DOE plans to offer $1B for battery and critical minerals technology advancement

After eliminating funding for many energy projects underway totaling several billions of dollars, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) states its intention to make new awards from a pool of $1 billion exclusively focused on projects to advance and scale mining, processing, and manufacturing technologies across key stages of the critical minerals and materials supply chains. The Notices of Funding Opportunities (NOFOs) are not open yet for four of the five programs; awards for the fifth will be announced this fall. The advance notice for planned NOFOs is to give potential applicants extra time to consider the design and structure of their potential proposals.  

The four new opportunities are described briefly here in descending order of funding available:  

Battery Materials Processing and Battery Manufacturing and Recycling Grant Program 

MESC is also announcing its intent to issue a NOFO of up to $500 million to expand U.S. critical mineral and materials processing and derivative battery manufacturing and recycling. The proposed funding opportunity supports demonstration or commercial facilities processing, recycling, or utilizing for manufacturing critical materials which may include traditional battery minerals such as lithium, graphite, nickel, copper, and aluminum, as well as other minerals contained within commercially available batteries, such as rare earth elements. An award requires a cost-share of at least 50% by the recipient. 

Mines & Metals Capacity Expansion—Piloting Byproduct Critical Minerals and Materials Recovery at Domestic Industrial Facilities 

The Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management is announcing its intent to issue a NOFO to support approximately $250 million of financial assistance for American industrial facilities that have the potential to produce valuable mineral byproducts from existing industrial processes. To derisk the technical uncertainty and financial risk for commercial deployment, many technologies must be piloted at an industrial scale in an industrial facility where material feedstocks can be processed. The proposed NOFO addresses topic areas pertaining to industry at large and the coal-based industry. 

Rare Earth Elements Demonstration Facility 

The Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC) is announcing its intent to issue a NOFO of up to $135 million to enhance domestic supply chains for rare earth elements (REEs). The goal of this initiative is to reduce America’s dependence on foreign sources of REEs by demonstrating the commercial viability of methods for domestically refining and recovering REEs from mine tailings, deleterious material, and waste streams. An academic partner is required as a part of the project team, and an award requires a cost-share of at least 50% from the recipient. 

Critical Minerals and Materials Accelerator  

The Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office expects to release a NOFO of up to $50 million early this fall through the Critical Minerals and Materials (CMM) Accelerator program. The CMM Accelerator promotes technology maturation that can unlock capital investments and facilitate domestic commercialization. The proposed NOFO addresses several areas of interest, including processes in the rare-earth magnet supply chain; processes to refine and alloy gallium, gallium nitride, germanium, and silicon carbide for use in semiconductors; cost-competitive technologies for direct lithium extraction and separation; and critical-material separation technologies that allow for the co-production of useful products from byproducts and scrap. 

Consideration of proposals is already underway for a fifth program, as described  in the DOE press release and below. The solicitation was released in November 2024.  

Recover Critical Minerals from Industrial Wastewater  

The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) plans to announce project selections for its $40 million program to develop technologies for recovering  critical minerals from industrial wastewater early this fall. ARPA-E’s Realize Energy-rich Compound Opportunities Valorizing Extraction from Refuse waters (RECOVER) program aims to enable the U.S. to reduce its dependence on critical mineral imports and replace them with secure, domestic sources. Significant amounts of critical minerals are present in domestic wastewater systems, untreated and discarded. RECOVER technologies complement more traditional mining operations to access these materials and potentially meet a significant portion of America’s needs using supplies that might otherwise go to waste.