The US Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced it would provide $3.9 million in funding to 13 projects through its High Performance Computing for Energy Innovation (HPC4EI) program to advance performance, efficiency, and vitality of the US manufacturing sector and drive economy-wide decarbonization.
These short-term, collaborative projects between industry members and DOE’s National Energy Labs will apply advanced modeling, simulation, and data analysis to projects that improve manufacturing efficiency and explore new materials for clean energy applications.
This round of selections focuses on topic areas associated with HPC4EI’s HPC4Manufacturing (HPC4Mfg) and HPC4Materials (HPC4Mtls) programs, which are supported by DOE’s Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO), the Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office (IEDO), and the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM).
Among the projects selected were one by Ford and one by GM, both on aspects of batteries.
- Ford Motor Company will utilize Argonne National Laboratory’s HPC capabilities to develop a model of solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) formation in Li-ion batteries that could be used to accelerate battery manufacturing, thereby saving energy and reducing CO2 emissions by promoting battery electric vehicles (BEVs).
- General Motors will collaborate with and leverage computing expertise at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to integrate phase field and coarse-grained MD (molecular dynamics) models to predict the heterogeneous microstructure evolution and debonding during electrode drying processes.
Other selected projects include:
- Capstone Green Energy will leverage the expertise and HPC capabilities at Argonne National Laboratory to optimize injector design and operation to decarbonize a microturbine firing 100% hydrogen, potentially resulting in CO2 reduction of 3.5M tons a year.
- In partnership with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Boeing with utilize the HPC expertise and ORNL’s Summit to simulate impact-resistant composite fuselages for open rotor engines. The project will potentially result in a savings of 200M gallons per year and CO2 reduction of 1.9M tons per year.
- Power Systems Mfg., LLC will utilize the HPC capabilities at Argonne National Laboratory to develop an innovative flashback predicting computational approach by integrating AI, Large-Eddy-Simulations, and real experimental data, to develop highly reliable H2-capable combustion systems.
- Baker Hughes will de-risk the potential corrosion and embrittlement challenges associated with hydrogen transportation and its blending with natural gas, through down selection of a novel metal-organic framework-based hydrogen sensor using HPC.
Each selected project will receive $300,000 in funding. HPC4EI is managed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.