TRACE - Technology for Recovery and Advanced Critical-material Extraction – Gallium

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)—in collaboration with its Partnership Intermediary, ENERGYWERX — plans to release a funding opportunity focused on establishing a secure and independent domestic supply chain for gallium, a critical material for the energy, defense, and semiconductor sectors. This initiative seeks innovative and economically viable technologies for gallium recovery from U.S. metal processing feedstocks. The urgency of this endeavor is driven by national security directives and the current vulnerability of the U.S. supply chain, which is heavily reliant on foreign sources.

Prospective projects will test and validate prototype technologies at industrial partner sites using real-world feedstocks, with a goal of producing at least 50 kg of pure gallium from at least one 14-day campaign of continuous operation with the real-world metal industry processing stream. The objective is to validate a prototype that is capable of producing gallium at least 1 metric ton per annum scale to foster the commercialization of cutting-edge technologies, broaden the U.S. critical materials portfolio, and reduce foreign dependency.

Applicants to the TRACE-Ga funding opportunity must qualify as a domestic entity.

Eligible applicants will be asked to provide:  

• Evidence of success for recovering gallium from feedstock similar to the proposed metal industry process stream;  
• Letter of support from any company, agency, or other party that has ownership/rights to any proposed feedstock materials, where applicable; and
• Description of the potential for scale-up at the initial metal industry processing stream and market adoption beyond the initial metal industry processing stream source.

The TRACE Ga team has established an online Teaming Partner List where entities can express interest in partnering with others and share contact information to submit an application.

• Sign up for the Teaming Partner List: Click Here to Sign Up
• View the List and contact potential partners here (password: “TRACEGA”): Click Here to View Potential Partners