Production of Salable Rare Earth Element Materials from Coal and Coal Byproducts | DE FOA 0001627

Opportunity Information: Apply for DE FOA 0001627

The Department of Energy (DOE), through the Office of Fossil Energy and the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), issued Funding Opportunity Announcement DE-FOA-0001627 to support projects that can produce salable rare earth element (REE) materials from domestic, pre-combustion coal and coal byproducts. The core aim is to move beyond lab-scale extraction concepts and demonstrate small-scale production of final, marketable REE products, specifically things like individual rare earth oxides and/or other individual rare earth compounds. In practical terms, DOE is looking for applicants who can show an integrated approach that turns qualifying U.S. coal-related feedstocks into separated, sale-ready outputs rather than only intermediate concentrates.

A key requirement is the definition of "small scale" for this program: the project must be able to achieve a minimum composite REE output of 10 pounds per day, reported as oxides. That performance benchmark is central to the opportunity because it signals DOE's focus on tangible production capability and repeatable daily output, not just one-time batch results. At the same time, DOE narrows what counts as acceptable input material. The feedstocks must come from pre-combustion coal and coal byproducts, and the FOA explicitly excludes post-combustion and gasification materials such as ash and char. This restriction is important because it draws a clear boundary around the types of coal-derived materials DOE wants to see processed under this funding track.

While the main deliverable is salable REE products, the FOA also leaves room for projects that generate other saleable co-products. That flexibility suggests DOE is open to process designs that improve overall economics by recovering additional valuable streams, as long as the primary objective of producing marketable REE materials at the defined small scale is met. The funding instrument is a cooperative agreement, which typically means DOE expects substantial involvement during the project, such as technical oversight, milestone reviews, and coordination on progress and decision points.

The text provided is specifically an amendment to the original FOA. The purpose of the amendment is administrative and clarifying rather than a change in mission: it distributes documents from a pre-application webinar held on October 14, 2016 (referenced as Appendix E and associated attachments) and clarifies the competitive down-select language described on page 7 of the FOA. In other words, DOE added supporting materials from the webinar to help applicants interpret requirements and also refined the language describing how proposals may be competitively narrowed at a later stage. The amendment notes that all changes are marked with yellow highlighting in the FOA, which is meant to make it easy for applicants to identify what was updated.

From an applicant and funding standpoint, the opportunity is listed as discretionary funding in the energy category (CFDA 81.089), administered by NETL, with eligibility described as unrestricted. The original application closing date was December 8, 2016. DOE anticipated making two awards, with an award ceiling of $1,000,000 per award. The opportunity was created on July 21, 2016, and the amendment content is framed around improving applicant guidance and clarifying evaluation or phase progression mechanics, while keeping the technical objective fixed: demonstrate small-scale, sale-ready rare earth materials production from eligible domestic coal-based feedstocks.

• The National Energy Technology Laboratory in the energy sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Production of Salable Rare Earth Element Materials from Coal and Coal Byproducts" 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 2016-07-21.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2016-12-08. (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 $1,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 2 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted.

Apply for DE FOA 0001627

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