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FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE FUNDING OPPORTUNITY ANNOUNCEMENT Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR
NOTE: The Solicitations and topics listed on this site are copies from the various SBIR agency solicitations and are not necessarily the latest and most up-to-date. For this reason, you should use the agency link listed below which will take you directly to the appropriate agency server where you can read the official version of this solicitation and download the appropriate forms and rules.
The official link for this solicitation is: http:--science.doe.gov-grants-pdf-SC_FOA_0000969.pdf
Release Date:
Open Date:
Application Due Date:
Close Date:
Available Funding Topics
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15: Advanced Fossil Energy Separations and Analysis Research
- 15a: Enabling Technologies for Advanced Combustion Systems
- 15b: Advanced Shale Gas Recovery Technologies for Horizontal Well Completion Optimization
- 15c: CO2 Use and Reuse
- 15d: Material Development for Ceramic-Metal Transitions that Facilitate Ceramic and Metal Joining and Flanging under High Temperature and Pressure Conditions
- 15e: Other
Please Note that a Letter of Intent is due Tuesday, September 08, 2015 5:00pm ET
Program Area Overview
Office of Basic Energy Sciences
The Office of Basic Energy Sciences (BES) supports fundamental research to understand, predict, and ultimately control matter and energy at the electronic, atomic, and molecular levels in order to provide the foundations for new energy technologies and to support DOE missions in energy, environment, and national security. The results of BES‐supported research are routinely published in the open literature.
A key function of the program is to plan, construct, and operate premier scientific user facilities for the development of novel nanomaterials and for materials characterization through x‐ray and neutron scattering; the former is accomplished through five Nanoscale Science Research Centers and the latter is accomplished through the world's largest suite of light source and neutron scattering facilities. These national resources are available free of charge to all researchers based on the quality and importance of proposed nonproprietary experiments.
A major objective of the BES program is to promote the transfer of the results of our basic research to advance and create technologies important to Department of Energy (DOE) missions in areas of energy efficiency, renewable energy resources, improved use of fossil fuels, the mitigation of the adverse impacts of energy production and use, and future nuclear energy sources. The following set of technical topics represents one important mechanism by which the BES program augments its system of university and laboratory research programs and integrates basic science, applied research, and development activities within the DOE.
For additional information regarding the Office of Basic Energy Sciences priorities, click here.
TOPIC 15: Advanced Fossil Energy Separations and Analysis Research
Maximum Phase I Award Amount: $150,000 | Maximum Phase II Award Amount: $1,000,000 |
Accepting SBIR Phase I Applications: YES | Accepting SBIR Fast‐Track Applications: NO |
Accepting STTR Phase I Applications: YES | Accepting STTR Fast‐Track Applications: NO |
For the foreseeable future, the energy needed to sustain economic growth will continue to come largely from hydrocarbon fuels. This topic addresses grant applications for the development of innovative, cost‐effective technologies for improving the efficiency and environmental performance of advanced large scale industrial and utility fossil energy power systems and natural gas recovery systems. Areas considered include research and technology issues and opportunities for carbon storage, including, geologic storage, monitoring, verification, and accounting, enhanced oil recovery and residual oil zone production using CO2, advanced simulation and risk assessment, and CO2 separation. In addition, efforts on enabling technology (e.g., sensors and controls) energy conversion, water issues, advanced modeling and simulation materials critical to the implementation and optimization of fossil power and recovery systems are included. The topic serves as a bridge between basic science and the fabrication and testing of new technologies. Small scale applications, such as residential, commercial and transportation will not be considered. Applications determined to be outside the mission and scope or not mutually beneficial to the Fossil Energy and Basic Energy Science programs will not be considered.
Grant applications are sought in the following subtopics:
a. Enabling Technologies for Advanced Combustion Systems
Develop and validate a predictive, multi‐scale, combustion model to optimize the design and operation of a spouted bed using a coal and biomass mixture to reduce GHG emissions. This predictive capability, if attained, will change fundamentally the process for combustion of combined fuels by establishing a scientific understanding of sufficient depth and flexibility to facilitate realistic simulation of mixed fuel combustion in these newly proposed power boiler designs.
Similar understanding in aeronautics has produced the beautiful and efficient complex curves of modern aircraft wings. These designs could never have been realized through cut‐and‐try engineering, but rather rely on the prediction and optimization of complex air flows. An analogous experimentally validated, predictive capability for combustion is a daunting challenge.
This SBIR project should demonstrate and validate the design and operation of the spouting fluidized bed for use with coal and biomass fueled combustion and verifies how it compares with a conventional fluidized bed in terms of efficiency and reduces carbon in ash due to better control of residence time.
The scope of the project can comprise design, fabrication, and testing of a small demonstrable unit with pulverized coal and biomass as feedstock. Research will include collecting various data and information to address any major technical gaps. If successful in Phase 1 the project has a chance to move to Phase II where substantially higher funding is given.
Questions – Contact: Bhima Sastri, Bhima.Sastri@hq.doe.gov
b. Advanced Shale Gas Recovery Technologies for Horizontal Well Completion Optimization
Proposals are sought to develop and test technologies that will reduce the amount of water needed for hydraulic fracturing when completing natural gas wells or that will improve the apparent low (<30%) natural gas and liquids recovery efficiency currently associated with horizontal, hydraulically fractured wells producing from shale formations. Proposals should focus on addressing a number of important areas where cost effective improvements may be possible. The objective is to increase the efficiency of resource recovery on a per well basis or reduce the volume of fresh water required to produce a unit volume of natural gas. For example, research could include quantitative assessments of the practical and economic limits and potential benefits (if any) of employing mixtures of natural gas (not LPG as is currently practiced) with conventional sand‐laden fracturing fluids, as a novel fracturing fluid to partially replace water in the large volume, multiple stage hydraulic fracturing treatments representative of those being applied in shale gas and shale oil plays today.
Examples of analyses could include laboratory experiments and/or computer simulations that quantify the effect on relative permeability to gas in a producing wellbore when mixtures of conventional fracturing fluids and natural gas (versus fracturing liquids only) are employed as fracturing fluids under conditions representative of major shale gas plays. Research could characterize the potential volumes and rates of natural gas/conventional fracturing fluid mixtures required to achieve well productivity similar to that achieved when wells are fractured using conventional fracturing fluids alone.
Other examples of analysis could aim to characterize the suitability of the rheology of such conventional fracturing fluid/natural gas mixtures for large volume hydraulic fracturing, and to prove the feasibility of employing natural gas as a partial alternative to water, as justification for a Phase II field experiment focused on testing the process.
Questions – Contact: Al Yost, albert.yost@netl.doe.gov
c. CO2 Use and Reuse
To reduce risk and offset the cost of CCS, development of CO2 utilization/conversion technologies, specifically those that rely on biological processes (e.g., algae) or mineralization/carbonation processes to generate value‐added products will be required. A larger and more diverse market is needed to facilitate deeper GHG reductions from CO2 sales beyond what can be realized by Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) alone. For instance, a coal‐fired power plant equipped with a CO2 capture and purification unit could offer multiple gas streams with varying concentrations of CO2 potentially suitable for CO2 utilization/conversion, including: (1) flue gas exiting the desulfurization unit (prior to entering the downstream CO2 capture and purification unit), (2) CO2‐dilute flue gas being directed to the stack following bulk CO2 removal, and (3) concentrated CO2 exiting the CO2 capture and purification unit that is ready for compression and storage.
Grant applications are sought for the development or enhancement of novel technologies that support DOE’s goals to reduce carbon emissions at a relative cost below $40 per tonne of CO2. It is expected that the revenue generated from these novel utilization processes may result in positive revenue. The applicant must demonstrate a thorough understanding of the biological or chemical CO2 utilization/conversion process being proposed and its ability to integrate with coal‐fired power plants. Of particular importance is a thorough discussion of the integration approach with the power plant, optimal inlet CO2 concentration, rate of CO2 utilization and practical limits on how much flue gas could be processed from a single power plant, associated CO2 emission reduction, process footprint, impact and ultimate fate of heavy metals and other flue gas impurities, novel dewatering concepts, knowledge gaps and key technical challenges, and process costs.
Preference will be given to applications that have the potential to be economically viable at large‐scale based on the value of the products produced, considering the existing market for these products. Additionally, the proposal should include a preliminary, high‐level life cycle analysis (LCA) to demonstrate that the proposed technology will not create more CO2 than is utilized and/or show that the CO2 emissions are less than the process that it would replace. Projects will be selected based on the strength of proposed concepts and approach, prior progress made by the applicant in developing the technology, potential for future and near‐term commercialization, assessment of the technology’s promise for substantive and cost effective CO2 mitigation, and reasonableness of proposed cost of the technology.
DOE is currently supporting multiple small‐ and large‐scale R&D projects to demonstrate the technical and economic feasibility of CCS. While advances have been made to reduce the cost of implementation, cost remains a primary concern. Recent studies support the approach that CO2 utilization should focus on identifying technologies and opportunities that assist in reducing CO2 capture costs as a means to accelerate industrial‐scale implementation of geologic storage. Consequently, technologies that support this approach are of particular interest.
Questions – Contact: Danielle Petrucci, danielle.petrucci@hq.doe.gov
d. Material Development for Ceramic‐Metal Transitions that Facilitate Ceramic and Metal Joining and Flanging under High Temperature and Pressure Conditions
Economical and efficient heat transfer technologies applicable to high‐temperature, high‐pressure conditions are a common requirement for advanced fossil energy power generation systems. For example, power cycles based on steam on supercritical CO2 are targeting temperatures in excess of 700 C to enable highly efficient performance. In these cycles, heat is transferred from a heat source such as an air‐ or oxyfired coal boiler or natural gas turbine into a power cycle working fluid by means of heat exchange components such as boiler tubes, heat recovery steam generator, heat exchanger, or recuperator. Some of these heat exchange environments contain very large pressure differentials (20‐25 MPa) while others may contain periodic or occasional pressure fluctuations. Alloys with the requisite corrosion resistance and mechanical properties tend to be expensive. Alternatively, many ceramic materials are stable to much higher temperatures providing an opportunity to improve cycle performance and improve durability. Ceramic components perform poorly in tension requiring specialized engineering, in particular with respect to joining with adjacent components. In other words, joining ceramics to other high temperature metallic components is seen as an enabling technology for high‐performance heat transfer components and by extension high‐efficiency power cycles.
Grant applications are sought for research and development to join candidate high‐temperature ceramic materials and heat exchange components with high‐temperature metallic components. Joining technology should be robust to pressure upsets. Target applications should focus on extraction of heat from fossil‐fired combustion heat sources into working fluids or internally between working fluids within a steam or supercritical CO2 power cycle.
Questions – Contact: Steve Richardson, steven.richardson@netl.doe.gov
e. Other
In addition to the specific subtopics listed above, the Department invites grant applications in other areas that fall within the scope of the topic description above.
Questions – Contact: Doug Archer, douglas.archer@hq.doe.gov