| October 26, 2009 |
| Transformational Energy Research Projects Win $151
Million in Funding |
| Department of Energy's ARPA-E selects 37 projects to pursue
breakthroughs that could fundamentally change the way we use
and produce energy |
| San Francisco, CA - The Department of Energy today
announced major funding for 37 ambitious research projects -
including some that could allow intermittent energy sources
like wind and solar to provide a steady flow of power,
or use bacteria to produce automotive fuel from sunlight,
water and carbon dioxide. |
| ARPA-E was originally established under the America
Competes Act of 2007. In April of this year, President
Obama announced $400 million in initial funding for
ARPA-E through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. |
| The $151 million in funding is being awarded through
the Department's recently-formed Advanced Research
Projects Agency-Energy ("ARPA-E"). ARPA-E's mission is
to develop nimble, creative and inventive approaches to
transform the global energy landscape while advancing
America's technology leadership. This is the first
round of projects funded under ARPA-E, which is receiving
total of $400 million under the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act. |
| In announcing the selections, Secretary Chu said:
"After World War II, America was the unrivaled leader
in basic and applied sciences. It was this leadership
that led to enormous technological advances. ARPA-E is
a crucial part of the new effort by the U.S. to spur
the next Industrial Revolution in clean energy technologies,
creating thousands of new jobs and helping cut carbon
pollution." |
| The grants will go to projects with lead researchers in
17 states. Of the lead recipients, 43% are small businesses,
35% are educational institutions, and 19% are large corporations.
In supporting these teams, ARPA-E seeks to bring together
America's brightest energy innovators to pioneer a low cost,
secure, and low carbon energy future for the nation. |
Some of the innovative projects selected for awards include:
- Liquid Metal Grid-Scale Batteries:
Created by Professor Don Sadoway, a leading MIT battery
scientist, the all-liquid metal battery is based on
low cost, domestically available liquid metals with
potential to break through the cost barrier required
for mass adoption of large scale energy storage as
part of the nation's energy grid. If successful,
this battery technology could revolutionize the way
electricity is used and produced on the grid, enabling
round-the-clock power from America's wind and solar
power resources, increasing the stability of the grid,
and making blackouts a thing of the past. And if
deployed at homes, it could allow individual consumers
the ability to be part of a future "smart energy
Internet," where they would have much greater control
over their energy usage and delivery.
- Bacteria for Producing Direct Solar Hydrocarbon Biofuels:
Researchers at the University of Minnesota have developed
a bioreactor that has the potential to produce a flow of
gasoline directly from sunlight and CO2 using a
symbiotic system of two organisms. First, a photosynthetic
organism directly captures solar radiation and uses it to
convert carbon dioxide to sugars. In the same area, another
organism converts the sugars to gasoline and diesel
transportation fuels. This development has the potential
to greatly increase domestic production of clean fuel for
our vehicles and end our reliance on foreign oil.
- CO2 Capture using Artificial Enzymes:
Today's funding will support an effort by the United
Technologies Research Center to develop new synthetic
enzymes that could make it easier and more affordable
to capture carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and
factories. If successful, the effort would mean a much
lower energy requirement for industrial carbon capture
and significantly lower capital costs to get carbon capture
systems up and running. Success of this project could
substantially lower the cost of carbon capture relative
to current, state-of-the-art amine and ammonia based
processes. This would represent a major breakthrough
that could make it affordable to capture the carbon dioxide
emissions from coal and natural gas power plants around
the world.
- Low Cost Crystals for LED Lighting:
Developed by Momentive Performance Materials, this proposal
for novel crystal growth technology could dramatically lower
the cost of developing light emitting diodes (LEDs), which
are 30 times more efficient than incandescent bulbs and four
times more efficient than compact fluorescents. This higher
quality, low-cost material would offer significant breakthroughs
in lowering costs of finished LED lighting, accelerating
mass market use, and dramatically decreasing U.S. lighting
energy usage. Lighting accounts for 14 percent of U.S.
electricity use.
|
| ARPA-E was originally established under the America Competes Act
of 2007. In April, President Obama announced $400 million in
initial funding for the agency. The projects unveiled today are
part of the first solicitation from ARPA-E's $400 million in total
Recovery Act funding. The 37 selected projects, which are receiving
an average of approximately $4 million each, span the energy sector,
including potentially transformative innovations in energy storage,
biofuels, carbon capture, renewable power, building efficiency,
vehicles, and other energy technology areas. |
| Inspired by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
(DARPA), ARPA-E was created to support high risk, high reward
energy research that can provide transformative new solutions
for climate change and energy security. |
| This first ARPA-E solicitation was highly competitive and
oversubscribed, with over 3,600 initial concept papers received.
Of those, approximately 300 full applications were requested
and ultimately 37 final awardees through a rigorous review
process with input from multiple review panels composed of
leading U.S. energy science and technology experts and ARPA-E's
program managers. Evaluations were based on the potential
for high impact on ARPA-E's goals and scientific and
technical merit. |
| The project selections announced today can be found in the table below. |
Lead Research Organization
(Partner Organizations) |
DOE Grant Amount |
Lead Organization Location |
Project Description |
| 1366 Technologies Inc.
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Lab for PV Research) |
$4,000,000 |
Lexington, MA |
Renewable Power (solar)
"Direct Wafer" technology to form high efficiency "monocrystalline-equivalent" silicon wafers directly from molten silicon, with potential to halve the installed cost of solar photovoltaics.
|
| Agrivida, Inc. |
$4,565,800 |
Medford, MA |
Biomass Energy
Cell wall-degrading enzymes grown within the plant itself that
are activated after harvest, dramatically reducing the cost
of cellulosic biofuels and chemicals
|
Arizona State University
(Fluidic Energy, Inc.) |
$5,133,150 |
Tempe, AZ |
Energy Storage
A new class of metal-air batteries using ionic
liquids, with many times the energy density of today's
lithium-ion batteries. Could enable long range, low
cost plug-in hybrid and all-electric vehicles. |
Arizona State University
(Diversified Energy, North Carolina State University) |
$5,205,706 |
Tempe, AZ |
Direct Solar Fuels
Cyanobacteria that produce and secrete fatty acids
for biofuel feedstock using just sunlight, water,
and carbon dioxide as inputs. |
| Ceres, Inc. |
$4,989,144 |
Thousand Oaks, CA |
Biomass Energy
Genes that enable energy crops to produce more biomass
using less land (and lower quality land), less water,
and less fertilizer than standard energy crops.
This approach would provide sustainable biofeedstocks
to displace oil and coal for fuels and power production. |
| Delphi Automotive Systems LLC
(International Rectifier, Oak Ridge National Laboratory) |
$6,733,386 |
Kokomo, IN |
Vehicle Technologies
New power electronics technology based on a Gallium Nitride
on Silicon process with innovative thermal management that
can enable up to 50% more efficient power delivery from
batteries to electric motors. |
| E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company
(Bio Architecture Lab) |
$9,000,000 |
Wilmington, DE |
Biomass Energy
Production of bio-butanol, an advanced biofuel, from
macroalgae (seaweed). Seaweed is a potentially
sustainable and scalable new source of biomass that
doesn't require arable land or potable water. |
| EaglePicher Technologies LLC
(Pacific Northwest National Laboratory) |
$7,200,000 |
Joplin, MO |
Energy Storage
High energy, low cost planar liquid sodium beta batteries
for grid scale electrical power storage. Could enable
continuous power from renewable resources, like wind
and solar, and could support a highly stable and
reliable grid. |
| Envia Systems
(Argonne National Laboratory) |
$4,000,000 |
Hayward, CA |
Energy Storage
High energy density Lithium-ion batteries with 3x better
energy density than current batteries. Based on novel
nano silicon-carbon composite anodes and manganese
composite cathodes discovered at Argonne National
Laboratory. Could lower the cost and speed the adoption
of plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles. |
| Exelus, Inc.
(Zeolyst International, Linde Process Plants) |
$1,000,000 |
Livingston, NJ |
Conventional Energy
A novel catalyst to convert the olefins in refinery off-gas,
which is currently flared and lost, into high-octane
alkylate fuel. Could enable recovery up to 45 million
barrels per year of gasoline. |
| FastCAP Systems Corporation
(MIT) |
$5,349,932 |
Cambridge, MA |
Energy Storage
A nanotube enhanced ultracapacitor with energy density
approaching that of standard batteries, but with many
times greater power density and thousands of times the
cycle life. Could greatly reduce the cost of hybrid
and electric vehicles and of grid-scale storage. |
| FloDesign Wind Turbine Corp. |
$8,325,400 |
Wibraham, MA |
Renewable Power
(wind) A new high efficiency shrouded wind turbine able
to deliver significantly more energy per unit of swept
area. Could also reduce noise and safety concerns,
enabling distributed wind applications. |
| Foro Energy, Inc. |
$9,151,300 |
Littleton, CO |
Renewable Power
(geothermal) A new hybrid thermal/mechanical drilling
technology for much faster drilling with less wear and
tear on the drill bit. Could open up cost effective
access to the geothermal energy in deep, hard basement
rock, a potentially huge new source of domestically
available, carbon-free baseload power. |
| General Motors Company
(University of Michigan, HRL Laboratories, LLC, Dynalloy, Inc.) |
$2,655,174 |
Warren, MI |
Vehicle Technologies
A shape memory alloy (SMA) energy recovery device to
convert waste heat from car engines into electricity.
Could significantly increase fuel efficiency in cars
(most energy is lost as heat) and could be used in many
other heat recovery applications. |
| Inorganic Specialists, Inc.
(Ultramet, Inc., EaglePicher, Southeast Nonwovens, EMTEC) |
$1,999,447 |
Miamisburg, OH |
Energy Storage
A silicon-coated carbon nanofiber paper for the anode of
next generation Lithium-ion batteries. These low cost,
manufacturable batteries could accelerate the deployment
of plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles, shifting U.S.
transportation energy from imported oil to the grid. |
| Iowa State University
(Purdue University) |
$4,373,488 |
Ames, IA |
Direct Solar Fuels
Metabolic engineering and synthetic biology approaches to
increase lipid production, carbon dioxide uptake, and thermal
tolerance of algae for the production of biofuels directly
from sunlight and CO2. Could make algae-based biofuels
production economically viable. |
| ITN Energy Systems, Inc.
(MAG Industrial Automation Systems, EPRI, Colorado School of Mines) |
$4,986,249 |
Littleton, CO |
Building Efficiency
Solid-state electrochromic film on plastic substrates with
roll-to-roll production process to substantially reduce
the cost of electrically controlled smart windows for
net-zero energy buildings. These windows reduce heating
and cooling loads and minimize overhead lighting use. |
| Lehigh University |
$566,641 |
Bethlehem, PA |
Carbon Capture
Electric field swing adsorption for carbon capture using
high surface area conductive solid carbon sorbents.
Uses electric fields to change the interaction of
molecules on a surface, capturing and then releasing
the CO2 using far less energy than current approaches. |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
$6,949,624 |
Cambridge, MA |
Energy Storage
An all liquid metal grid-scale battery for low cost,
large scale storage of electrical energy. This new
class of batteries could enable continuous power supply
from renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar
and a more stable, reliable grid. |
| Michigan State University |
$2,540,631 |
East Lansing, MI |
Vehicle Technologies
The wave disc engine, a gas-fueled electric generator
that is five times more efficient than traditional engines
for electricity production, as well as lighter and cheaper
to manufacture. Could replace current generators for
plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. |
| Momentive Performance Materials
(Soraa, Advanced Photonic Crystals) |
$4,519,259 |
Strongsville, OH |
Building Efficiency
A high-pressure ammonothermal process for the inexpensive
production of high quality, single crystal GaN substrates
at high crystal growth rates. Could allow production of
light emitting diodes (LEDs) at costs equal to current
low-cost fluorescent lighting. LED lighting consumes
as little as one tenth of the energy of current
lighting options. |
| Nalco Company
(Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL USA) |
$2,250,487 |
Naperville, IL |
Carbon Capture
An electrochemical process for CO2 capture using
Resin-Wafer Electrodeionization. Uses pH changes to
adsorb and desorb CO2 from flue gas without energy
intensive, costly processes such as heating or a vacuum. |
| NanOasis Technologies, Inc. |
$2,031,252 |
Richmond, CA |
Water
Carbon nanotubes for reverse osmosis membranes that
require less energy and have many times higher flux.
Could dramatically reduce the cost and energy required
for desalination to supply fresh water for our crops
and communities. |
| Ohio State University
(PSRI, CONSOL Energy, Inc., Shell/CRI, The Babcock and Wilcox Company) |
$5,000,000 |
Columbus, OH |
Carbon Capture
Syngas Chemical Looping (SCL) to convert coal or biomass
into electricity while efficiently capturing the CO2.
Has successfully been demonstrated at laboratory scale;
this project will scale it up to a pilot plant at the
National Carbon Capture Center. |
| PAX Streamline, Inc.
(Georgia Tech Research Institute) |
$3,000,000 |
San Rafael, CA |
Renewable Power
(wind) "Blown Wing" technology for wind turbines. Creates
a virtual airfoil by jetting compressed air along a wing.
Can be dynamically adjusted to maximize power under a
wide range of wind conditions. A new design that can be
manufactured at a fraction of the cost. |
| Pennsylvania State University
(Sentech Corporation) |
$1,900,067 |
University Park, PA |
Direct Solar Fuels
Catalyst-coated titanium dioxide nanotube membranes to convert
sunlight, carbon dioxide and water into methane and other
hydrocarbon fuels. |
| Phononic Devices, Inc
(University of Oklahoma, California Institute of Technology,
University of California at Santa Cruz) |
$3,000,000 |
Norman, OK |
Waste Heat Capture
A new class of high efficiency thermoelectric devices and
materials that use thermally insulating semiconductors with
high thermal-to-electric conversion efficiencies. An
astounding [60%] of U.S. energy is lost in the form of
waste heat - from power plants, industrial processes,
and vehicles. High efficiency thermoelectrics hold
great promise to tap into this vast hidden energy resource
while reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. |
| Porifera Inc.
(University of California Berkeley, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) |
$1,077,992 |
Hayward, CA |
Carbon Capture
Carbon nanotubes integrated into polymer membranes to
increase the flux of CO2 capture membranes by two orders
of magnitude. Could enable much less expensive carbon
capture from coal plants. |
| RTI International
(Archer Daniels Midland Company, ConocoPhillips, Albemarle Corporation) |
$3,111,693 |
Research Triangle Park, NC |
Biomass Energy
A single-step catalytic biomass pyrolysis process with
high carbon conversion efficiency to produce a stable
bio-crude "oil" with low oxygen content. The approach
combines pyrolysis oil production, stabilization, and
upgrading into one process. |
| Stanford University |
$4,992,651 |
Stanford, CA |
Building Efficiency
Sensors, software, and controls to track and improve
energy use patterns. Could lead to substantial
reductions in building energy use by changing human
behavior through timely information and usable controls. |
| Sun Catalytix Corporation |
$4,085,350 |
Cambridge, MA |
Direct Solar Fuels / Energy Storage
A novel catalyst to greatly enhance the efficiency of
splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen. An important
platform technology for the production of solar fuels
and for distributed energy storage systems. |
| United Technologies Research Center
(Hamilton Sundstrand, CM-Tech, Inc., Worley-Parsons, Columbia University) |
$2,251,183 |
East Hartford, CT |
Carbon Capture
Synthetic enzymes for capturing CO2 from coal plant flue
gas streams. Uses a synthetic form of the enzyme carbonic
anhydrase, which our bodies use to remove CO2. Could
dramatically reduce the cost of carbon capture. |
| Univenture, Inc.
(Rockwell Automation, Ohio University, Case Western Reserve University) |
$5,992,697 |
Marysville, OH |
Biomass Energy / Direct Solar Fuels
A novel algae harvesting system that could dramatically
reduce the energy cost necessary to harvest, dewater,
and dry algae by using a novel absorbent moving belt
harvester. This technology offers the potential to
transform the economics of algae-based biofuel production
by removing a major barrier to large scale commercialization. |
| University of California, Riverside |
$760,705 |
Riverside, CA |
Vehicle Technologies
Alkaline polymer electrolyte fuel cell membranes that
eliminate the use of expensive catalyst materials.
Potential to drastically reduce fuel cell costs and
enable their widespread application in building and
automotive applications. |
| University of Delaware
(University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Northeastern University, Virginia Commonwealth
University, Ames Laboratory, Electron Energy Corporation) |
$4,462,162 |
Newark, DE |
Vehicle Technologies
Novel high energy density, low rare-earth content
magnetic materials with double the energy density
of current materials. Would decrease the weight and
increase the efficiency of motors for hybrid, plug-in
hybrid, and electric vehicles and generators for
advanced wind turbines. Also could greatly reduce U.S.
imports of key rare-earth elements that are not
domestically available. |
| University of Illinois
(MC10, Inc.) |
$1,715,752 |
Urbana, IL |
Waste Heat Capture
A novel thermoelectric waste heat harvesting device
based on large area arrays of 1-D concentric silicon
nanotubes. Can be inexpensively printed as stacked
thermoelectric junctions. This low cost thermoelectric
technology holds great promise to allow the U.S. to
begin to harvest the more than 60% of its energy that
it loses in the form of waste heat. |
| University of Minnesota
(BioCee, Inc.) |
$2,200,000 |
St. Paul, MN |
Direct Solar Fuels
Production of liquid hydrocarbon transportation fuels
directly from sunlight, water and CO2 using an artificial
symbiotic colony of photosynthetic cyanobacteria and
Shewanella, a hydrocarbon producing bacteria. |
|
| |
| A second set of ARPA-E funding opportunities will be announced
in the late Fall. Please
visit www.arpa-e.energy.gov
for more information about these selections, upcoming technical workshops,
and new funding opportunities. |
| |
|
|
President Obama Announces
Director of ARPA-E
|
| |
| Washington, DC - On Friday, September 18, 2009, President Barack
Obama announced his intent to nominate Arun Majumdar, Director of the Advanced Research
Projects Agency - Energy, Department of Energy |
| |
Arun Majumdar, Nominee for Director of the Advanced
Research Projects Agency - Energy, Department of Energy
Arun Majumdar is currently the Associate Laboratory Director for
Energy and Environment at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
and a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science
and Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.
He has had a highly distinguished research career in the science
and engineering of energy conversion, transport, and storage
ranging from molecular and nanoscale level to large energy systems.
For his pioneering work, he was elected as a member of the
National Academy of Engineering in 2005. At Berkeley Labs and
UC Berkeley, he helped shape several strategic initiatives
in the areas of energy efficiency, renewable energy as well
as energy storage, and testified before Congress on how to
reduce energy consumption in buildings. He has served on the
advisory committee of the National Science Foundation's
engineering directorate, was a member of the advisory council
to the materials sciences and engineering division of DOE's
Basic Energy Sciences, and was an advisor on nanotechnology
to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
Dr. Majumdar has also been an entrepreneur, and has served as
an advisor to startup companies and venture capital firms in
the silicon valley. He received his Bachelors in Mechanical
Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay
in 1985 and his PhD in 1989 from the University of
California, Berkeley.
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ARPA-E is a bold concept that will provide access to the funding needed to bring the next generation of energy technologies to fruition. Specifically ARPA-E aims to:
- Enhance our economic security by identifying technologies with the potential to reduce energy imports from foreign sources; reduce energy-related greenhouse gas emissions; and improve efficiency across the energy spectrum.
- Ensure we remain a technological leader in developing and deploying advanced energy technologies.
ARPA-E will uniquely focus on high risk, high payoff concepts - technologies promising true energy transformations. The Department invests heavily in basic research and ARPA-E is not intended to augment these efforts.
Please contact the ARPA-E
if you have questions. |
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