Blog Posts
ARPA-E focuses on next-generation energy innovation to create a sustainable energy future. The agency provides R&D support to businesses, universities, and national labs to develop technologies that could fundamentally change the way we get, use, and store energy. Since 2009, ARPA-E has provided approximately $2 billion in support to more than 800 energy technology projects. In January, we introduced a new series to highlight the transformational technology our project teams are developing across the energy portfolio. Check out these projects turning ideas into reality.
Blog Posts
ARPA-E strives for excellence in both program development and program integration, to encourage new discussions and new perspectives. This approach was on display at the recent ARPA-E “Ocean Week,” held from January 28-30, in Washington. This three-day voyage into ARPA-E’s ocean-focused programs consisted of three events: The Macroalgae Research Inspiring Novel Energy Resources (MARINER) Program Review, the Aerodynamic Turbines Lighter and Afloat with Nautical Technologies and Integrated Servo-control (ATLANTIS) Program Kickoff, and a Submarine Hydrokinetic Industry Day.
Blog Posts
Newest ARPA-E Program Director Dr. Robert (Bob) J. Ledoux’s professional experience ranges from professor to entrepreneur and his patents from nonintrusive cargo inspection to medical technologies. Recently we had a chance to visit with Dr. Ledoux to discuss how he will bring his experience to bear to further ARPA-E’s mission.
Slick Sheet: Project
Foundation Alloy Technology Explorations will develop a new class of alloys specifically engineered for powder metallurgy-based processing. These new alloys would be engineered at the atomic level for improved properties and for potential applications in critical reactor components. Foundation Alloy’s integration of new material design with part production could enable rapid delivery times, lower costs, and more consistent part quality.
Slick Sheet: Project
NK Labs will improve the efficiency of muon production to enable cost-effective muon-catalyzed fusion, a process that can operate at much lower temperatures than traditional approaches to fusion. NK Labs would improve the design of the target that gets bombarded with high-energy protons to generate particles called pions, which rapidly decay into muons that are then routed toward the fusion fuel to catalyze a fusion reaction.
Slick Sheet: Project
Deep Isolation will test a range of canister designs in boreholes at the Deep Borehole Demonstration Center in Texas and assess US-based supplier capabilities in the hopes of identifying a universal canister design. Advancing a universal canister system from a conceptual development stage to a licensing stage would require full-scale test data, and help enable safe, scalable, and cost-effective disposal of the current stored used nuclear fuel as well as fuels from advanced nuclear reactors in development.
Slick Sheet: Project
Perseus Materials will develop a new mode of composite manufacturing for wind turbine blades that could rapidly replace vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding as the dominant blade manufacturing process. Perseus’s unique additive manufacturing method—known as variable cross-sectional molding—could significantly reduce labor costs, cycle times, and factory footprints for blade manufacturers at the same output levels.
Slick Sheet: Project
GaNify will develop a unique power switch for gyrotron modulators in nuclear fusion systems that could switch 50-kV/1-A in less than a microsecond without the need to stack multiple switches in series. Their design would significantly reduce the complexity and shorten the modulation voltage rise time, effectively pushing the voltage limit of solid-state power switches toward the high voltage regime.
Slick Sheet: Project
Princeton University will develop a new method for particle beam injection that could boost the energy efficiency of plasma ignition to all-time highs. The proposed technology would avoid the major inefficiencies and operational complications associated with the beam neutralization process and strengthen the domestic energy sector through efficiently delivering plasma heating to fusion reactors.
Slick Sheet: Project
Marathon Fusion will develop a test stand to support the evaluation of metal foil pumps in nuclear fusion systems that could propel the novel technology into pilot plants within a decade. Metal foil pumps tested by the proposed device could drastically reduce tritium inventories and the cost of tritium processing, significantly improving the fuel cycle cost for fusion power.