Makani’s Airborne Wind Turbine (above) project is being funded by a new ARPA-E grant. Credit: Makani.
Over the past few days, the DOE has announced nearly $67 million in new grants including $57 million for small business-oriented efforts and nearly $10 million for ARPA-E research projects.
The DOE is funding 33 Phase III “Xlerator” awards to projects “led by small businesses in partnership with universities, national labs, and large businesses” The agency says these awards — ranging from $500,000 to $3 million — include funding for renewable energy resources, advanced vehicle technologies, industrial and building energy efficiency, a modernized electricity grid, cleaner fossil fuels and the next generation of nuclear power. All of the projects selected had made it through Phase I and II of DOE’s SBIR or STTR initiatives. This new round of funding is meant to help these projects continue to lower costs and eliminate scale-up hurdles, with ultimate purpose being to deliver marketable products.
With this announcement, it appears the DOE essentially doubled the $30 million Xlerator opportunity it unveiled in July.
The ARPA-E grants are going to six R&D projects related to building improved air conditioner efficiency, next-gen permanent magnets, novel wind turbines, carbon capture, lower costs for tracking systems for concentrated solar power installations and improved molten sale energy storage systems.
Most of these involve significant ceramics, glass and composites materials. Here is a table of the awards:
| Biomass Technologies: Harvesting/Dewatering Technology for Algal Biofuels | ||
| • Renewable Algal Energy | $3 M | Algal Biodiesel via Innovative Harvesting and Aquaculture Systems |
| Buildings: Solid State Lighting Products made from Organic Light-Emitting Diodes | ||
| • Universal Display Corporation | OLED Luminaires | |
| Fuel Cell Technologies: Advanced Materials and Bio-Fueled Solid Oxide Fuel Cells | ||
| • Dynalene | $1M | Large Scale Testing, Demonstration and Commercialization of the Nanoparticle-based Fuel Cell Coolant |
| • InnovaTek | $$2.2M | Integrated Biomass Reformer and Solid Oxide Fuel Cell |
| • TDA Research | $1.9 | Bio-fueled Solid Oxide Fuel Cells |
| • Giner Electrochemical Systems | $1.5M | Dimensionally Stable High Performance Membrane |
| Geothermal Technologies: High-Temperature-High-Volume Lifting | ||
| • Composite Technology Development | $1.9M | Commercialization of High Temperature Electrical Insulation |
| Industrial Technologies: Mitigation of Heat Losses, Fouling, and Scaling in Key Manufacturing Unit Operations; Integrated Reaction-Separation Using Non-Thermal Processes | ||
| • Altex Technologies | $0.82M | Microchannel Heat Exchanger |
| • Exelus | $0.34M | New Route To Styrene Monomer |
| • KSE Inc | $1M | Reduction of Distillation Usage in the Manufacture of Ethanol by Reactive Water |
| • Los Gatos Research | $0.99M | Laser-Based Sensors for Industrial Process Control |
| Solar Technologies: Lowering the Cost of Photovoltaics | ||
| • Applied Nanotech | $1.6M | Non-Contact, Printable Metallic Inks for Silicon Solar Cells |
| • Microlink | $1.6M | Backside Contact Multijunction Solar Cells for High Concentration Applications |
| • Ultrasonic Technologies | $1.4M | Resonance Ultrasonic Vibration Technology for Silicon Solar Manufacturing |
| Vehicle Technologies | ||
| • Electron Energy | $3M | High Performance Permanent Magnets for Advanced Motors |
| • Materials Innovation Technologies | $3M | Advanced Materials for Lightweight Vehicles |
| • Strategic Polymer Sciences | $1M | Compact High Temperature DC Bus Capacitors |
| Advanced Wind Technologies Systems | ||
| • Compact Membrane Systems | $2.8M | Water Removal from Lubricating Fluid via Compact Membranes |
| • Native American Technologies | $3M | Onsite Manufactured, Self-erecting Wind Turbine Tower |
| • Princeton Power Systems | $1.8M | Distributed Generation Transformer for MW-Scale Wind Turbines |
| • Webcore Technologies | $1.8M | Wind Turbine Blades Using An Engineered Core Material |
| Fossil Energy Research and Development | ||
| • Faraday Technology | $0.99M | Electrodeposited Manganese-Cobalt Alloy Coating for Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Interconnects |
| • Membrane Technology and Research | $1.5M | CO2 capture from Coal-Derived Syngas |
| • Membrane Technology and Research | $1.5M | Advanced Turbine Blades for IGCC Power Plants |
| Nuclear Energy – Advanced Instrumentation and Control, Radiation Resistant Sensors, and Wireless On-Line Monitoring Systems for Nuclear Power Plant Applications | ||
| • Analysis and Measurement Services | $2.5M | On-line Monitoring Implementation in Boiling Water Reactors |
| • Analysis and Measurement Services | $2.8M | In-Containment Application of Wireless Technology for On-line Condition Monitoring in Pressurized Water Reactors |
| • Luna Innovations | $2.9M | Low-Drift Ultra-High Temperature Fiber Optic Thermal Sensors |
| Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability | ||
| • Arkansas Power Electronics International | $0.5M | Silicon Carbide Power Modules |
| • Clever Fellows Innovation Consortium | $0.62M | Kilowatt-Class Cryogenics for Superconducting Devices |
| • FieldMetrics | $0.5M | Modular Optical Voltage Sensor for Power Transmission Applications |
| • Infinia Corp. | $1.5M | Maintenance-Free Cryocooler to Support High Temperature Superconductor |
| • Infotility | $0.5M | Photovoltaics Integration Plus Software |
| • Underground Systems | $0.48M | Real Time Monitoring System for Overhead Transmission |
| ARPA-E Projects | ||
| • Dais Analytic | $0.68M | Nanotechnology Membrane-Based Dehumidifier |
| • GE Global Research | $2.2M | Low Rare Earth-Content Transformational Nanostructured Permanent Magnets |
| • Makani Power | $3M | Airborne Wind Turbine Technology |
| • Sustainable Energy Solutions | $0.75M | Cryogenic Carbon Capture |
| • Teledyne Scientific & Imaging | $0.5M | Optofluidic Solar Concentrators |
| • UCLA | $2.4M | Molten Salt Thermal Energy Storage with Supercritical Fluids |