The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Fossil Energy announced up to $20 million in federal funding for cost-shared research and development projects for extreme environment materials for power generation.

The projects will target material challenges that apply to both coal- and gas-based steam cycle components. The program is intended to improve cost, performance and reliability of fossil power generation and also enhance the competitiveness of the U.S. high-temperature materials supply chain in the global marketplace.

The two areas of interest include:

Addressing Fatigue Failures at Dissimilar Metal Joints in High-Temperature Steam-Cycle Components: Projects will develop innovative materials or materials-processing technologies that improve the cyclic durability of joined materials and components. Projects will also develop materials and technologies that reduce the time and cost associated with repairing and upgrading components, while addressing barriers to deployment of mature joining technologies by demonstrating and documenting their value in a realistic environment. Any gas-focused work should concentrate on the bottoming cycle of a natural gas combined cycle.

Addressing Erosion and Corrosion with Surface Technologies In High-Temperature Steam-Cycle Components: Projects will form a broad team to refine and validate DOE’s understanding of existing fleet component failures, failure mechanisms, materials challenges, supply chain challenges and opportunities to improve the fleet’s reliability through materials research, development and demonstration.

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