[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 78 (Friday, April 21, 2000)]
[Notices]
[Page 21405]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-9982]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY


Chicago Operations Office, Office of Industrial Technologies, 
Notice of the Chemicals Industry of the Future Solicitation

AGENCY: Chicago Operations Office, DOE.

ACTION: Notice of financial assistance solicitation availability.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is announcing its 
intention to solicit applications for financial assistance for cost 
shared research and development of technologies that will enhance 
economic competitiveness, reduce energy consumption and reduce 
environmental impacts of the U.S. chemical industry. The DOE Office of 
Industrial Technologies (OIT) seeks industry cost-shared projects 
involving at least two chemical industry companies per project that 
address research needs identified in Technology Vision 2020: The U.S. 
Chemical Industry ``vision document'' and the subsequent Vision 2020 
technology roadmaps. These documents can be found on the OIT web-site 
located at http://www.oit.doe.gov/chemicals/. DOE is interested in 
projects that focus on applied research that lead to the development 
and successful completion of pilot-scale operations. Projects of most 
interest will be those that demonstrate broad chemical industry 
applicability, and which will yield large and replicable energy 
savings.

DATES: The complete solicitation document will be available on or about 
May 31, 2000. The deadline for submission of applications will be 
identified in the solicitation and should occur during August, 2000.

ADDRESSES: Copies of the solicitation, when issued, can be obtained 
from the DOE Chicago Operations Office, Acquisition and Assistance Home 
Page at http://www.ch.doe.gov/business/ACQ.htm under the heading 
``current solicitations,'' Solicitation No. DE-SC02-00CH11040. Access 
to this Home Page will also be possible through a hot-link from the OIT 
Chemicals web-site.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: John Motz at (630) 252-2152; by mail 
at U.S. Department of Energy, 9800 South Cass Avenue, Argonne, IL 
60439-4899; by facsimile at (630) 252-5045; or by electronic mail at 
[email protected]

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    DOE through its Office of Industrial Technologies (OIT) supports 
industries in their efforts to increase energy efficiency, reduce waste 
and increase productivity. The goal of OIT is to accelerate the 
development and use of advanced energy efficient, renewable and 
pollution prevention technologies that benefit industry, the 
environment, and U.S. energy security. OIT's core program is the 
Industries of the Future (IOF) initiative that focuses on basic 
materials and processing industries such as the chemical industry.

Research and Development Solicitation Topics

    Responsive projects will cross-cut several technological and 
methodological roadmap areas including, but not limited to, catalysis, 
separations, new process chemistry, reaction engineering, materials of 
construction, computational fluid dynamics, and computational 
chemistry. Specific attention should be given to system integration and 
process operation and control development. The outcome of these 
projects should be pilot-scale demonstrations that will lead to full-
scale demonstration and commercialization of process technology. The 
technology development project proposed must show a high probability of 
commercialization beyond a single company. For this reason, the 
proposers will need to describe the path to commercialization that will 
impact more than one company's process applications; the technology 
must show a broad applicability in its proposed configuration or in a 
similar adaptation to other chemical industry applications.

Type and Number of Anticipated Awards

    Awards under this solicitation will be cooperative agreements with 
a term of up to three years. DOE is planning to allocate approximately 
$4 million in fiscal year 2001 for the selected projects, subject to 
the availability of funds. It is estimated that three to six projects 
will be selected for cost-shared cooperative agreements. Total 
estimated Government funding for the solicitation is approximately $12 
million for the maximum three-year period, subject to the availability 
of funds.

Application Requirements

    The projects must include teams that comprise multi-disciplinary 
expertise from corporate research, process engineering, technology 
development groups or companies, and new business development 
organizations within and outside chemical companies. Applications that 
do not propose a teaming arrangement of at least two chemical industry 
companies will not be evaluated. Teams shall be led by chemical 
companies, but may include partners from chemical product/raw material 
suppliers, chemical customers, equipment suppliers, engineering firms, 
software and consulting firms, universities, National Laboratories, and 
research institutes.
    Applicants will be required to cost share a minimum of 50% of the 
total project costs to be incurred under the proposed project to be 
eligible for award under this solicitation.
    In addition to the foregoing, other evaluation and selection 
criteria will be developed in accordance with 10 CFR 600.10--Form and 
Content of Applications and 10 CFR 600.13--Merit Review.

    Issued in Argonne, Illinois on April 11, 2000.
John D. Greenwood,
Acquisition and Assistance Group Manager
[FR Doc. 00-9982 Filed 4-20-00; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P