Chemical Products R&D Solicitation Awards Announced

July 6, 2004

DOE recently selected six R&D projects to develop new technologies for saving energy in the Chemical industry. DOE plans to contribute nearly $17 million toward the projects, which specifically address new or improved catalytic oxidation and distillation technologies to enhance productivity of chemical processes. Technology needs in these areas have been identified in the following industry roadmaps: Reaction Engineering, New Process Chemistry, and Separations 2000.

Development and implementation of high risk, new technology is a continuing goal of ITP. Through open, competitive solicitations, DOE offers opportunities for industries to participate in cost-shared research and development projects that advance technologies both technically and economically, and show significant potential for successful commercialization. Following is the key information on the selected Chemical projects:

Velocys, Inc.
DOE Funding Level: $2.9 million
Heat Integrated Distillation Through Use of Microchannel Technology: This project will develop an advanced distillation process based on the highly heat-integrated microchannel process technology (MPT).
Technical Contact: Thomas Hickey, 614-733-3300

Rohm and Haas Company
DOE Funding Level: $5.2 million
Millisecond Oxidation of Alkanes: This project will develop a technology for the oxydehydrogenation of alkane feedstocks to olefins and oxygenates using a Short Contact Time Reactor (SCTR).
Technical Contact: Dan Bors, 215-619-5729

BP Chemicals Company
DOE Funding Level: $1.9 million
Intensification of Catalytic Propane Ammoxidation Processes: This project will develop a highly intensified catalytic process for the direct ammoxidation of propane to acrylonitrile.
Technical Contact: Bruce Rosen, 630-420-5063

BP Amoco Chemical Company
DOE Funding Level: $3.4 million
New Catalytic Transport Membrane Approach to Energy Efficient Ethylene Manufacture: This project will develop a new way to make ethylene via ethane dehydrogenation using a novel catalytic transport membrane (CTM) reactor.
Technical Contact: Martin Carrera, 630-420-3153

Solutia, Inc.
DOE Funding Level: $1.3 million
Gold Catalyzed Cyclohexane Oxidation: This project will explore the use of supported gold nanoparticles as catalysts for the oxidation of cyclohexane.
Technical Contact: Shannon Davis, 850-968-8507

California Institute of Technology
DOE Funding Level: $2.6 million
Using Ionic Liquids in Selective Hydrocarbon Conversion Processes: The project proposes a strong integration of theoretical and experimental programs to develop a fast-screening method to identify the best ionic liquids for each catalytic system and to optimize a direct methane-to-methanol process that can be operated at low-temperature (< 300 C), that is highly product selective (> 90 %), product friendly for easier separation, and cost effective.
Technical Contact: William Goddard, 626-395-2731

For more information on solicitation opportunities, see the ITP Financial opportunities Web page.