The US Department of Energys (DOE) Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO) released a $15.7-million funding opportunity (DE-FOA-0003236) to advance the domestic manufacturing of next generation batteries and energy storage.

This opportunity will advance platform technologies upon which battery manufacturing capabilities can be built. This research and development will improve manufacturability and scalability of sodium-ion batteries, flow batteries, and nanolayered films for energy storage. The funding opportunity will also integrate smart manufacturing technologies to increase productivity and lower the cost for domestic battery production.

AMMTO estimates making up to 13 awards under this funding opportunity and encourages underserved communities and underrepresented groups to participate.

Topic Area 1: Platforms for Next Generation Battery Manufacturing - $10.7 million total for 3–8 projects. This topic area focuses on platforms that enable flexible, scalable, and highly controllable battery manufacturing processes through the development of advanced machines. This topic emphasizes processes for the manufacture of critical battery components and systems as well as developing machines for the integration of platform technologies that address manufacturability and scalability of battery technologies.

• Subtopic 1.1: Processes and Machines for Sodium-Ion Batteries: This subtopic focuses on advanced processes and/or high-performance processing machines for low cost, large-scale, sustainable, commercial manufacture of sodium-ion batteries.

• Subtopic 1.2: Processes and Design for Manufacturability of Flow Batteries: This subtopic focuses on design and manufacturing of flow battery membranes, as well as system design and manufacturing for scale-up of flow battery production and cost-effective integration of flow battery systems.

• Subtopic 1.3: Scalable Manufacturing of Nanolayered Films for Energy Storage: This subtopic focuses on scalable manufacturing processes and equipment for nanolayered films.

Topic Area 2: Smart Manufacturing Platforms for Battery Production - $5 million total for 2–5 projects. Smart manufacturing technologies have great potential to enable automated battery manufacturing operations by using processing and manufacturing data combined with computational learning technologies (e.g., artificial intelligence and machine learning).

This topic emphasizes development of broadly applicable smart manufacturing platforms that can be leveraged to enhance the core aspects of battery manufacturing (e.g., manufacturability, scalability, and reproducibility). Project teams will focus on smart manufacturing processes and smart equipment capable of smart design, control, and monitoring of battery manufacturing processes.