The Department of Energy (DOE) plans to award $122 million in funds to support facilities that will utilize coal to produce carbon-based offerings. DOE said Friday that it seeks to create new approaches that will extract and handle critical minerals and rare earth elements from coal through the funding opportunity.
The facilities will work to study and maintain environmentally-sustainable beneficiation, mining, purification and processing methods. The centers will also support education efforts for professionals and workers in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
DOE encourages industry, academia, national laboratories, state and local governments to participate in the funding opportunity. The department will finance the facilities via the Carbon Ore, Rare Earths, and Critical Minerals program.