On January 7, the United States Department of Energy (DOE) announced $4.8 million in funding for university research on technologies.

According to the announcement, the blockchain technology will be one of the most important research objectives.



The United States may have trust issues if it comes to cryptocurrency. Over a month ago, we reported that the USA finally plans to regulate Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) and cryptocurrency business. Now, the government will grant funds to blockchain research.



Blockchain study



The announcement came from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy (FE).



@ENERGY has announced a Notice of Intent for a Funding Opportunity Announcement seeking projects that would improve subsurface sensing technologies ➡️ https://t.co/qb8zrc7f0w — DOE Fossil Energy (@fossilenergygov) 3 stycznia 2019

According to the statement, $4.8 million in federal funding will go to research and development (R&D) projects. The announcement also states:



“This funding is part of FE’s University Training and Research initiative, which aims to develop the next generation of science and engineering professionals in the fossil energy sector. The initiative encompasses FE’s University Coal Research (UCR) and Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Other Minority Institutions (HBCU/OMI) programs.”



Four main goals



The Office of Fossil energy adds that the HBCU/OMI program aims to increase the participation of underrepresented students in such research.



The funding opportunity announcement (FOA) focuses mainly on four areas:

– Coal plant effluent water reuse

– Modeling existing coal plant challenges using high-performance computing

– Application of novel analytic ways to determine arsenic and selenium concentrations in fly ash waste streams generated from coal combustion

– Cybersecurity Sensors for Fossil Power Generation.



The last one will explore emerging technologies such us blockchain and decentralized peer-to-peer internet protocols.



That’s not the first time when an energy department has been interested in blockchain development. For instance, we reported in October, that Singapore Adopted Blockchain Technology To Develop Renewable Power.

