Recent News and Funding Opportunities

DOE Announces $70M in Funding for Newest Manufacturing Institute Focused On Reducing Industrial Emissions through Electrification

On June 22, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) issued a funding opportunity announcement to establish the Advanced Manufacturing Office's (AMO) seventh Clean Energy Manufacturing Innovation Institute. This new coalition of industry, academia, and government partners aims to develop and scale technologies to electrify industrial process heating and reduce emissions across the industrial sector. DOE's newest manufacturing institute will allocate up to $70 million in federal funding over the next five years, subject to appropriations, for research and development projects focused on low-carbon process heating technologies. Learn more and attend AMO's upcoming informational webinar on this topic on July 14 at 3pm ET. Concept papers are due August 9 at 5pm ET.

DOE Launches Federal Advisory Committee to Decarbonize America's Industrial Sector

DOE recently announced the launch of its Industrial Technology Innovation Advisory Committee to develop a comprehensive strategy to shrink the carbon footprint of America's industrial base and strengthen America's economic competitiveness. The new federal advisory committee will enhance DOE's industrial decarbonization activities and inform future investment opportunities and technical assistance programs. The Secretary of Energy will appoint 16-20 members to serve on this federal advisory committee. Membership nominations are open until August 1, 2022. Learn more about the new advisory committee and how to nominate someone for membership.

DOE Awards $57.9 Million to Reduce Industrial Emissions and Manufacture Clean Energy Technologies

To tackle the climate crisis, it is essential that American industry decarbonize as we increase production of clean energy technologies, such as wind turbines, solar panels, and batteries for electric vehicles. On June 16, DOE awarded $57.9 million to 30 projects — housed within industry, universities and the National labs — that will help reduce emissions across the American industrial sector, advance the science of clean energy manufacturing, and strengthen America's economic competitiveness. These projects will yield technological innovations that can accelerate progress toward the Biden Administration's goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.  

Apply to the ITV Pilot through August 15

Decarbonizing the industrial sector is critical to addressing the climate crisis, but market adoption of emerging technologies is often impeded due to a lack of credible demonstration projects to validate costs and effectiveness. DOE's Industrial Technology Validation (ITV) Pilot can mitigate these risks with reliable information from robust field demonstrations and independent measurement and verification. By providing the research and data necessary to validate technology claims, field validations help shepherd innovative technologies out of the R&D “Technology Valley of Death” and into the commercial market to propel the nation towards our carbon reduction goals. Learn more about the program by watching the recent ITV webinar. The application deadline has been extended to August 15, 2022.

Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Prize Announces Phase III Winners

DOE recently announced four winners of Phase III of the Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Prize, a multiphase competition that incentivizes American entrepreneurs to develop and demonstrate processes that have the potential to profitably capture 90% of all discarded or spent lithium-based batteries in the United States for eventual recovery and reintroduction of key materials into the U.S. supply chain. The Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling Prize was launched in January 2019 as a partnership between AMO and DOE's Vehicle Technologies Office along with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

 

Highlights

Demand Response in Industrial Facilities

The DOE Better Plants team have released a new free resource, Demand Response in Industrial Facilities. Demand response is a consumer's ability to reduce their energy consumption when the wholesale cost of electricity in their area is high, or the reliability of the grid is at risk. To maintain the stability of the national electric grid, some utility companies work with commercial and industrial customers to reduce their load on an ad-hoc basis, while others offer “interruptible” electric rates. The guidance document will help companies understand how peak demand response programs typically operate and how they can take advantage of time-varying rates and smart technologies to reduce their energy bills – and often their greenhouse gas emissions too. Download the guidance document and learn more by watching the recent Demand Response webinar.

Institute Renewal Process Document Now Available

DOE recently released the renewal process for its Clean Energy Manufacturing Innovation Institutes, which are part of the Manufacturing USA™ Network. This process outlines how existing institutes will be evaluated for a renewal of DOE funding beyond their initial 5 year agreement.

Electrochemistry for Manufacturing Workshop Report Now Available

Last summer, AMO held a virtual workshop series, titled “Electrochemistry for Manufacturing,” to ascertain feedback from stakeholders across industry, academia, and the national labs on the most promising opportunities to use electrochemistry in manufacturing processes. The series also focused on identifying the benefits of employing electrochemical processes in the industrial sector along with the research, development, and demonstration needs to accelerate the deployment of these technologies. AMO recently published a comprehensive report outlining the findings of the workshop series.

New Office of Science Report: Microelectronics at the Department of Energy

DOE's Office of Science recently published a new report outlining DOE's current, broad-ranging capabilities in microelectronics, future opportunities, and role in interfacing with industry to drive U.S. competitiveness. AMO contributed to the new report, emphasizing the importance of wide bandgap semiconductors and power electronics for the electrifying economy and also the opportunity to ramp up energy efficiency in future generations of microelectronics.

AMO's Critical Materials Institute Develops New Process for Separating Rare Earth Elements

DOE's Critical Materials Institute (CMI), researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Idaho National Laboratory (INL) have been working together to develop new, cost-effective technologies for the separation of in-demand, rare-earth elements (REEs). Learn more about the recent project success and how it could impact our clean energy economy of the future.

The Smart Manufacturing Experience (SMX) Convention Convened In-Person

Earlier this month, the Smart Manufacturing Experience (SMX) conference, an industry event tailored to small and medium manufacturers, took place in Pittsburgh, PA. Representatives from four of DOE's six Clean Energy Manufacturing Innovation Institutes participated in a first-of-its-kind Manufacturing USA panel during the conference. REMADE, CESMII, CyManII, and IACMI leaders joined representatives from the Department of Defense's AmericaMakes, ARM, and MxD institutes for a joint panel identifying the needs of America's manufacturing future.

Free on-demand access to most of the session content, including keynote speakers and panels is available through December 2022.

 

Events

Register to attend the Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program Summit on July 12

The first-ever Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program Summit will be held July 12, 2022. The hybrid in-person and virtual summit will showcase all four program sites – Chain Reaction Innovations located at Argonne National Laboratory, Innovation Crossroads located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Cyclotron Road/ Activate located at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and West Gate, located at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory – along with the regional ecosystems these programs leverage to move clean energy technologies out of the lab and into the market. More than 25 startups from all four program sites will pitch their projects. The event will also feature a panel on Inclusive Innovation and ways to connect with our innovators. Register here.

Save the Date for DOE's CABLE Workshop from July 20 -21, 2022 at Argonne National Laboratory

Conductivity-enhanced materials could lead to transformational technologies in applications ranging from electric cars, trains, and planes, to smartphones, heat pumps and everything else in our daily lives that involves the conduction of electric and thermal energy. On July 20-21, DOE will host its second annual event on Conductivity-enhanced materials for Affordable, Breakthrough Leapfrog Electric and thermal applications (CABLE) to help supercharge our U.S. energy and manufacturing industries. Learn more about the hybrid in-person and virtual event and register.

Critical Materials Supply Chain Workshops Series

Join AMO and the Fossil Energy and Carbon Management Office this summer for hybrid in-person and virtual workshops to provide feedback on implementation of DOE's critical minerals and materials (CMM) research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) activities that will be expanded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, also commonly known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) into an integrated Critical Materials Research, Development, Demonstration, and Commercialization (RDD&CA) Program. These workshops will be hosted by the United States Energy Association and held in Golden, CO on July 14, and outside Chicago, IL on July 19.

AVS 68th International Symposium & Exhibition 2022: Call for abstracts:

AVS – a professional society for emerging research related to materials, interfacing, and processing is seeking abstracts for its November 6 - 11, 2022 conference in Pittsburgh, PA. Learn more.