DECD0000099

Constellium Rolled Products Ravenswood, LLC (Constellium) plans to demonstrate its SmartMelt technology, a single aluminum remelt system capable of operating across a range of low-NOx reduced-CO2 emission natural gas to carbon-free hydrogen as fuel, becoming a first-of-kind zero carbon aluminum casting plant in the United States.

Constellium will replace 3 Direct Chill (DC) casting complexes with two single casting SmartMelt complexes that will fully retire the legacy operations and allow the plant to move to hands-free casting.

Upon commissioning with natural gas, the SmartMelt technology will reduce CO2 emissions by approximately 30%.

Integrating hydrogen fuel with the SmartMelt technology could reduce CO2 emissions even further.

This will be the first commercial scale demonstration of the technology in the United States.

Constellium plans to implement the technology at other sites in the United States and globally (8 total) and will explore licensing of SmartMelt technology to third parties.

The company considers this a lighthouse project to showcase SmartMelt technology, but it will also help promote adoption of hydrogen fueled technologies in industrial sectors.

Constellium is working closely with the United States Aluminum Association to promote new low-carbon aluminum products and secure new purchase agreements across its core customer base and among new prospective buyers.

The Ravenswood plant serves a broad range of industries with proprietary alloy aluminum sheet, plate, and coiled aluminum products.

Primary markets include aerospace, defense, transportation, marine, and industrial sectors.

In addition to decarbonization impacts, Constellium expects this project to drive secondary benefits such as significantly improving worker safety; reducing emissions in an environmentally at-risk community; improving the competitiveness of a manufacturing plant located in a community at risk due to historic de-industrialization and the ongoing fossil-fuel transition of WV; modernizing a plant essential to providing high-strength aluminum for national defense applications; providing advanced workforce training to a legacy manufacturing workforce that includes workers in labor-unions; and establishing critical industrial off-take opportunity for an emerging regional carbon-free (blue) hydrogen economy.

Constellium Rolled Products Ravenswood

THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY (DOE) RELEASED FUNDING OPPORTUNITY ANNOUNCEMENT (FOA) DE-FOA-0002936 TO SOLICIT APPLICATIONS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT AND JOBS ACT (IIJA), ALSO KNOWN AS THE BIPARTISAN INFRASTRUCTURE LAW (BIL), AND THE INFLATION REDUCTION ACT OF 2022 (IRA). WHEN COMBINED WITH PRIVATE SECTOR COST SHARE, THIS FOA REPRESENTS A MORE THAN $12 BILLION OPPORTUNITY TO CATALYZE HIGH-IMPACT, LARGE-SCALE, TRANSFORMATIONAL ADVANCED INDUSTRIAL FACILITIES TO SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCE GREENHOUSE GAS (GHG) EMISSIONS IN ENERGY-INTENSIVE INDUSTRIAL SUBSECTORS. U.S. INDUSTRY IS A BACKBONE OF THE NATION’S ECONOMY, PRODUCING THE GOODS CRITICAL TO EVERYDAY LIFE, EMPLOYING MILLIONS OF AMERICANS IN HIGH-QUALITY JOBS, AND PROVIDING AN ECONOMIC ANCHOR FOR THOUSANDS OF COMMUNITIES. YET THE ENERGY- AND CARBON-INTENSITY OF THE SECTOR, WHICH CONTRIBUTES NEARLY ONE THIRD OF THE NATION’S PRIMARY ENERGY-RELATED CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS, POSES A SIGNIFICANT CHALLENGE AS THE ECONOMY TRANSITIONS TOWARDS NET-ZERO. THIS FOA OFFERED A CRITICAL OPPORTUNITY TO SOLIDIFY A “FIRST-MOVER” ADVANTAGE FOR U.S. INDUSTRY, BOLSTERING ITS COMPETITIVENESS GLOBALLY FOR DECADES INTO THE FUTURE. ACTIVITIES FUNDED UNDER THIS FOA ARE FURTHER EXPECTED TO CREATE GOOD-PAYING JOBS FOR AMERICAN WORKERS, OFFER OPPORTUNITIES FOR BROADLY SHARED PROSPERITY IN COMMUNITIES, AND ENABLE A CLEAN, MORE EQUITABLE FUTURE FOR ALL AMERICANS. DEMONSTRATING THE TECHNICAL AND COMMERCIAL VIABILITY OF INDUSTRIAL DECARBONIZATION APPROACHES WILL PROMOTE WIDESPREAD TECHNOLOGY IMPLEMENTATION AND DRIVE A U.S. EDGE IN LOW- AND NET-ZERO CARBON MANUFACTURING WHILE HELPING TO SUBSTANTIATE A MARKET FOR LOW-CARBON PRODUCTS. TO MAXIMIZE THE TRANSFORMATIVE POTENTIAL FOR THESE FUNDS, DOE IS PRIORITIZING A PORTFOLIO OF PROJECTS THAT OFFER: • DEEP DECARBONIZATION, BY DEMONSTRATING SIGNIFICANTLY LESS CARBON-INTENSIVE INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION PROCESSES LEADING TO MATERIALS THAT CAN BE LABELED AS HAVING SUBSTANTIALLY LOWER LEVELS OF EMBODIED GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS; • TIMELINESS, THROUGH RAPID TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATIONS THAT CAN ADDRESS EMISSIONS IN THE NEAR-TERM, MEET FUNDING HORIZONS, AND BE REPLICATED BY FAST FOLLOWERS; • MARKET VIABILITY, WITH TECHNOLOGICAL APPROACHES DESIGNED TO SPUR FOLLOW-ON INVESTMENTS FOR WIDESPREAD DECARBONIZATION AS WELL AS PARTNERSHIPS BETWEEN BUYERS AND SELLERS OF THE MATERIALS PRODUCED, WITH SPECIAL CONSIDERATION GIVEN TO INDUSTRIES THAT ARE FOCUSING ON SHIFTING ENTIRE ECOSYSTEMS AND ENABLING NEW MARKET STRUCTURES FOR LOW-CARBON PRODUCTS; AND • COMMUNITY BENEFITS, TAILORED THROUGH SUBSTANTIAL ENGAGEMENT WITH LOCAL AND REGIONAL STAKEHOLDERS, AS WELL AS LABOR UNIONS AND TRIBAL NATIONS ACROSS THE PROJECT LIFECYCLE, SUPPORTING ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AND ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY FOR LOCAL COMMUNITIES.

81.255 - Clean Energy Demonstrations

Department of Energy (DOE)

Ravenswood, West Virginia 26164-3937 United States

Single Zip Code

Industrial Decarbonization and Emissions Reduction Demonstration-to-Deployment Funding Opportunity Announcement (DE-FOA-0002936)

Amendment Since initial award the total obligations have increased 1723% from $4,114,885 to $75,000,000.