U.S. Energy Department Announces $155 Million for 16 National Lab Projects to Boost Industrial Innovation

The U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation on Jan. 22 selected 16 projects totaling $155 million to expand capabilities at the U.S. National Laboratories to develop and scale technologies that improve industrial efficiency and competitiveness. The awards are designed to drive process innovation, lower production costs, and strengthen long-term economic value for workers and consumers.

The selected projects target two main priorities. First, the initiative builds new capabilities for the most energy-intensive manufacturing sectors, including iron and steel, cement, chemicals, forest products, and food and beverage manufacturing, where improvements in heat use and material processing can deliver the greatest operational impact. Second, it supports cross-sector platforms that can be deployed across multiple industrial subsectors, such as industrial process heating, membrane separations, load flexibility, and advanced computing.

A major highlight is the Data Center Cooling Collaborative led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The project will establish a data center cooling testbed network to support emerging cooling technologies and provide standardized facilities that reduce the cost and time required to validate performance and move innovations toward commercial deployment. Another priority project is Burner Laboratories to Advance Fuel Utilization for Thermal Energy, led by the National Energy Technology Laboratory and partners. The effort will establish industry-accessible testbed facilities to accelerate the development of advanced industrial combustion systems. The effort is intended to support growing demand for efficient, flexible process heating solutions.

Additional investments include the Center for Industrial Modeling and Simulation led by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which will connect modeling experts with stakeholders in industry and academia to identify technology needs and accelerate the adoption of high-performance computing tools in manufacturing. Idaho National Laboratory will also develop a National Library for Iron Ore and Scrap, providing characterized ore and steel scrap samples to support research requiring real-world materials that are typically difficult to obtain.

Overall, the selections aim to strengthen lab-to-industry pipelines, shorten development cycles, and improve the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturing.