Department of Energy announces $35 million for research to address manufacturing challenges

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced up to $35 million for 24 projects to support early-stage, innovative technologies and solutions in advanced manufacturing.

These projects were selected under an Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Advanced Manufacturing Office funding opportunity, focused on advanced materials, advanced processes, and modeling and analysis tools for materials and manufacturing.

This funding opportunity allows selected projects to perform early-stage research and development (R&D) of new, advanced manufacturing technologies as well as encourage R&D contributions from new partners. Successful projects will reduce technical uncertainty and develop new knowledge associated with potential breakthrough materials, processes, and tools for U.S. manufacturers that could improve their competitiveness and enhance their energy efficiency.

The selected projects vary in levels of maturity and industry-readiness – from concept definition (focused on specific experimental proof or detailed analysis) to proof-of-concept (requiring physical experimental validation). As a result, proposed funding levels and project durations are tailored to the workscopes necessary to advance the technologies to the proposed readiness levels. Individual awards vary between $250,000 and $2.5 million.

Selected projects:
● AK Steel Corporation
● Argonne National Laboratory
● Bio2Electric, LLC d.b.a. EcoCatalytic Technologies
● Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
● Boston Electrometallurgical Corporation
● Colorado State University
● Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
● Energy & Environmental Research Center
● FeNix Magnetics, Inc.
● Idaho National Laboratory
● Iowa State University
● Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
● Massachusetts Institute of Technology
● Michigan State University
● Saint-Gobain Ceramics and Plastics, Inc.
● Solar Turbines Incorporated
● Starfire Industries LLC
● Temple University
● United Technologies Research Center
● University of California: Los Angeles
● University of Maryland: College Park
● University of Texas at Dallas
● Yale University
● Zyvex Labs, LLC

Click here to read more about the individual projects. Click here to learn more about DOE’s Advanced Manufacturing Office.