US DOE to invest $17 million in critical minerals technology projects

The US Department of Energy (DOE) said on Tuesday it will invest a total of $17 million across 14 projects with the aim of shoring up America’s energy security and supply chain. These projects, which span 11 states, are designed to strengthen and streamline the manufacturing of 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, the DOE said in its press release.“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,” stated US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm.“These investments—part of our industrial strategy—will keep America’s growing manufacturing industry competitive while delivering economic benefits to communities nationwide,” she added.These projects are coordinated through the DOE’s Critical Materials Collaborative, which is designed to improve and increase communication and coordination among government agencies, and stakeholders working on critical materials projects. This includes supporting real-world innovation through each stage of the research, development and demonstration (RD&D) pipeline.According to the DOE, 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 their commercial readiness and adoption.Below is a breakdown of the selected projects.Use magnets with reduced critical materials content:University of Texas at Arlington (Arlington, Texas): $1,000,000  Ames National Laboratory (Ames, Iowa): $1,000,000  ABB, Inc. (Cary, North Carolina): $1,520,000  Niron Magnetics, Inc. (Minneapolis, Minnesota): $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, Virginia): $1,000,000  University of North Dakota (Grand Forks, North Dakota): $1,000,000  Ames National Laboratory (Ames, Iowa): $1,000,000  Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Oak Ridge, Tennessee): $1,000,000  Summit Nanotech USA Corporation (Lafayette, Colorado): $1,000,000  Recover critical material from scrap and post-consumer products:Texas Agricultural and Mechanical University (College Station, Texas): $1,280,000  Infinite Elements (El Paso, Texas): $1,500,000  Reduce critical material demand for clean energy technologies:Celadyne Technologies (Chicago, Illinois): $1,000,000  COnovate (Wauwatosa, Wisconsin): $1,000,000 Learn more about the selected projects here.Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com