OPEN 2018 Projects

Rutgers University, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and the University of Arizona will develop a new hardening method for C3 to address thickness. C3 synthesis currently relies on externally-introduced carbon dioxide for solidification. This program will use microbes mixed into the C3 prior to curing to produce carbon dioxide internally for solidification. This microbial-cured C3 is expected to last longer than OPC at the same thickness, which will reduce the need for concrete repair and replacement.

The University of Delaware will build an electrochemical “pump,” based on a special membrane, to remove cell-damaging CO2 from ambient air before feeding it along with hydrogen into an HEMFC designed by the team. This method eliminates the need for vehicles using HEMFCs to carry an onboard oxygen supply or scrub carbon dioxide by other more expensive routes. The same principle could be applied to direct carbon capture from air for any system with a similar challenge.

Arizona State University will develop learning-ready models and control tools to maintain sensor-rich distribution systems in the presence of high levels of DER and storage. This approach will include topology processing algorithms, load and DER models for system planning and operation, distribution system state estimation, optimal DER operational scheduling algorithms, and system-level DER control strategies that leverage inverter controls’ flexibility.

Zap Energy will advance the fusion performance of the sheared-flow stabilized (SFS) Z-pinch fusion concept. While the simplicity of the Z-pinch is attractive, it has been plagued by plasma instabilities. Like traditional Z-pinch approaches, the SFS Z-pinch drives electrical current through a plasma to create magnetic fields that compress and heat the plasma toward fusion conditions.

The Ohio State University will develop GaN semiconductor materials suitable for high voltage (15-20 kV) power control and conversion. The team will develop a unique photon-assisted metal organic chemical vapor deposition (PA-MOCVD) method to grow thick GaN films with low background impurity contamination, necessary to allow high-voltage operation with high efficiency. The thick GaN layers will be deposited by PA-MOCVD on high-quality bulk GaN base materials with reduced defects, critical to the growth of high-quality GaN films.

The University of Utah will develop ultra-low power sensors engineered to passively detect specific volatile emissions, and enable the early detection of invasive weeds and/or insects in biofuel crop production. Farmers currently lose about 40% of crops due to weeds and insects that ideally need to be removed within a week of detection to prevent significant damage.

Johns Hopkins will scale up a novel process to convert natural gas into hydrogen and solid carbon with no water input while reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Leveraging industrial partners Southern Company and Cabot Corporation, the team will scale up its cyclic process based on early laboratory demonstration. ETCH, INC, is commercializing the process, which is expected to produce H2 from NG at costs comparable to the state-of-the art commercial technologies, while lowering energy input, reducing CO2 emissions, and producing high-value pure carbon materials.

Princeton Fusion Systems seeks to develop technologies to enable future commercial fusion power. The team’s PFRC concept is a small, clean, and portable design based on a field-reversed-configuration plasma. The concept uses an innovative method called odd-parity rotating-magnetic-field (RMF) heating to drive electrical current and heat plasma to fusion temperatures. Odd-parity heating holds the potential to heat ions and electrons to fusion-relevant temperatures in a stable, sustained plasma, while maintaining good energy confinement.

Carnegie Mellon will combine its expertise in additive manufacturing (AM) with Westinghouse’s knowhow in nuclear reactor component fabrication to develop an innovative process for AM of nuclear components. The team chose to redesign nuclear reactor spacer grids as a test case because they are a particularly difficult component to manufacture. The role of spacer grids is to provide mechanical support to nuclear fuel rods within a reactor and reduce vibration as well as cause mixing of the cooling fluid.

The State University of New York Polytechnic Institute will develop a scalable, manufacturable, and robust technology platform for silicon carbide (SiC) power integrated circuits. The team will leverage the relatively high maturity of SiC technology to develop highly scalable SiC integrated circuits and support devices and establish a manufacturable process baseline in a state-of-the-art, 6-inch fabrication facility. This allows for much higher power (as compared to silicon) integrated circuits in future.