Funding Number: DE-FOA-0001594
Funding Amount: $70,000,000

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) intends to issue, on behalf of the Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO), a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled “Clean Energy Manufacturing Innovation Institute for Reducing EMbodied-energy And Decreasing Emissions (REMADE) in Materials Manufacturing”.

This FOA supports the establishment of a Clean Energy Manufacturing Innovation Institute for Reducing EMbodied-energy And Decreasing Emissions (REMADE) in Materials Manufacturing. This Institute will enable the development and widespread deployment of key industrial platform technologies that will dramatically reduce life-cycle energy consumption and carbon emissions associated with industrial-scale materials production and processing through the development of technologies for reuse, recycling, and remanufacturing of materials. Solving this enormous and currently unmet challenge could significantly reduce U.S. primary energy usage and greenhouse gas emissions in the industrial sector, which represents a particularly challenging sector to decarbonize, and improve U.S. manufacturing competiveness in the process. Analysis shows that the development and deployment of cost effective new technologies to enable significant reductions in the life-cycle embodied energy and carbon emissions for materials production in the US economy relative to the use of primary feedstocks could offer energy savings on the order of 1.6 quadrillion BTU (quads) annually across four classes of waste materials - metals, fibers, polymers, and e-wasteThe resulting Clean Energy Manufacturing Innovation Institute is expected to be a Department of Energy supported Institute participating in the interagency National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI) program.

The Institute would develop the key enabling platform technologies and foundational scientific knowledge as the basis for the sustainable use of materials in manufacturing with the potential to have widespread positive impact on manufacturing competitiveness.

It is anticipated that the FOA may include, but is not limited to, the following Areas of Interest:

  • Information Collection, Standardization and Design Tools for Material Utilization
  • Rapid Gathering, Identification, and Sorting
  • Separating Mixed Materials
  • Removal of Trace Contaminants
  • Robust and Cost-Effective Reprocessing and Disposal Methods

The Institute will develop core capabilities in each of these five areas, while bringing together a broad set of stakeholders capable of demonstration and deploying these technologies within relevant manufacturing processes. The ability to cost-effectively and energy-efficiently process these materials will be foundational to meeting sustainable manufacturing goals across a number of industries in an Institute.

EERE envisions awarding a single financial assistance award in the form of a cooperative agreement.  It is anticipated that the award will require a minimum non-federal cost share of 50% of the total project costs.  The estimated period of performance for the award will be 5 years with the goal of the Institute to be self-sustaining by the end of the project period.

Download the full notice of intent HERE, which includes more information about the proposed applicant eligibility requirements. EERE plans to issue the FOA on or about June 2016.

This Notice is issued so that interested parties are aware of the EERE’s intention to issue this FOA in the near term. All of the information contained in this Notice is subject to change. EERE will not respond to questions concerning this Notice.