Advanced Fossil Energy Research Novel Developments in Sensors and Controls for Fossil Energy Power Generation and Fuel Production Technologies | Apply Online

Funding Opportunity FAQs (DOE NETL FOA DE-FOA-0000518)

1) What is this funding opportunity trying to accomplish?

This Department of Energy (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) funding opportunity is focused on advancing new sensors and control technologies that help fossil energy power generation and fuel production operate more cleanly, efficiently, and reliably. The emphasis is on sensing and control approaches that can function in harsh operating environments and support better real-time decisions in complex, integrated plants.

2) Which NETL program area does this fall under?

The opportunity sits within NETL's Advanced Research (AR) portfolio. AR is intended to bridge the gap between basic science and practical engineering, helping promising concepts move toward full-scale implementation either in next-generation power systems or as upgrades to existing plants.

3) Why is NETL emphasizing new sensing and controls for advanced fossil systems?

NETL frames the need around several realities: higher efficiency and carbon management strategies can push plants into harsher operating regimes (higher temperatures and pressures, more corrosive/reactive conditions); plants must run with very high reliability to be cost-effective; and modern plants are increasingly complex to operate and optimize as integrated systems. The FOA seeks research that improves visibility into extreme-condition processes, anticipates equipment health issues before failures, and manages very large volumes of measurement data so operators and control systems can act effectively in real time.

4) What kinds of energy systems and processes are in scope?

The FOA is aimed at sensing and control challenges relevant to advanced combustion, gasification, turbines, gas cleaning and separation, carbon capture, and systems that co-produce synthetic fuels from coal or other domestic resources. The common thread is that advanced fossil energy systems create sensing and controls challenges that existing instrumentation and control philosophies do not adequately address.

5) How is the opportunity organized technically?

The FOA is structured around three technical topic areas: (A) decision-based algorithms for heterogeneous sensor networks, (B) novel materials/coatings and embedded sensing designs for online in situ assessment, and (C) real-time sensor networks for multi-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of reacting systems and operating components.

6) Can an application cover more than one topic area?

No. Applicants are required to choose only one technical topic area per application. However, the same organization may submit multiple applications, and teaming is allowed within an application.

7) Is NETL looking for incremental improvements to existing industrial approaches?

No. NETL explicitly states it is looking for novel, high-impact approaches rather than incremental tweaks to standard industrial practices.

8) What is Topic Area A about?

Topic Area A focuses on decision-based algorithms for heterogeneous sensor networks. The goal is to develop computational techniques that fuse data from many sensor types, enable self-organization, and support network-level, decision-oriented computation so the system can recommend actions to control or optimize a process.

9) What scale of sensor networks does Topic Area A anticipate?

NETL describes networks that may include tens to thousands of sensors and nodes, potentially wired or wireless.

10) What kinds of measurements are relevant under Topic Area A?

Example variables include pressure, temperature, flow, strain, gas composition, levels (such as tank or silo levels), and equipment condition indicators (such as rotating equipment speed).

11) What does NETL mean by decision-based or cognitive computation in Topic Area A?

The FOA emphasizes that as sensor counts rise, single measurements are less valuable on their own. What matters is extracting actionable information from the network as a whole. NETL is interested in approaches where the network can organize and interpret multi-sensor data to support control or optimization decisions, drawing an analogy to robotics decision-making while stressing that power plant physics and time scales must drive the approach.

12) What is explicitly discouraged or out of scope in Topic Area A?

NETL is not looking for small systems with fewer than 10 inputs. NETL also states it is not looking for extensions of traditional PID control. The topic is intended for scalable, network-level decision methods that address complexity directly.

13) What is Topic Area B about?

Topic Area B targets novel materials, coatings, and embedded sensing designs for online, in situ assessment of components and processes. NETL notes that while harsh-environment sensor survivability has been supported historically, fewer concepts have matured into embedded sensors or smart materials that function as part of the component itself.

14) What kinds of concepts are mentioned as examples in Topic Area B?

NETL invites concepts ranging from biomimetic or biologically activated approaches to high-temperature metamaterials, chemically or thermally activated coatings, optical materials, and other embedded/smart material approaches.

15) What types of parameters should Topic Area B approaches be able to assess?

The FOA highlights real-time, online health or process assessment and mentions potential indicators or measurements such as strain, temperature, flow, composition, and pressure.

16) What practical performance requirements does NETL expect Topic Area B proposals to consider?

NETL indicates strong proposals should think through industrially demanding requirements such as selectivity, accuracy, response time, recovery time, and lifetime in service.

17) Does Topic Area B prioritize wireless or remote interrogation?

Yes. NETL is especially interested in approaches that can be interrogated remotely or operate wirelessly.

18) What is out of scope for Topic Area B?

Approaches that require a conventional probe design, or that cannot realistically be applied in central industrial power production systems, are described as out of scope.

19) What is Topic Area C about?

Topic Area C emphasizes real-time sensor networks capable of multi-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of reacting systems and operating components. The intent is to use dense sensor coverage to reconstruct internal states in a way that resembles the 3D visualizations produced by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Finite Element Analysis (FEA), but based on real-time measurements.

20) What kinds of reconstructions are examples under Topic Area C?

Examples include mapping temperature, pressure, or deformation inside turbine blades; cross-sectional or volumetric reconstruction of single- or multiphase flows in a gasifier or combustor; volumetric mapping of gas species inside a gasifier; and 3D reconstruction of a combustion flame.

21) What sensor coverage expectation does NETL state for Topic Area C?

A core requirement is that reconstruction is built on sensor coverage capable of representing an entire cross-sectional volume relevant to industrial components, rather than extrapolating from a few single-point measurements.

22) Does Topic Area C require intelligent or self-organizing behavior?

Yes. NETL expects proposals to incorporate self-organizing features that account for spatiotemporal relationships in the observed phenomena, reinforcing the focus on intelligent, real-time field reconstruction rather than offline diagnostics.

23) What type of award instrument is used for this FOA?

NETL issued this as a discretionary opportunity using cooperative agreements. This implies the government typically anticipates substantial involvement during the project rather than a hands-off grant structure.

24) What was the estimated total funding and expected number of awards?

The total estimated funding was $4.5 million, with an expectation of about four awards.

25) Is cost sharing required?

Yes. The FOA states that cost sharing was required.

26) Who was eligible to apply?

Eligibility was listed as unrestricted, meaning a wide range of entities could apply (such as universities, companies, laboratories, and nonprofits), subject to any specific clarifications in the full announcement.

27) What is the FOA number and who issued it?

The FOA number is DE-FOA-0000518, and it was issued by DOE's National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL).

28) What were the posting date and application deadline?

The posting date was April 4, 2011, and the application deadline was May 16, 2011.

29) What is the current status of this opportunity?

The opportunity was later archived.

30) What level of maturity or demonstration is NETL signaling it wants?

The FOA message emphasizes ambitious, bench-demonstrable advances in sensing, sensor networking, and intelligent control that could help advanced fossil energy systems operate safely, efficiently, and with near-zero emissions under harsh, highly dynamic real-world conditions.