery Critical Materials Supply Chain Challenges and Opportunities
AMO recently published a comprehensive report presenting its findings resulting from a 2020 RFI and workshop based on battery critical materials supply chains. Critical minerals and materials are essential for the technologies that will accelerate our clean energy economy. However, critical materials have limited domestic production pathways and the overall supply chains is vulnerable to risks. Thus, AMO solicited feedback from industry leaders and subject matter experts to better understand the nature of this challenge and to develop solutions that will strengthen and secure the critical materials supply chain.
Read the full report here.

Printing in the Wind: A Dispatch From The Lab
Researchers at the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at Tennessee’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have recently created a metal wind turbine using 3D additive manufacturing, establishing a precedent for the rest of the industry that could replace traditional welding of wind turbine pieces with 3D printing. “This technology could enable the rapid printing of large-scale recyclable metallic wind turbine structures,” said ORNL’s Brian Post.
Read more about the recent innovation here.

JW Marriott and Other DOE Partners Are Recognized with International Energy Management Awards
The JW Marriott in Washington, D.C., is one of four companies worldwide to receive the 2021 Award of Excellence in Energy Management, a top distinction in the Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) forum’s Energy Management Leadership Awards. The JW Marriott is a long-time participant in the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Superior Energy Performance 50001 (SEP 50001™) program. Five other organizations that participate in DOE’s energy management programs are among 28 recipients of the Energy Management Insight Awards, including 3M, AstraZeneca, Des Moines Water Works, Iron Mountain Data Center, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

AMO and Partner Events

HPC4EI Virtual Event: Focus on Materials
The High Performance Computing for Energy Innovation (HPC4EI) will host a virtual event, “Focus on Materials,” on April 8, 2022. This event will feature discussions from National Laboratory computational scientists leading efforts on computational material development. The HPC4EI program has funded over 150 projects since its inception in 2015. The program is sponsored by DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) and the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM).

Stay Tuned for the RAPID Institute’s Upcoming Peer Review on March 14-15
With funding from the Department of Energy, the RAPID Institute was established in 2017 as a public-private partnership that would accelerate innovation in the area of Chemical Modular Process Intensification. Process Intensification remains an important pathway to achieve the Department of Energy’s goals for improving energy efficiency and driving emissions reduction in the industrial sector. The institute will be hosting a peer review on March 14th and 15th to examine the program’s accomplishments and understand where improvements could be made and what the Institute hopes to achieve in the future.