(CLOSED) DE-FOA-0002322 FY2020 AMO Critical Materials FOA: Next‐Generation Technologies and Field Validation

Given recent guidance from the DOE that the limit on entities refer to investigator limits, not institutional this is no longer considered a limited submission.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is being issued by DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO). The activities to be supported under this FOA are authorized under § 911 (a)(2)(C) of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, as codified at 42 U.S.C. § 16191(a)(2)(C). In addition, the Department of Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 1996 generally supports DOE research and development activities related to extraction, separation, and processing technologies. When the United States Bureau of Mines (BoM) was closed in 1996, Congress transferred certain BoM functions to DOE including research of the extraction, processing, use and disposal of mineral substances, and functions pertaining to mineral reclamation industries and the development of methods for the disposal, control, prevention, and reclamation of mineral waste products. See Pub. L. No. 104-134, 110 Stat. 1321-167 (1996). The mission of AMO is to catalyze research, development and adoption of energy-related advanced manufacturing technologies and practices to increase energy productivity and drive U.S. economic competitiveness. AMO strategic goals to achieve this mission include:

• Improve the productivity, competitiveness, energy efficiency and security of U.S manufacturing;
• Reduce lifecycle energy and resource impacts of manufacturing goods;
• Leverage diverse domestic energy resources and materials in U.S. manufacturing, while strengthening environmental stewardship;
• Transition DOE supported innovative technologies and practices into U.S. manufacturing capabilities; and
• Strengthen and advance the U.S. manufacturing workforce.

Through this FOA, AMO seeks to address gaps in domestic supply chains for key critical materials for energy technologies to:

• Enable domestic manufacturing of high energy efficiency and high energy density energy technologies;
• Diversify the domestic supply of critical materials; and
• Validate and demonstrate domestic innovative technologies to support the transition to U.S. manufacturing.

This will be accomplished through development of alternative next-generation technologies and field validation and demonstration of technologies that improve extraction, separation and processing. Key critical materials for energy technologies as defined in this FOA include: rare earth elements: neodymium (Nd), praseodymium (Pr), dysprosium (Dy), terbium (Tb), and samarium (Sm) used in permanent magnets for electric vehicle motors, wind turbine generators and high temperature applications; cobalt (Co) used in batteries used in electric vehicles (EVs) and grid storage and high temperature permanent magnets; and lithium (Li), manganese (Mn) and natural graphite used in batteries (see table below). This FOA seeks to leverage the technology and capabilities developed at the Critical Materials Institute (CMI), an Energy Innovation Hub led by Ames Laboratory and managed by DOE.

Topic Areas

Topic Area 1: Field Validation and Demonstration of Extraction, Separation, and Processing Technologies

For Topic Area 1, each application must propose an industry-led partnership.

Topic Area 2: Next-Generation Extraction, Separation, and Processing Technologies

This topic area seeks early to mid-stage R&D projects (TRL 2-4) to innovate alternative, cost-competitive technologies for upstream extraction and midstream separation and processing of critical materials key to energy technologies. Projects should seek to demonstrate or advance energy efficient, cost-competitive projects that also maintain environmental stewardship. Applications in Topic 2 are requested for projects that propose paradigm shifts for industry; projects limited to researching incremental improvements to current industrial processes will not be considered responsive. Also not of interest in Topic 2 are projects that propose to address next-generation technologies for Co, Mn, natural graphite, or synthetic graphite (see Section I.C of the FOA).

Institutions of Higher Education are eligible to participate as a prime recipient under Topic Area 2 of this FOA

Funding levels for Topic Area 2 are up to $500,000 for up to 3 years

Cost Share 20% and 50%

The cost share must be at least 20% of the total allowable costs (i.e., the sum of the government share, including FFRDC costs if applicable, and the recipient share of allowable costs equals the total allowable cost of the project) for research and development projects and 50% of the total allowable costs for demonstration and commercial application projects and must come from non-federal sources unless otherwise allowed by law.