AMO May Newsletter

DOE Launches $7 Million Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Initiative to Expand Industrial Assessment Center Program

Advanced Manufacturing & Industrial Decarbonization

May 25, 2022

Recent News and Funding Opportunities

DOE Launches $7 Million Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Initiative to Expand Industrial Assessment Center Program

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced the allocation of $7 million in funding from the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to expand the Industrial Assessment Center (IAC) program. The IACs are a cohort of colleges and universities across the country that help small- and medium-sized manufacturers save energy, improve productivity, and reduce waste by providing no-cost technical assessments. U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm announced the five newest IAC universities during her visit to the University of Connecticut’s IAC. Learn more about the newest schools and $550 million in future expansions coming to the IAC program over the next five years.

AMO Awards Nearly $5 Million to Support American Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs

The Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO) recently announced the selection of 25 new projects, totaling nearly $5 million in federal funding from DOE’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) research and development programs. Through the SBIR and STTR programs, AMO supports small business projects that improve energy efficiency, material productivity, and drive U.S. industrial decarbonization and competitiveness for American manufacturers.

DOE Offers Targeted Technical Assistance for Manufacturers in Former Coal Communities

DOE recently launched the Advanced Energy Manufacturing and Recycling Grant Program. Funded through President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the program will help small- to medium-sized manufacturers employ carbon-reduction retrofits, convert their facilities, or build new facilities to produce or recycle advanced energy technologies. As a first step, DOE is providing tailored technical assistance to eligible manufacturers interested in seeking a grant under the program. DOE experts are available to help manufacturers assess what types of assistance would be most impactful based on an individual company’s priorities and challenges. Assistance opportunities focus on assessing eligibility, enhancing the impact of projects that may be supported under this new grant program, and connecting manufacturers to existing programs and resources. Learn more.       

In Case You Missed It: Earth Day 2022 With DOE

On April 22, AMO participated in an American-Made Earth Day celebration hosted by Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm. Over 21 prizes and initiatives from offices throughout the Department of Energy were announced. You can watch Secretary Granholm's opening remarks for the day's events here.

AMO Announces Stage 2 of the CABLE Conductor Manufacturing Prize

As part of DOE's Earth Day Celebration, AMO announced the opening of stage two of the Conductivity-enhanced materials for Affordable, Breakthrough Leapfrog Electric and thermal applications (CABLE) Conductor Manufacturing Prize. This three-stage competition will award up to $4.5 million to accelerate the development of affordable, manufacturable materials that conduct electricity more efficiently to upgrade our manufacturing and transportation infrastructures. In stage two, teams will compete for up to six $200,000 cash awards, along with $100,000 noncash vouchers for technical assistance from one of DOE’s National Laboratories or other American-Made Challenge Network providers.
Interested in learning more? Click here for more resources about the prize!

AMO Announces up to $3 Million for High-Performance Computing for the Manufacturing Sector

DOE recently announced a $3 million solicitation for projects that will help manufacturers improve the efficiency of their operations and shrink their carbon footprint through high-performance computing (HPC). Through the High Performance Computing for Manufacturing (HPC4Mfg) initiative solicitation, selected teams will work with the world’s most powerful supercomputers and the U.S. National Laboratory experts who operate them to solve today’s toughest manufacturing challenges.

AMO Announces National Lab Call: Technology Commercialization Funding

The Technology Commercialization Funding (TCF) Lab Call seeks proposals from DOE National Laboratories for collaborative projects with industrial partners pursuing manufacturing innovations of lab-developed technologies. This DOE investment will support research and development (R&D) to move promising clean energy and manufacturing technologies out of the lab and into the marketplace. The call for proposals is available on EERE Exchange and the full application deadline is July 15, 2022.

 

Highlights

Thermal Process Intensification: Transforming the Way Industry Uses Thermal Process Energy

In November and December 2020, AMO held a virtual workshop entitled “Thermal Process Intensification: Transforming the Way Industry Uses Thermal Process Energy.” The workshop brought together participants from universities, laboratories, industries, nongovernmental organizations, and subject-matter experts to discuss transformative technologies and strategies to improve the performance (e.g., energy productivity, thermal efficiency, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, reduced number of process steps) of thermal processing systems across the industrial sector. Read AMO’s newest report with findings from the workshop.

Inside Shear Assisted Processing and Extrusion (ShAPE) Technology

To make metal rods or tubes used in parts for cars, airplanes, and space shuttles, manufacturers use a process called extrusion, which pushes metals through a mold. Metal extrusion often requires high heat and large amounts of energy. With a novel extrusion process developed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), manufacturers can produce higher quality materials while significantly reducing their costs, energy consumption, and carbon emissions. With AMO funding, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) analyzed the economic value of PNNL's new manufacturing process and published their results in a newly-released report. Learn about NREL’s findings and meet one of the NREL analysts behind the research, with this article from NREL’s Manufacturing Mastermind Series.

Workforce Development Across Manufacturing USA Institutes

As the U.S. manufacturing industry advances to meet the challenges of our clean energy economy, equipping the manufacturing workforce with the resources and training they need to succeed is more important than ever before. The Manufacturing USA network, including all six AMO-funded institutes, have designed competency-based programs dedicated to growing the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skill set in the workforce. Learn more about what Manufacturing USA institutes are doing to attract STEM talent for careers in advanced manufacturing.

Watch the Industrial Technology Validation Pilot Webinar

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” to break through into the commercial market, thereby helping to propel the nation toward our present carbon reduction goals. Learn more about the program by watching the recent ITV webinar. Applications are being accepted through June 30, 2022.