Carbon Capture Research and Development For Natural Gas and Industrial Point Sources and Front End Engineering Design Studies for Carbon Capture Systems at Industrial Facilities and Natural Gas Plants. | DE FOA 0002515

Opportunity Information: Apply for DE FOA 0002515

The Department of Energy, through the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), issued Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) DE-FOA-0002515 titled "Carbon Capture Research and Development For Natural Gas and Industrial Point Sources and Front End Engineering Design Studies for Carbon Capture Systems at Industrial Facilities and Natural Gas Plants." This is a discretionary federal funding opportunity in the energy category (CFDA 81.089) and is structured as a cooperative agreement, meaning awardees should expect substantial DOE involvement during the project period (for example, technical collaboration, regular reporting, and federal oversight tied to milestones).

The core purpose of the FOA is to push carbon capture technology toward lower cost, higher efficiency, and scalable deployment for two major emissions settings: natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) power plant flue gas and industrial point sources. In practical terms, the DOE is signaling that it wants solutions that can meaningfully reduce the cost per ton of CO2 captured while also improving energy performance (reducing the energy penalty associated with capture) and showing credible pathways to scale beyond lab demonstrations into real-world, industrially relevant systems.

The announcement highlights three areas of interest, which indicates applicants could propose different kinds of projects depending on technology maturity and application context. While the summary text does not list the three areas explicitly, the title makes clear that the opportunity spans both (1) carbon capture R&D and (2) front-end engineering design (FEED) studies. R&D efforts typically focus on advancing capture materials, processes, equipment concepts, and system integration approaches that can handle the specific challenges of NGCC and industrial exhaust streams (for example, lower CO2 concentrations in NGCC flue gas compared with coal, variable operating conditions, and industrial contaminants). FEED studies, by contrast, generally aim to produce a rigorous, pre-construction engineering package for a carbon capture system at an actual facility, including process design, cost estimates, integration plans, and risk reduction activities that make a future build decision more bankable.

Eligibility is listed as unrestricted, meaning the FOA is open to any applicant type (such as private companies, universities, national laboratories, state and local governments, and nonprofits), subject to any additional eligibility clarifications contained in the full FOA text. The anticipated award ceiling is $6,000,000 per award, with an expected total of roughly 12 awards, suggesting DOE intended to fund a portfolio rather than a single approach, likely balancing earlier-stage innovation with projects closer to deployment readiness.

The FOA was created on April 22, 2021, with an original closing date of June 21, 2021. DOE also indicated it anticipated two closing dates and would accept new applications for each closing date window, a structure that sometimes reflects an interest in attracting multiple waves of proposals or accommodating different readiness levels and partnership formations.

Overall, this opportunity is best understood as part of DOE/NETL's broader effort to accelerate practical carbon capture for harder-to-decarbonize segments of the energy and industrial economy. By focusing on NGCC and industrial point sources and pairing R&D with FEED studies, the FOA targets both technology breakthroughs and the near-term engineering groundwork needed to move carbon capture projects from concept into credible, financeable, build-ready designs.

• The Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory in the energy sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Carbon Capture Research and Development For Natural Gas and Industrial Point Sources and Front End Engineering Design Studies for Carbon Capture Systems at Industrial Facilities and Natural Gas Plants." and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 81.089.
• This funding opportunity was created on Apr 22, 2021.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jun 21, 2021 DOE anticipates having two closing dates for submission of applications under this Funding Opportunity Announcement and will accept new applications under this announcement for each closing date.. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $6,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 12 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

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