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Energy Department Announces Call for Proposals for High Performance Computing for Energy Innovation

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) invites industry to submit proposals for Spring 2020 solicitation for high performance computing projects that improve manufacturing processes, address products’ lifecycle energy consumption, and increase the efficiency of energy conversion and storage technologies.

The Trump Administration has prioritized the use of high performance computing to solve critical national challenges. In March 2020, President Donald J. Trump announced the launch of the COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium to provide COVID-19 researchers worldwide with access to the world’s most powerful high performance computing resources that can significantly advance the pace of scientific discovery in the fight to stop the virus. This unique public-private consortium - spearheaded by the White House, DOE, and IBM - includes government, industry, and academic leaders. For additional information about the COVID-19 High Performance Computer Consortium, including information about how to submit a proposal for that program please follow visit the COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium website.

Strengthening the competitiveness of the U.S. manufacturing sector is a top priority for the Trump Administration and will be critical to America’s economic recovery,” said Alex Fitzsimmons, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency. “DOE’s High Performance Computing for Manufacturing program allows industry to access advanced computing resources within the DOE National Laboratories to address key manufacturing challenges.”.

The HPC4Mfg Program is one component of the High Performance Computing for Energy Innovation (HPC4EI) initiative, which is led by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

HPC4EI conducts two regular solicitations annually, one in the fall and one in the spring. The Spring 2020 solicitation invites qualified industry partners to participate in short-term, collaborative projects with DOE National Laboratories that address key manufacturing challenges by applying modeling, simulation, and data analysis. The solicitation will encourage applicants to partner with universities and non-profit organizations located within federally designated Opportunity Zones and/or Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

Eligibility for the program is limited to entities that manufacture products or operate systems in the U.S. for commercial applications and organizations that support them. Selected projects will be awarded up to $300,000 to support computing cycles and work performed by DOE National Laboratories, universities, and non-profit partners. All DOE National Laboratories are eligible to participate. The industry partner must provide a participant contribution of at least 20% of the total project funding.

DOE’s Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO), within the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, is the primary sponsor of the High Performance Computing for Manufacturing program. AMO partners with private and public stakeholders to advance innovation in U.S. manufacturing and promote American economic growth and energy security.

Topics of interest specific to the office supporting this solicitation are below.

[CLICK TO READ]

DOE’s Advanced Manufacturing Office(AMO) within Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy is the primary sponsor of the HPC4Mfg Program. FE and EERE’s VTO and Building Technologies Office (BTO) also sponsor select projects in this portfolio.

Of particular interest to AMO are:

  • Improvements in manufacturing processes which result in significant national energy savings. Examples include:
    1. Process improvements in high-energy consuming industries such as paper and pulp, primary metal manufacturing, water and wastewater, glass and chemical industries;
    2. Improvements in material performance in harsh service environments such as very high temperature or highly corrosive processes;
    3. Integration of advanced object recognition and other machine learning algorithms (e.g. sortation, defect detection) into high throughput industrial processes;
    4. Improvements in modeling prediction and closed-loop control for smart manufacturing systems (e.g. advanced sensors and process controls); and
    5. Improvements in separation and processing for critical materials (e.g. rare earth elements).
  • Improvements in the lifecycle energy consumption of products of interest to AMO. Examples include:
    1. Improvement in jet engine efficiency could save significant energy over the lifecycle of the engine;
    2. Improved materials and shape optimization for light-weighting in transport technologies;
    3. Semiconductor electrical efficiency; and
    4. Increased recycling and reuse of end-of-life and waste associated with industrial-scale materials production and processing.
  • Efficiency improvements in energy conversion and storage technologies. Examples include:
    1. Improvements in combined heat and power units which save significant energy;
    2. Novel energy storage and energy conversion techniques; and
    3. Improvements in waste heat recovery.
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Now Open: Funding Opportunity from U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) High Performance Computing for Energy Innovation (HPC4EI) Initiative

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) High Performance Computing for Energy Innovation Initiative is accepting applications for a Fall 2020 solicitation, covering the High Performance Computing for Manufacturing (HPC4Mfg) and High Performance Computing for Materials (HPC4Mtls) programs. HPC4Mfg and HPC4Mtls programs are funded with support from the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Advanced Manufacturing Office and the Office of Fossil Energy. HPC4EI programs are designed to spur the use of national lab supercomputing resources and expertise for high performance computing projects that improve manufacturing processes, address products’ lifecycle energy consumption, and increase the efficiency of energy conversion and storage technologies.

HPC4EI conducts two regular solicitations annually, one in the fall and one in the spring. The fall solicitation will target qualified industry partners to participate in short-term, collaborative projects with DOE National Laboratories that address key manufacturing challenges and the development of new materials by applying modeling, simulation, and data analysis to solutions impacting the energy agenda. The solicitation will encourage applicants to partner with universities and non-profit organizations located within federally designated Opportunity Zones and/or Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

Eligibility for the program is limited to entities that manufacture products or operate systems in the U.S. for commercial applications and organizations that support them. Selected projects will be awarded up to $300,000 to support computing cycles and work performed by DOE National Laboratories, universities, and non-profit partners. All DOE National Laboratories are eligible to participate. The industry partner must provide a participant contribution of at least 20% of the total project funding.

DOE’s Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO), within the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, is the primary sponsor of the High Performance Computing for Manufacturing program. AMO partners with private and public stakeholders to advance innovation in U.S. manufacturing and promote American economic growth and energy security. The Office of Fossil Energy is the primary sponsor for the High Performance Computing for Materials program. FE supports cost‐shared research, development, and demonstration activities in support of crosscutting next-generation fossil technologies.

Topics of interest specific to the offices supporting this solicitation are below.

[CLICK TO READ]

DOE’s Advanced Manufacturing Office within Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy is the primary sponsor of the HPC4Mfg Program. The Office of Fossil Energy and EERE’s other Technology Offices may also sponsor select projects in this portfolio. AMO partners with private and public stakeholders to support the research, development, and deployment of innovative technologies that can improve U.S. competitiveness, save energy, and ensure global leadership in advanced manufacturing. AMO supports cost-shared research, development, and demonstration activities in support of crosscutting next-generation technologies and processes that hold high potential to significantly improve energy efficiency and reduce energy-related emissions, industrial waste, and the life‐cycle energy consumption of manufactured products.

Improved energy efficiency across the manufacturing industry is one of the primary goals of the HPC4Mfg Program. The program solicits proposals that require HPC modeling and simulation to overcome impactful manufacturing process challenges resulting in reduced energy consumption and/or increased productivity. Proposals should provide a realistic assessment of the energy impact, the improvement in U.S. manufacturing competitiveness, and the increase in U.S. manufacturing jobs that a successful outcome of the project could have across the industrial sector.

Of particular interest to AMO are:

  • Improvements in manufacturing processes which result in significant national energy savings. Examples include:
    1. Process improvements in high-energy consuming industries such as paper and pulp, primary metal manufacturing, water and wastewater, glass and chemical industries;
    2. Improvements in material performance in harsh service environments such as very high temperature or highly corrosive processes;
    3. Integration of advanced object recognition and other machine learning algorithms (e.g. sortation, defect detection) into high throughput industrial processes;
    4. Improvements in modeling prediction and closed-loop control for smart manufacturing systems (e.g. advanced sensors and process controls); and
    5. Improvements in separation and processing for critical materials (e.g. rare earth elements).
  • Improvements in the lifecycle energy consumption of products of interest to AMO. Examples include
    1. Improvement in jet engine efficiency could save significant energy over the lifecycle of the engine;
    2. Improved materials and shape optimization for light-weighting in transport technologies;
    3. Semiconductor electrical efficiency; and
    4. Increased recycling and reuse of end-of-life and waste associated with industrial-scale materials production and processing.
  • Efficiency improvements in energy conversion and storage technologies. Examples include
    1. Improvements in combined heat and power units which save significant energy;
    2. Novel energy storage and energy conversion techniques; and
    3. Improvements in waste heat recovery.

DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy is the primary sponsor for this HPC4Mtls Program. FE plays a key role in helping the United States meet its continually growing need for secure, reasonably priced, and environmentally sound energy from our abundant fossil energy resources. The Office of Fossil Energy Research and Development (FER&D) Program advances transformative science and innovative technologies that enable the reliable, efficient, affordable, and environmentally sound use of fossil fuels.

Decarbonization of the power and industrial sectors is of renewed interest, and hydrogen is expected to play a role in decarbonizing these sectors. As fossil energy is the source of >95% of hydrogen worldwide and in the U.S., FE technologies in hydrogen production and utilization will play a major role.

FE partners with industry, academia, national labs, and research facilities in transformative science and innovative technologies that enable the reliable, efficient, affordable, and environmentally sound use of fossil fuels. FE supports cost‐shared research, development, and demonstration activities in support of crosscutting next-generation technologies and processes that further the development of advanced fossil technologies. Proposals should provide a realistic assessment of the benefits to the domestic materials supply chain and/or fossil energy application (e.g. power plant).

Of particular interest to AMO are:

  • Improving the understanding of the materials impacts including corrosion anderosion effects of gasification of blends of coal, biomass and waste plastics on materials in high temperature regions of a gasifier, including sensitivity analysis of blend percentages and types of coal, biomass and waste plastics in the process feed
  • Improving the understanding of the material impacts including hydrogen embrittlement effects of blends of natural gas and hydrogen on materials inpipelines, welded joints or compressors, including sensitivity analysis of blend percentages
  • Use of computational databases and machine learning for thermal barrier coating (TBC) development for hot gas path components of combustion turbines firingnatural gas-hydrogenblends or 100% hydrogen
  • Improving the understanding of detailed processes in critical focus areas suchasoxidation, corrosion, and electrochemical interactions in Creep Strength Enhanced Ferritic(CSEF) alloys, austenitic alloys and high nickel superalloys
  • Use of computational databases and machine learning for catalyst development to synthesize, test, characterize, and scale materials which convert carbon oxidesinto value-added products with increased energy efficiency, higher selectivity, andlowerenvironmental impacts based on a lifecycle analysis relative to conventionalproducts
  • Developing machine learning capabilities to predict composition, thermal performance, and mechanical properties of new materials for energy storage
  • Developing the capability to predict the mechanical behavior and properties of additivelymanufactured components for use in advanced power cycles suchassupercritical carbon dioxide cycles

1. Materials Supply Chain for Fossil Energy Applications:

  • Reducing the cost of ingot production for nickel superalloys suitable for fossil energy applications
  • Improving high-temperature mechanical performance for lower-cost alloys ascompared with more costly, high nickel/cobalt alloys
  • Overcoming barriers to scale up new material production from grams to kilograms, and from kilograms to tonnes
  • Overcoming barriers to the manufacture of components with High Entropy Alloys (HEA)
  • Improving speed and quality of welding and other advanced joining methods for nickel superalloys
  • Advanced manufacturing of components for fossil energy applications, particularly for repair of existing plant components and modular fabrication of new plants
  • Machine learning within the supply chain to lower costs and improve productivity

2. Existing and New Power Plant Applications:

  • Predicting material behavior in specific severe environments, such ashigh-temperature, cyclic, or oxidative/corrosive, erosive environments, found in coalgasification systems
  • Development of coatings, claddings, and other surface treatments to mitigateoxidation, corrosion, and erosion of high-temperature components
  • AI applications for monitoring and diagnostics of power plants focused onmaterials failures such as calculating remaining useful life of components or patternrecognition
  • Analysis of thermal fatigue-driven failures, particularly in coal-fired boilersand natural gas combined cycle heat recovery steam generators, to develop and/orvalidate remaining life predictive tools.
  • Improving reliability of dissimilar welds between CSEF alloys, austenitic alloysand/or high nickel superalloys
  • Overcoming barriers to the manufacture of components for fuel cells
  • Developing machine learning capabilities to identify promising new materials fornon-battery energy storage technologies that can integrate with fossil energy powergenerating units
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December 3, 2020

Event address for attendees: Register for Webinar
Date and time: Thursday, December 3, 2020 8:00 am
Pacific Standard Time (San Francisco, GMT-08:00)
Thursday, December 3, 2020 9:00 am
Mountain Standard Time (Denver, GMT-07:00)
Thursday, December 3, 2020 11:00 am
Eastern Standard Time (New York, GMT-05:00)

December 10, 2020

Event address for attendees: Register for Webinar
Date and time: Thursday, December 10, 2020 12:00 pm
Pacific Standard Time (San Francisco, GMT-08:00)
Thursday, December 10, 2020 1:00 pm
Mountain Standard Time (Denver, GMT-07:00)
Thursday, December 10, 2020 3:00 pm
Eastern Standard Time (New York, GMT-05:00)

Solicitations

Fall 2020 Solicitation

Fall 2020

Application Process

Applications to a solicitation go through a two-step review process which entails submission of a concept paper and full proposal. Applications are submitted to the HPC4EI Proposal System.

  • Concept papers are reviewed by the HPC4EI Technical Merit Review Committee along with the DOE sponsoring funding offices. Concept paper submissions selected from the concept paper review are invited to submit full proposals.
  • Full Proposals are reviewed by the HPC4EI Technical Merit Review Committee and recommendations to fund proposals are presented to the DOE sponsoring funding office. DOE is the final decision maker for funding a proposed project.

View More Information

For additional information about the application process, email hpc4ei@llnl.gov.

Solicitation Timeline

Note: Dates are subject to change.

Date Event Action
November 19, 2020 Call for proposal View solicitation document
Download DOE CRADA form
January 7, 2021 5:00 p.m. (PT) Concept paper due Download Concept Paper
Submit Concept Paper - Closed

December 3, 2020 8:00 a.m. (PT)

December 10, 2020 12:00 p.m. (PT)

Informational Webinar

 See Registration Information
View Webinar Slides
March 2021 Invitations for Full Proposals
sent to selected applicants		 Invitations sent
April 6, 2021 5:00 p.m. (PT) Full proposal due Download Full Proposal Template
Submit Full Proposal
Late June 2021 Finalists notified
August 2021 Expected project start
HPC4EI Proposal System

Please apply to this opportunity by using the HPC4EI Proposal System. Applicants are required to create a user account, complete an electronic application, and upload concept paper as a PDF file. Applicants can also monitor proposal status using the proposal system.

If you need assistance contact Michelle Herawi at (925) 423-4964 or hpc4ei-submissions@llnl.gov

Submit Application