DOE Funds 13 Projects Seeking to Improve Manufacturing Efficiency, Deploy Clean Energy Tech

The Department of Energy has awarded $13.9 million to 13 projects under the High-Performance Computing for Energy Innovation initiative.

Awardees, including Boeing, Ford Motor and General Motors, will use HPC resources from DOE national laboratories to address manufacturing efficiency, explore new materials for clean energy applications, and speed up the development and deployment of clean energy technologies.

The projects support the Biden administration’s goal to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, the DOE said.

Boeing, Ford Motor and General Motors are respectively working on the design and manufacturing of impact-resistant composite fuselages for open rotor engines, solid electrolyte interphase formation and growth in lithium-ion batteries modeling and HPC simulation of microstructure evolution of battery electrode drying process. 

Boeing is working on the design and manufacturing of impact-resistant composite fuselages for open rotor engines, while Ford Motor is working on solid electrolyte interphase formation and growth in lithium-ion batteries modeling, and General Motors is working on HPC simulation of the microstructure evolution of the battery electrode drying process.

The topics are under the HPC4EI’s HPC4Manufacturing program.

The DOE, meanwhile, announced its intent to solicit project proposals for the summer 2023 HPC program and the HPC4EI initiative’s plan to seek feedback on the experiences of HPC4EI program participants and the value of HPC capabilities to manufacturers. Both solicitations are expected to be released in July.