EERE Funding Opportunity Announcements

The purpose of Modification 0001 is to correct the SOPO page limit to 10 pages.

The intent of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to promote the advancement of geothermal energy conversion processes by validating technologies capable of providing a secondary income stream from the same geo-fluids. Methods for economically capturing, concentrating, and/or purifying valuable materials contained within geothermal brines represent an opportunity to both meet critical U.S. materials needs and broaden, as well as strengthen, the value-proposition of geothermal energy operations. Results from this work can enhance current applications, support planned development, and potentially open additional regions in the U.S. for economic utilization of geothermal energy.

This FOA invites responses in two (2) general topic areas, outlined below. Collaboration among industry, national laboratories, and academic institutions is encouraged; teaming will be strongly considered during the application reviews. Applicants will also be encouraged to coordinate activities with the Department of Energy (DOE) Critical Materials Institute led by Ames Laboratory.

Topic Area 1: Engineering Validation of Existing Extraction Technologies
Responses to this Topic Area are to validate processes or procedures to recover these materials from geothermal fluids or produced waters. Proposals may include processes currently effective in other industries that may be transferable to high value/critical material/strategic materials extraction from geothermal fluids, or processes that already experimentally demonstrate effectiveness for material recovery.

Topic Area 2: U.S. Regional or Nationwide Assessment of High Value Materials in U.S. Geothermal Fluids and Produced Fluids
For the this Topic Area, the Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO) seeks approaches to economically and quickly build a public, U.S.-wide resource assessment of dissolved critical and high-value materials that may be site-specific, region-wide, or a national assessment. A successful application will demonstrate expertise in geologic regimes as well as sampling and analysis.

The EERE Exchange system is currently designed to enforce hard deadlines for Concept Paper and Full Application submissions. The APPLY and SUBMIT buttons automatically disable at the defined submission deadlines. The intention of this design is to consistently enforce a standard deadline for all applications.

Applicants that experience issues with submissions PRIOR to the FOA Deadline: In the event that an Applicant experiences technical difficulties with a submission, the Applicant should contact the Exchange helpdesk for assistance (EERE-ExchangeSupport@hq.doe.gov). The Exchange helpdesk &/or the EERE eXCHANGE System Administrators (EERE-ExchangeSupport@hq.doe.gov) will assist the Applicant in resolving all issues.

Please click "FOA FAQs" under the "FOA Documents" heading below for Questions and Answers specific to this FOA.

A webinar for this FOA was held on Tuesday, December 8, 2015. To view the webinar document, please download the "FOA Applicant Webinar Presentation" PDF, from the FOA Documents section below.

This is solely a request for information and not a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA). EERE is not accepting applications through this RFI. The Department of Energy (DOE) will not respond to questions regarding this RFI.

For this RFI, the DOE Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO) seeks input on ideas in three (3) categories to encourage increased development of geothermal resources through recovery of dissolved critical materials.

The first category is to explore the opportunities to conduct extensive engineering validation testing of feasible technologies or processes that can efficiently and cost-effectively capture, concentrate, and/or purify high-value materials, that may be contained in geothermal fluids and process streams. GTO seeks to broaden the assessment of available or possible approaches by exploring methodologies that may be adaptable from extractive industries such as oil and gas, mining, and other industries that may utilize chemicals, resins or other approaches to remove, purify or process a material.

The second category is to query concepts and approaches for leveraging methods in use or being considered for commercial applications in the geothermal and mining industries. Ideas are sought for combined drilling technologies, rock stimulation technologies such as those used in enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) and mineral extraction technologies as currently applied in solution mining.

The third category is to broaden the database of knowledge about the existence and concentration of the high-value materials in U.S. geothermal fluids or low-temperature process streams from other operations, such as oil and gas production. The information sought may be site-specific mineral content and/or an overall assessment of the U.S. mineral resource base in geothermal and other produced fluids.

The full RFI can be accessed under the "FOA Documents" heading below.

Responses to this RFI must be submitted electronically to LowTValidation@hq.doe.gov no later than 5pm ET on Monday, June 8th. Responses must be provided as attachments to an email.

While geothermal power is an attractive potential source for sustainable energy production, the high heat temperature requirements (typically >150°C) of most geothermal capture systems constrain geographic distribution and economic viability of geothermal energy production. Advancement of strategic material or mineral recovery aims to address this limitation. By partnering with geothermal and mineral industry stakeholders to develop additional revenue streams from brines, the economic viability of geothermal projects will increase while also allowing for increased geographic diversity of this clean, round-the-clock energy source.

Rare earths and strategic minerals are essential for modern industry, especially clean-energy technologies, but are subject to supply risk in the face of ever-increasing demand. As an example, consumer uses of lithium batteries have soared over the last decade, powering everything from electric cars to tablets to cell phones. Global demand for lithium carbonate is expected to exceed 250,000 tons by 2017—a 60% increase over current usage. As demand grows in this burgeoning market, a reliable supply of critical materials for advanced manufacturing technologies is a growing concern. This program aims to help alleviate this type of supply bottleneck.

The Energy Department seeks up to ten 1-2 year feasibility and/or applied R&D projects that will lead to commercialized technologies. Geothermal mining of rare earth and near-critical metals are the focus of this research, with the intent to effectively lower the cost of geothermal energy production while diversifying and stabilizing the supply of critical materials for domestic industries. To learn more about the ‘Low-Temperature Mineral Recovery Program’ funding opportunity, click here. Register for an informative webinar to learn more about the strategic material extraction and this opportunity.

The Energy Department's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) accelerates development and facilitates deployment of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies and market-based solutions that strengthen U.S. energy security, environmental quality, and economic vitality. EERE supports innovative technologies that reduce both risk and costs of bringing geothermal power online. Learn more about the Department's efforts to develop geothermal energy.

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) intends to issue, on behalf of the Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO), a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled “Low Temperature Mineral Recovery Program.” EERE's objective in this FOA is to promote the advancement of thermal energy processes capable of converting geothermal heat sources into power, in conjunction with the development or exploitation of technologies capable of capturing, concentrating, and/or purifying valuable materials contained within geothermal brines to economically extract resources that can provide additional revenue streams to geothermal operators. This targeted initiative of the GTO focuses on strategic mineral extraction as a path to optimize the value stream of low-to-moderate temperature resources.