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DOE Initiates New Energy Frontier Research Centers; $100M for Multiple Awards Beginning in 2009
26 April 2008
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| Cover of the 2007 BER report on needs for energy storage—one of 10 in the Basic Research needs series underpinning the EFRC initiative. Click to enlarge. |
The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences is initiating Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRCs) to accelerate the rate of scientific breakthroughs needed to create advanced energy technologies for the 21st century. DOE anticipates that approximately $100 million will be available for multiple EFRC awards starting in FY 2009.
Examples of areas of research focus include, but are not limited to: the direct conversion of solar energy to electricity and chemical fuels; understanding how biological feedstocks are converted into portable fuels; a new generation of radiation-tolerant materials and chemical separation processes for fission applications; energy storage systems; energy utilization and transmission; and science-based geological carbon sequestration.
In 2001, the Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee (BESAC) conducted a study to assess the scope of fundamental scientific research that must be considered to address the DOE missions in energy efficiency, renewable energy resources, improved use of fossil fuels, safe and publicly acceptable nuclear energy, future energy sources, and reduced environmental impacts of energy production and use.
The results of a week-long workshop were published in early 2003 in the report, Basic Research Needs to Assure a Secure Energy Future. That report inspired a series of ten follow-on “Basic Research Needs” workshops over the next five years, which together attracted more than 1,500 participants from universities, industry, and DOE laboratories.
Topics included the hydrogen economy; solar energy utilization; superconductivity; solid-state lighting; advanced nuclear energy systems; combustion of 21st century transportation fuels; electrical-energy storage; geosciences as it relates to the storage of energy wastes (the long-term storage of both nuclear waste and CO2); materials under extreme environments; and catalysis for energy-related processes. Amongst these reports, research needs in theory, modeling, and simulation have been a central theme, in which the BESAC report, Opportunities for Discovery: Theory and Computation in Basic Energy Sciences, captures major highlights.
The recommendations from the workshops described similar themes—that in this new era of science, we would design, discover, and synthesize new materials and molecular assemblies through atomic scale control; probe and control photon, phonon, electron, and ion interactions with matter; perform multi-scale modeling that bridges the multiple length and time scales; and use the collective efforts of condensed matter and materials physicists, chemists, biologists, molecular engineers, and those skilled in applied mathematics and computer science.
Being able to direct and control matter at the quantum, atomic, and molecular levels requires a change in the fundamental understanding of how nature works. A BESAC Grand Challenges subcommittee was convened, which examined the roadblocks to progress, and the opportunities for transformational new understanding. The results of that examination were presented in the report, Directing Matter and Energy: Five Challenges for Science and the Imagination. This new era of energy science poses five challenges:
How do we control materials processes at the level of electrons?
How do we design and perfect atom- and energy-efficient syntheses of revolutionary new forms of matter with tailored properties?
How do remarkable properties of matter emerge from the complex correlations of atomic or electronic constituents and how can we control these properties?
How can we master energy and information on the nanoscale to create new technologies with capabilities rivaling those of living things?
How do we characterize and control matter away—especially very far away—from equilibrium?
The role of the EFRCs. To implement the collective recommendations of these twelve workshops, the Office of Basic Energy Sciences is using two complementary approaches: multi-investigator research via the Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRCs) and a significant enhancement in single-investigator and small-group projects that currently form the bulk of the BES core research portfolio.
The EFRC awards are expected to be in the $2–5 million range annually for an initial 5-year period. A Funding Opportunity Announcement has been issued that requests applications from the scientific community for the establishment of the initial suite of EFRCs.
Energy Frontier Research Centers will bring together the skills and talents of multiple investigators to enable research of a scope and complexity that would not be possible with the standard individual investigator or small group award. An EFRC will have the following characteristics:
The research program is at the forefront of one or more of the challenges described in the BESAC report Directing Matter and Energy: Five Challenges for Science and the Imagination.
The research program addresses one or more of the energy challenges described in the ten BES workshop reports in the Basic Research Needs series.
The program is balanced and comprehensive, and, as needed, supports experimental, theoretical, and computational efforts and develops new approaches in these areas.
The program provides opportunities to inspire, train, and support leading scientists of the future who have an appreciation for the global energy challenges of the 21st century.
The center leadership communicates effectively with scientists of all disciplines and promotes awareness of the importance of energy science and technology.
There is a comprehensive management plan for a world-leading program that encourages high-risk, high-reward research. The Center’s management plan demonstrates that the whole is substantially greater than the sum of the individual parts.
Research Focus Areas. EFRC proposals must address all of the attributes listed above. A few examples of science areas that would respond to the solicitation are given below. The intent of the program is to allow for maximum flexibility within the broad guidelines given above. DOE is particularly interested in tapping the imagination and creativity of the scientific community to address the fundamental questions of how nature works and to harness this new knowledge for the most critical real-world challenges.
Direct conversion of solar energy to electricity and chemical fuels. Learning to direct and control materials and chemical processes at the level of electrons, where the laws of quantum mechanics rule, would pave the way for essentially new quantum control impacting catalysis, photochemistry, molecular biology, and device physics that are the foundational pieces in solar energy conversion. Powerful new methods of nanoscale fabrication, characterization, and simulation—using physical, chemical and biological tools that were not available as few as five years ago—create new opportunities for understanding and manipulating the molecular and electronic pathways of solar energy conversion. Specific areas include coaxing cheap materials for superior performance; new paradigms for solar cell design; photo-catalytic processes for inexpensive, efficient conversion; and bio-inspired methods for self-assembly of molecular components into functional self-regulating, and self-repairing systems for solar fuel production.
Understanding of how biological feedstocks are converted into portable fuels. Biological systems are the proof-of-concept for what can physically be achieved by nanotechnology. Consider the ease with which biological systems transform and store energy or their ability to self-repair and to adapt to changing external conditions. The way in which energy, entropy, and information are manipulated within the nanosystems of life provides us with lessons on what we must learn in order to develop similarly sophisticated energy technologies. This entails research in light harvesting, exciton transfer, charge separation, transfer of reductant to carbon dioxide as well as carbon fixation and storage. Specific areas might include molecular-scale characterization of the physical structure and chemical properties of plant cell wall materials with the aim of circumventing the need for extensive pre-treatment and biological hydrolysis to sugars (saccharification), which are current bottlenecks in cellulosic biofuel production. Other areas include development of new and improved catalytic conversion processes that are far more robust than enzymatic systems for the conversion of plant polymers to fuels.
Within the Office of Science, both the BES and the Biological and Environmental Research (BER) programs’ biofuels research involve the direct biological conversion of solar energy into chemically stored fuels. However, there are distinct differences. BES focuses on the conversion mechanisms, emphasizing the associated physical, chemical processes, and their coupling with bio- and biomimetic approaches. In contrast, BER focuses on the biological processes, with an emphasis on genomics, metabolic engineering, systems biology, and biotechnological tools for scalable biofuels production. BES biofuels research also emphasizes utilization of physical sciences-based theoretical and experimental tools and combines them with existing biochemical and molecular biological tools to probe energy transduction and chemical energy deposition processes.
A new generation of radiation-tolerant materials and chemical separation processes for fission applications. By designing and perfecting atom- and energy-efficient synthesis, one can create a paradigm shift in the discovery and design of new chemical assemblies and materials that are mechanical strong; light weight; and resistant to corrosion, decay, or failure in extreme conditions of temperature, pressure, radiation, or chemical exposures encountered in fission applications.
Key research includes: foundational research in chemistry and physics of actinides and their fission products; new generation of actinide separations processes with improved efficiency, selectivity, cost-effectiveness, and waste minimization; first-principles design and understanding of materials with improved radiation and corrosion resistance at elevated temperatures; microstructural design and predictive models for mitigating long-time degradation behavior; characterization, theory, and computer models for decades-to-centuries performance; and solution and interfacial behavior under extreme radiation flux and elevated temperatures.
Addressing fundamental knowledge gaps in energy storage. Without effective electrical energy storage, renewable—yet intermittent—sources of energy such as wind and solar will not be able to significantly displace fossil, nuclear, and other conventional energy sources used for generating electricity for the power grid. Similarly, current battery technologies are limited, making plug-in hybrid or all-electric cars prohibitively costly and insufficient to meet consumer demands. Long-term, fundamental research in electrical energy storage will be needed to accelerate the pace of scientific discoveries and to see transformational advances that bridge the gaps in cost and performance, separating the current technologies and those required for future utility and transportation needs.
For example, by mastering energy balance on the nanoscale through harvesting the large number of forces that are often operating simultaneously, such as electrostatic attraction and repulsion, chemical bonding, surface tension, and random forces from environmental fluctuations, a wide variety of structures can be assembled for 3-D architectures with multi-functionalities in energy storage unsurpassed by any given existing technologies. Other research areas include new capabilities to “observe” the dynamic composition and structure of the constituents in the electrochemical storage systems; novel electrolytes with high conductivity over a broad temperature range and long-term stability; and theory, modeling, and simulation that integrate methods at different time and length scales.
Transforming energy utilization and transmission. At the heart of the nanoscale behavior, one often finds emergent phenomena, in which a complex outcome emerges from the correlated interactions of many simple constituents. By understanding the fundamental rules of correlations and emergence and then by learning how to control them, an entirely new generation of energy utilization and transmission processes is possible, such as in phase change materials for thermal energy conversion, strong light-matter interaction and collective charge behavior for light emission nearing theoretical efficiency, and radically different combustion chemistry of alternative fuels.
Understanding the emergent behavior of materials and chemical reactivity at the nanoscale offers remarkable opportunities in broad arena of applications including solid-state lighting, electrical generators, clean and efficient combustion of 21st century transportation fuels, catalytic processes for efficient production and utilization of chemical fuels, and superconductivity for resistance-less electricity transmission.
Science-based geological carbon sequestration. All natural and most human-induced phenomena occur in systems that are away from the equilibrium in which the system would not change with time. If we can understand system effects that take place away—especially very far away—from equilibrium and learn to control them, it could yield dramatic new carbon capture technologies and enable new strategies for sequestering carbon to mitigate environmental damage. Key research areas involve new membranes and separations of carbon dioxide from process streams at high temperature and pressure; understanding geochemical processes relevant to the dimensions of subsurface sequestration sites with realistic geological formations chemistry; developing critical geophysical measurement techniques for remote probing and tracking; developing fluid-flow measurement approaches and simulation tools that can link chemical and physical processes at multiple scales; and advanced measurement and modeling verification at field sites.
EFRC Awards Process. A number of EFRC awards will be initiated in FY 2009 based on an open competition among academic institutions, DOE laboratories, for-profit entities, and nonprofit organizations. Research activities may be sited singly at a specific institution or in multiple locations through collaborations between institutions. The EFRC awards are expected to be in the $2–5 million range annually for an initial 5-year period.
A Funding Opportunity Announcement has been issued that requests applications from the scientific community for the establishment of the initial suite of EFRCs. As the EFRC program matures, it is anticipated that EFRC competitions will be held every 2 or 3 years and that renewal submissions will be openly competed with new submissions. Out-year funding is subject to satisfactory progress in the research and the availability of funding appropriations. While capital investment in instrumentation and infrastructure are expected as part of the EFRC awards, usage and leverage of existing facilities, including the BES user facilities, is encouraged.
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Comments
$100 million....wow, lets all jump up and down and fart sparks.
I think some perspective might be good here; Let's keep in mind how much we are spending so BP, Exxon, Shell, Total and Chevron can secure some PSAs (production sharing agreements) from a puppet Iraqi government. According to Joseph Stiglitz's new book $3 trillion over ten years is on the low end of the actual full cost. $100 million is less than three hours of the Iraq debacle. KBR/Halliburton has ripped us off for 200 times that amount.
I object to the false immpression being created by this administration that they are actually trying to solve energy related problems when,in fact, they are trying to undermine renewable energy development as well as obscure the reasons why we need renewable energy. We desperately need new leadership .
Posted by: BJ | Apr 27, 2008 8:16:27 AM
How can a great nation promote so many energy related long term NOBLE goals and exercise so few?
Will $5 million a year change the equation and the acquired energy over-consumption behavior?
However, basic research is required to find ways to develop, produce, transport, store and use clean energy more efficiently. Is $100 millions enough? Wouldn't $100 billions do more to realize many of those worthy goals? Wouldn't another $100+++ billions be required to convert this research into locally made products?
The time has come to put much more resources ($ trillions) in the future clean energy economy. USA should be the leader and should do what is required to modify and adapt the current economy from GHG creating fossil fuel to clean electricity.
Research is the very first necessary step. The second step is to move the findings from the labs to the factories and affodable products for the real world. There is much more to be done.
Posted by: Harvey D | Apr 27, 2008 8:54:35 AM
It is the appearance of doing something that is important to them. Bush learned long ago how to win elections. If you can get the people to think you are doing something, that is all you need.
It is SO obvious that these are fossil fuel guys. They have cut budgets for renewable energy every year. They want to drill more wells and make more money for their oil buddies. They give $14 billion in tax breaks to oil companies that already make over $70 billion per year in profits.
If this situation is not obvious to anyone and everyone that has a brain to think with, I do not know what is. It is SO blatant that you would have to be in a coma to miss it.
Posted by: SJC | Apr 27, 2008 9:03:58 AM
What bothers me about the DOE funding initiatives is that they are always incredibly specific, as if they know exactly what they right next step should be, when it is clear they don't. Maybe no one knows for sure.
Since the long term point of any energy research is to incorporate it in the market place to replace or supplant existing sources, they should simply open the playing field to any technology or effort that seems to make sense on economic grounds. Is that so unreasonable? Given that, more work on solar thermal and anaerobic digestion of biomass would probably be supported. As it is now, much of what they fund seems simply earmarked for preferred programs. And pure science stuff should be funded through NSF, not DOE.
Posted by: Jim | Apr 30, 2008 12:40:06 PM
Conservatives talk about not picking "winners and losers" but when it comes to this they want something that their friends can make money on right away. Hence, the emphasis only on things that can be brought to market soon and make their investors richer quicker.
Posted by: SJC | Apr 30, 2008 2:34:54 PM
