Slick Sheet: Project
The team led by Gas Technology Institute (GTI) will develop a conventional automotive engine as a reactor to convert ethane into ethylene by using a new catalyst and reactor design that could enable record-breaking conversion yields. The technology proposed by GTI would use a reciprocating engine as a variable volume oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) reactor. This means a conventional engine would be modified with a new valving mechanism that would take advantage of high flow rates and high pressure and temperature regime that already exists in an internal combustion engine.

Slick Sheet: Project
Case Western Reserve University will develop a data analytics approach to building-efficiency diagnosis and prognostics. Their tool, called EDIFES (Energy Diagnostics Investigator for Efficiency Savings), will not require complex or expensive computational simulation, physical audits, or building automation systems. Instead, the tool will map a building's energy signature through a rigorous analysis of multiple datastreams.

Slick Sheet: Project
The team led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) will develop new cast alumina-forming austenitic alloys (AFAs), along with associated casting and welding processes for component fabrication. ORNL and its partners will prototype industrial components with at least twice the oxidation resistance compared to current cast chromia-forming steel and test it in an industrial environment.

Slick Sheet: Project
Cummins Corporate Research & Technology will develop an advanced high efficiency natural gas-fueled internal combustion engine for high-power distributed electricity generation. The team is seeking to achieve 55% brake thermal efficiency while maintaining low exhaust emissions. The enabling technology is wet compression, where fine droplets of water are sprayed directly into the engine cylinders, causing the charge temperature to drop and thereby prevent the onset of damaging engine knock at high compression ratios.

Slick Sheet: Project
Texas A&M AgriLife Research will develop ground penetrating radar (GPR) antenna arrays for 3D root and soil organic carbon imaging and quantification. Visualization of root systems with one mm resolution in soils could enable breeders to select climate-resilient bioenergy crops that provide higher yields, require fewer inputs, improve soil health, and promote carbon sequestration. Texas A&M will create a GPR system that will collect real-time measurements using a deployable robotic platform.

Slick Sheet: Project
The University of Tennessee (UT) team proposes to develop a tool that will revolutionize plant metabolic engineering by using a large scale DNA synthesis strategy. The UT team will develop synthetic chloroplast (the part of the plant cell where photosynthesis occurs) genomes, called “synplastomes.” Rather than introducing or editing genes individually inside the plant cell, the UT team will synthesize a complete chloroplast genome in the laboratory that can be readily modified and then introduced into the plant.

Slick Sheet: Project
The team led by Accio Energy will develop an ElectroHydroDynamic (EHD) system that harvests energy from the wind through physical separation of charge rather than through rotation of an electric machine. The EHD technology entrains a mist of positively charged water droplets into the wind, which pulls the charge away from the electrically-grounded tower, thereby directly converting wind energy into a mounting voltage.

Slick Sheet: Project
Colorado State University (CSU) will work with BASF and Cypris Materials to accelerate the technology first developed under a 2015 ARPA‐E OPEN award. They will transition the developed coating into an industrially scalable, sprayable process to retrofit energy inefficient windows with a heat-reflective, visibly transparent film. Under the original award, nanostructured coatings were shown to greatly improve the efficiency of single‐pane windows by lowering solar heat gain.

Slick Sheet: Project
This endeavor continues an OPEN 2015 project, focusing on scaling the technology initially developed by the University of Michigan from lab to pilot scale. Zakuro LLC (Zakuro) will develop a solid state battery using lithium lanthanum zirconate (LLZO), which is a ceramic electrolyte that contains no flammable liquid. LLZO is manufactured with a lithium-free anode, which substantially simplifies assembly.