August 9, 2018

ARPA-E today issued a funding opportunity announcement (FOA) of up to $35 million for the High Intensity Thermal Exchange through Materials and Manufacturing Processes (HITEMMP) program, to develop new approaches and technologies for the design and manufacture of high temperature, high pressure, and highly compact heat exchangers.

Heat exchangers are critical to efficient thermal energy use in numerous industrial and everyday applications, including electricity generation, nuclear reactors, transportation, petrochemical plants, waste heat recovery, and much more. HITEMMP projects will target heat exchangers capable of operating for tens of thousands of hours in temperatures and pressures exceeding 800°C and 80 bar (1,160 psi) respectively.

HITEMMP project teams must develop new exchanger topologies, or physical designs, that optimize device structure with suitable advanced materials and the fluids flowing through them for the desired range of operating conditions. Equally important is to develop new, or refine existing, manufacturing technologies that enable attractive performance at an acceptable cost.

Durable and affordable higher-temperature heat exchangers could lead to substantially higher power conversion efficiencies, which in turn could reduce fuel consumption, system footprint (and thus capital and operation costs), and CO2 and nitrogen oxide emissions.

ARPA-E is allocating up to $35 million for HITEMMP, with up to $10 million available to small businesses under ARPA-E's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs and the remaining available to all applicants.

The deadline to submit a concept paper for HITEMMP is 9:30 a.m. ET on September 12, 2018. Additional information, including the full FOA and how to find project teaming partners, is available on ARPA-E’s online application portal, ARPA-E eXCHANGE.