(461a) US Department Of Energy Critical Materials Strategy and R&D

In 2010, the US Department of Energy (DOE) released its first Critical Material Strategy – which examined the role of rare earth elements and other materials in the clean energy economy. The Strategy, which was also updated in 2011, highlighted five elements as being “critical” to the deployment of clean energy technology – dysprosium, europium, neodymium, terbium and yttrium. Building off this work and leveraging R&D investments in the area, in 2013 DOE established the Energy Innovation Hub for Critical Materials. This Hub, led by Ames Laboratory, will conduct R&D across the entire lifecycle including materials discovery and design, feedstock supply, processing, manufacture, use, recycling, and re-use. A summary of the DOE Critical Materials Strategy and the Critical Materials Hub will be presented.