Funding Opportunities

The NOFO was modified and an updated SF-424A/Budget Justification Workbook was uploaded February 6, 2026.

Encourage/Discourage notification letters were released and the Full Application NOFO was posted January 26, 2026.

The Catalytic Application Testing for Accelerated Learning Chemistries via High-throughput Experimentation and Modeling Efficiently (CATALCHEM-E) program aims to disrupt and accelerate the design and development cycle for heterogeneous catalyst R&D workflows. The program will span from rational material discovery to synthesis and final reactor testing. These novel workflows will be developed by coupling the latest advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) with high-throughput experimentation (HTE) to verifiably complete 10–15 years of traditional catalysis R&D work within 12–18 months, thus achieving more than a ten-time acceleration in the catalyst development cycle. The program will then use these new tools to discover and optimize catalytic chemistries relevant to ARPA-E’s goals. These new chemistries will ultimately help advance the objective of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Innovations developed under the CATALCHEM-E program will involve:

Future refinery relevant or other next-generation feedstocks such as hydrogen (H₂), nitrogen (N₂), oxygen (O₂), water (H₂O), carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), ammonia (NH₃), methanol (MeOH), ethanol (EtOH), bio-intermediates (C_xH_yO_z), waste plastics, and triglycerides (TAGs); and

Products like ethylene (C₂⁼) and propylene (C₃⁼) as low carbon monomers, and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), diesel, and syngas as distillate range hydrocarbons.

The NOFO was modified and an updated SF-424A/Budget Justification Workbook was uploaded February 6, 2026.

Encourage/Discourage notification letters were released and the Full Application NOFO was posted January 26, 2026.

The Catalytic Application Testing for Accelerated Learning Chemistries via High-throughput Experimentation and Modeling Efficiently SBIR/STTR (CATALCHEM-E SBIR/STTR) program aims to disrupt and accelerate the design and development cycle for heterogeneous catalyst R&D workflows. The program will span from rational material discovery to synthesis and final reactor testing. These novel workflows will be developed by coupling the latest advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) with high-throughput experimentation (HTE) to verifiably complete 10–15 years of traditional catalysis R&D work within 12–18 months, thus achieving more than a ten-time acceleration in the catalyst development cycle. The program will then use these new tools to discover and optimize catalytic chemistries relevant to ARPA-E’s goals. These new chemistries will ultimately help advance the objective of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Innovations developed under the CATALCHEM-E program will involve:

Future refinery relevant or other next-generation feedstocks such as hydrogen (H₂), nitrogen (N₂), oxygen (O₂), water (H₂O), carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), ammonia (NH₃), methanol (MeOH), ethanol (EtOH), bio-intermediates (C_xH_yO_z), waste plastics, and triglycerides (TAGs); and

Products like ethylene (C₂⁼) and propylene (C₃⁼) as low carbon monomers, and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), diesel, and syngas as distillate range hydrocarbons.

The primary objective of the GREENWELLS program is the development of chemical reactors and supporting units that economically store at least 50% of incoming intermittent electrical energy in carbon-containing liquids. To achieve attractive economics, ARPA-E expects that chemical reactors will need to be dynamically operable to optimize the entire system of renewable energy production, electrolysis capital, and energy storage. If successful, the GREENWELLS program will provide low-cost carbon-containing liquids that enable the transportation and storage of renewable energy, are suitable as-is or with upgrading for use in the difficult-to-decarbonize sectors, and will speed the development of new renewable energy projects by alleviating requirements for connection to an electric grid. 

Technical approaches of interest include but are not limited to:

(1) Dynamic Reactor Design 

(2) Novel Catalyst Development and Optimization

(3) Manufacturing of Modular Reaction Systems

(4) Transient Modelling and Process Optimization

The primary objective of the GREENWELLS program is the development of chemical reactors and supporting units that economically store at least 50% of incoming intermittent electrical energy in carbon-containing liquids. To achieve attractive economics, ARPA-E expects that chemical reactors will need to be dynamically operable to optimize the entire system of renewable energy production, electrolysis capital, and energy storage. If successful, the GREENWELLS program will provide low-cost carbon-containing liquids that enable the transportation and storage of renewable energy, are suitable as-is or with upgrading for use in the difficult-to-decarbonize sectors, and will speed the development of new renewable energy projects by alleviating requirements for connection to an electric grid. 

Technical approaches of interest include but are not limited to:

(1) Dynamic Reactor Design

(2) Novel Catalyst Development and Optimization

(3) Manufacturing of Modular Reaction Systems

(4) Transient Modelling and Process Optimization

Encourage/Discourage notification letters were released and the Full Application NOFO was posted October 30, 2025.

Rare earth elements (REEs) and critical minerals are essential for modern energy technologies. REEs are key to high-performance magnets and motors, superconductors, and catalysts—critical components to energy production, transmission, and conversion systems necessary for U.S. energy security. Affordable and secure domestic critical mineral supply chains will advance future energy competitiveness. The U.S. possesses significant domestic resources of REEs and other critical minerals but operates only one productive REE mine.

The ROCKS program seeks fundamentally disruptive technologies to transform the ore deposit characterization process. The program will pursue technology that targets order-of-magnitude improvements in characterization with a primary focus on drilling, sensing, and analysis. These advances will shorten the timeline for feasibility assessments of REE and critical mineral deposits, leading to increased access to these resources. In addition, advances in sensing can aid assessment of currently untapped resources, such as seafloor mineral deposits.

By facilitating mine development and increased access to domestic mineral resources, the program furthers ARPA-E’s statutory goals to improve the energy security of the U.S., ensure resilient and reliable supply chains for energy-relevant materials, and maintain U.S. technological leadership in critical mineral resource development.

The ROCKS program seeks technologies that improve the characterization of critical mineral resources, with an emphasis on REEs. Technologies of interest are grouped into three main categories: (1) drilling technology to increase penetration rates and core recovery; (2) sensing and analysis technologies to provide higher-resolution mineralogical and geochemical information, in situ or at a distance; and (3) other unique concepts that disrupt the current state of resource characterization for hard rock settings as well as REE-enriched clays, placer deposits, and seafloor resources.

Encourage/Discourage notification letters were released and the Full Application NOFO was posted October 30, 2025.

Rare earth elements (REEs) and critical minerals are essential for modern energy technologies. REEs are key to high-performance magnets and motors, superconductors, and catalysts—critical components to energy production, transmission, and conversion systems necessary for U.S. energy security. Affordable and secure domestic critical mineral supply chains will advance future energy competitiveness. The U.S. possesses significant domestic resources of REEs and other critical minerals but operates only one productive REE mine.

The ROCKS program seeks fundamentally disruptive technologies to transform the ore deposit characterization process. The program will pursue technology that targets order-of-magnitude improvements in characterization with a primary focus on drilling, sensing, and analysis. These advances will shorten the timeline for feasibility assessments of REE and critical mineral deposits, leading to increased access to these resources. In addition, advances in sensing can aid assessment of currently untapped resources, such as seafloor mineral deposits.

By facilitating mine development and increased access to domestic mineral resources, the program furthers ARPA-E’s statutory goals to improve the energy security of the U.S., ensure resilient and reliable supply chains for energy-relevant materials, and maintain U.S. technological leadership in critical mineral resource development.

The ROCKS program seeks technologies that improve the characterization of critical mineral resources, with an emphasis on REEs. Technologies of interest are grouped into three main categories: (1) drilling technology to increase penetration rates and core recovery; (2) sensing and analysis technologies to provide higher-resolution mineralogical and geochemical information, in situ or at a distance; and (3) other unique concepts that disrupt the current state of resource characterization for hard rock settings as well as REE-enriched clays, placer deposits, and seafloor resources.

The Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) is considering issuing a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) to support the development of renewables-to-liquids systems capable of converting intermittent energy inputs into easily transportable, carbon-containing liquids. As described in more detail below, the purpose of this announcement is to facilitate the formation of new project teams to respond to the potential FOA. The FOA will provide specific program goals, technical metrics, and selection criteria. The FOA terms are controlling.

For purposes of this Teaming Partner List, the program is interested in systems that achieve 80% multi-pass carbon conversion to liquids with at least 50% electricity-to-liquid efficiency at the lowest possible cost.

Currently, ARPA-E anticipates that these systems would require:

1. The development of new reactors capable of being operated dynamically to decrease the system capital expenditure (CAPEX) required for hydrogen storage;
2. Small-scale reactor systems compatible with renewable energy systems;
3. Reactor designs that include manufacturability within defined design criteria;
4. The development of new catalysts optimized for carbon dioxide hydrogenation pathways;
5. Reactor systems that enable process intensification that minimize CAPEX; and
6. Modelling and optimization to determine optimum sizing and anticipated CAPEX.

Expertise in the following areas may be useful in responding to the potential FOA:

• Chemical engineering
• Mechanical engineering
• Chemistry
• Carbon conversion
• Hydrogen production
• Reactor engineering
• Catalysis
• Manufacturing
• Modelling
• Technoeconomic analysis
• Lifecycle assessment

As a general matter, ARPA-E strongly encourages outstanding scientists and engineers from different organizations, scientific disciplines, and technology sectors to form new project teams. Interdisciplinary and cross-sector collaboration spanning organizational boundaries enables and accelerates the achievement of scientific and technological outcomes that were previously viewed as extremely difficult, if not impossible.

The Teaming Partner List is being compiled to facilitate the formation of new project teams. The Teaming Partner List will be available on ARPA-E eXCHANGE (http://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov), ARPA-E’s online application portal, starting in October 2023. The Teaming Partner List will be updated periodically until the close of the Full Application period to reflect new Teaming Partners who have provided their information.

Any organization that would like to be included on this list should complete all required fields in the following link: https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov/Applicantprofile.aspx. Required information includes the following: Organization Name, Contact Name, Contact Address, Contact Email, Contact Phone, Organization Type, Area of Technical Expertise, and Brief Description of Capabilities.

By submitting a response to this Notice, you consent to the publication of the above-referenced information. By facilitating this Teaming Partner List, ARPA-E does not endorse or otherwise evaluate the qualifications of the entities that self-identify for placement on the Teaming Partner List. ARPA-E will not pay for the provision of any information, nor will it compensate any respondents for the development of such information. Responses submitted to other email addresses or by other means will not be considered. This list is completely voluntarily to participate in and utilize. ARPA-E will not identify or facilitate connections through the teaming list and participation in the list has no bearing whatsoever on the evaluation of applications submitted to the potential FOA.

This Notice does not constitute a FOA. No FOA exists at this time. Applicants must refer to the FOA, expected to be issued by November 2023, for instructions on submitting an application and for the terms and conditions of funding.

The FOA associated with this Teaming Partner List can be found at: https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov/Default.aspx?foaId=cea4b541-156c-49ce-ad51-e4b6b5ee81aa

The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to solicit input for a potential ARPA-E program focused on accelerating the heterogeneous catalyst development cycle for incorporation into reactors, devices, equipment, unit operations, and process technology applications relevant to the U.S. 2050 net zero goals. These material development cycles can take decades to complete, starting from the discovery scale at milligram quantities and finishing at the development scale with kilogram quantities. ARPA-E is interested in decreasing the length of development cycles to months while capturing significant energy efficiency increases, emissions reductions, and/or precious metal reductions. Major bottlenecks in the process include inefficient discovery, irreproducible multi-scale synthesis, laborious characterization, narrow design space optimization, irrelevant performance evaluation, and impractical integration (i.e., not “drop-in”) of heterogeneous catalysts into emerging technologies.

ARPA-E is interested in identifying potentially disruptive techniques or workflows that expedite:

• Integration of catalytic material discovery and synthesis with device (i.e., cell or reactor) performance in a rapid, parallel, automated, and/or combinatorial manner. Devices should operate under realistic working conditions and correlate to deployment at relevant scales.
• Utilization of hardware automation and modern data science to generate, handle, and process large quantities of high quality, multi-dimensional experimental data.
  

Such approaches must ultimately accelerate the optimization and feedback at each level of complexity from material synthesis to device.

ARPA-E seeks input from experts in catalysis, acceleration, and computation. The tools and workflows of interest should be generalizable and applied to catalyst and process optimization activities across the same class of catalytic chemistry (e.g., electrochemical or thermochemical) that significantly impacts energy technologies of interest to ARPA-E.

Areas Not of Interest for Responses to this RFI:

• Work focused on basic research aimed purely at fundamental knowledge generation.
• Experimental catalysis outside of electrochemical and thermochemical systems, including:
  • Homogeneous catalysis;
  • Plasma catalysis;
  • Photocatalysis; and
  • Battery chemistry (electric vehicle applications).
• Work focused purely on generating synthetic data.

RFI Guidelines:

Note that the information you provide will be used by ARPA-E solely for program planning, without attribution. THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ONLY. THIS NOTICE DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A FUNDING OPPORTUNITY ANNOUNCEMENT (FOA). NO FOA EXISTS AT THIS TIME.

The purpose of this RFI is solely to solicit input for ARPA-E consideration to inform the possible formulation of future research programs. ARPA-E will not provide funding or compensation for any information submitted in response to this RFI, and ARPA-E may use information submitted to this RFI without any attribution to the source. This RFI provides the broad research community with an opportunity to contribute views and opinions.

No material submitted for review will be returned and there will be no formal or informal debriefing concerning the review of any submitted material. ARPA-E may contact respondents to request clarification or seek additional information relevant to this RFI. All responses provided will be considered, but ARPA-E will not respond to individual submissions or publish a compendium of responses. Respondents shall not include any information in the response to this RFI that could be considered proprietary or confidential.

Responses to this RFI should be submitted in PDF format to the email address ARPA-E-RFI@hq.doe.gov by 5:00 PM Eastern Time on June 13, 2024.

The Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) is considering issuing a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) to support the development of artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled, accelerated research and development (R&D) workflows for energy-relevant, heterogeneous, thermochemical, and electrochemical catalysts. The purpose of this announcement is to facilitate the formation of new, multi-disciplinary project teams to respond to a potential future NOFO. Any NOFO issued in the future would provide specific program goals, technical metrics, and selection criteria. If there are any inconsistencies between this announcement and the potential NOFO, the NOFO language would be controlling.

This potential NOFO would focus on:

• Innovations in high-throughput catalyst design experimental methods and state-of-the-art AI and machine learning (ML) algorithms and models; and
• Integration of these innovations into catalysis R&D workflows to automate and accelerate the development of heterogeneous catalysts.

These technology developments would significantly contribute toward ARPA-E’s statutory goals by improving energy efficiency, reducing energy-related emissions through new feedstocks, and reducing imports associated with critical materials.

The anticipated goals of the potential program include the following:

• Development of AI-enabled “closed-loop” or other potentially disruptive workflows to accelerate the design and development cycle for chemistries relevant to ARPA-E’s mission, which will ultimately help advance the goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 (e.g., “future refinery relevant” or other next generation feedstocks and products);
• Synthesis of new “drop-in” manufacturable technical catalysts in engineered forms at kilogram scale for thermochemical or electrochemical reactor systems, as well as evaluation of these technical catalysts for performance under realistic, industrial conditions; and
• Generation of AI-ready databases by combining and pre-processing high-quality, multi-scale, multi-modal data as generated and gathered from synthesis, characterization, and performance testing tasks at the ab initio, as well as at the research and technical catalyst levels.

The potential program is expected to consist of a three-year performance period. It is anticipated that the program will transform and disrupt traditional catalysis R&D workflows by tightly coupling state-of-the-art advances in hardware for high-throughput catalyst design experimental methods with modern software tools and techniques in AI/ML, data science, and data engineering such that an equivalent 10 – 15 years of traditional catalysis R&D work can be verifiably completed (through rediscovery) within 12 – 18 months, effectively demonstrating a more than 10x acceleration in the catalyst development cycle. Further impact will be realized by utilizing these acceleration methods for novel catalyst-reaction discovery and co-design. The potential NOFO encourages the development of closed-loop and other promising, automated workflow topologies that enable inverse design of heterogenous catalysts.

Teams composed of experts in the following areas may be useful in responding to the potential NOFO (see attached document for more detail on each category):

• Materials acceleration and high-throughput experimentation (HTE) (hardware and software)
• AI/ML
• Catalysis
• Industrial catalysis and manufacturing

Successful teams are likely to include subject matter experts from all identified areas. Although a single person may be able to fill more than one of these roles, a complete set of experts is unlikely to exist within any single organization. Furthermore, due to timing and resource constraints typical of ARPA-E programs, it is generally recommended that any applicant project team would need to secure access to existing HTE hardware.

ARPA-E strongly encourages outstanding scientists and engineers from different organizations, scientific disciplines, and technology sectors to form new project teams. Interdisciplinary and cross-sector collaboration spanning organizational boundaries enables and accelerates scientific and technological outcomes that were previously viewed as extremely difficult, if not impossible, to achieve.

The Teaming Partner List is being compiled to facilitate the formation of new project teams. The Teaming Partner List will be available on ARPA-E eXCHANGE (http://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov), ARPA-E’s online application portal, starting in October 2024. The Teaming Partner List will be updated periodically until the close of the Full Application period to reflect new Teaming Partners who have provided their information.

Any organization that would like to be included on this list should complete all required fields in the form found at the following link: https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov/Applicantprofile.aspx. Required information includes the following: Organization Name, Contact Name, Contact Address, Contact Email, Contact Phone, Organization Type, Area of Technical Expertise, and Brief Description of Capabilities.

By submitting your information to this Teaming Partner List, you consent to the publication of the above-referenced information. By facilitating this Teaming Partner List, ARPA-E does not endorse or otherwise evaluate the qualifications of the entities that self-identify for placement on the Teaming Partner List. ARPA-E will not pay for the provision of any information, nor will it compensate any respondents for the development of such information. Responses submitted to other email addresses or by other means will not be considered. Participation in and utilization of this list is completely voluntary. ARPA-E will not identify or facilitate connections through the list and participation in the list has no bearing whatsoever on the evaluation of applications submitted to the potential funding opportunity.

This list does not constitute a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO). A NOFO does not exist at this time. Applicants must refer to the funding opportunity, expected to be issued by November 2024, for instructions on applying and for details on how projects will be funded.

The Advanced Research Projects Agency Energy (ARPA-E) intends to issue a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled Revolutionizing Ore to Steel to Impact Emissions (ROSIE), targeting new technology pathways to enable zero direct process emissions in ironmaking (i.e., zero-process-emission ironmaking) and ultra-low life cycle emissions for steelmaking at scale.

As described in more detail below, the purpose of this announcement is to facilitate the formation of new project teams to respond to the upcoming ROSIE FOA. The FOA will provide specific program goals, technical metrics, and selection criteria; and the FOA terms are controlling. For purposes of the Teaming Partner List, the following summarizes current planning for the FOA.

ARPA-E has identified two Technical Categories for ROSIE’s low emission iron and steel opportunities. Technical Category A ends with an iron product; Technical Category B ends with a steel product. Proposers in both categories must address emissions associated with ironmaking while producing either a relevant iron or steel product. An iron product may be a final product for direct use or it may be iron designed to be used in further steelmaking; the steel product must be a deliverable product in an existing or projected steel market.

ARPA-E held a workshop on this topic in September 2021; Information on this workshop can be found at https://arpa-e.energy.gov/events/zero-emission-iron-steelmaking-workshop.

The draft technical section FOA language is included as Attachment A to this document and the draft Cost and LCA Estimator Tool is included as a separate Attachment B. NOTE: THE ISSUED FOA, INCLUDING TECHNICAL SECTION AND LCA ESTIMATOR TOOL, WILL BE CONTROLLING, NOT THESE DRAFT DOCUMENTS, THOUGH NO MAJOR CHANGES ARE ANTICIPATED.

The following is a non-exhaustive list of the technologies that will be of interest for the ROSIE Program. All technologies must satisfy specified zero-emissions-ironmaking criteria.

• Aqueous electrowinning of ores: in acidic, basic, or neutral media; including the potential for the acids/bases to be produced on-site and recycled;
• Non-aqueous electrolysis of ores: using electrolytes of molten salts and eutectics; innovations in novel electrodes that will withstand operating conditions;
• H₂ plasma-based ironmaking: using microwave, arc, or other plasma generation methods;
• Biomass-based ironmaking: the use of low-cost emerging bio-feedstocks; innovative ways to process these feedstocks into bioreductants for specific utility in ironmaking;
• Biological and biomimetic ironmaking: siderophore derivatives or other catalyst mimics that selectively bind iron cations from ore and reduce them;
• Novel thermochemical ironmaking: methods to use nontraditional reductants, recycled carbon, or other new thermochemistry to process realistic feedstocks;
• Ironmaking from unconventional ores: mine tailings and other wastes; especially, taconite or other ores found substantially in the United States; co-production of iron and other metals or byproducts as enabled by using mixed-metal ores; and
• Other novel technologies: to produce iron from raw iron resources with zero greenhouse gas (GHG) process emissions.

The scope of the ROSIE program is framed to advance high-potential, high-impact technologies with the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from ironmaking to zero. Submissions that do not represent a significant innovation in ironmaking technology are out of scope. These are examples of technology concepts that would not meet the success criteria of this program:

• More efficient blast furnace technologies or direct reduced iron (DRI) - electric arc furnace (EAF) processes
• Adding carbon capture with sequestration to blast furnaces
• Transitioning from DRI using natural gas to DRI using hydrogen (H2)
• Ore beneficiation for blast furnace or DRI processes
• Biomass to make biocoke followed by standard blast furnace ironmaking
• Enabling increased quality and availability of scrap metal feedstock
• Reducing or removing carbon emissions in existing pre-processing stages such as sintering and induration

The ROSIE program goals are to develop low emissions ironmaking technologies that have the potential to scale to meaningful production levels at cost parity with existing technologies. The performance metrics will include the amount of non-biogenic greenhouse gas emissions from ironmaking process; the cradle-to-gate lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions; the process and product scalability; the target cost per tonne of product; and the target lab scale prototype at end of the project.

Several additional considerations will also be used for proposal evaluation, including the energy per tonne of iron or steel product; the process byproducts or waste streams; the process flexibility; the product viability; the pathway to scale from lab (grams/hour) to pilot plant (tonnes/year); and the final product qualification requirements.

ARPA-E project teams are required to construct and execute a commercialization strategy that is unique to their technology. Technology-to-market risks that may be addressed include the availability of the reductant for a chosen process, which may be electricity, hydrogen, sustainable carbon, or other technology-specific reagents. Other underlying cost and risk drivers that may be addressed include availability of the appropriate domestic ore feedstock and uncertainty in electricity pricing. To assist in assessing the potential for technology development and application, a basic Ironmaking Cost and Life Cycle Assessment Estimator Tool has been provided along with this announcement (Attachment B). The goal of this tool is to enable fair comparison of technologies using input data (e.g., CO₂ footprint of grid electricity) from a standard library.

ARPA-E is not interested in projects that exclusively consider the reduction of relatively pure iron oxide to iron. Successful applications need to demonstrate the reduction of iron oxide feedstock under conditions that will be industrially relevant to the commercial deployment of the proposed technology.

Due to a complex cross-disciplinary nature of the intended program, ARPA-E strongly encourages outstanding scientists and engineers from different organizations, scientific disciplines, and technology sectors with expertise in power electronics, optoelectronics, photonics, and other related fields, to form new project teams. Interdisciplinary and cross-sector collaboration spanning organizational boundaries enables and accelerates the achievement of scientific and technological outcomes that were previously viewed as extremely difficult, if not impossible.

The Teaming Partner List is being compiled to facilitate the formation of new project teams. The Teaming Partner List will be available on ARPA-E eXCHANGE (http://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov), ARPA-E’s online application portal, starting May 2023. The Teaming Partner List will be updated periodically, until the close of the Full Application period, to reflect new Teaming Partners who have provided their information.

Any organization that would like to be included on this list should complete all required fields in the following link: https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov/Applicantprofile.aspx. Required information includes: Organization Name, Contact Name, Contact Address, Contact Email, Contact Phone, Organization Type, Area of Technical Expertise, and Brief Description of Capabilities.

By submitting a response to this Notice, respondents consent to the publication of the above-referenced information. By facilitating and publishing this Teaming Partner List, ARPA-E is not endorsing, sponsoring, or otherwise evaluating the qualifications of the individuals and organizations that are self-identifying themselves for placement on this Teaming Partner List. ARPA-E reserves the right to remove any inappropriate responses to this Announcement (including lack of sufficient relevance to, or experience with, the technical topic of the Announcement). ARPA-E will not pay for the provision of any information, nor will it compensate any respondents for the development of such information. Responses submitted to other email addresses or by other means will not be considered.

This Notice does not constitute a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA). No FOA exists at this time. Applicants must refer to the final FOA, expected to be issued in June 2023, for instructions on submitting an application, the desired technical metrics, and for the terms and conditions of funding.

The draft technical section and LCA tool included as attachments to this Teaming Partner List will be discussed by ARPA-E Program Director Jenifer Shafer on June 15, 2023, at an ARPA-E Industry Day.

Objective:

The chemical process to synthesize ammonia – produced in huge amounts for its vital role in world agriculture – needs mitigation of its substantial negative energy and environmental consequences. To address these consequences, the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) of the US Department of Energy seeks information that could inform ARPA-E’s potential research and development (R&D) funding of a pre-production, integrated system involving a skid-mounted ammonia synthesis system connected to an intermittent renewable energy source at a production scale of several hundred kg to 1 metric ton of ammonia per day.

For this targeted application, ARPA-E is interested in addressing key challenges of integrating various technologies emerging from the ARPA-E REFUEL program - and related awards from other ARPA-E programs (both prior and ongoing) - that are ready for scaling and would comprise a system for the production of ammonia as described above. Specifically, ARPA-E seeks information about:

• Capabilities and needs of organizations to provide or evaluate such ARPA-E funded technologies (e.g. advanced catalysts for low pressure and temperature synthesis, novel ammonia separation methods, etc.);
• Capabilities and needs of organizations to integrate, build and test the ammonia synthesis system describe above;
• Ability of organizations – on their own, or by forming and leading a consortium of research teams - with investors and private sector partners to advance promising ammonia synthesis and related technologies to market.

The goal is to integrate developed technologies and validate their reliability under variable load and start/stop operations, manufacturability, and favorable economics at scale. Successful integration of ammonia synthesis technologies would establish a path forward to continued private sector development, scaling and deployment of these distributed ammonia synthesis technologies. Ideally, the designed and constructed ammonia synthesis unit would serve as a test site for future improved subsystems for the ammonia synthesis process.

This research effort, if successful, would reduce the energy intensity and carbon emissions of ammonia synthesis and establish a new manufacturing base for energy technology in the U.S.

More detailed information on the background of the technology and competitiveness challenges ARPA-E seeks to address can be found in the REFUEL FOA. The REFUEL program is supporting projects focused on specific components of ammonia synthesis, e.g. improved catalysts or separation technologies, at scales up to 1 kg/day of ammonia. To prove that these technologies are viable, further work is required, including combining individual technologies, testing them at a larger scale, and subjecting them to intermittent power.

This RFI focuses only on integration R&D of promising ammonia-synthesis technologies that ARPA-E has funded for which technology verification and integration at a relevant scale would substantially build upon innovations achieved under the ARPA-E awards. Potential new research would be based upon inventions/technologies resulting from those ARPA-E awards, with the intent to advance the innovation to practical application. Cooperation between existing and former ARPA-E awardees is highly encouraged in responses to this RFI and any subsequent R&D work.

ARPA-E recognizes that new business and research arrangements may be needed to fund larger-scale research than the smaller proof of concept efforts supported under REFUEL. If sufficient interest and capability to integrate and test REFUEL technologies exist, ARPA-E may consider funding a public-private innovation collaboration or consortium to that end. For such a project, ARPA-E would expect significant industry participation, as well as an increased cost share (compared to the 5%-20% cost share typical of ARPA-E awards.)

In addition to greater financial commitments, ARPA-E seeks information that also addresses:

• Requiring substantial US manufacturing of resulting technologies for use/sale worldwide, subject to reasonable waiver requests that may be submitted before, during, or after completion of the pilot effort.
• Forming teams with more diversified professional engineering and management capabilities needed for large projects, in contrast to typical ARPA-E projects that tend to focus heavily on bench-scale research or early, small-scale proof-of-concept prototypes.
• Encouraging engagement with industry stakeholders providing in-kind support to the system integration effort. These stakeholders could be state development agencies, potential customers, investment diligence organizations, project financiers, or others with the ability and interest to facilitate the eventual translation of technology from the bench to commercial scale.

Purpose and Need for Information:

The purpose of this RFI is solely to solicit input for ARPA-E’s consideration, and to inform the possible initiation of the next generation ammonia synthesis research described above.

ARPA-E will not provide funding or compensation for any information submitted in response to this RFI, and ARPA-E may use information submitted to this RFI without any attribution to the source. This RFI provides the broader research community with an opportunity to contribute views and opinions regarding the current state of the art of ammonia synthesis research and development.

Carefully review the REQUEST FOR INFORMATION GUIDELINES below. In particular, that the information you provide will be used by ARPA-E solely for program planning, without attribution. THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ONLY. THIS NOTICE DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A FUNDING OPPORTUNITY ANNOUNCEMENT (FOA). NO FOA EXISTS AT THIS TIME.

Request for Information Guidelines:

No material submitted for review will be returned and there will be no formal or informal debriefing concerning the review of any submitted material. ARPA-E may contact respondents to request clarification or seek additional information relevant to this RFI. All responses provided will be considered, but ARPA-E will not respond to individual submissions or publish publicly a compendium of responses. Respondents shall not include any information in the response to this RFI that might be considered proprietary or confidential.

Responses to this RFI should be submitted in PDF format to ARPA-E-RFI@hq.doe.gov by 5:00 PM Eastern Time on April 6^th, 2020. Emails should conform to the following guidelines:

• Insert “Response to Ammonia RFI 2307 - <your organization name>” in the subject line of your email.
• In the body of your email, include your name, title, organization, type of organization (e.g. university, non-governmental organization, small business, large business, federally funded research and development center (FFRDC), government-owned/government-operated (GOGO), etc.), email address, telephone number, and area of expertise.
• Responses to this RFI are limited to no more than 10 pages in length (12 point font size).

Responders should provide the following information though a response to each item on the list is not required:

TECHNICAL INFORMATION

1. What is the optimal size (kg/day ammonia and related total power and material requirement) for a system validation that would adequately address technical and market risks? Is in-field testing (i.e., on or near agricultural sites or other ammonia consumer) required, and if so, what integration, ruggedness, transportability, and infrastructure requirements does this impose on a test system?
2. Describe the current state of the art in electrolyzer systems (available size, power consumption, reliability, unit cost) that could be provided under commercial terms. Also describe any breakpoints associated with cost.
3. Describe the current state of the art in air separation systems (size, nitrogen purity, power consumption, reliability, unit cost) that could be provided under commercial terms. Also describe any break points associated with cost.
4. Describe what you view as the major technical risks associated with integration of multiple technologies to produce ammonia from air, water and renewable energy?
5. What are the major challenges in industrial production using intermittent power and how can they be overcome? What duty cycles are appropriate for different regions, use cases, or customers? How do these transients affect the performance requirements for the individual components (e.g., ASU, reactor, and separations train)?
6. What are ranges of capacity factors for renewable sources of power? Provide duty cycle details by source and geography.

ORGANIZATIONAL INFORMATION

1. Describe your organization’s ability to evaluate and integrate different chemical processing technologies (both established and emerging) including access to appropriate manufacturing and/or testing facilities.
2. Describe your organization’s ability and experience to perform or supervise the construction of modular, flexible chemical systems.
3. Describe your organization’s ability to perform preliminary and detailed design of skid-mounted chemical systems and working with 3^rd parties as required.
4. Describe your organization’s ability to secure a site for field testing of the system. The site should be capable of housing a skid-mounted system that produces ammonia at a rate of up to 1 ton per day from air and water. The site should have access to a source of intermittent renewable energy with enough power to support the target ammonia productivity. Data on power generation daily/seasonal variability should be available for modeling purposes. Experience in ammonia handling is highly desirable.
5. Describe your organization’s experience with field testing of new technologies, including securing permits from relevant authorities and managing on-site construction/commissioning, operation and decommissioning.
6. Describe your organization’s experience in developing and packaging new technologies, particularly from multiple sources, for licensing.
7. Assess the ability of potential research organizations to secure or provide 30% -50% cost share on a project for the above-described research that may cost up to $15 million total. It is reasonable to expect that all team members would contribute to the cost share.
8. Describe your organization’s plans, if any, for the utilization of ammonia produced from a project of this nature (e.g. use as a fertilizer, generation of heat or electricity). Multiple uses at different scales can be proposed.
9. Describe your organization’s experience in managing of multi-partner projects including IP management (e.g. building and running a consortium).

Topics not of interest:

ARPA-E is not interested in integrators seeking to deploy established technologies that are already available for license.

Objective:

The Advanced Research Projects Agency –Energy (ARPA-E) in the US Department of Energy is seeking information concerning technologies to produce hydrogen and elemental carbon from the thermal decomposition of methane (also known as methane pyrolysis, methane cracking, or methane splitting). Recognizing that the value of the carbon product would be a key factor in the economic feasibility of such processes, ARPA-E seeks input from experts in the fields of materials science (including advanced carbon fiber synthesis), process engineering, methane pyrolysis, plasma chemistry, and chemical engineering regarding potential mechanisms for the bulk conversion of carbon materials, specifically from less valuable forms (e.g. amorphous carbon) or mixtures, to more valuable single allotropes or controlled mixtures of high-value carbon structures. Consistent with the agency’s mission, ARPA-E is seeking insights on clearly disruptive, novel technologies for such conversions, early in the R&D cycle, and not integration strategies for existing technologies.

Please carefully review the REQUEST FOR INFORMATION GUIDELINES below. Please note, in particular, that the information you provide will be used by ARPA-E solely for program planning, without attribution. THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ONLY. THIS NOTICE DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A FUNDING OPPORTUNITY ANNOUNCEMENT (FOA). NO FOA EXISTS AT THIS TIME. Respondents shall not include any information in their response to this RFI that might be considered proprietary or confidential.

Background:

The United States produces ~10 million tons of hydrogen annually, primarily for use on-site at petroleum refineries, and for the production of ammonia or methanol. However, the opportunity for hydrogen utilization in the future is vast, with potential applications in electricity production, transportation, and novel chemical processes. Already, hydrogen use in the transportation sector has seen rapid growth with 500 megawatts of fuel cells shipped worldwide in 2016.¹ Today, the vast preponderance of hydrogen produced in the US is derived from natural gas in a reforming reaction that produces hydrogen and carbon dioxide. Options for producing hydrogen without the release of carbon dioxide include reforming with carbon capture and sequestration, electrolysis of water to hydrogen and oxygen, and methane pyrolysis to hydrogen and elemental carbon.

ARPA-E is interested in transformative technologies for methane pyrolysis. Processes capable of methane pyrolysis include (but are not limited to) the following: thermal decomposition (both catalytic and non-catalytic, including solar thermal), non-thermal plasma, fluidized catalyst and molten metals. Carbon products produced via methane pyrolysis include metallurgical coke, carbon black, graphite, carbon nanotubes, and carbon fiber.²

The economics for methane pyrolysis are made more favorable when the carbon byproduct is valuable.³ However, processes that are optimized for hydrogen production may not produce valuable carbon products directly. Optimizing processes for both hydrogen and valuable carbon products is a daunting challenge. Technology that can economically convert less valuable forms of carbon to more valuable forms, either in-situ during the pyrolysis process or in a subsequent step, could enable large-scale hydrogen production from methane without the release of carbon dioxide.

In this RFI, ARPA-E is specifically interested in the conversion of existing carbon materials (which may be derived from the pyrolysis of methane) into higher value carbon materials.

In the context of hydrogen production from methane on an energy-relevant scale, it is important to recognize that the volumes of co-produced carbon would be very large. For example, the amount of hydrogen required to produce 1 quadrillion BTU (quad) of energy would be associated with over 22 million tonnes of co-produced carbon. Therefore, potential applications for the resulting carbon products have to be on a correspondingly large scale, e.g., on the scale of the construction sector or large-scale manufacturing industries. These applications will require the carbon materials to have useful macroscopic properties with regard to thermal, electrical and/or mechanical performance. The functional performance of the carbon materials will be determined by the molecular structure of the carbon, as well as by the arrangement and alignment of substructures at the nano-or meso-scale. Processes capable of changing the molecular structure, e.g. via rearrangement of carbon-carbon bonds, or of changing the solid phases (i.e. crystal structure or molecular ordering) may have the potential to convert a lower value carbon into a higher value carbon product. Examples include, respectively, conversion of amorphous carbon to carbon nanotubes or graphene, or the dispersion of carbon nanotubes and subsequent spinning to carbon fiber like materials.⁴

Purpose and Need for Information:

The purpose of this RFI is solely to solicit input for ARPA-E consideration, to inform the possible formulation of future programs intended to help create transformative technology for producing valuable carbon materials from less valuable forms of carbon. ARPA-E will not provide funding or compensation for any information submitted in response to this RFI, and ARPA-E may use information submitted to this RFI without any attribution to the source. This RFI provides the broad research community with an opportunity to contribute views and opinions regarding the interconversion of carbon forms.

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION GUIDELINES:

No material submitted for review will be returned and there will be no formal or informal debriefing concerning the review of any submitted material. ARPA-E may contact respondents to request clarification or seek additional information relevant to this RFI. All responses provided will be considered, but ARPA-E will not respond to individual submissions or publish publicly a compendium of responses. Respondents shall not include any information in the response to this RFI that might be considered proprietary or confidential.

Responses to this RFI should be submitted in PDF format to the email address ARPA-E-RFI@hq.doe.gov by 5:00 PM Eastern Time on June 4^th, 2018. Emails should conform to the following guidelines:

• Please insert “Responses for Upgrading Carbon Derived from Methane Pyrolysis” in the subject line of your email, and include your name, title, organization, type of organization (e.g. university, non-governmental organization, small business, large business, federally funded research and development center (FFRDC), government-owned/government-operated (GOGO), etc.), email address, telephone number, and area of expertise in the body of your email.Responses to this RFI are limited to no more than 10 pages in length (12 point font size).Responders are strongly encouraged to include preliminary results, data, and figures that describe their potential methodologies.

Questions: ARPA-E encourages responses that address any subset of the following questions and encourages the inclusion of references to important supplementary information.

What are recent developments in understanding and characterization of the required molecular, micro- and meso-scale properties of carbon materials for desired thermal, mechanical, or electrical performance in high-performance, high-value carbon materials?

a) To what extent is the fundamental chemistry of carbon-carbon bond rearrangements understood? This includes thermodynamics, mechanisms, and catalysis.

b) What is the state of the art in bulk-scale molecular transformations of elemental carbon species (single carbon allotropes or mixtures)?

a) To what extend is intermolecular carbon aggregation and/or realignment understood? This may range from changes in crystal structure to spinning of fibers.

b) What processes are known to modify carbon aggregation, crystal structure or alignment of carbon particles? Are the outcomes of these processes predictable?

c) What is the state of the art in bulk separations of different carbon structures?

d) What is the current understanding of the scalability of the possible transformation and separation processes?

a)What are recent advances in characterizing bulk samples of different carbon species, especially mixed samples with regard to their molecular and structural composition?

b) What new methods or approaches need to be developed to better characterize carbon rearrangement products and to improve the underlying processes?

Topics not of interest:

ARPA-E is not interested in approaches that use carbon materials primarily as filler in composites where the performance properties of the composite are defined primarily by the binder and not the carbon filler.

References:

1. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. Fuel Cell Technologies Market Report 2016. [https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2017/10/f37/fcto_2016_market_report.pdf]
2. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. R&D Opportunities for Development of Natural Gas Conversion Technologies. [https://www.pnnl.gov/main/publications/external/technical_reports/PNNL-26726.pdf]
3. Keipi, T., Hankalin, V., Nummelin., and Raiko, R.,Techno-economic analysis of four concepts for thermal decomposition of methane: Reduction of CO2 emissions in natural gas combustion. Energy Conversion and Management, 2016. 110: p 1-12. 
4. Behabtu, N., et al., Strong, Light, Multifunctional Fibers of Carbon Nanotubes with Ultrahigh Conductivity. Science, 2013. 339: p 182-186.

The Advanced Research Projects Agency Energy (ARPA-E) intends to issue a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled Reliable Electricity Based on Electrochemical Systems (REBELS) to solicit applications for financial assistance to fund new intermediate temperature fuel cell (ITFC) technologies that efficiently generate stationary power from fossil fuels in the near-term, while simultaneously building a bridge to a zero carbon future.  Currently, ARPA-E anticipates that there will be three specific areas of interest indentified in the REBELS FOA as follows: (1) low-cost, efficient, reliable ITFCs for small distributed generation applications, (2) ITFCs that are capable of in-situ charge storage in an electrode to enable battery-like response to transients, and (3) electrochemical devices that produce liquid fuels from methane using excess renewable resources. Fuel cell systems based on existing Department of Energy R&D programs, such as low temperature polymer exchange membrane (LT-PEM) and high temperature solid oxide fuel cells (HT-SOFCs), will not be areas of interest for the anticipated REBELS FOA.

Expertise in the following Technical Areas may be useful in responding to the FOA: intermediate temperature solid electrolytes; intermediate temperature electrocatalysts/electrodes with low or zero platinum group metal (PGM) loading; new approaches to activate carbon/hydrogen bonds for intermediate temperature fuel reforming; new approaches to direct reforming of fuels at a fuel cell electrode; novel fuel cell manufacturing processes without high temperature sintering; integration of fuel cell and battery functionality at the device level (rather than system level); and electrochemical production of liquid fuels.

As a general matter, ARPA-E strongly encourages outstanding scientists and engineers from different organizations, scientific disciplines, and technology sectors to form new project teams. Interdisciplinary and cross-sector collaboration spanning organizational boundaries enables and accelerates the achievement of scientific and technological outcomes that were previously viewed as extremely difficult, if not impossible.

The Teaming Partner List is being compiled to facilitate the formation of new project teams. The Teaming Partner List will be available on ARPA-E eXCHANGE (http://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov), ARPA-E’s online application portal, starting in October 2013. The Teaming Partner List will be updated periodically, until the close of the Full Application period, to reflect new Teaming Partners who have provided their information.

Any organization that would like to be included on this list should complete all required fields in the following link: https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov/Applicantprofile.aspx. Required information includes: Organization Name, Contact Name, Contact Address, Contact Email, Contact Phone, Organization Type, Area of Technical Expertise, and Brief Description of Capabilities.

By submitting a response to this Notice, you consent to the publication of the above-referenced information. By facilitating this Teaming Partner List, ARPA-E does not endorse or otherwise evaluate the qualifications of the entities that self-identify themselves for placement on the Teaming Partner List.  ARPA-E will not pay for the provision of any information, nor will it compensate any respondents for the development of such information. Responses submitted to other email addresses or by other means will not be considered.

This Notice does not constitute a FOA. No FOA exists at this time. Applicants must refer to the final FOA, expected to be issued by the end of the 2013 calendar year, for instructions on submitting an application and for the terms and conditions of funding.