On February 22, 2024, ARPA-E awardee Antora Energy announced a $150 million Series B funding round, led by Decarbonization Partners, for their modular thermal batteries. In March 2024, DOE’s Office of Clean Energy Deployment announced the department's largest industrial decarbonization investment to date, and Antora is part of a team that is selected to receive up to $215.6 million to accelerate commercial-scale demonstration.Antora’s thermal batteries convert low-cost, intermittent renewable energy, such as wind and solar, into reliable, zero-emissions industrial heat and power through…

Dr. Charles Werth is a new ARPA-E Program Director. His research prior to joining ARPA-E focused on the intersection of mass transport, fluid flow, interfacial and geo-chemistry, redox reactions, microbial physiology, and material science for the development of sustainable water treatment, groundwater remediation, and geological carbon sequestration technologies.What brought you to ARPA-E?I came to ARPA-E because of the opportunity to help advance early-stage technologies that address water-energy challenges. I’ve worked on research related to water supply and treatment for most of my career…

On February 8, 2024, Thea Energy announced a $20 million Series A funding round led by Prelude Ventures with participation from 11.2 Capital, Anglo American, Hitachi Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, Mercator Partners, Orion Industrial Ventures, and Starlight Ventures. In addition to their Series A funding, they were selected as part of the Department of Energy’s Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program. Thea plans to use this funding to continue development on Eos – a large-scale integrated neutron source stellarator system – as well as their proprietary high-temperature superconducting (HTS…

On March 25, 2024, OCED announced a historic $6 billion in funding for 33 projects across more than 20 states aimed at industrial decarbonization. Six of the selected teams — Antora, Brimstone, Electrified Thermal Solutions, LanzaTech, Sublime Systems, and Via Separations — have previously received ARPA-E early-stage R&D funding. ARPA-E, DOE’s high-risk, high-potential early-stage R&D agency, illustrates the importance of supporting promising energy ideas so that they can become successful, deployable technologies.Five of the ARPA-E-funded companies — Antora, Electrified Thermal…

On March 12, 2024, Tierra Biosciences announced they raised $11.4 million in a Series A funding round led by Material Impact, along with Prosus Ventures, In-Q-Tel, Hillspire, Freeflow Ventures, Creative Ventures, and Social Capital. Tierra has developed a protein platform designed to produce custom purified proteins at multiple scales using their high-throughput, cell-free expression technology and advanced AI models. Tierra will use this funding to advance their AI-powered platform which leverages their growing centralized data lake of manufactured proteins.Their Series A round brings Tierra…

On February 20, 2024, ARPA-E awardee AtmosZero announced a $21M Series A financing round led by a transatlantic team of investors at the US-based Engine Ventures and European firm 2150, and supported by Constellation Technology Ventures. This Series A funding round will allow the AtmosZero team to advance their global mission to decarbonize industrial steam production, moving their flagship Boiler 2.0 device from a proof-of-concept to a commercial product ready for customers.Steam is everywhere, yet it remains an overlooked part of the energy transition equation. It touches every aspect of…

Here at ARPA-E, we are constantly looking for transformative energy technologies that have the potential to shift the energy landscape in unprecedented ways. We are currently interested in exploring sustainable methods of safeguarding domestic helium production and ensuring helium availability for next generation energy technologies. Helium is critically important for a variety of technologies, including semiconductor and fiber optics manufacturing, quantum computing, neutron detection, fission and fusion reactor cooling, and leak detection and analysis in gas processing facilities. While…

Dr. Cory Phillips currently serves as a Program Director for ARPA-E. As a chemical engineer, his focus at ARPA-E is on catalysis (discovery & scale-up) & reaction engineering (CRE) for renewable fuels and energy related applications and process technology, as well as tribochemical engineering of surfaces for energy conservation applications. What brought you to ARPA-E?I've known about ARPA-E for a while now, even serving as a concept paper reviewer a few years ago. I've also served as a merit reviewer with several offices across the U.S. Department of Energy looking at various…

ARPA-E hired Dr. Philseok Kim during the height of the pandemic to lend his wealth of expertise in materials to the energy landscape. Previously the co-founder and CTO of Adaptive Surface Technologies, spun-out of an ARPA-E-funded Harvard University project focused on non-slip coatings to prevent marine fouling and improve the fuel economy of the shipping sector, Dr. Kim was a familiar face with a unique background and something distinct and exciting to offer in energy. Nearly three years later, we check in with Dr. Kim to learn how his previous experience prepared him for his current…

If you’re at CES this week, make sure you stop by booth #10177 in LVCC North Hall for the chance to experience seven demonstrations of groundbreaking energy technologies. The Consumer Electronics Show (CES), hosted by the Consumer Technology Association, is one of the largest tech events in the world. ARPA-E is excited to host a booth featuring several ARPA-E project teams demonstrating their technologies. Make sure you visit LVCC North Hall booth #10177 for the chance to see demos of ARPA-E's disruptive clean energy technologies. Check out the floor map here. The ARPA-E booth will…