In Case You Missed It (ICYMI)

In the first quarter of 2020, the Office of Fossil Energy (FE) attended a range of events on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE); celebrated Black History Month and National Engineers Week; launched three new infographics; issued five new funding opportunity announcements (FOA) totaling $99.3 million; made $38.5 million of project selections under four previous FOAs; and more.

ICYMI, we hope you enjoy catching up on some of FE’s recent highlights:

A Safer, Cleaner Energy Future

FE is committed to advancing clean fossil energy around the globe. In support of that mission, Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy Steven Winberg attended two events—the Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Sequestration Roadshow and the Baker Hughes Annual Meeting—to discuss the Department’s efforts to advance wide spread commercialization of carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) as a vital clean energy technology.

At both of these events, he discussed major demonstration projects, such as Petra Nova, that definitively show CCUS as a vital and viable clean energy technology. Assistant Secretary Winberg outlined the essential role CCUS will play as an increasing number of private sector partners and countries look to manage carbon emissions and see clean fossil fuel as a solution to their energy needs.

He also acknowledged the role government should play in ensuring a stable regulatory environment that fosters the needed private sector engagement to advance R&D and achieve widespread commercial adaption both domestically and abroad.

Black History Month Spotlights

Black History Month is an annual celebration of achievements by African Americans and a time for recognizing their role in U.S. history. We took part in this this year’s celebration by spotlighting members of the staff—Malcolm Bowens, Karrnett Davis, and Miranda Johnson—whose exemplary work furthers FE’s mission every day. Be sure to catch up on each of our feature spotlights. You will learn how Black History has shaped their lives.

National Engineers Week

We recognize the outstanding contributions that our Fossil Energy engineers make to the industry every day. To celebrate National Engineers Week, we met with Patrick Shepherd, Deputy Federal Project Director for Life Extension 2 at the Office of Petroleum Reserves.

In addition to telling us about his role, he shared some great advice on how to overcome obstacles and become successful.

“If a solution doesn’t exist, for example, like a book that hasn’t been written yet, then write your own,” said Patrick. “Life is opportunity mixed with difficulty, so setbacks, roadblocks, and defeats are all obstacles standing between where you are now and where you want to be; each one represents a different level of challenge. But, they allow you to grow and reach new understandings.”

Read more about Patrick, his innovations, and his work at the Department in this Q&A interview.

BRAND NEW Infographics

If you’re interested in learning about Direct Air Capture, Rare Earth Elements, and Artificial Intelligence, be sure to check out our new infographics!

News Highlights

DOE Launched Energy Storage Grand Challenge

U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette announced the launch of the Energy Storage Grand Challenge, a comprehensive program to accelerate the development, commercialization, and utilization of next-generation energy storage technologies and sustain American global leadership in energy storage.

"Energy storage is key to capturing the full value of our diverse energy resources," said Secretary Brouillette. "Through this Grand Challenge, we will deploy the Department's extensive resources and expertise to address the technology development, commercialization, manufacturing, valuation, and workforce challenges to position the U.S. for global leadership in the energy storage technologies of the future."

Additional FE News Updates

• February 6, 2020 – Remarks of Assistant Secretary Winberg (as prepared) at the Small-Scale Liquefied Natural Gas Deployment in Central and Eastern Europe Workshop.

• February 11, 2020 – President Trump’s Fiscal Year 2021 Congressional Budget Request seeks to fund FE.

• February 11, 2020 – FE issues a request for information for coal/biomass co-firing emission profiles and the impacts of those technologies on carbon capture systems.

• February 28, 2020 – FE announces a notice of sale of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).

• March 10, 2020 – A new milestone SPR arrangement allows Australia to lease space in the United States’ SPR.

• March 19, 2020 – DOE announces a solicitation to purchase crude oil for the SPR to provide relief to the American energy industry.

• March 20, 2020 – The National Energy Technology Laboratory’s rare earth elements extraction tests show promise for efficiency and cost savings.

• April 7, 2020 – FE issues a Notice of Intent advance energy storage technologies for fossil fuel power plants.

• April 9, 2020 – 5 ways FE uses artificial intelligence in its research and development efforts.

FOAs

FE issued five new FOAs totaling $99.3 million:

• DE-FOA-0002186 – $15 million for Novel Concepts for the Utilization of Carbon Dioxide from Utility and Industrial Sources.

• DE-FOA-0002193 – $6.3 million for University Training and Research for Fossil Energy Applications.

• DE-FOA-0002190 – $4 million for Research for Innovative Emission Reduction Technologies Related to Coal Combustion Residuals.

• DE-FOA-0002057 – $64 million for Critical Components for Coal FIRST Power Plants of the Future.

• DE-FOA-0002188 – $10 million for Novel Research and Development for the Direct Capture of Carbon Dioxide from the Atmosphere.

FOA Selections

FE selected projects under four previous FOAs to receive $38.5 million in federal funding:

• DE-FOA-0002006 – $25 million for Advanced Natural Gas Infrastructure Technology Development.

• DE-FOA-0001992 – $3 million for Maximizing the Coal Value Chain.

• DE-FOA-0001886 – $9 million for Advanced Components for 65% Combined Cycle Efficiency, sCO2 Power Cycles and Advanced Modular Heat Engines.

• DE-FOA-0002001 – $1.5 million for Crosscutting Research for Coal-Fueled Power Plants.

We hope you enjoyed this quarter’s edition of ICYMI. For more content like this, sign up for our FE Newsletter. Thank you for reading!