by Brianna Crandall — June 15, 2012—The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced on June 12 that it has awarded more than $54 million for 13 projects across the country to advance transformational technologies and materials. These projects, which are leveraging approximately an additional $17 million in cost share from the private sector, can help U.S. manufacturers increase the energy efficiency of their operations and reduce costs, says the DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE).
The projects will be in California, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Utah, and will develop cutting-edge manufacturing tools, techniques, and processes that will be able to save companies money by reducing the energy needed to power their facilities.
From improving manufacturing processes that reduce the energy needed to make components for aircraft and vehicles, to lowering the production costs of carbon fiber for a wide range of clean energy products, these projects represent a major investment in the solutions that will transform energy-intensive manufacturing technologies and materials used by industry in the United States, says the EERE.
The results of these projects could produce large improvements in energy productivity, reduce pollution, and boost product output, while creating jobs and helping American companies expand export opportunities globally. Each project will advance technologies early enough in their development cycles to permit the full scope of their technical benefits to be shared across a broad cross-section of the domestic economy.
The recipients of the awards are: Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.; American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI); Delphi Automotive Systems; General Motors; Lyondell Chemical Company; MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc.; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); PolyPlus Battery Company; Research Triangle Institute; Teledyne Scientific and Imaging; The Dow Chemical Company; the University of Utah; and Third Wave Systems, Inc.
