FUNDING OPPORTUNITY: DOE Announces $20 Million to Improve Water and Wastewater Treatment System Infrastructure

Last month, the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) announced a $20 million funding opportunity to develop technology innovations that strengthen America’s water infrastructure and enable advanced water resource recovery systems that have the potential to be net energy positive. Projects selected under this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), issued by EERE’s Advanced Manufacturing Office, will explore the interconnected, cross-sector opportunities for technological innovation at the nexus of energy and water. View the FOA, application, and submission requirements on EERE Exchange.

RFI: Energy Department Releases Draft Energy Storage Grand Challenge Roadmap and Requests Stakeholder Input

Last month, DOE released the Energy Grand Storage Challenge Draft Roadmap and a Request for Information (RFI) seeking stakeholder input. The Draft Roadmap outlines a Department-wide strategy to accelerate innovation across a range of storage technologies based on three concepts: Innovate Here, Make Here, Deploy Everywhere. The Draft Roadmap also provides planned activities and use cases, which will be translated into a set of technology-neutral functional requirements. Responses to this RFI are due August 21, 2020. Interested stakeholders can view both the Draft Roadmap and the official RFI on the ESGC website.

DOE Announces Phase II SBIR Selections

DOE recently announced funding for $53.4 million in Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) projects. Phase II grants are competitively awarded to projects that demonstrate technical feasibility during Phase I. AMO will fund six selections totaling $6.75 million for technology innovations that improve energy efficiency, material productivity, and competitiveness for U.S. manufacturers. For more information, including the full list of selectees, visit the AMO website.

DOE Manufacturing Institute Selects Projects to Advance U.S. Leadership in Smart Manufacturing

DOE’s Clean Energy Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute (CESMII) announced selections totaling up to $1.7 million for four projects that will advance innovation in smart manufacturing. The selected projects will create educational programs that support smart-manufacturing technologies, processes, and workforce development.

Read the recent announcement to see the full list of selectees.

DOE’s Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Programs Welcome 20 New Innovators

DOE announced the latest cohorts in its three Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Programs: Chain Reaction Innovations at Argonne National Laboratory, Cyclotron Road at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Innovation Crossroads at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The 20 selected researchers will leverage the National Laboratories’ expert mentorship and world-class facilities over the next two years to advance their energy and manufacturing technologies from concepts to products.

View the announcement on the AMO website and meet the newest innovators to join the program.

DOE Announces 10 Water Resource Recovery Prize Phase One Winners

DOE announced the winners of the first phase of competition for the Water Resource Recovery Prize. Launched in January 2020, the Water Resource Recovery Prize accelerates resource recovery from municipal wastewater across the United States. In this two-phased competition, DOE seeks novel, systems-based solutions from multidisciplinary teams at small- to medium-sized water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs). Projects selected during phase one will move into phase two, in which up to two teams will be selected to receive $250,000 cash prizes. Read the announcement to see the full list of selectees.

AMO Highlights Advanced Manufacturing Successes

EcoCatalytic Makes Energy Efficiency Gains in Ethylene Manufacturing: DOE awardee EcoCatalytic demonstrated the viability of a pilot-scale plant to produce ethylene in a new way that is approximately 50% more energy efficient than conventional methods.
High Performance Computing Achieves Real-time Process Control for Glass Manufacturers: Through AMO’s High Performance Computing for Energy Innovation initiative, researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and engineers at Vitro Glass developed a new machine learning tool that improves glass manufacturing productivity.
General Motors Receives 50001 Ready Recognition at 25 U.S. Manufacturing Sites: By attaining 50001 Ready status at nearly all of its U.S.-based plants, General Motors demonstrated the ability of energy management systems to improve the energy efficiency of facilities across the automotive supply chain.

PRIZE COMPETITION: Innovations in Advanced Manufacturing for Hydropower (I AM Hydro) Prize

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) announced the launch of the Innovations in Advanced Manufacturing for Hydropower (I AM Hydro) Prize, a new competition designed to transform the hydropower industry using advanced manufacturing technology. Part of the American Made Challenges series, the I AM Hydro Prize solicits advanced manufacturing solutions to hydropower generation in any form, including joining, coating, and repair; additive and composite manufacturing; casting, forming, and machining; and advanced materials. Visit the prize page to learn more, and submit your concepts before September 30, 2020.

Tags:

Advanced Manufacturing Processes
Clean Energy
Energy Efficiency
Energy Storage
Decarbonization