Harsh Environment Materials Roadmap - Draft..pdf

DRAFT REPORT

National Landscape of High- Impact Crosscutting Opportunities for Next Generation Harsh Environment Materials and Manufacturing Process Research, Development, and Demonstration

Version 1.0 / January 16, 2025

National Landscape of High-Impact Crosscutting Opportunities for Next Generation Harsh Environment Materials and

Manufacturing Process Research, Development, and Demonstration / January 16, 2025

Advanced Materials & Manufacturing Technologies Office / eere.energy.gov

Disclaimer This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States government. Neither the United States government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States government.

National Landscape of High-Impact Crosscutting Opportunities for Next Generation Harsh Environment Materials and

Acknowledgements This landscape document provides an outline of recommendations for crosscutting high-performance material research, development, and demonstration, (RD&D) investment opportunities for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO). The landscape was developed by the Next Generation Materials and Processes (NGMP) Technology Manager for Harsh Environment Materials, J. Nick Lalena; Idaho National Laboratory (INL) representatives Emmanuel Ohene Opare, Gabriel Oiseomoje Ilevbare, and Anthony Dale Nickens; National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) representatives Kerry Rippy and Dennice Roberts; Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) representatives William H. Peter, Amit Shyam, Sebastien N.

Dryepondt, and Yarom Polsky; Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) representatives David W. Gotthold and Isabella Johanna van Rooyen; and BGS consultant Stewart Wilkins. Significant contributions to the landscape were made by members throughout the Department and at these national laboratories.

Additional contributors included Alexander Kirk, Huijuan Dai, Diana Bauer, and Chris Saldaña of AMMTO; Matt Roney and Dwight Tanner, contractors to AMMTO; Dirk Cairnes Gallimore of the Office of Nuclear Energy (NE);

Jerry Gibbs of the Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO); Tyler Christoffel of the Wind Energy Technologies Office (WETO); Collin Sheppard and Colin Sasthav of the Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO); Kevin Jones and Douglas Blankenship of the Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO); Kamala Raghavan and Matthew Bauer of the Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO); Nikkia McDonald of the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office (HFTO); Aaron Grecco of Argonne National Laboratory (ANL); and Shawan Sheng and Jonathan Keller of National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

Academic and industrial contributors included David Estrada of Boise State University; Zhenzhen Yu of Colorado School of Mines; Scott Barnett of Northwestern University; Don Lipkin of Texas A&M; Laurent Pilon of UCLA/ARPA- E; Albert To of University of Pittsburgh; Steven John Zinkle of University of Tennessee-Knoxville; Elizabeth Opila of University of Virginia; Shanshan Hu of West Virginia University; Merritt Osborne of Allegheny Technologies Inc.;

Doug Freitag of Bayside Materials Technology; Scott Shargots and Joe Miller of BWX Technologies, Inc; Jeff Halfinger of Ceramic Tubular Products LLC; Trevor Clark of Commonwealth Fusion Systems; Chris Taylor of Det Norske Veritas; David W. Gandy, Marc Albert, and John Shingledecker of Electric Power Research Institute; Rune Godoy of Equinor; Gary Cannell of Fluor; Jeff Vervlied of Free Form Fibers; Hesham Khalifa and Ron S. Fabibish of General Atomics; Lillie Ghobrial, Jason Mortzheim, Patrick Shower, Akane Suzuki, Shenyan Huang, and Jason Mortzheim of General Electric; Kyris Apapiou and Thomas Pislak of Halliburton; Gino de Villa of Hatch; Paul Prichard of Kennametal Inc.; Badri Narayanan of Lincoln Electric Company; James Adams and Bill Edwards of Metal Powder Industries Federation; John Barnes of Metal Power Works; Robert J. Wiacek of Pixelligent Technologies LLC; Alison Gotkin and Prabhjot Singh of Raytheon Technologies; Arash Shadravan of Roboze;

Torbjorn Vralstad of Saferock; John Pietras of Saint Gobain; Anatoly Medvedev of Schlumberger; Anand Kulkarni of Siemens Corporation; Doug Marmaro of Steel trading Corporation; Gonzalo Rodriguez Jordan of Tenaris; Kevin Slattery of The Barnes Global Advisors; WIlliam MacDonald of Timet; Carly Antonucci of Timken Steel; Kurt Terrani of Ultra Safe Nuclear; Rajarshi Bannerje of University of North Texas; and Seth Smith of Voith Hydro.

National Landscape of High-Impact Crosscutting Opportunities for Next Generation Harsh Environment Materials and

List of Abbreviations ARB – Accumulative Roll Bonding AEM – Anion Exchange Membrane AFSD – Additive Friction Stir Deposition AHSS – Advanced High Strength Steel AI – Artificial Intelligence AM – Additive Manufacturing AMT – Advanced Manufacturing Technology AMMT – Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies (also, a program in the DOE NE office) AMMTO – Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office in EERE ANL – Argonne National Laboratory AOE – Annual Energy Outlook APOLLO – Advanced Projects Offering Low Levelized cost of energy Opportunities ARPA-E – Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy ART – Advanced Reactor Technologies program of the Office of Nuclear Energy ASME – American Society of Mechanical Engineers A-USC – Advanced Ultra Super Critical Steam BNL – Brookhaven National Laboratory CALPHAD – Calculation of Phase Diagrams CCA – Compositionally Complex Alloy CCGT – Combined Cycle Gas Turbine Plant CEFAS – Continuous Electric Field Assisted Sintering CHADWICK – Creating Hardened And Durable fusion first Wall Incorporating Centralized Knowledge CHP – Combined Heat and Power CHX – Compact Heat Exchanger CMAS – Calcia Magnesia Alumino Silicate (corrosion attack on thermal barrier coatings) CMC – Ceramic Matrix Composite CPU – Central Processing Unit CSAM – Cold Spray Additive Manufacturing CSP – Concentrating/Concentrated Solar Power CST – Concentrating/Concentrated Solar Thermal CTE – Coefficient of Thermal Expansion CVD – Chemical Vapor Deposition CVI – Chemical Vapor Infiltration DED – Directed Energy Deposition DLC – Diamond-like Coatings DLP – Digital Light Processing DoE – Design of Experiments DOE – U.S. Department of Energy EBC – Environmental Barrier Coating EBW – Electron Beam Welding ECAE – Equal Channel Angular Extrusion ECAS – Electric Current–Assisted Sintering EDM – Electrostatic Discharge Machining EEII – Energy and Emissions Intensive Industries (IEDO program) EERE – Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy EFAS – Electric Field-Assisted Sintering EFRC – Energy Frontier Research Center EGS – Enhanced Geothermal System

National Landscape of High-Impact Crosscutting Opportunities for Next Generation Harsh Environment Materials and

EHEA – Eutectic High Entropy Alloy EIA – Energy Information Administration EPRI – Electric Power Research Institute EV – Electric Vehicle FECM – Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management FEM – Finite Element Method FGM – Functionally Graded Material FM – Ferritic Martensitic steel FMMAM – Fundamental Measurements for Metal Additive Manufacturing (NIST program) FSAM – Friction Stir Additive Manufacturing FSP/W – Friction Stir Processing/Welding GB – Grain Boundary GDZ – Gadolinium Zirconium Oxide (Gd2Zr2O7) GMAW – Gas Metal Arc Welding GPU – Graphics Processing Unit GTAW – Gas Tungsten Arc Welding GTO – Geothermal Technologies Office HAZ – Heat Affected Zone HEA – High Entropy Alloy (a.k.a. MPEA, CCA) HEDE – Hydrogen-enhanced decohesion HELP – Hydrogen-enhanced Local Plasticity HEM – Harsh Environment Materials HFTO – Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office HIP – Hot Isostatic Pressing HPC – High Performance Computing HSLA – High Strength Low Alloy steel HTF – Heat Transfer Fluid HTM – Heat Transfer Media HTTES – High-Temperature Thermal Energy Storage HX – Heat Exchanger ICME – Integrated Computational Materials Engineering ICWE – Integrated Computational Welding Engineering IDZ – Interdiffusion Zone IEDO – Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office INL – Idaho National Laboratory LBW – Laser Beam Welding LCFFES – Low Carbon Fuels, Feedstocks, and Energy Sources LCM – Lithography-based Ceramic Manufacturing LCOE – Levelized Cost of Electricity LFW – Linear Friction Welding LIS – Laser-Induced Slip Casting LPBF – Laser Powder Bed Fusion LSAM – Large-Scale Additive Manufacturing LWR – Light Water Reactor MCHX – Microchannel Heat Exchanger MDF – Manufacturing Demonstration Facility MIC – Microbially-induced Corrosion MIG – Metal Inert Gas MIM – Metal Injection Molding ML – Machine Learning MMC – Metal Matrix Composite

National Landscape of High-Impact Crosscutting Opportunities for Next Generation Harsh Environment Materials and

MPEA – Multi-Principal Element Alloy (a.k.a. HEA) MSEE – Molten Salts in Extreme Environments (DOE EFRC) MSR – Molten Salt Reactor NACE – National Association of Corrosion Engineers NE – Office of Nuclear Energy NETL – National Energy Technology Laboratory NG – Natural Gas NGMP – Next-Generation Materials and Processes (AMMTO program) NIST – National Institute of Standards and Technology NNS – Near Net Shape NRC – Nuclear Regulatory Commission NREL – National Renewable Energy Laboratory ODS – Oxide Dispersion Strengthened OEM – Original Equipment Manufacturer

OES – Ocean Energy Systems O&M – Operation and Maintenance OPC – Ordinary Portland Cement ORNL – Oak Ridge National Laboratory OT – Operating Temperature OTT – Office of Technology Transitions PBF – Powder Bed Fusion PCHX – Printed Circuit Heat Exchanger PEI – Polyethyleneimine (polymer) PEM – Proton Exchange Membrane (a.k.a. Polymer Electrolyte Membrane) PIP – Polymer Infiltration and Pyrolysis PKA – Primary Knock-on Atom PM – Powder Metallurgy (a.k.a. P/M) PNNL – Pacific Northwest National Laboratory PRF – Permeation Reduction Factor PTA – Plasma Transferred Arc PV – Photovoltaic PVA – Polyvinyl alcohol (polymer) PVD – Physical Vapor Deposition PWR – Pressurized Water Reactor RAFM – Reduced Activation Ferritic Martensitic steel R&D – Research and Development RD&D – Research, Development, and Demonstration RDD&D – Research Development, Demonstration, and Deployment RFW – Rotary Friction Welding RHEA – Refractory High Entropy Alloy RICE – Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort analysis RISE – RICE analysis + Significance Index RPV – Reactor Pressure Vessel sCO2 – Supercritical Carbon Dioxide SE – Solid Electrolyte SETO – Solar Energy Technologies Office SFR – Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor ShAPE – Shear-Assisted Processing and Extrusion SLA – Stereolithography 3D printing SLM – Selective Laser Melting SLP – Selective Laser Processing

National Landscape of High-Impact Crosscutting Opportunities for Next Generation Harsh Environment Materials and

SLS – Selective Laser Sintering SMR – Small Modular Reactor SOEC – Solid Oxide Electrolyzer Cell SOFC – Sold Oxide Fuel Cell SPD – Severe Plastic Deformation SPS – Spark Plasma Sintering (a.k.a. EFAS) SRZ – Secondary Reaction Zone SS – Stainless steel SSMAM – Solid-State Metal Additive Manufacturing STEP – Supercritical Transformational Electric Power SwRI – Southwest Research Institute TH – Homologous Temperature TBC – Thermal Barrier Coating TEG – Thermoelectric Generator TES –Thermal Energy Storage TIG – Tungsten Inert Gas TMS – The Minerals Metals and Materials Society TPV – Thermophotovoltaic TR – Thermal Runaway TRL – Technology Readiness Level (see Appendix for TRL table with descriptions) UFG – Ultra-Fine Grained ULTIMATE – Ultrahigh Temperature Impervious Materials Advancing Turbine Efficiency (ARPA-E program) UWBG – Ultra-Wide Bandgap Semiconductor VHTR – Very High Temperature Reactor VTO – Vehicle Technology Office WAAM – Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing WBG – Wide Bandgap Semiconductor WEC – Wave Energy Converter WETO – Wind Energy Technologies Office WHP – Waste Heat-to-Power WHR – Waste Heat Recovery WLAM – Wire Laser Additive Manufacturing WPTO – Water Power Technologies Office YSZ – Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia

National Landscape of High-Impact Crosscutting Opportunities for Next Generation Harsh Environment Materials and

Executive Summary Accelerating harsh environment materials research and development is vital for the United States because these materials are crucial to industries that contribute nearly a half-trillion dollars to the annual U.S. gross domestic product. Even with the widespread adoption of advanced computational tools, the design, development, and deployment of new materials and components for harsh environments remains a slow and often multi-decade process from the conception phase through to commercialization. At the same time, accelerating electrification of the economy is a frontier that has created an urgent demand for new materials with superior performance in increasingly harsh environments.

The goal of this landscape document is to provide a survey of the opportunities to accelerate the design, development, and manufacturing of globally competitive, crosscutting next generation harsh environment material (HEM) components engineered for demanding service applications through capabilities development and transformative research. These advanced, high-performance HEM components are needed to achieve energy efficiency gains, emissions reductions, and lowered overall costs through improvements in energy production/conversion, energy storage, and energy utilization technologies, which constitute the landscape scope.

Innovation in the development of advanced materials and manufacturing processes to produce more durable high-performance components intended for service in demanding harsh environments—without an unsupported cost penalty—will help transform America's energy future and build a globally competitive U.S. manufacturing sector that accelerates the adoption of these innovative technologies.

The Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO) in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) established the vision, mission, framework, and goals of the landscape. However, a large team of subject matter experts from across DOE, its national laboratories, industry, and academia were involved in stakeholder engagement activities to determine the high-impact opportunities, to identify the technical challenges to be addressed, and to establish the current baseline state of the art (the benchmarks), targeted performance metrics, and pathways for technology developments in the field of high-performance harsh environment materials. These developments will leverage the power of modern tools like advanced manufacturing techniques (AMTs), computational-based materials/process development and qualification acceleration approaches, and smart manufacturing methods (e.g., artificial intelligence powered data analysis and process control systems, robotics/automation, digitally connected machines and assets) to improve manufacturing efficiency, adaptability, quality, productivity, and profitability.

One of the difficulties with establishing the various criteria for this topical area is defining a standard for “harsh.”

Operational requirements for a given technology are critically dependent on not only the environment, but also on the underlying material system and final application. Thus, the relative nature of what is considered harsh in one environment may not meet operational requirements in another. This report proposes the following as a comprehensive description of what constitutes a harsh environment: an environment consisting of one or more stressors exceeding the current thresholds that can be experienced by a system component in any given application such that its functionality, material attributes, and durability are unduly degraded. Such stressors include extreme temperatures, thermal cycling, extreme pressures, corrosive chemicals, extreme pH, dust and particulates, mechanical wear, abrasion, erosion, cavitation, neutron irradiation, and hydrogen attack. Individually, these conditions present substantial challenges. However, materials are rarely subjected to a single stressor, as shown in Figure 1.

National Landscape of High-Impact Crosscutting Opportunities for Next Generation Harsh Environment Materials and

Figure 1. Diagram of harsh environment applications with associated stressors and representative components that show the commonalities between various energy generation, storage, transmission, and related technologies. The outer perimeter shows energy applications, while the middle layer shows stressors imposed on representative materials and devices in the center of the figure. Icon descriptions are shown at the bottom and in Appendix Figure 34.

National Landscape of High-Impact Crosscutting Opportunities for Next Generation Harsh Environment Materials and

Though the technical aspects of materials selection, research, and development to achieve specific energy target metrics remain the purview of each DOE office, AMMTO has adopted four strategic goals (SG) for this landscape that involve pathways to:

1. Accelerate the exploration, development, and demonstration of structural and functional high-performance materials (including enabling technologies) engineered for harsh service conditions with materials circularity and sustainability considerations. Structural and functional materials families are entire classes or sub-classes of materials that exhibit exceptional properties and have potential crosscutting interests to DOE. Achieving this goal will involve the use of materials development acceleration tools, including physics-based modeling and simulation, as well as artificial intelligence (AI) applications like machine learning (ML).

2. Drive improvements to traditional manufacturing technologies as well as develop and de-risk competitive novel advanced manufacturing technologies (AMTs) that promise greater process repeatability, reproducibility, cost savings, and sustainability to produce high-quality HEM components at industrially relevant scales. Similar to the first goal, achieving this goal will leverage the use of computational-based process development acceleration tools.

3. Shorten HEM manufacturing qualification and field certification times. This goal will capitalize on the power of modern physics-based modeling and simulation—in concert with accelerated testing and high-throughput materials characterization techniques—as well as AI/ML using the wealth of digital manufacturing data for qualification/certification with minimal required testing validation.

4. Support targeted HEM/component development and/or manufacturing for specific high-impact opportunities working in synergy with other DOE offices.

The framework of this landscape is not developed around explicitly categorizing materials needs based on the type of environment or material stressor it is exposed to because, for many applications, material components are exposed to coupled or multiple stressors. Therefore, to better serve the needs of the whole Department. A holistic approach involving five focus areas, or thrusts, has been adapted that originated from an earlier Innovation Impact Report conducted by The Metals, Minerals, and Materials Society (TMS) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and sponsored by the predecessor of AMMTO, the former Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO). These focus areas are:

Focus Area 1: Functional surface technologies Focus Area 2: Materials integration into energy systems Focus Area 3: High-performance materials Focus Area 4: New paradigm materials manufacturing processes Focus Area 5: Materials and process development acceleration tools

These five thrusts are scoped for energy production, energy storage, and efficient industrial energy utilization technologies, for which the application-specific material stressors are already well known. By initially focusing on the end-use application requirements across the energy landscape and working backwards toward suitable materials and manufacturing technology solutions—rather than pursuing less directed technology development and subsequently trying to find a market application—means the landscape will better address the R&D needs of domestic industries to remain competitive while producing HEM products that improve energy performance across multiple applications.

The higher impact, crosscutting opportunities identified can be grouped together into the following five grand challenges, with their relevance to the five focus areas (FA), four strategic goals (SG), and application spaces given in brackets and their urgency (i.e., no-later-than timeframe to begin TRL advancement) indicated in boldface parenthesis:

National Landscape of High-Impact Crosscutting Opportunities for Next Generation Harsh Environment Materials and

Focus Area 1, Functional surface technologies grand challenge:

Develop materials, coatings, cladding, and manufacturing processes for components exhibiting superior molten salt and liquid metal corrosion resistance, validated/qualified under realistic (real world) conditions of temperature, flow, pressure, and irradiation. [Also relevant to FA 3 & 4; SG 1, 2, 3 & 4; and to thermoelectric power production, energy storage, industrial applications.] (2030-2035)

Focus Area 2, Materials integration into energy systems grand challenge:

Improve capabilities to produce FGMs and multi/dissimilar-material integration through advanced joining/bonding techniques, including solid-phase processing like AFSD, FSW, and diffusion bonding (EFAS, HIP) to create systems with superior properties for specific harsh environment applications. [Also relevant to SG 2 & 4; and all forms of energy production, energy storage, and industrial applications.] (2030-2035)

Focus Area 3, High-performance materials grand challenge:

Continue to enhance the performance and lower the manufacturing cost of components made from advanced alloys, ceramics, and coatings with superior high-temperature oxidation-, corrosion-, and/or wear-resistance. This would include near net shape (NNS) monolithic and composite components having complex geometries, large dimensions, textured microstructures, or surface engineering for enhanced properties and performance. [Also relevant to FA 1 & 4; SG 1 & 2; and to thermoelectric power production, industrial applications.] (2030-2035)

Focus Area 4, New paradigm materials manufacturing processes grand challenge:

Evolve domestic manufacturing capability and feedstock/supply chain capacity to competitively produce ultra-large-scale metallic components for service in harsh environment energy and industrial systems, including establishment of community-accepted validation benchmarks to accelerate qualification and certification for AMTs. [Also relevant to SG 2 & 3; and all forms of energy production, energy storage, and industrial applications.] (2025-2030)

Focus Area 5, Materials and process development acceleration tools grand challenge:

Progress and utilize enhanced length- and time-scale bridging methods for physics-based (deterministic) process-informed approaches, as well as probabilistic methods like machine learning, with the compilation of large research community accessible microstructure databases on HEMs to predict, design, and control microstructures, properties, and long-term performance of HEM components. [Also relevant to SG 1, 2 & 3; and all forms of energy production, energy storage, and industrial applications.] (2025-2030)

This landscape's broad scope and ambitious goals reflect the urgency with which the R&D community must tackle the HEM challenges and the opportunities facing the energy sector and more electrified industrial economy.

Successful implementation of the landscape's recommendations would enable domestic manufacturers to produce competitively priced, advanced high-performance materials and components that promote U.S. leadership in the energy and manufacturing technologies of the future that support the nation’s energy goals. The pages that follow outline DOE’s HEM landscape and summarize the HEM efforts to date.

National Landscape of High-Impact Crosscutting Opportunities for Next Generation Harsh Environment Materials and

Table of Contents Disclaimer

Acknowledgements

List of Abbreviations

Executive Summary

1. Introduction

1.1 AMMTO’s HEM Portfolio

1.2 Mission

1.3 Vision

1.4 Strategic Goals for the Landscape

Landscape Terminology

1.5 Prioritization Methodology

2. State of Harsh Environment Landscape

2.1 Critical Challenges in HEM Technologies

2.2 Advanced Materials for Electric Energy Production

2.2.1 Thermal Power Generation Systems

2.2.2 Non-Thermal Power Generation Systems

2.3 Advanced Materials for Efficient Energy Utilization in the Industrial Sector

2.4 Advanced Materials for Energy Storage

2.5 Materials Integration into Energy Systems

3. Resource Allocation over the Five Landscape Focus Areas

3.1 Focus Area 1: Functional Surface Technology Recommendations

Action Plan for Focus Area 1

Manufacturing of Foundational Material Systems and High Temperature Fluid Transfer and Storage Coatings for Molten Salt and Liquid Metal Protection

Hydrogen Embrittlement-Resistant Coatings

Functional Coatings

Surface Engineering

Coating Repair Technologies

Multi-Material (layered) Claddings/Coatings and FGMs

Antifouling Coatings

Cavitation Resistant Coatings

3.2 Focus Area 2: Materials Integration into Energy Systems Recommendations

Action Plan for Focus Area 2

Advanced Manufacturing Integration/Joining Techniques

3.3 Focus Area 3: High-Performance Materials Recommendations

National Landscape of High-Impact Crosscutting Opportunities for Next Generation Harsh Environment Materials and

Action Plan for Focus Area 3

Materials for High Temperature Waste Heat Recovery

New Materials for Hydropower

Materials for Nuclear Applications

High Temperature, Oxidation/Corrosion-Resistant Materials

Well Materials for Geothermal Energy

3.4 Focus Area 4: New Paradigm Materials Manufacturing Processes Recommendations

Action Plan for Focus Area 4

Abrasion and Wear-Resistant Materials

Secure and Sustainable HEM Precursors

Space Enabling Component Manufacturing

Near-Net Shape (NNS) Processing

Materials Sustainability

Ceramics with Complex Geometries, High Entropy Alloy Manufacturing & Advanced Manufacturing Integration/Joining Techniques

In-Situ Repair Techniques

3D Printing Cementitious Materials

3.5 Focus Area 5: Materials and Process Development Acceleration Tools Recommendations

Action Plan for Focus Area 5

Data Analytics and Model Simulation

Process-Informed HEMs Design

Rapid Materials Characterization

Multi-Scale Behavior and Degradation of Materials

Novel High-Performance Materials for Crosscutting Applications

HEM Modeling and Simulation

Qualification of PM HEMs for sCO2 Turbomachinery

Molten Salt Corrosion-Resistant Materials Testing

4. Conclusion

Appendix

National Landscape of High-Impact Crosscutting Opportunities for Next Generation Harsh Environment Materials and

Table of Figures Figure 1. Diagram of harsh environment applications with associated stressors and representative components that show the commonalities between various energy generation, storage, transmission, and related technologies. The outer perimeter shows energy applications, while the middle layer shows stressors imposed on representative materials and devices in the center of the figure. Icon descriptions are shown at the bottom and in Appendix Figure 34

Figure 2. An illustration employing the materials tetrahedron for a strategy to produce a complex geometry net-shaped part from a difficult-to sinter-and-machine refractory alloy for use at high temperatures. In this example, a hybrid approach is used in which the refractory alloy part is 3D printed from a powder and subsequently fully densified by HIP or EFAS. Digital tools (middle of tetrahedron) are central to understanding, designing, and controlling all facets of the material’s multiscale structure (from microscopic to macroscopic), processing, properties, and performance

Figure 3. Diagram showing the connections between AMMTO’s HEM portfolio and other DOE programs.

Tabulated in the figure are typical structural materials (including those providing for oxidation/corrosion/wear/hydrogen/irradiation resistance and other protection from failure mechanisms that degrade structural integrity) currently in use or anticipated for future use in each energy technology. Also shown are representative harsh environment sub-systems and frequently encountered critical secondary functional material property requirements of components. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list. Sub systems operating under what are not normally considered harsh environments (e.g., generators) are omitted.

Coupled transport refers to transport properties involving two fluxes and two forces, such as thermoelectric, thermodiffusion, thermomechanical, or magnetotransport properties

Figure 4. Breakdown of % of AMMTO HEM budget by a) application and b) material type as well as HEM project crosscuts between AMMTO and other DOE offices for c) FY19-21 and for d) FY22

Figure 5. Opportunity potential based on reach vs. effort (objective measures) required for all 70 identified challenges. This plot is helpful when considering whether pursuing challenges with high impact and reach scores are worth the resources and effort required. The overall impact potential (subjective) is indicated by the size of the circles. Larger diameters signify higher expected impact. See each FA section table for associated challenge codes

Figure 6. 2025-2030 timeline for covered challenges across the various focus areas with coding according to associated energy and application spaces

Figure 7. 2030-2035 timeline for covered challenges across the various focus areas with coding according to associated energy and application spaces

Figure 8. a) Electroplated nickel and copper coated SS316H for protection in molten FLiNaK (LiF-NaF-KF eutectic salt mixture); b) graded structure from high strength Haynes 282 alloy to molten salt compatible Hastelloy N alloy

Figure 9. Illustration of the experimental approach showing the dissolution of the Cr-rich oxide shell and stable Y-containing phases in the laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) melt pool and the in-situ reaction to form a homogeneous distribution of nano-scale Y–Ti rich oxides

Figure 10. Hydrogen permeabilities for state-of-the-art barrier coatings containing various oxides, carbides and nitrides according to literature. Permeabilities for a selection of metals and alloys are shown for comparison.

Values are given at 400- 500°C

Figure 11. Impact of 100h exposure in hydrogen at high temperature on the room temperature tensile elongation of alloy 718

Figure 12. Schematic of t multilayered TBC architecture comprised of YSZ and GDZ to simultaneously meet the requirements of cyclic durability, erosion, and environmental attack

Figure 13. Mold fabrication by hybrid manufacturing, before and after surface finish, adapted from Feldhausen et al

Figure 14. Repair of cast irons cylinder heads on heavy-duty engines by AM DED using high Ni containing alloy

National Landscape of High-Impact Crosscutting Opportunities for Next Generation Harsh Environment Materials and

Figure 15. Cross-sectional SEM micrograph of a T/EBC on a CMC. Adapted from below Figure 16. Cross-sectional SEM micrograph of HVOF WC-Co-Cr cermet coating deposited onto carbon steel, showing vertical cracks and voids at the interface after in-situ exposure test at the Hellishei geothermal power plant. Adapted with permission from Ragnarsdottir, et al

Figure 17. Examples of runner blades showing cavitation erosive failure Figure 18. Example of INL carbon-carbon EFAS die heating during processing Figure 19. TEM cross-sectional micrographs (a) of an As-deposited W-DLC coated steel spur gear showing the

W-C:H layer/transition layer(T)/Cr adhesion layer/steel structure (b). Reproduced from Wang et al., 2020.

Figure 20. CEFAS system at INL Figure 21. a) Section of an injection molding screw with a heating fluid passage fabricated via directed energy deposition and machining on bar stock. b) Robotic system and press setup for convergent manufacturing (additive manufacturing and compression molding) where multiple materials can be consolidated into final component. c) Example of using additive manufacturing with powder metallurgy for a valve body; internal material can be different than exterior skin

Figure 22. Turbine blade made via arc-wire directed energy deposition (a) with the 17-4 stainless steel wire used to make it. (b). Gas-atomized Fe-based glassy alloy powders (c) consolidated into a tool using powder metallurgy

Figure 23. (a) Inconel 738 turbine blade made using electron beam PBF and (b) prototype HIP can made using hybrid manufacturing

Figure 24. Cascade use model for circular economy identifying economic values Figure 25. a) Al-Ce alloy impeller; b) side and c) top view of a geothermal rotor prototype optimized for advanced manufacturing Figure 26. a) 3D Printing of cementicious material through material extrusion; 3D printing of alternative low carbon cements (PVA-enhanced Ca(OH)2 slurries) with (b) and without (c-e) tire-waste additives Figure 27. a) In-process AI anomaly detections and post-manufacture inspection results overlayed on an image of the physical component; b) harsh environment materials manufacturing modeling ties together information from numerous modalities for effective decision making and process/material optimization

Figure 28. a) Examples of harsh environments with applications (b-e) for high entropy ceramics Figure 29. Illustration of a scheme for rapid process-parameter development and analysis implemented at the

Zeiss lab at the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory Figure 30. Complexity-capability map as represented by Yip and Short, showing that the separation between scientific studies and discoveries at the microscale and technological innovations at the macroscale can be bridged by modeling, simulation, and experimental capabilities at the mesoscale (represented by mesoscale science or MSS)

Figure 31. Comparison of common alloy systems in terms of resistance to oxidation and high temperature creep fracture (adapted from Evans and Wilshire)

Figure 32. Overview representing a range of sCO2 power applications and the temperature range of the energy source., Figure 33. A high throughput molten salt corrosion testing setup for complex concentrated alloys developed DED was performed to make arrays of compositionally complex alloys with various concentrations of desired elements

Figure 34. Description of icons from Figure 1

National Landscape of High-Impact Crosscutting Opportunities for Next Generation Harsh Environment Materials and

List of Tables Table 1. Terminology and definitions used throughout this landscape Table 2. Description of how the landscape’s four strategic goals relate to its five focus areas Table 3. Action Plan for Functional Surface Technologies Table 4. Challenges identified for FA1 with potential impact and effort (pace of TRL advancement) needed.

Table 5. Action Plan for Materials Integration into Energy Systems Table 6. Challenges identified for FA2 with potential impact and effort (pace of TRL advancement) needed.

Table 7. Action Plan for High-performance materials Table 8. Challenges identified for FA3 with potential impact and effort (pace of TRL advancement) needed.

Table 9. Action Plan for New Paradigm Materials Manufacturing Processes Table 10. Challenges identified for FA4 with potential impact and effort (pace of TRL advancement) needed.

Table 11. Action Plan for Materials and Process Development Acceleration Tools Table 12. Challenges identified for FA5 with potential impact and effort (pace of TRL advancement) needed.

Table 13. Description of TRL phases and associated deliverables and requirements

National Landscape of High-Impact Crosscutting Opportunities for Next Generation Harsh Environment Materials and

1. Introduction The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) High-Impact, Crosscutting Next Generation Harsh Environment Materials and Manufacturing Process Research, Development, Demonstration, and Deployment Landscape is a comprehensive plan sponsored by the Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO). The landscape has been developed by a consortium comprised of Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), in consultation with multiple DOE program and technology offices. Since 2019, AMMTO has invested over $70 million into harsh environment materials research and development. The programs and initiatives have been known by various monikers: Materials for Harsh Environments, Materials for Extreme Environments, and Materials for Harsh Service Conditions. This report will henceforth refer to it as Harsh Environment Materials (HEM).

While many independent DOE program offices (e.g., EERE, NE, FECM, ARPA-E, and SC) and technology offices (e.g., AMMTO, IEDO, SETO, HFTO, GTO, WETO, WPTO, VTO, BETO, and BTO) have established individual technical performance and economic targets as well as technology development roadmaps or multi-year program plans for the development of advanced high-performance materials (often involving harsh service environment requirements) in their respective domains, DOE has not, until now, published a comprehensive strategy to unify desired technological advancements of materials for harsh environments, and their manufacturing processes, in a complete crosscutting manner.

The energy mix in the United States is changing. For example, solar photovoltaic (PV) generating capacity will grow by about 325% to 1,019% by 2050 compared to 2022, while wind energy generating capacity will grow by about 138% to 235%. Growth is also expected in installed battery capacity to support the increased deployment of renewables. Nuclear generating capacity is expected to decline by 18% from 2022 to 2050. Acknowledging that these AEO 2023 forecasts are hypothetical predictions that also exclude early-developmental-stage technologies (e.g., hydrogen, enhanced geothermal, concentrating solar power (CSP), and nuclear fusion) as well as some existing technologies (e.g., hydroelectric generation), it is still clear that further advancements are needed in high-performance materials capable of withstanding harsh service conditions over the full spectrum of energy-production methods, including the more-established energy technologies like steam and gas-fired turbomachinery that collectively account for 80% of U.S. electricity production today. Efforts to enhance energy efficiency and power generation require components that must withstand various environmental stressors, including dust, high temperatures, acidic solutions, corrosive chemicals, oxidative and reducing environments, irradiation, mechanical stresses, hydrogen attack, and particulate-laden fluids. Frequently, multiple material stressors are coupled, or simultaneously present. To meet and exceed these harsh environment material challenges, high-performance materials are essential for providing longer service life and resulting in cost savings. DOE has prioritized the development of such materials through federal investments in research and development to address the significant challenges in developing advanced materials for harsh environments.

One funding initiative aims to accelerate the exploration and design of materials to shorten the time from research and development to demonstration. Another focus is on the domestic manufacture of bulk components and coatings/linings/claddings that can withstand harsh environments without experiencing undesired phase changes or microstructural changes. Developing a greater fundamental understanding of extreme and complex conditions is crucial, since material degradation—ranging from gradual performance loss to catastrophic failure—can result from a complex combination of factors that are challenging to replicate experimentally or predict computationally.

Additionally, pathways to cost-effective manufacturing are needed, including the production of materials and components, as well as the assembly of parts that require the integration of materials in structures (e.g., welding, joining, bonding, coatings/cladding, sealing) while considering the entire supply chain.

1.1 AMMTO’s HEM Portfolio

DOE’s efforts to advance materials for harsh environments began in 2007 with the Basic Energy Sciences Workshop for Materials under Extreme Environments. This workshop engaged stakeholders to address specific

National Landscape of High-Impact Crosscutting Opportunities for Next Generation Harsh Environment Materials and types of extreme environment stressors, such as energetic flux, chemically reactive agents, thermomechanical forces, and electromagnetic fields. By 2011, the concept had evolved into a formal technology portfolio under Next- Generation Materials within the Buildings and Industrial Efficiency Technology Assessments, as described in the First DOE Quadrennial Technology Review. This review characterized materials for harsh environments as high-performance materials—including ceramics, engineered polymers, and metals—capable of operating in extreme conditions. The review also included related categories like high-performance, low-cost heat-transfer materials, functional coatings and interfaces, and thermal and degradation-resistant materials.

In the second DOE Quadrennial Technology Review in 2015, the definition of aggressive service environments was refined to include high temperatures or thermal cycling, high pressures, corrosive chemicals, dust and particulates, mechanical wear, neutron irradiation, and hydrogen attack. That same year, AMO—the predecessor to AMMTO— held a Materials for Harsh Service Conditions Workshop. Since 2015, there have been two additional workshops in 2020 and 2023 for this portfolio. Currently, AMMTO funds projects on harsh environment materials RD&D relevant to various energy production and energy storage technologies, as well as for efficient energy utilization in the manufacturing and industrial sectors, by using diverse design, development, and manufacturing tools.

1.2 Mission

Materials for harsh environments are essential for energy technologies spanning various DOE interest areas, addressing energy challenges with transformative science and technology solutions to ensure America’s security and prosperity. AMMTO's mission is to “inspire people and drive innovation to transform materials and manufacturing for America's energy future.” Recognizing that advanced materials and manufacturing are critical to all DOE program offices, AMMTO’s Next-Generation Materials and Processes (NGMP) program has diversified its harsh environment materials project funding to increasingly sponsor and prioritize RD&D projects that intersect with other DOE program offices.

1.3 Vision

AMMTO envisions a globally competitive U.S. manufacturing sector that accelerates the adoption of innovative materials and manufacturing technologies. In order to maximize energy security, manufacturing competitiveness, and energy equity and environmental justice, the United States must remain the leader in advanced materials and manufacturing innovation for technologies of relevance across the energy sector. The landscape’s objective is not to drive technology development under the purview of other DOE offices but to provide a framework fostering collaboration and synergism between these programs and AMMTO. The landscape provides guidance in developing strategies to drive innovation for improvements to traditional manufacturing methods as well as developing competitive advanced materials and manufacturing technologies (AMMTs) for harsh environments of broad interest across DOE. Traditional manufacturing methods and advanced manufacturing technologies (AMTs) for the production/fabrication of components can be grouped into additive manufacturing, subtractive manufacturing, and formative processing (including joining/bonding and surface treatments). Some of the many methods, which will be discussed in strategic goal #2, include various kinds of casting, forging, extrusion, powder metallurgy techniques (e.g., HIP, EFAS, high-energy ball milling, compaction, and densification), 3D printing, convergent/hybrid manufacturing routes, and severe plastic deformation, or SPD using very large plastic strains to produce ultrafine-grained high-strength materials and joints (e.g., shear-assisted processing and extrusion, or ShAPE; friction stir processing/welding, or FSP/W; and accumulative roll bonding, or ARB).

Multiple methods can even be combined into hybrid approaches to yield otherwise unobtainable results consistent with the four facets of the materials tetrahedron paradigm, structure-processing-properties-performance. A comprehensive understanding of material performance requires accurate hierarchal representations of multiscale features, material properties, and their processing and in-service evolution. As a simple example, the materials tetrahedron of Figure 2 illustrates how a refractory alloy might be 3D printed from a powder and then fully densified by hot isostatic pressing (HIP) or electric field assisted sintering (EFAS) to produce a complex geometry part (e.g., compact heat exchanger, turbine blade, etc.) with high-temperature strength that can be used in an application capitalizing on the specific multi-scale structure and properties of this particular component. Acquiring a detailed

National Landscape of High-Impact Crosscutting Opportunities for Next Generation Harsh Environment Materials and understanding and control of each of the four material facets can be facilitated by materials informatics (modeling & simulation, machine learning, data science), advanced in situ/operando sensors with process automation/closed-loop control (digital twins), as well as nondestructive and high throughput synthesis and testing/characterization.

Figure 2. An illustration employing the materials tetrahedron for a strategy to produce a complex geometry net-shaped part from a difficult-to sinter-and-machine refractory alloy for use at high temperatures. In this example, a hybrid approach is used in which the refractory alloy part is 3D printed from a powder and subsequently fully densified by HIP or EFAS. Digital tools (middle of tetrahedron) are central to understanding, designing, and controlling all facets of the material’s multiscale structure (from microscopic to macroscopic), processing, properties, and performance.

There also exist manufacturing technologies possessing digitization functionalities supporting business applications to solve business problems—and which can be applied to manufacture multiple products—that are referred to as platform manufacturing technologies. These systems support manufacturing by collecting, storing, processing, and delivering data. Additive manufacturing (AM) platforms are an example of this type of technology, which is digitizing the manufacturing value proposition (i.e., software + material + hardware/printers) by integrating the flow from idea to design to product development and production, potentially on demand. More broadly, smart manufacturing refers to the entire suite of platform technologies that directly support this digital transformation of the manufacturing enterprise across the entire production lifecycle, which includes design, process, production, supply network, and enterprise levels. Platform manufacturing technologies and smart manufacturing technologies are key contributors to increasing production and lowering the manufacturing costs of HEM components. Thus, they are within the landscape scope.

Also included are enabling technologies such as materials and process development acceleration tools like advanced modeling and simulation, including high-performance computing (HPC) and multi-scale physics-based deterministic methods (e.g., integrated computational materials engineering, ICME), data-driven stochastic

National Landscape of High-Impact Crosscutting Opportunities for Next Generation Harsh Environment Materials and methods (e.g., artificial intelligence, AI, and machine learning, ML), as well as associated hardware such as inline sensors, probes, and instrumentation for implementing smart manufacturing digital twins that can be used for real-time process/quality monitoring and AI-enabled autonomous control. These process-informed science, design, and engineering tools will facilitate improved and new manufacturing approaches for the production of high-performance HEM components satisfying pre-defined criteria and without an unsupported cost penalty by incorporating state-of-the-art as well as new and emerging digital/data-driven techniques. In contrast to ML, a traditional method used in industrial statistics is the Design of Experiments (DoE). It has proved to be one of the most effective when dealing with innovation, especially in product development and process improvement. The key tenet of DoE is that by systematically manipulating the values of several variables of interest while controlling all other variables (by holding them constant or randomizing), statistical models will yield causal knowledge of the relationship between the manipulated and dependent variables.