August 15, 2024 - The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) today announced it will make up to $54.4 million in additional funding available to advance diverse carbon management approaches that reduce carbon dioxide (CO₂) pollution. The funding will support the development of technologies that capture CO₂ from industrial and power generation sources or directly from the atmosphere and transport it either for permanent geologic storage or conversion into valuable products such as fuels and chemicals. The development of these technologies is crucial to advance the nation’s efforts to address climate change and achieve the Biden-Harris Administration’s goal of net-zero emissions economy-wide by 2050.

“Reaching our climate goals requires a significant scale-up of our carbon management projects and infrastructure,” said Brad Crabtree, Assistant Secretary of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management. “DOE’s investments in carbon management will address technical challenges and help reduce costs to accelerate the widespread deployment of these technologies across the Nation, while also helping to ensure projects deliver benefits to communities and workers and mitigate potential risks to public health and the environment.”

The sixth opening of FECM’s Carbon Management funding opportunity announcement (FOA) will support the following areas of interest:

• Reactive Carbon Capture Approaches for Point Source Capture or Atmospheric Capture with Integrated Conversion to Useful Products. Reactive carbon capture is the integration of carbon capture with conversion to a product (i.e., the approach does not include a step where CO₂ is released from the capture media). This area of interest will focus on conceptual design studies followed by laboratory validation of reactive CO₂ capture approaches from exhaust flue gas streams at electric generation and industrial facilities or from the atmosphere, with conversion of the CO₂ into environmentally responsible and economically valuable products.
   
• Engineering-Scale Testing of Transformational Carbon Capture Technologies for Natural Gas Combined Cycle (NGCC) Power Plants. Tests under real flue gas conditions to achieve 95 percent or greater carbon capture efficiency and 95 percent CO₂ purity while demonstrating significant progress toward a 30 percent reduction in the cost of capture.
   
• Engineering-Scale Testing of Transformational Carbon Capture Technologies in Portable Systems at Industrial Plants. Development and testing of portable systems for transformational technologies conducted at a variety of sites, including oil refineries and petrochemical, cement and lime, pulp, steel and iron, and glass plants.
   
• Preliminary Front-End Engineering Design (Pre-FEED) Studies for Carbon Capture Systems at Existing (Retrofit) Domestic NGCC Power Plants. Pre-FEED studies of commercial-scale, advanced carbon capture systems at existing NGCC power plants or combined heat and power facilities that employ NGCC power generation.
   
• Pre-FEED Studies for Carbon Capture Systems at Hydrogen Production Facilities Using Coal, Mixed Coal/Biomass, or Natural Gas Feedstock. Studies to advance commercial-scale carbon capture systems that separate CO₂ with at least 95 percent capture efficiency at new or existing hydrogen production facilities using coal, mixed coal/biomass/municipal solid waste/unrecyclable plastics, or natural gas feedstocks.
   
• Enhancing CO₂Transport Infrastructure (ECO₂ Transport): Pre-FEED Studies for Multimodal CO₂ Transfer Facilities. Studies that support the development of viable and strategically adaptable multimodal transportation infrastructure capable of transferring CO₂ across regional and national CO₂ transportation networks.

In addition to advancing these technologies, applicants to this FOA must address the societal considerations and impacts of their proposed projects—emphasizing diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility throughout the research and development process and explaining how projects are expected to deliver equitable access to, and distribution of, benefits produced from successful technology innovations.

Read more details of this FOA here. All questions must be submitted through FedConnect; register here for an account. The application deadline is October 14, 2024 at 8:00 PM ET.

FECM minimizes environmental and climate impacts of fossil fuels and industrial processes while working to achieve net-zero emissions across the U.S. economy. Priority areas of technology work include carbon capture, carbon conversion, carbon dioxide removal, carbon dioxide transport and storage, hydrogen production with carbon management, methane emissions reduction, and critical minerals production. To learn more, visit the FECM website, sign up for FECM news announcements, and visit the National Energy Technology Laboratory website.