The National Science-at-Scale Collaborative will connect industry, the Department of Energy, and national laboratories to accelerate manufacturing innovation.
LEMONT, Ill.—The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory recently launched a new effort to help American companies develop and scale new products and manufacturing technologies more quickly, according to a release from Argonne National Laboratory.
Pilot-scale manufacturing equipment at Argonne’s Materials Engineering Research Facility. (Image courtesy Argonne National Laboratory.)
Called the “National Science-at-Scale Collaborative,” the effort is supported by DOE’s Office of Critical Materials and Energy Innovation (CMEI). The collaborative brings together industry, government, and the national laboratories to address complex challenges in critical materials and chemical manufacturing in the United States.
According to the June release, Argonne will work with industry partners on projects designed to move promising technologies from research to commercial production faster. Researchers will use advanced computer modeling, artificial intelligence, rapid synthesis tools, and pilot-scale manufacturing systems at Argonne’s Materials Engineering Research Facility to help companies test and scale new production processes.
“American manufacturing has an opportunity to lead the next generation of innovation in critical materials and chemical processing,” said Paul Kearns, director of Argonne, in the release. “The National Science-at-Scale Collaborative will help connect discovery, engineering, and deployment in ways that strengthen U.S. competitiveness and advance our economic security.”
The announcement followed an industry roundtable chaired by CMEI. Leaders from the chemical and critical materials sectors met to discuss manufacturing challenges and opportunities for collaboration.
“To compete globally, the U.S. must bring new technologies into domestic production more quickly,” said Assistant Secretary of Energy Audrey Robertson, in a statement. “This collaborative will help connect DOE, the national laboratories, and private industry to speed up that process.”
Audrey Robertson, Assistant Secretary of Energy, Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation, at Argonne’s Materials Engineering Research Facility. (Image courtesy Argonne National Laboratory.)
The collaborative supports CMEI’s broader mission to strengthen America’s critical minerals supply chains and accelerate next-generation energy technologies.
Manufacturers participating in the roundtable included Aclara, Albemarle, ATALCO, BASF North America, Chemours, Dow, Entegris, Exxon Mobil, Orbia, and Standard Lithium.
Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology by conducting leading-edge basic and applied research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time.