Chemicals Industry of the Future

The summary for the Chemicals Industry of the Future grant is detailed below. This summary states who is eligible for the grant, how much grant money will be awarded, current and past deadlines, Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) numbers, and a sampling of similar government grants. Verify the accuracy of the data FederalGrants.com provides by visiting the webpage noted in the Link to Full Announcement section or by contacting the appropriate person listed as the Grant Announcement Contact. If any section is incomplete, please visit the website for the Headquarters, which is the U.S. government agency offering this grant.

Chemicals Industry of the Future: DOE?s Industrial Technology Program (ITP) in cooperation with the Chemical Industry Vision 2020 Technology Partnership, solicits applications for cost-shared research and development (R D) and demonstration projects that will lead to commercial technology with the potential for substantial reduction in energy consumption by the U.S. Chemical Industry as well as technology that will make better use of energy that is consumed. Federal funding for the first 12 months of selected research projects is expected to be approximately $0.5 million. Subject to the availability of funds, a maximum of approximately $10 million is planned to fund the remaining years of the projects. DOE anticipates making 5-10 grant awards, each with durations of three to five years. Information regarding the ITP?s Chemicals subprogram including the existing project portfolio, the Vision 2020 Technology Partnership, technology roadmaps, and other useful information can be found at http://www.eere.energy.gov/industry/chemicals/. Energy efficient technologies will enhance the competitive position of the Nations Chemical Industry by lowering manufacturing costs and providing new opportunities for chemical product manufacture in regions where energy or environmental costs were formerly considered prohibitive. Proposed projects are expected to improve energy intensity by at least 30 percent over existing systems. The threshold for energy savings should be 5 trillion BTUs per year by 2030, and ideally the project should yield energy savings in excess of 5 trillion BTUs per year by 2030 when fully commercialized across the industry, while maintaining the level of energy intensity stated above. ITP has partitioned its technology development portfolio into the areas of reactions and separations. These technology areas will overlap because efficiency gains resulting from technology improvement in one area will benefit others. Technology applications for the widest possible application are solicited, in the following priority areas: Reactions: Applications in the reactions area are requested in the following areas: 1) Improved catalytic processes, notably catalytic oxidations, especially applications for process development for direct oxidation of paraffin hydrocarbons to final commodity products. This includes integration of heat generated by exothermic reactions. In submissions, care should be taken in calculating energy saved in direct oxidation processes from paraffins compared with the energy consumed by olefin oxidations, as the yield of olefins from hydro cracking of natural gas liquids is a fixed proportion. 2) New homogeneous catalytic processes, including processes that enhance recovery of homogeneous catalysts; and homogeneous catalytic processes that minimize the need for solvents. Homogeneous catalysis may be an important area for application of ionic liquids. 3) Improved and new processes for inorganic commodity products, particularly for nitrogen containing products such as ammonia, urea, and products that contain nitrogen in an oxidized form. Although improved synthesis gas (CO/hydrogen) manufacture is a viable target, processes that would combine synthesis gas manufacture with improved catalytic processes would be preferred, thus reducing energy requirements and minimizing losses. 4) Biocatalytic processes. Biocatalytic processes may be useful alternatives in commodity chemical manufacture, and particularly so for polymeric materials; although it must be demonstrated that the improvement in selectivity gained by a biocatalytic process would offset the inherently lower reaction rate of bio-catalysis (compared with a higher temperature process), as well as offset the energy cost for the separation of any solvent water. Insofar as the ITP has focused on the manufacture of commodity chemical products from fossil hydrocarbon resources, applications for process development using alternative resources (such as bio-based resources and wastes) are not solicited, nor are applications for technology development of products that are primarily used as fuels. In general, applications are encouraged for R D and demonstration projects in chemical reaction processes with a potential for wide applicability, such as reducing energy and solvent requirements in recycle.Separations: Applications in the separations area are requested in the following areas: 1) Technology development that will reduce the energy load on distillation systems including membrane and catalytic membrane technology development. Any application on membranes using ceramics (including silica) must first address how to solve the problem of adsorption of hydrocarbon molecules on ceramic membrane material. A clear understanding of the transport mechanism of hydrocarbon molecules through ceramic materials in the presence of adsorption must be known to avoid fouling which has continued to mar the successful development of ceramic membranes for different applications till date.2) Efficient new integrated or hybrid separation systems, such as distillation and adsorption, distillation and solvent extraction, distillation and crystallization, distillation and reaction, etc. (See report on hybrid distillation technologies research on http://www.eere.energy.gov/industry/chemicals/pdfs/hybrid_report.pdf)3) Process development that will lead to new materials of construction for heat exchangers in distillation columns, and furnaces, especially materials that will enable higher temperature and higher efficiency processes that are cost effective in distillation re-boilers, ethylene furnaces, and other related furnaces. Recent bandwidth studies identify important opportunities for improving heat transfer characteristics in the condensers and re-boilers of high-pressure distillation columns (see http://www.eere.energy.gov/industry/chemicals/bandwidth.html).4) Processes that will provide materials or coatings with higher heat transfer characteristics and corrosion resistance in distillation re-boilers or furnaces. The ITPs objective is to encourage the formation of technology partnerships of firms that traditionally serve distillation column markets and firms that serve industrial gas customers, for example. The ITP solicits new ideas to benefit the U.S. chemical industry from the widest possible base of industrial technology developers. The announcement emphasis is on separation processes, and not the energy source used by the processes, per se. For example, applications are invited for the development of new technologies to reduce the energy load on distillation columns; applications for fuel-switching technology development for distillation systems would not be considered responsive to the announcement. Moreover, the announcement focuses only on technology development, and not on the collection or interpretation of data, nor on product development. Additionally, the development of new separation system technology with the widest possible application in the US Chemical Industry is encouraged. Such systems may also find applicability in the petroleum or petrochemical process industries, and the potential benefits to these industries should be described. Specific Processes: Recent DOE-EERE-ITP Chemicals Subprogram studies have consistently ranked ethylene and ammonia as the top two most energy intensive processes. Innovative applied research ideas are solicited to improve reaction and/or separations, reduce pressure drops or enhance heat transfer or combinations of these to reduce energy consumption in either of these processes. New processes or ideas that could be used to retrofit existing units will be preferred in place of standalone green plants, even though the later is also acceptable. A lot of work had been done already in developing alloys for tubes in ethylene furnaces and therefore will not be the subject for this announcement. However other methods of modifying the surfaces of tubes in ethylene furnace and perhaps re-boilers of some high pressure distillation columns for various benefits, including energy savings will be welcomed as response to this announcement.All awards under this announcement will have requirements for reporting to DOE. Progress and financial status reports will be required on a quarterly basis. Peer and/or technical review meetings will also be held approximately once per year. Applicants should also assume travel for a kickoff meeting and these review meetings. The review meetings are typically held in conjunction with an American Institute of Chemical Engineers conference. Also, a detailed final report will be required at the conclusion of the project. In addition, the DOE ITP will be managing its portfolio of projects utilizing Stage Gate principles (a registered trademark of R.G. Cooper Associates), a methodology which has been successfully applied throughout industry and government. To assist DOE in effectively managing its projects, it is important that all proposed projects be structured utilizing go/no-go decision points as described in Section II.6 below. More information on Stage Gate principles can be found in Best Practices for Managing R D Portfolios, Robert Cooper, S. Edgett, and E. Kleinschmidt, Research Technology Management, Industrial Research Institute, Volume 41, Number 4, July-August 1998, and Optimizing the Stage-Gate Process, Part II, Robert Cooper, Research Technology Management, Industrial Research Institute, Volume 45, Number 6, November-December 2002.