Research Projects - Vehicle Technologies

General Motors Company (Warren, MI) will develop a shape memory alloy (SMA) energy recovery device that willto convert waste heat from car engines to electricity. Such devices will both increase fuel efficency - by as much as 10% - and provide devices with applications in other heat recovery applications.

Wave Disk Engine

Researchers at Michigan State University (East Lansing, MI) will complete its prototype development of a new gas-fueled electricity generator, five times more efficient than traditional auto engines in electricity production, 20% lighter, and 30% cheaper to manufacture. This novel ultrahigh efficiency engine could replace current backup generator technology of hybrid and pPlug-in hHybrid eElectric vehicles.

Quaternary Phosphonium Based Hydroxide Exchange Membranes

The University of California at Riverside (UCR) (Riverside, CA) will develop a new generation of fuel cell membranes that are dramatically more ion-conductive, durable and tolerant of abuse than previous devices. By overcoming these hurdles, the UCR team will facilitate widespread commercialization of fuel cell systems for distributed electricity generation, applicable to wind, solar, and advanced vehicle technology.

Advanced Power Semiconductor and Packaging

Delphi Automotive Systems LLC (Kokomo, IN) and International Rectifier will work with Oak Ridge National Laboratory to bring potentially disruptive new power electronics technology from the laboratory to the prototype stage. Their Gallium Nitride on Silicon process coupled with innovative packaging for thermal management power converter will enable power delivery from batteries to electric vehicle motors at 50% lower cost than the current state of the art.

Phononic Devices, in partnership with the University of Oklahoma, the University of California Santa Cruz, and the California Institute of Technology, will develop a completely new class of high efficiency thermoelectric devices and materials that combine enhanced Seebeck thermopower with thermally insulating semiconductor materials to increase solid state thermal-to-electric conversion efficiences to unprecedented levels. WIth greater than 60% of all U.S. energy lost in the form of waste heat from power plants, industrial processes, and vehicles, this high efficiency new thermoelectrics technology holds great promise to enable the U.S. to tap into this vast hidden energy resource to drastically reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

High Energy Permanent Magnets for Hybrid Vehicles and Alternative Energy

The University of Delaware (Newark, DE), in a consortium with the University of Nebraska-Lincolnm, Northeastern University, Virginia Commonwealth University, Ames Laboratory, and Electron Energy Corporation, will seek to develop world record performance next-generation domestically available permanent magnet materials, with a 2x target increase over the state-of-the art magnetic energy density. High energy permanent magnets are critical components in the new energy economy due to their widespread use in advanced motors for hybrids and electric vehicles and in advanced wind turbine generators, and the currently dominant Nd-Fe-B magnets use materials that are not domestically available and are subject to critical supply disruptions. If successful, this project will return the U.S. to global leadership in advanced magnetic materials and will facilitate the widespread deployment of low cost hybrid and electric vehicles and wind power using domestically available materials and dramatically decrease U.S. oil imports and greenhouse gas emissions.