[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 27 (Wednesday, February 10, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 7087-7089]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-02676]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY


Request for Information (RFI) for Updated Critical Materials 
Strategy

AGENCY: Office of Energy Policy and Systems Analysis, Department of 
Energy.

ACTION: Notice of Request for Information (RFI).

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SUMMARY: In 2010, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) developed and 
issued a Critical Materials Strategy report addressing the role of rare 
earth and other materials in energy technologies and processes. An 
update and additional analyses were completed the following year. In 
order to update the 2010 and 2011 analyses, DOE is seeking information 
from stakeholders on rare earth elements and other materials used in an 
array of energy technologies, as well as key materials used in the 
manufacturing of energy technologies that do not necessarily appear in 
the final product.

DATES: Written comments and information are requested no later than 
5:00 p.m. ET, on April 11, 2016.

ADDRESSES: Interested persons are encouraged to submit comments, which 
must be submitted electronically to [email protected].
    Instructions: Electronic responses must be provided as attachments 
to an email. It is recommended that attachments with file sizes 
exceeding 25MB be compressed (i.e., zipped) to ensure message delivery. 
Respondents are requested to provide the following information at the 
start of their response to this RFI: Company/Institution name; Company/
Institution contact; Contact's address, phone number, and email 
address.
    Please identify your answers by responding to a specific question 
or topic if possible. Any information obtained as a result of this RFI 
is intended to be used by the Government on a non-attribution basis for 
planning and strategy development. DOE will not respond to individual 
submissions or publish publicly a compendium of responses, except as 
required by applicable law. A response to this RFI will not be viewed 
as a binding commitment to develop or pursue the project or ideas 
discussed. DOE will not pay for information provided under this RFI. 
This RFI is not accepting applications for financial assistance or 
financial incentives. DOE has no obligation to respond to those who 
submit comments, and/or give any feedback on any decision made based on 
the responses received.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information 
may be sent to [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Purpose

    The purpose of this RFI is to solicit feedback from industry, 
academia, research laboratories, government agencies, and other 
stakeholders on issues related to the demand, supply, use, and costs of 
rare earth metals and other materials used in the energy sector. DOE is 
specifically interested in information on the materials and 
technologies in the following table, as well as other materials of 
interest identified by the respondents to this request that are used in 
energy technologies:

Materials of Interest

 Rare earth elements (e.g., cerium, dysprosium, europium, 
gadolinium, lanthanum, neodymium, praseodymium, samarium, scandium, 
terbium, ytterbium, and yttrium)
 Platinum group metals (e.g., iridium, palladium, platinum, 
rhodium, and ruthenium)
 Antimony, bismuth, cadmium, cobalt, gallium, germanium, 
hafnium, helium, indium, lithium, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum, 
nickel, rhenium, selenium, silicon, tantalum, tellurium, tungsten, 
vanadium, and zirconium

Technologies and Components of Interest

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              Technologies                          Types                             Components
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Solar photovoltaics....................  ..........................  Thin film.
Concentrated solar power...............  Trough system.............  Mirrors.
                                         Power tower system........  Molten salts.
                                                                     Dish engine system.
Wind turbines..........................  Direct drive..............  Permanent magnets.
Natural gas generators.................  ..........................  Superalloys.
                                                                     Coatings.
                                                                     Magnetic materials.
Hydropower.............................  ..........................  Permanent magnets.

[[Page 7088]]

 
Nuclear................................  ..........................  Control rods.
                                                                     Cooling fluids.
                                                                     Control absorbers or neutron shielding
                                                                      materials.
                                                                     Fuel rod cladding.
                                                                     Fuel assembly grid plates.
                                                                     Alloys.
Vehicles (in all vehicle classes)......  Battery electric..........  Permanent magnets.
                                         Plug-in hybrid electric...  Batteries.
                                         Hybrid....................  Catalytic converters.
                                         Fuel cells................  Lightweighting (platform, frame, engine
                                                                      cradle, etc.).
Lighting...............................  LEDs......................  Phosphors.
                                         Fluorescents (CFLs, LFLs).
                                         Other solid-state lighting
Grid storage...........................  ..........................  Batteries.
Stationary fuel cells & hydrogen         Solid oxide...............  Catalysts.
 electrolysis.                           Solid acid................  Cathode.
                                         Phosphoric acid molten      Anode.
                                          carbonate.
                                         Polymer electrolyte         Electrolytes.
                                          membrane.
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    DOE is interested in receiving information on the following 
issues:

Category 1: Technology and Component Material Intensity

    For the following questions, please express material intensity 
in terms of quantity per unit, such as weight percentage per magnet 
of a given size, content per unit of generation or storage capacity, 
weight content per lamp, content per vehicle type, weight 
requirement per industrial process output, or other appropriate 
metric or industry standard.
     For the energy technologies and components of interest 
listed above, what is the current and anticipated materials 
requirement over the next 15 years?
     What is the level of purity required?
     How much material is lost during use (i.e., dissipative 
losses)?
     What are the quantities of material loss in 
manufacturing currently and how might that change over the next 15 
years as the technology develops?
     For the energy technologies and components of interest 
listed above, what are the quantities of material used in 
manufacturing them that do not appear in the final product (e.g., 
materials used in sputtering targets, as manufacturing equipment, as 
catalysts, etc.)?

Category 2: Market Projections

     For the energy technologies and components of interest 
listed above, what is the current and projected global market demand 
over the next 15 years and how does it vary by region? What are the 
key uncertainties that may significantly affect these projections?
     What is the anticipated average lifespan for the energy 
technologies of interest and how frequently do the components need 
to be replaced? How might these lifespans and replacement 
frequencies evolve as the technology develops?
     For the energy technologies of interest listed above, 
are the materials and/or components easily substitutable or do they 
require product and/or manufacturing process re-designs?
     If known, what are the most appropriate currently 
viable substitutes for these technologies or components? Are 
additional substitutes anticipated within the next 15 years?
     What are the leading concerns regarding using the 
identified substitute material(s) (e.g., lower performance, higher 
costs, product or process redesigns, capital requirements, 
inadequate supply, difficulty of use, etc.)?
     Do you use or expect to use significantly increasing 
quantities of the materials listed above for non-energy 
technologies? Please explain.
     Do prices, price volatility and/or basic availability 
affect your decision to use the materials of interest?

Category 3: Energy Technology Transitions and Emerging Technologies

     How do you anticipate technology transitions (e.g., 
fluorescent lights to LEDs) will affect material availability over 
the next 15 years? Please share any insight or recommendations with 
respect to technology transitions.
     How do you expect the emergence of new energy or energy 
efficiency technologies (e.g., fuel cells) to affect material demand 
over the next 15 years?
     What timescales or delays in production and utilization 
can affect the ability to plan for deployment of new energy 
technologies?

Category 4: Primary Production and Material Processing

     Do you anticipate additional production of the 
materials of interest coming online in the next 5 years?
     What technical, economic, or regulatory factors lead to 
barriers or delays in bringing on new production or increasing 
current production?
     What are the emerging processes or approaches 
(physical, chemical, or biological) to separation and processing 
these materials? Can they be scaled? What are the barriers to 
deploying these emerging processes?
     Do prices, price volatility and/or basic availability 
affect your decision to produce the materials of interest?

Category 5: Supply Chains

     For the technologies and components of interest listed, 
what are the process stages within the supply chain, and where 
geographically does each occur? What are the factors that affect 
where a component is manufactured?
     How vertically integrated are the supply chains in 
different countries? Does this matter? Why?
     How concentrated or diversified are the suppliers and 
consumers of the materials, components, or technologies?
     How much material inventory is typically stockpiled 
across the stages of the supply chain? How long is it stockpiled 
for? Given a supply disruption, how long would the inventory last?
     For the technologies and components of interest listed, 
what are the lead times at each stage of their supply chain?

Category 6: Recycling Opportunities

     What quantities of critical materials are currently 
being recycled from industrial and post-consumer sources and what 
quantities could potentially be recycled on what timeframe?
     What are the technological barriers to recycling 
materials?
     What recycling process innovations would increase 
recycling technical and economic viability?
     How could design for recyclability improve the level of 
recycling?
     How are current technological trends of the specific 
material, component, or technology of interest (e.g., 
miniaturization, increased complexity) likely to affect its 
recyclability?
     What types of policies would impact recycling?
     Are there synergies between industries (e.g., using 
cadmium telluride from semiconductor recycling for solar cells)?

[[Page 7089]]

Category 7: Impacts of Wide-Scale Electrification

    We are also interested in the potential material implications of 
wide-scale electrification (industry, transportation, etc.).
     What components are needed and for what purpose to 
accomplish wide-scale electrification (both in the electricity 
infrastructure and end use applications) and what quantities will be 
required in what timeframe?
     What materials of interest are required for these 
components?

Category 8: Additional Information

     Are there other materials that DOE should analyze 
(beyond the materials of interest) that may be of concern due to 
increasing demand for energy technologies and/or supply risk? Please 
explain and provide material content by component and energy 
technology.
     Are there other technologies or components that DOE 
should analyze (beyond the technologies of interest)? Please 
explain.
     Is there additional information, not requested above, 
that you believe DOE should consider in updating the Critical 
Materials Strategy? If so, please provide here.
II. Confidential Business Information
    Pursuant to 10 CFR 1004.11, any person submitting information that 
he or she believes to be confidential and exempt by law from public 
disclosure should submit via email two well marked copies: one copy of 
the document marked ``confidential'' including all the information 
believed to be confidential, and one copy of the document marked ``non-
confidential'' with the information believed to be confidential 
deleted. DOE will make its own determination about the confidential 
status of the information and treat it according to its determination.
    Factors of interest to DOE when evaluating requests to treat 
submitted information as confidential include: (1) A description of the 
items; (2) whether and why such items are customarily treated as 
confidential within the industry; (3) whether the information is 
generally known by or available from other sources; (4) whether the 
information has previously been made available to others without 
obligation concerning its confidentiality; (5) an explanation of the 
competitive injury to the submitting person that would result from 
public disclosure; (6) when such information might lose its 
confidential character due to the passage of time; and (7) why 
disclosure of the information would be contrary to the public interest.

Jonathan Pershing,
Principal Deputy Director for Energy Policy and Systems Analysis.
[FR Doc. 2016-02676 Filed 2-9-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 6450-01-P