Voucher Opportunity 9 (Recipients) - Planning and Validation of Industrial Decarbonization Projects (OCED)

Are you a manufacturer or industrial facility owner interested in decarbonizing operations of your facility? Or are you a company (for-profit entity) developing technologies to decarbonize the industrial sector? This opportunity is designed to provide support to accelerate demonstration and deployment of promising industrial decarbonization technologies.  See below for additional info about relevant technology verticals, eligibility, and timeline.

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As part of the Inflation Reduction Act Technology Commercialization Fund, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Technology Transitions (OTT) and Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED), in collaboration with ENERGYWERX, are offering this Planning and Validation of Industrial Decarbonization Projects Voucher Opportunity (VO-9) to eligible companies to increase adoption readiness (with a focus on resource maturity) of clean energy technologies for industrial decarbonization.

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View the Pre-Approved Voucher Providers: Click Here to View

Complete the Recipient Submission Form: Click Here to Submit for VO-9

The DOE Voucher Program builds bridges between U.S. entrepreneurs, businesses, technology developers or other relevant partners to advance commercialization and demonstration at scale of innovative energy technologies. VO-9 addresses key adoption risk areas faced by industrial facilities interested in decarbonizing their operations.

DOE has selected and pre-approved a cohort of voucher providers offering a variety of capabilities you might be interested in: Click Here to View the Pre-Approved Voucher Providers. For this voucher opportunity, capabilities include:

• Assessment and validation of current emissions and opportunities for decarbonization;
• Planning (including technical feasibility, engineering, business case, financing, etc.) for implementation and execution of decarbonization projects;
• Independent validation of decarbonization opportunities based on new technologies;
• Third-party assessment and validation of industrial decarbonization technologies, practices, and claims; and
• Performance validation support for industrial decarbonization technology developers.

For this voucher opportunity, industrial decarbonization includes technologies and processes that:

• Achieve significant and quantifiable emissions reduction in high emissions industrial materials production processes, including production processes for iron, steel, steel mill products, aluminum, cement, concrete, glass, pulp, paper, food     and beverage, chemicals and refining, and industrial ceramics;
• Achieve significant emissions reduction in heat generation;
• Achieve significant and quantifiable emissions reductions though energy and material efficiency, electrification, carbon capture and sequestration or utilization, implementation of low carbon fuels, or implementation of low carbon feedstocks.
• Achieve significant and quantifiable emissions reduction in chemical production processes, including by incorporating, if appropriate and practicable, principles, practices, and methodologies of sustainable chemistry and engineering;
• Leverage smart manufacturing technologies and principles, digital manufacturing technologies, and advanced data analytics to develop advanced technologies and practices in information, automation, monitoring, computation, sensing, modeling, and networking, which result in quantifiable and emissions reductions;
• Leverage the principles of sustainable manufacturing to minimize the potential negative environmental impacts of manufacturing while conserving energy and resources.

When you apply, you will review the available capabilities and submit your preferences in the voucher recipient request form. If you find something that can be valuable to your company and that can enable your company to accelerate demonstration and deployment of promising industrial decarbonization technologies, please consider applying to receive that in-kind support.

Note: The full list of pre-approved voucher provider capabilities is available here. Please carefully read through the descriptions, deliverables, required inputs, applicable technology area(s), and other related information for each capability. DOE will not allow changes to the high-level scope of work defined in the voucher provider’s capability submission.

Voucher Projects: Vouchers will be distributed as in-kind support, meaning that ENERGYWERX will directly reimburse the voucher provider for the work they have completed on behalf of the voucher recipients. DOE anticipates the value of the voucher to be up to $250,000. However, the specific value depends on the specific capability and is discussed only between DOE and the provider.

Only work related to specific technology areas will be eligible to receive a voucher under this opportunity. List of eligible technology areas:

• Industrial decarbonization in the following industries:‍
  • Iron, steel, and steel mill products
  • Aluminum
  • Cement and concrete
  • Glass
  • Pulp and paper
  • Food and beverage
  • Chemicals and refining
  • Industrial ceramics

DOE anticipates issuing up to 40 vouchers.

Voucher Recipients: Limited to:

• manufacturers (with an emphasis on small- and medium-sized manufacturing firms),
• industrial facility owners interested in decarbonizing operations of their facility, or
• technology developers with an industrial decarbonization technology that is ready for demonstration.

For purposes of this Opportunity, preference will be given to small- or medium-sized manufacturing firms (SMM) - firms having (1) gross annual sales of less than $100,000,000; (2) fewer than 500 employees at the plant site of the manufacturing firm; and (3) annual energy bills that total more than $100,000 but less than $2,500,000 (as defined in BIL §40209). Preference will be given to potential voucher recipients who have not previously received support through this program.

This opportunity is limited to one submission per requesting organization. In the case of multiple submissions, DOE will consider only the submission with the latest time stamp.

Pending availability of funds, additional submission windows may open in the future for this voucher opportunity.

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Voucher Recipients: How to Participate in VO-9

• Watch the Informational Webinar/Objective Strategic Session recording: Click Here to Watch
• Submit questions into Slido to be answered during the live Office Hours session
• Review the resources from the Informational Office Session on August 21, 2024 from 2:00-2:45 PM ET under Webinar Resources
• Complete the Recipient Submission Form: Click Here to Submit for VO-9 (Submissions are due NLT September 12, 2024 at 3:00 PM ET)

This is not the only voucher opportunity currently available through ENERGYWERX. See here for additional information related to other voucher opportunities.