Forty research projects will receive a total of $135 million from the Department of Energy to fund technologies working toward the decarbonization of the industrial sector.
The grants will be awarded through DOE’s Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office, and will concentrate on sectors such as chemicals, iron and steel, food and beverage, cement and concrete and paper and forest products, the agency announced Thursday.
Nine project teams will receive $38.3 million to reduce carbon footprint in the chemicals industry. Awardees include the Georgia Institute of Technology, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Siemens Energy.
Carnegie Mellon University, Idaho National Laboratory and GTI Energy are three of the 10 awardees working on decarbonizing the iron and steel sector. The cluster earned $31.9 million in funding to support DOE’s Low Emissions Steel Manufacturing Research Program.
Palo Alto Research Center in California, Texas A&M University’s Engineering Experiment Station and West Virginia University Research Corp. were chosen for their studies on addressing greenhouse gas emissions in the food and beverage industry. Meanwhile, five organizations will be eligible for $16.4 million in financing to make calcination and cement formulation processes more energy efficient.
To decarbonize the paper and forest products sector, six projects will work toward innovations in paper forming, pulping and wood drying.