Funding provided to reduce energy consumption in manufacturing

The Energy Department is requesting proposals for improving technologies and processes to achieve cost parity of recycled and waste materials while improving material efficiency in manufacturing processes.

By Department of Energy July 4, 2016

The Energy Department is requesting proposals that are focused on improving technologies and processes to achieve cost parity of recycled and waste materials with primary feedstocks, while improving material efficiency in manufacturing processes.

The funding opportunity is called, "Reducing EMbodied energy And Decreasing Emissions (REMADE) in Materials Manufacturing" and is designed to enable the development and widespread deployment of key industrial platform technologies to reduce life-cycle energy consumption and carbon emissions associated with industrial-scale materials production and processing by creating new technologies for reuse, recycling, and remanufacturing of materials. U.S. manufacturing consumes nearly a third of the nation’s total energy use annually, with much of that energy embodied in the physical products made in manufacturing. Analysis shows that the development and deployment of cost-effective new technologies to slash the life-cycle embodied energy and carbon emissions for materials production in the U.S. economy relative to the use of primary feedstocks could offer energy savings on the order of up to 1.6 quadrillion BTU annually across four classes of waste materials: metals, fibers, polymers, and e-waste. The REMADE in America Institute is part of the broader National Network for Manufacturing Innovation, which drives collaboration between small- and medium-sized companies, academic institutions, industrial research organizations, and national laboratories. Key technology focus areas for the REMADE in America Institute may include, but are not limited to:

  • Information collection, standardization, and design tools for tracking materials, reducing waste, and predicting how a process will work with secondary feedstocks or reused materials
  • Rapid gathering, identification, and sorting of end-of-life and waste materials
  • 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 demonstrating and deploying these technologies within relevant manufacturing processes. 

U.S. Department of Energy (DoE)

Department of Energy 

– Edited from a DoE press release by CFE Media. See more Control Engineering energy efficiency stories

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Learn more about the requirements for the program here.