WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) today announced $35 million for an unprecedented effort to pair AI with self-driving labs to enable the creation of low-carbon fuels and commodity chemicals. Catalytic Application Testing for Accelerated Learning Chemistries via High-throughput Experimentation and Modeling Efficiently (CATALCHEM-E) will create new 10x faster workflows to discover and develop industrial catalysts – substances used to transform raw materials into commodities like aviation fuel.

“Catalysts are a critical piece of many industrial processes, but they can take up to a decade to develop at scale,” said ARPA-E Director Evelyn N. Wang. “CATALCHEM-E will drastically reduce development times to create more sustainable fuels, chemicals, and materials.”

Catalysts are traditionally discovered and developed though time-intensive, highly scientific, experimentally sophisticated processes due to the vast surface parameters and permutations involved. CATALCHEM-E will couple AI and machine learning with high throughput experimentation (HTE) platforms like self-driving laboratories to create disruptive workflows, ultimately dropping development times from a decade to a year.

These new research and development methods will integrate multi-scale performance testing data together with multi-scale theoretical predictions, synthesis protocols, characterization data and experimental research catalyst optimization cycles. Doing so will enable self-driving laboratories engaging in HTE to accomplish in hours what would take traditional methods weeks or months.

One element of ARPA-E’s mission includes driving the reduction of energy-related emissions. CATALCHEM-E joins other programs like Revolutionizing Ore to Steel to Impact Emissions (ROSIE) in the agency’s growing portfolio of efforts to decarbonize industrial processes. The new generation of catalysts developed will enable efforts to manufacture low-emission chemicals, fuels, and materials.

Visit the ARPA-E eXCHANGE website for more information about CATALCHEM-E, including key guidelines, and read the CATALCHEM-E program description here.

ARPA-E advances high-potential, high-impact energy technologies across a wide range of technical areas that are too early for private-sector investment. Learn more about these efforts and ARPA-E's commitment to ensuring the United States continues to lead the world in developing and deploying advanced energy technologies. 

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