DOE’s Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation Announces $52 Million to Revitalize Domestic Manufacturing and Onshore Industrial Excellence

WASHINGTON-The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation today announced $52 million for 20 projects across 15 states to enhance the competitiveness of American industry and support the onshoring of American manufacturing. Selected projects will accelerate the development of secure, affordable energy technologies in trade-exposed industries to reduce reliance on imports while driving economic growth and supporting job creation for American families and businesses across the country.

"Investing in American innovation and energy technology is key to our nation's success," said Assistant Secretary of Energy (EERE) Audrey Robertson. "The Trump Administration is committed to supporting efforts that advance next-generation technologies, strengthen our nation's energy security, and position American industries at the forefront of the global marketplace."

Selected projects will help reduce energy demand with new technologies that address challenges across multiple industrial subsectors. Projects will also advance innovative, market-ready solutions for energy-intensive industrial sectors including chemicals and refining, iron and steel, food and beverage, pulp and paper, and cement and concrete manufacturing.

Project highlights include:

Heating and Drying with Laser Technology for Food and Pulp and Paper Industry Sectors: Worcester Polytechnic Institute and partners will develop a laser-based technology to reduce costs through energy savings of up to 40% in food production and 20% in paper applications.

Demonstration of Innovative Low-Cost Process for Industrial Poultry Rendering: Wilson Engineering Technologies, Inc, and partners will develop a poultry rendering process that converts byproducts into usable materials twice as fast as traditional methods and at half the cost, with the ability to scale affordably across many food and beverage subsectors.

Next Generation Concrete: Leveraging Byproducts of Lithium Industry as High Performance Supplementary Cementitious Materials: Oregon State University and partners aim to enhance concrete quality by replacing a substantial portion of cement with domestically sourced innovative feedstocks, minimizing reliance on imports and better positioning the U.S. against overseas competitors.

A High-Performance and Cost-Effective Polymer Composite Heat Exchanger for Energy Recovery Applications: The University of Maryland will develop a cost-effective heat exchanger to capture low-quality heat that is widely available but difficult to use from industries such as data centers.

AI-Powered Blending Strategies for Supplementary Cementitious Materials for Enhanced Domestic Cement Supply Chain: The Missouri University of Science and Technology and partners will build a database and deploy an AI-powered platform to fortify the domestic cement supply chain.

Single-Pass Ammonia Synthesis: Ammobia, Inc., and partners will develop and scale a new ammonia production technology that has the potential to reduce energy costs by up to 60% for separation and purification of ammonia-one of the world's largest-volume chemicals.

View the full list of selections.