The funding aims to enhance domestic production, recovery, and efficiency of critical minerals and materials.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced Tuesday that it will award up to $17 million to 14 projects across the domestic critical minerals and materials supply chains. The investment will help validate small-scale technologies and processes for commercial readiness and adoption with the goal of enhancing domestic production, recovery, and efficiency of critical minerals and materials.
The selected projects are spread across 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 list includes recovering critical minerals from e-waste, testing rare earth-free magnets, finding alternatives to battery-grade graphite in lithium-ion batteries, and reducing iridium and platinum contents in membranes for electrolysis.
Coordinated through DOE’s Critical Materials Collaborative, the funding “will keep America’s growing manufacturing industry competitive while delivering economic benefits to communities nationwide,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm said in a statement.
The full list of selected projects can be found here.
Photo: iStock/MingzheZhang