DOE ASPECT (Accelerating Scale-up and Pre-piloting of Emerging Chemical Technologies)

DOE’s Alternative Fuels and Feedstocks Office is making up to $58M available under DE-FOA-0003647 to move emerging chemical production technologies past proof of concept into bench and pre-pilot scale, converting biomass, waste and other non-conventional carbon feedstocks into commodity and specialty chemicals. Two topics run in parallel: Bench ASPECT covers bench-scale technology development and unit-operation pre-piloting over 2 to 4 year projects, while Pre-pilot ASPECT funds the design, construction and operation of pre-pilot facilities including full system integration over 2 to 5 years. The competition is staged, with concept papers due 9 October 2026 at 5 p.m. ET, Stage 1 full applications due 1 December 2026 and Stage 2 applications due 12 February 2027. Applications are submitted through DOE eXCHANGE or Grants.gov.