OPEN 2018 Projects

Neuvokas Corporation will develop an energy-efficient CBF manufacturing process. The project will focus delivering a filament-forming extrusion bushing capable of supporting the production of low-cost, high-quality CBF at scale. Using CBF instead of steel to reinforce concrete can reduce capital expenses, greenhouse gases, and operating expenses, and increase concrete service life and time to major maintenance by more than 30 years, saving greater than 0.5 quad (146,535,500,000 kWh) of energy per year.

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign aims to create the world's most efficient, reliable, and compact wind energy conversion system. Instead of following the traditional approach of building the electrical generator separately from the power electronics converter, and then connecting both to convert the turbine’s mechanical power into electrical power, the team will apply CCD methodologies on the generator and converter to substantially reduce the size and weight of the system.

SwRI’s storage system is based on an innovative thermodynamic cycle to store energy in hot and cold fluids. This technology features a simplified system, high round-trip conversion efficiencies (the ratio of energy put in to energy retrieved from storage), and low plant costs. At full scale, the technology would provide more than 10 hours of electricity at rated power (the highest power input allowed to flow through particular equipment). SwRI will build a small kW-scale electric demonstrator to validate the technology, and develop control strategy and operational procedures.

The Georgia Tech Research Corporation will design an autonomous, resilient and cyber-secure protection and control system for each power plant and substation on its grid. This will eliminate complex coordinated protection settings and transform the protection practice into a simpler, intelligent, automated and transparent process.

The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego) is developing a universal battery integration system that conditions used EV batteries for use in second-life applications while simultaneously providing energy storage services to the electricity grid. In principle, millions of EV batteries can be repurposed in a “second life” to provide inexpensive stationary storage for homes, businesses, and the electricity grid. It is challenging to combine batteries because batteries with different ages and usage histories perform differently and have varying amounts of remaining life.

PingThings will develop a national infrastructure for analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) on the power grid using a three-pronged approach. First, a scalable, cloud-based platform will store, process, analyze, and visualize grid sensor data. Second, massive open and accessible datasets will be created through (a) deploying grid sensors to capture wide-scale and localized grid behavior, (b) simulating and executing grid models to generate virtual sensor data, and (c) establishing a secure data exchange mechanism.

United Technologies Research Center will assess the feasibility of using CMC technologies and immersive systems to reduce business travel and its associated energy and emissions. Currently, every roundtrip trans-Atlantic flight emits enough carbon dioxide to melt 30 square feet of Arctic sea ice. This technology (if successful) will displace air travel. The team’s SCOTTIE system will identify the types of travel best suited for replacement by CMC technologies and quantify the minimum CMC system performance needed to satisfy users' communication objectives.

Sila Nanotechnologies will develop a class of drop-in cathode replacement materials to double the energy stored in traditional LIBs, the most popular battery chemistry used in a wide range of applications, including electric vehicles. The Sila team will replace conventional Ni and Co-based cathodes with a nanostructured composite made from abundant materials that greatly increases the battery’s energy density.

The Colorado School of Mines will develop a more efficient method for both the conversion of hydrogen and nitrogen to ammonia and the generation of high purity hydrogen from ammonia for fuel cell fueling stations. Composed of 17.6% hydrogen by mass, ammonia also has potential as a hydrogen carrier and carbon-free fuel. The team will develop a new technology to generate fuel cell-quality hydrogen from ammonia using a membrane based reactor.