PROGRAM AREA OVERVIEW
OFFICE OF BASIC ENERGY SCIENCES
The Basic Energy Sciences (BES) program supports fundamental research in the natural sciences leading to new and improved energy technologies. The program’s purpose is to create new scientific knowledge by supporting basic, peer-reviewed research in areas of materials sciences, chemical sciences, geosciences, plant and microbial biosciences, and engineering sciences that are relevant to energy resources, production, conversion, and efficiency. The results of BES-supported research are routinely published in the open literature.
A key function of the program is to plan, construct, and operate premier national user facilities to serve researchers at universities, national laboratories, and industrial laboratories, thus enabling the acquisition of new knowledge that cannot be obtained in any other way. The scientific facilities include synchrotron radiation light sources, high-flux neutron sources, electron-beam microcharacterization centers, nanoscale science research centers, and specialized facilities such as the Combustion Research Facility. These national resources are available free of charge to all researchers based on the quality and importance of proposed nonproprietary experiments.
A major objective of the BES program is to promote the transfer of the results of our basic research to advance and create technologies important to Department of Energy (DOE) missions in areas of energy efficiency, renewable energy resources, improved use of fossil fuels, mitigation of the adverse impacts of energy production and use, and future nuclear energy sources. The following set of technical topics represents one important mechanism by which the BES program augments its system of university and laboratory research programs and integrates basic science, applied research, and development activities within the DOE.
For additional information regarding the Office of Basic Energy Sciences priorities, click here.
TOPICS:
18. Advanced Fossil Fuels Research
a) Hydrogen Production from
Fossil Fuels
b) Potential for Sequestration of
Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Enhanced Methane Recovery in Coalbeds
c) Proton Conducting Solid Oxide
Fuel Cell Development
d) Coal Preparation
19.
Technologies Related to Energy
Storage for Electric and Hybrid Vehicles
a) Technology to Improve the
Performance of Lithium-Ion Batteries at Low Temperatures
b) Technologies that Result in
Cells with Increased Energy Density
c) Technologies to Improve the
Tolerance of Lithium-Ion Cells and Batteries to Thermal Runaway Provoked by
Abusive Overcharge
d) Improved Electrode Materials
for Electrochemical Capacitors
20.
Manufacturing for the Hydrogen
Economy
a) Manufacturing of Hydrogen
Production Equipment
b) Manufacturing of Hydrogen
Storage Containers
c) Manufacturing of Proton
Exchange Membrane (PEM) Fuel Cells
a) Distillation
b) Adsorption
c) Advanced Dewatering
d) Biomass Separation Process
Technologies
22.
Nanotechnology
a) Solar Photovoltaic (PV)
Technology
b) Nanomaterials for Chemical
Manufacturing
c) Nanoelectronics and
Nano-Electro-Mechanical Systems for Industrial Process Measurement and Control
d)
a) Heterogeneous Catalysis
b) Homogeneous Catalysis
c) Conversion of Biomass-Based
Platform Outputs
d) Bioprocessing
24.
Solid-State Light Emitting
Diodes for General Illumination
a) High Efficiency Visible and
Near UV (>380 nm) Semiconductor Materials for LED-Based General Illumination
Technology
b) High Efficiency Materials for OLED-Based General Illumination
c) Advanced Phosphors for UV or
Blue LEDs
d) Advanced Materials for Thermal
Management in III-Nitride LEDs
25.
Neutron, Electron,
and Photon Beam
Instrumentation
a) Neutron Facilities
b) Electron Beam Microcharacterization Facilities
c) Detectors for Synchrotron
Radiation Science
26.
Materials for Advanced Nuclear
Energy Systems
a) Advanced Radiation Resistance Ferritic-Martensitic Alloys
b) Advanced Refractory, Ceramic,
Ceramic Composite, or Coated Materials
Return to the Complete List of Topics
| Program Information, Instructions and Requirements | Technical Topic Descriptions | View Example Forms | Download Program Information | Download Technical Topics |