The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will invest $17 million across 14 projects that will accelerate critical materials innovation while promoting safe, sustainable, economic, and efficient solutions to meet current and future supply chain needs. The projects, which span 11 states, are strengthening and streamlining manufacturing for high-impact components and technologies such as hydrogen fuel cells, magnets for high-efficiency motors, high-performance lithium-ion batteries, and high-yield low-defect power electronics, DOE said in a statement.

“DOE is helping reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign supply chains through innovative solutions that will tap domestic sources of the critical materials needed for next-generation technologies,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy, Jennifer M. Granholm. “These investments — part of our industrial strategy — will keep America’s growing manufacturing industry competitive while delivering economic benefits to communities nationwide.”

These projects are coordinated through DOE’s Critical Materials Collaborative, which is designed to catalyze a robust critical materials innovation ecosystem by connecting DOE’s critical minerals and materials portfolio with industry and beyond, supporting real-world innovation through each stage of the research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) pipeline. The supported small-scale demonstrations for critical materials including lithium, nickel, cobalt, rare earth elements, platinum group metals, silicon carbide, copper, and graphite will help de-risk critical materials innovations and accelerate commercial readiness and adoption for critical materials including the aforementioned.

The include projects will prioritize community benefits, reduce the environmental impacts of mining, and augment America’s manufacturing workforce. These investments through the Critical Materials Accelerator funding program are part of a government-wide effort to support resilient supply chains and address challenges in each of the DOE’s Critical Minerals and Materials strategic pillars: diversify and expand supply, develop alternatives, improve materials and manufacturing efficiency, and build the circular economy.

The selected projects:
Use magnets with reduced critical materials content:
• University of Texas at Arlington (Arlington, TX): $1,000,000
• Ames National Laboratory (Ames, Iowa): $1,000,000
• ABB, Inc. (Cary, NC): $1,520,000
• Niron?Magnetics, Inc. (Minneapolis, MM): $2,700,000

Improve unit operations of processing and manufacturing of critical materials:
• Free Form Fibers?(Saratoga Springs, NY): $926,000
• Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Blacksburg, VA): $1,000,000
• University of North Dakota (Grand Forks, ND): $1,000,000
• Ames National Laboratory (Ames, Iowa): $1,000,000
• Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Oak Ridge, TN): $1,000,000
• Summit Nanotech USA Corporation (Lafayette, CO): $1,000,000

Recover critical material from scrap and post-consumer products:
• Texas Agricultural and Mechanical University (College Station, TX): $1,280,000
• Infinite Elements (El Paso, TX): $1,500,000

Reduce critical material demand for clean energy technologies:
• Celadyne Technologies (Chicago, IL): $1,000,000
• COnovate (Wauwatosa, WI): $1,000,000

Learn more about the selected projects here.

This opportunity was funded by EERE’s Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO).