HPC4EnergyInnovation Program: Collaborations for U.S. Manufacturers

The High Performance Computing for Energy Innovation (HPC4EI) Program seeks qualified industry partners to participate in short-term, collaborative projects with the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) national laboratories. Through support from the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO), Fuel Cell Technologies (FCTO), and Vehicle Technologies Offices (VTO) and the Office of Fossil Energy (FE), the selected industry partners will be granted access to high performance computing (HPC) facilities and world-class scientists at DOE’s national laboratories. HPC4EI is the umbrella program for the HPC4Manufacturing (HPC4Mfg) and HPC4Materials (HPC4Mtls) Programs. The HPC4Mfg Program is interested in establishing collaborations that address key manufacturing challenges by applying modeling, simulation, and data analysis. The program aims to improve energy efficiency, increase productivity, reduce cycle time, enable next-generation technologies, test

control system algorithms, investigate intensified processes, lower energy cost, and accelerate innovation. The HPC4Mtls Program is interested in collaborations that address key challenges in developing, modifying, and/or qualifying new or modified materials that perform well in severe or complex environments through the application of HPC, modeling, simulation, and data analysis.Outlined below in the Background Section are topics of interest specific to the offices supporting this solicitation.Eligibility for this program is limited to entities that manufacture or develop products in the United States for commercial applications and the organizations that support them. Selected demonstration projects will be awarded up to $300,000 to support compute cycles and work performed by the national lab partners. The industry partner must provide a participant contribution of at least 20% of the DOE funding for the project.In addition, we will consider follow-on projects to previously awarded, successful demonstration projects in these areas. These projects should focus on the further implementation of the demonstrated HPC application in the industrial setting—taking it closer to operational use and broad national impact. Selected follow-on projects will be awarded up to $300,000 to support computing cycles and work performed by the national lab partners. The industry partner must provide a participant contribution of at least 50% of the DOE funding for the project; of this, at least half should be in cash to support the national laboratory work.BackgroundDOE maintains world-class HPC expertise and facilities, currently hosting 5 of the top 12 most powerful computers in the world. From detailed atomic-level simulations to massive cosmological studies, researchers use HPC to probe science and technology questions inaccessible by other experimental methods. Scientific insights gained from these computational studies have drastically impacted research and technology across industrial sectors and scientific fields. Examples include additive manufacturing, oil recovery, drug development, climate science, genomics, and exploration of fundamental particles that make up our universe. From industry to academia, the scientific need for advanced computing continues to drive innovation and development for future high performance computers and their capabilities.There is high potential for U.S. industry to utilize the power of HPC. The HPC4EI Program is intended to provide HPC expertise and resources to industry to lower the risk of HPC adoption and broaden its use to support transformational and early-stage technology development. The HPC4EI Program hopes to provide this HPC expertise and resources by supporting targeted collaborations between industry and DOE’s national laboratories.Successful applicants will work collaboratively with staff from one or more of the DOE laboratories to conduct project activities across the various HPC areas of expertise, including development and optimization of modeling and simulation codes, porting and scaling of applications, application of data analytics, as well as applied research and development of tools or methods.To make the broadest impact across the industry, the project teams are expected to present their results at workshops associated with the program and at regional and national conferences. Publications in appropriate trade journals are also encouraged.Area 1: HPC4MfgDOE’s AMO within EERE is the primary sponsor of the HPC4Mfg Program. FE and EERE’s VTO and Building Technologies Office (BTO) also sponsor select projects in this portfolio. AMO partners with private and public stakeholders to support the research, development, and deployment of innovative technologies that can improve U.S. competitiveness, save energy, and ensure global leadership in advanced manufacturing. AMO supports cost‐shared research, development, and demonstration activities in support of crosscutting next-generation technologies and processes that hold high potential to significantly improve energy efficiency and reduce energy-related emissions, industrial waste, and the life‐cycle energy consumption of manufactured products.Improved energy efficiency across the manufacturing industry is one of the primary goals of the HPC4Mfg Program. We solicit proposals that require HPC modeling and simulation to overcome impactful manufacturing process challenges resulting in reduced energy consumption and/or increased productivity. Proposals should provide a realistic assessment of the energy impact, the improvement in U.S. manufacturing competitiveness, and the increase in U.S. manufacturing jobs that a successful outcome of the project could have across the industrial sector.Of particular interest to AMO are:1. Proposals that require HPC modeling and simulation to overcome impactful manufacturing process challenges resulting in reduced energy consumption and/or increased productivity2. Proposals that uniquely exploit HPC modeling and simulation to significantly reduce national energy consumption through improved product design.Area 2: HPC4MtlsThe HPC4Mtls Program is sponsored by FE and EERE’s FCTO and VTO to enhance the U.S. materials-development, fabrication, and manufacturing industry to investigate, improve, and scale methods that will accelerate the development and deployment of materials that perform well in severe and complex energy application environments. This solicitation is aimed at demonstrating the benefit of HPC toward these goals within one year.We seek proposals that will address key challenges in developing, modifying, and/or qualifying new or modified materials that perform well in severe and complex energy application environments through the use of HPC modeling, simulation, and data analysis. For each of the program offices supporting this solicitation, we provide a brief description of their mission and the topics of interest to them.The Office of Fossil EnergyFE https://www.energy.gov/fe/office-fossil-energy  is the primary sponsor for this HPC4Mtls Program. FE plays a key role in helping the United States meet its continually growing need for secure, reasonably priced, and environmentally sound energy from our abundant fossil energy resources. The Office of Fossil Energy Research and Development (FER&D) Program advances transformative science and innovative technologies that enable the reliable, efficient, affordable, and environmentally sound use of fossil fuels. Fossil energy sources constitute over 80% of the country’s total energy use and are critical to the nation’s security, economic prosperity, and growth. It partners with industry, academia, and research facilities in transformative science and innovative technologies that enable the reliable, efficient, affordable, and environmentally sound use of fossil fuels. FE supports cost‐shared research, development, and demonstration activities in support of early-stage crosscutting next-generation technologies and processes that further the development of advanced fossil technologies.Of particular interest to FE in this solicitation are:• Predicting material behavior in specific severe environments, such as high-temperature or corrosive environments, found in fossil fuel power plants• Exploring the kinetics of materials behavioral degradation• Improved performance of alloys (e.g., ferritic alloys by 50 ℃)• Obtaining improved high-temperature mechanical performance for lower-cost alloys as compared with more costly, high nickel/cobalt alloys• Overcoming barriers to scale up new material production from grams to kilograms, and from kilograms to tonnes• Improving the understanding of detailed processes in critical focus areas such as oxidation, corrosion, and electrochemical interactions• Overcoming barriers to the manufacture of components with High Entropy Alloys (HEA)• Developing modeling and simulation tools that will reduce the time to qualification and certification of materials (e.g., American Society of Mechanical Engineers code materials)• Developing modeling and simulation tools that will reduce the time to qualify and certify novel manufacturing processes such as chemical etching, diffusion bonding, and additive manufacturing, for high nickel alloys• Overcoming barriers to the manufacture of components for fuel cells• Developing machine learning capabilities to predict new materials for energy storage• Developing the capability to predict the mechanical behavior and properties of additively manufactured components for use in advanced power cycles such as supercritical carbon dioxide cycles.The Fuel Cell Technologies OfficeFCTO https://www.energy.gov/eere/fuelcells/fuel-cell-technologies-office  focuses on early-stage research and development (R&D) to advance hydrogen and fuel cells for transportation and diverse applications that contribute to U.S. energy independence, security, and resiliency and that add to a strong domestic economy. FCTO addresses challenges facing the development of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies by integrating basic and applied research and technology-development activities. These include cost-shared R&D efforts to address key technological barriers in the areas of fuel cell cost and durability, hydrogen production cost, and hydrogen storage capacity. Three FCTO-supported consortia within the Energy Materials Networkhttps://www.energy.gov/eere/energy-materials-network/energy-materials-network, ElectroCat, HydroGEN and HyMARC, directly address these R&D areas.Specific topics of interest to FCTO in this solicitation include:• Improving performance and durability of electrocatalysts, such as Platinum Group Metals (PGM) free catalysts in fuel cells and electrolyzers• Improving materials and interfaces for advanced water-splitting technologies, including electrochemical, thermochemical, and photoelectrochemical approaches• Developing machine learning capabilities to predict new materials, such as for hydrogen storage, PGM-free electrocatalysts, membrane separators, and energy converters (e.g., semiconductors for photoelectrochemical hydrogen and redox materials for thermochemical hydrogen)• Improving understanding and modeling of interactions in complex systems (e.g., coupling of changes in material properties, mass transport, and thermal management during hydrogen-release reactions in materials-based hydrogen storage systems and in materials-based water-splitting systems with additional requirements on modeling the oxygen release reactions).The Vehicle Technologies OfficeVTO https://energy.gov/eere/vehicles/vehicle-technologies-office funds early-stage, high-risk research on innovative vehicle and transportation technologies to strengthen national security, enable future economic growth, and increase transportation energy efficiency. VTO leverages the unique capabilities and world-class expertise of the national laboratory system to develop innovations in electrification, advanced combustion engines and fuels, advanced materials, and energy-efficient mobility systems. As part of VTO, the Materials Technology Program supports vehicle lightweighting and improved propulsion (powertrain) efficiency focused on the following cost and performance targets:• Enable a 25% weight reduction for light-duty vehicles including body, chassis, and interior as compared to a 2012 baseline at no more than a $5/lb.-saved increase in cost by 2030• Validate a 25% improvement in high-temperature (300° C) component strength relative to components made with 2010 baseline cast aluminum alloys (A319 or A356) for improved efficiency light-duty engines by 2025.Specific topics of interest to VTO include the following areas:• Predicting microstructure of cast materials based on composition, cooling rates, and heat treatment• Improving mechanical performance of alloys at elevated temperatures (between 330℃ and 1100℃)• Using machine learning and data analytics to identify promising new material compositions (e.g., for high-temperature and for lightweight structural materials relevant to automotive use and cost constraints)• Developing process structure models for dissimilar material joints (e.g., between advanced high-strength steels, aluminum, magnesium, and carbon fiber composite combinations relevant to high-volume automotive assembly)• Modeling the aging of adhesives that bond the above four materials, and resultant properties over the life span of an automotive vehicle (how bonds evolve).EligibilityEligibility is limited to U.S. manufacturers, defined as entities that are incorporated (or otherwise formed) under the laws of a particular state or territory of the United States, and that manufacture products in the United States (HPC4Mfg) or that develop and/or manufacture new or modified materials in the United States (HPC4Mtls). U.S. universities, institutes, and other non-profit organizations are also eligible to participate as collaborators. Funding for university participants must be provided by the industrial partner and can be considered a component of the industrial partner’s in-kind funding contribution.Funding RequirementsThe DOE monetary contribution for each project will not exceed $300,000. An industry partner must provide a participant contribution of at least 20% of the DOE funding for the project to support industry expertise to the project. The participant contribution can take the form of monetary funds-in or “in-kind” contributions and must come from non-federal sources unless otherwise allowed by law. Total project size cannot exceed $500,000. The DOE funding will be provided to the national laboratory (or laboratories) in support of their work under the HPC4EI Program.Note: THIS IS NOT A PROCUREMENT REQUEST.See attached file for Solicitation Process and Timeline; Concept Paper Guidelines; and Full Proposal Guidelines.