Transportation

RTI International and its partners will develop a Technology Integration Platform (TIP) to demonstrate next-generation ammonia production from intermittent renewable energy in a skid-mounted, modular testbed that is responsive to locational marginal pricing of electricity. The project leverages the University of Minnesota West Central Research and Outreach Center’s operational hybrid wind and solar-to-ammonia field site to integrate the most promising breakthrough technologies developed in ARPA-E’s REFUEL program.

The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) will develop ultra-light-weight and efficient DC-DC power converters for electric aircraft. The team will drive power density and efficiency through innovation in the electrical and thermal domains and will apply sophisticated modeling and digital control to achieve system-level scalability, reliability, and fault-detection. If successful, this project will propel a disruptive change in electric aircraft propulsion systems, enabling low-cost, high-efficiency, and highly reliable electric flight DC power conversion and distribution. .

The University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) will investigate the efficacy and impact of removing up to 0.1 Gt CO2/yr from the atmosphere and surface oceans through cultivating and sinking fast-growing macroalgae. The UCSB team has previously determined using sophisticated oceanographic models that sunken biomass will sequester the fixed carbon for more than 100 years on the ocean floor if certain conditions are met.

Pratt & Whitney will design a novel, high-efficiency hydrogen-power turbomachine for commercial aviation. The Hydrogen Steam Injected Intercooled Turbine Engine (HySIITE) concept is intended to eliminate carbon emissions and significantly reduce nitrous oxide (NOx) inflight emissions for commercial single-aisle aircraft. The HySIITE engine will burn hydrogen in a Brayton (thermodynamic) cycle engine and use steam injection to dramatically reduce NOx.

Columbia University proposes a low-temperature water electrolyzer for hydrogen production based on ultrathin oxide membranes that can increase electrolysis efficiency by 20% compared with conventional polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolyzers. The enhanced performance of Columbia’s proton-conducting oxide membrane (POM) electrolyzers is enabled by the lower ionic resistance of dense oxide-based membranes that are 2 orders of magnitude thinner than conventional catalyst-coated membranes.

Northeastern University will develop a miniaturized laser-based gas spectrometer to address the three critical technical challenges (size, weight, and power) associated with the state-of-the-art drone-based N2O monitoring without compromising sensing performance. The team will leverage commercial and industrial drones to demonstrate high temporal and spatial resolution remote N2O monitoring suitable for large agricultural lands.

The University of Maryland (UMD) recently invented an elegant and scalable molecular engineering technique for fabricating a cellulose nanofiber (CNF)-based SSE that could overcome many of these problems. Unlike current SSEs, the CNF-based SSE uses natural materials, is easy to process, and is compatible with conventional coating processes. It can also be inexpensively manufactured due to its low material cost and paper-like roll-to-roll manufacturing, both as standalone electrolyte films and the electrolyte portion of solid-state cathodes for lithium ion and metallic lithium cells.

Dimensional Energy will apply additive manufacturing (AM) of large-scale ceramics to 3D print a reactor that will efficiently convert greater than 70% of CO2 and green H2 into synthetic gas (syngas), which may be used to produce synthetic aviation fuel. The high carbon utilization and energy efficiencies of the reactor will be coupled with inexpensive renewable electricity and green electrolysis-produced H2 to enable syngas production. Further processing will yield sustainable aviation fuel and other sustainable fuels and chemicals.

The University of Houston will develop a battery that will match the energy and power densities of lithium-based batteries while excluding lithium, nickel, and cobalt. The proposed battery will substitute lithium-based anodes with energy-dense and abundant magnesium, of which the U.S. has virtually unlimited reserves. Organic materials obtained from oil refineries and biorefineries will replace conventional cathodes based on transition metals, thereby eliminating any requirement for nickel or cobalt.

The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) will develop a SmartStake technology consisting of low-cost consumable wireless sensor arrays to measure N2O concentrations and emissions drivers (ammonium, nitrate, oxygen, moisture, temperature, pH, and denitrification enzymes). (SmartStake is a staking service providing real-time performance assessment analytics tools.) UC Berkeley’s results will provide a new paradigm for quantifying, monitoring, and managing for lower N2O emissions from biofuel agriculture.