Inactive
Notice ID:89243320RFE000032
The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy (FE) and the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) intend to issue a competitive solicitation, 89243320RFE000032, as an unrestricte...
The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy (FE) and the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) intend to issue a competitive solicitation, 89243320RFE000032, as an unrestricted, full, and open competition for conceptual design of a system to produce 1-3 tonnes per day of mixed rare earth oxides or rare earth salts from domestic coal and coal byproduct feedstocks, and an option to conduct a feasibility study sufficient to support an AACE Class 4 cost estimate to assess the technical and economic feasibility of the approach identified in the conceptual design. The multiple award contracts will be firm-fixed price contracts for a conceptual design with an option Contract Line Item Number (CLIN) for a feasibility study (including performance and cost estimates). The anticipated award date for the resulting contracts will be in the third quarter of Fiscal Year (FY) 2020. Any questions should be directed to the Contract Specialist, Amy Stonebraker, at Amy.Stonebraker@netl.doe.gov. Background: A secure, reliable, and sustainable domestic supply of rare earth elements (REEs) is both essential to the continued health of our Nation’s energy and electronics industries and is an important contributor to National security. DOE’s Feasibility of Recovering Rare Earth Elements (REE) Program, in accordance with Call to Action 1 within Executive Order 13817 on A Federal Strategy to Ensure Secure and Reliable Supplies of Critical Minerals, is developing processes to recover REEs from coal and coal byproducts in an environmentally benign fashion, using U.S. coal-based resources that initially contain 300 ppm total REEs. DOE’s REE Program has demonstrated the technical feasibility of extracting REEs from coal-based materials. The REE Program has currently moved into bench-scale and engineering-scale prototype materials processing, with technology and engineering scale-up challenges and opportunities being addressed. DOE wants to accelerate the advancement of commercially viable technologies for the extraction of REEs and minerals from U.S. coal and coal by-product sources. To that end, DOE-NETL envisions that the next step would have the following traits: Facility(ies) or system(s) shall produce at least 1-3 tonnes (MT) per day of mixed rare earth oxides or rare earth salts (REOs/RESs) at a minimum concentration of 75% REO/RES by weight. Coal-based resources shall constitute at least 50% (by weight) of the feedstocks from which the REOs/RESs are extracted; Facility(ies) or system(s) consisting of one or more module(s) (potentially mobile), could include, but not be limited to: Feedstock Concentration (“FC”) focused on maximizing or otherwise optimizing the degree of physical concentration of coal-derived rare earths and minerals at or near the location of coal-based feedstocks to minimize the cost of transporting raw feedstocks and chemicals required to achieve the specified product quality. Such a module may include existing, commercially available technologies for mineral/solid material concentration such as grinding, density separation, flotation, electrostatic separation, magnetic separation, and the like to produce sufficient quantities of product per day at the required size to feed a chemical extraction facility; Chemical Extraction and Purification (“CEP”) module, potentially utilizing the FC module feed, to extract the REEs and produce a mixed REO or RES stream of at least 75% mixed-REO/RES concentrate by weight. Such a module is envisioned to include proven conventional processes/technologies such as acid (e.g. sulfuric, nitric, hydrochloric, etc.) leaching, precipitation, solid-liquid separations, and the like to produce 1-3 MT per day of product; The facility(ies)/system(s) can be new construction, repurposing of existing or idled facilities, or a combination of these options; The module(s) is envisioned to utilize conventional technologies (including technologies that may have been commercially deployed for another application) or technologies that will be ready for deployment in an engineering-scale prototype with only limited design development activities; The geographic configuration could be any of the following: All modules/circuits co-located integrally at one location; All modules/circuits located at distinctly separate, independent locations; or Modules/circuits located at a combination of process locations; Feedstock materials shall be available in enough quantity to operate the system for a minimum of five years and consist of a majority (i.e., > 50% by weight) of coal-based resources (e.g., coal, coal refuse, power generation ash, ponded ash, clay/shale over-burden/under-burden material, raw acid mine drainage (AMD) fluids and/or sludges, and the like), with the option to include alternate materials such as rare earth-containing ores (e.g., monazite/bastnaesite), placer and/or phosphate mine materials, mineral mines acid drainage, and the like; Recycled materials are NOT OF INTEREST to this solicitation. The overall facility may be feedstock flexible in that one or a combination of the above coal-based resources can be used to functionally operate the facility to produce the mixed REOs/RESs; All modules/circuits shall be operated in an environmentally benign manner; Feedstock, product, and process design choices are encouraged to be made to optimize the economic performance of the proposed system, provided that required objectives are met. The mixed REOs may contain at least one heavy rare earth element (HREE) and one light rare earth element (LREE), with a focus on REEs required for production of commodity and defense-related magnets – neodymium (Nd) and praseodymium (Pr). Request for Proposal: Ultimately, DOE seeks to understand the configurations, equipment features, performance characteristics, and cost implications for a system to produce 1-3 MT per day of mixed REOs/RESs that incorporates, as warranted, the aforementioned attributes through conceptual designs and potential feasibility studies. To achieve this end, DOE encourages broad teaming arrangements that engage EPC or A/E firms, technology developers, equipment manufacturers, and end users. Conceptual design(s) will provide an overview of the module concepts/configurations proposed to achieve the objectives. Each design submission will be limited to a single concept or technology system. The conceptual design will be a 30-page maximum document, not including graphs, charts, or other supplemental data, and will include sections such as Business Case, Plant Concept Description and Important Traits, Technology Development Pathway, and Original Equipment Manufacturers. The option CLIN for the feasibility studies will focus on performance, cost, location, feedstock type, etc. after review of the associated conceptual design. The option CLIN for the feasibility studies shall also include conceptual designs and cost estimates for taking the mixed REOs/RESs produced by the feasibility study plant and generating individually separated REOs/RESs, and subsequently individual rare earth metals (REMs), at greater than 90% concentration by weight. The Government will reserve unilateral right to exercise any options for the feasibility studies. Feasibility studies will be conducted using AACE International Recommended Practice No. 18R-97 Cost Estimate Classification System—As Applied in Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) for the Process Industries. The feasibility cost estimate should nominally correspond to a AACE Class 4 Estimate Classification. DOE may use the conceptual and feasibility studies to inform potential future activities that may culminate in the design, construction, and operation of one or more systems to produce the large volumes of mixed REOs/RESs. The North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) code for this effort is 541715. All responsible business sources may submit a proposal which shall be considered by the agency. A solicitation, 89243320RFE000032, is anticipated to be available for downloading during the second quarter FY 2020 on Contract Opportunities (FBO) (https://beta.sam.gov/) and FedConnect (https://www.fedconnect.net/Fedconnect/). Once the solicitation is issued, the proposal and all questions must be submitted electronically through FedConnect. Only those questions posted to FedConnect will be accepted. The Offeror must register with FedConnect to respond as an interested party, to submit questions, and to view responses to questions. Questions will not be answered over the phone. The Contracting Officer must receive questions regarding the Request for Proposal (RFP) via FedConnect by the date and time outlined within the solicitation. The Government reserves the right to not respond to any questions received after the timeframe identified. All responses to the solicitation questions will be released on FedConnect referencing the solicitation number, with copies of both questions and answers, without reference to the originating sources. This is an electronic solicitation, therefore no hard (paper) copies of the solicitation and related documents will be made available. Once the solicitation is posted, you will be able to find the RFP by clicking on “Search Public Opportunities” and searching by the RFP Number, 89243320RFE000032. Please bookmark this page and check it frequently for updates to the RFP. It is highly recommended that once you access the opportunity that you request to be alerted for amendments, messages, and any e-mail alerts associated with the RFP. To do so, you will need to click on the “Register to Receive Notifications” button under “What do I do now?” If someone from your company has already registered interest for this opportunity, the “Register to Receive Notifications” button will not display. Instead, you will have the option to join the response team by clicking the “Join the Team” button within the Response Team section. Information regarding how to submit information via FedConnect can be found at https://www.fedconnect.net. Please note, FedConnect is owned and operated by Compusearch Software Systems Inc., not by the DOE. DOE does not provide help desk assistance for FedConnect. For assistance with FedConnect, please contact FedConnect directly: By e-mail: support@FedConnect.net By phone: 1-800-899-6665 (8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., Eastern Daylight Time, except Federal holidays).
