US Department of Energy announces $10 million funding for critical materials R&D
November 20, 2024
The US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Critical Materials Innovation Hub (CMI Hub) has announced up to $10 million in federal funding to accelerate the early-stage technology research and development (R&D) necessary to reduce material criticality for energy innovations requiring critical materials – rare earth elements, gallium, and copper.
“The continued investment into innovative R&D critical materials projects is key to securing domestic, reliable, and resilient supply chains,” stated Chris Saldaña, director of DOE’s Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office. “DOE and the CMI Hub are putting a specific emphasis on industry partnerships to facilitate adoption and bring these solutions to market.”
This request for proposals (RFP) solicits proposals for projects across the following topic areas:
- Environmentally benign rare earth metal and alloy production.
- Efficient gallium byproduct recovery, separation, and concentration.
- New compounds to reduce gallium content in gallium nitride semiconductors.
- Improved processes for gallium semiconductor manufacturing that minimise waste generation.
- Improved copper sulfide leaching to unlock copper resources from mine waste.
These topics are informed by the CMI Hub roadmap and represent complementary research areas to the existing CMI Hub project portfolio. The selected projects will bring new members to the CMI Hub, expanding focus and expertise on gallium, which is used to manufacture LED light bulbs, communications chips in smartphones, and high-efficiency power supplies. Other projects will explore new research areas related to copper, which is essential for renewable energy, energy storage, and electric vehicles, and expand the CMI Hub’s long-standing efforts on rare earth elements.
The Hub anticipates making up to eight awards. All projects will receive a maximum of $1.5 million in federal funds, including a required 20% cost share for funds that go to industry partners. Projects will have a period of performance of up to 30 months.
Concept papers are due by 6:00 pm ET on Dec 20, 2024.
www.energy.gov
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