Status: ACTIVE
State: MA
Project Term: 09/18/2023 - 09/18/2025
Program: Exploratory Topics
Award: $500,000

Eva Technology

Eva will develop novel devices to build analog processors that could drastically improve the energy efficiency of training complex artificial intelligence (AI) models. Eva’s proposed technology—a new class of nanoprotonic programmable resistors—would reduce the programming voltage of the devices for integration compatibility with standard circuit drivers and overhaul the device structures with an encapsulant to enable monolithic integration. The resulting processors could outperform existing digital AI training hardware solutions by over 240 times.

Status: ALUMNI
State: KY
Project Term: 04/11/2013 - 09/30/2016
Program: OPEN 2012
Award: $196,458

Evolva

Evolva is producing terpenes—energy dense molecules that can be used as high-performance aviation fuels—from simple sugars using engineered microbes. These terpenes will provide better performance than existing petroleum-based aviation fuels. Evolva will draw upon their industrial-scale terpene manufacturing experience to produce aviation sesquiterpenes at a low cost and large scale. Going forward, Evolva will validate the performance of its aviation fuels in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and further engineer its process to utilize biomass feedstocks.

Status: ALUMNI
State: NJ
Project Term: 12/01/2009 - 05/31/2012
Program: OPEN 2009
Award: $999,999

Exelus

Exelus is developing a method to convert olefins from oil refinery exhaust gas into alkylate, a clean-burning, high-octane component of gasoline. Traditionally, olefins must be separated from exhaust before they can be converted into another source of useful fuel. Exelus' process uses catalysts that convert the olefin to alkylate without first separating it from the exhaust. The ability to turn up to 50% of exhaust directly into gasoline blends could result in an additional 46 million gallons of gasoline in the U.S. each year.

Status: Selected
State: TBD
Project Term: TBD
Program: CHADWICK
Award: TBD

ExoFusion

ExoFusion will develop a new liquid material with low vapor pressure, melting point, and plasma contamination for fusion first walls. The liquid material would enable the continuous replenishment of the first wall material in the harsh environments of a commercial fusion power plant. The proposed approach involves doping a liquid metal with minor concentrations of elements with low atomic numbers.

Status: ALUMNI
State: CT
Project Term: 03/05/2014 - 06/22/2015
Program: SWITCHES
Award: $309,107

Fairfield Crystal Technology

Fairfield Crystal Technology will develop a new technique to accelerate the growth of gallium nitride (GaN) single-crystal boules. A boule is a large crystal that is cut into wafers and polished to provide a surface, or substrate, suitable for fabricating a semiconductor device. Fairfield Crystal Technology’s unique boule-growth technique will rapidly produce superior-quality GaN crystal boules—overcoming the quality and growth-rate barriers typically associated with conventional growth techniques, including the current state-of-the-art hydride vapor phase epitaxy technique, and helping to…

Status: ALUMNI
State: MA
Project Term: 04/01/2010 - 12/31/2013
Program: OPEN 2009
Award: $5,349,931

FastCAP Systems

FastCAP Systems is improving the performance of an ultracapacitor—a battery-like electronic device that can complement, and possibly even replace, an HEV or EV battery pack. Ultracapacitors have many advantages over conventional batteries, including long lifespans (over 1 million cycles, as compared to 10,000 for conventional batteries) and better durability. Ultracapacitors also charge more quickly than conventional batteries, and they release energy more quickly. However, ultracapacitors have fallen short of batteries in one key metric: energy density—high energy density means more energy…

Status: ALUMNI
State: DC
Project Term: 07/02/2018 - 09/30/2022
Program: MARINER
Award: $2,206,703

Fearless Fund

Fearless Fund will lead a MARINER Category 1 project to design and develop a new system to enable large-scale macroalgae “ranching” using remote sensing, imaging, and modeling technologies. The core concept targets monitoring free-floating, low-impact Sargassum seaweed in the Gulf of Mexico for cost-effective biomass harvest. Fearless Fund’s cultivation process is designed to mimic naturally occurring seaweed mats found at the surface of the ocean. The concept leverages the free-floating nature of Sargassum, reducing costs from labor, seeding, and harvesting normally…

Status: ALUMNI
State: CA
Project Term: 08/23/2017 - 08/22/2020
Program: AMPED
Award: $2,205,000

Feasible

Feasible will develop a non-invasive, low-cost, ultrasonic diagnostic system that links the electrochemical reactions taking place inside a battery with changes in how sound waves propagate through the battery. This Electrochemical Acoustic Signal Interrogation (EASI) analysis will bridge the gap in battery diagnostics between structural insights and electrical measurements, offering both speed and scalability. The physical processes of a battery that affect performance are nearly impossible to monitor with standard diagnostic methods. EASI can provide insights into the battery development,…

Status: ALUMNI
State: CA
Project Term: 11/25/2019 - 11/24/2021
Program: Exploratory Topics
Award: $1,177,274

Fervo Energy

The proposed fiber-optics based integrated tool will provide an unprecedented level of detail on the most critical aspects of an Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS) – the hydromechanical properties and geometry of the fracture zones that provide flow connections between the reservoir and the well. It has the potential to play a major role in catalyzing the 100 GW, $300B opportunity for EGS in the United States.

Status: ALUMNI
State: CA
Project Term: 08/22/2022 - 02/21/2025
Program: OPEN 2021
Award: $4,500,000

Fervo Energy

Fervo Energy has developed proprietary geothermal technology—FervoFlex™—capable of delivering in-reservoir energy storage and dispatchable generation attributes. At the same time, the team will develop a fiber optics-based diagnostic platform to monitor and optimize dynamic subsurface processes that currently pose major barriers to flexibly operating geothermal facilities. Fervo’s horizontal well design connects subsurface wells with a set of hydraulically conductive fractures surrounded by impermeable rock. These fractures act as flow pathways, providing contact areas with the geothermal…

Status: ACTIVE
State: MD
Project Term: 01/23/2024 - 01/22/2027
Program: COOLERCHIPS
Award: $3,500,000

Flexnode

Flexnode will develop a prefabricated, modularly designed EDGE data center that will leverage four key component and system-level technology advancements: a novel manifold microchannel heatsink, a chassis-based hybrid immersion cooling approach, a cost-effective additive manufacturing-enabled dry cooling heat exchanger system, and a topology optimized container housing the entire system.

Status: ALUMNI
State: MA
Project Term: 02/22/2010 - 03/31/2013
Program: OPEN 2009
Award: $8,325,400

FloDesign Wind Turbine

FloDesign's innovative wind turbine, inspired by the design of jet engines, could deliver 300% more power than existing wind turbines of the same rotor diameter by extracting more energy over a larger area. FloDesign's unique shrouded design expands the wind capture area, and the mixing vortex downstream allows more energy to flow through the rotor without stalling the turbine. The unique rotor and shrouded design also provide significant opportunity for mass production and simplified assembly, enabling mid-scale turbines (approximately 100 kW) to produce power at a cost that is comparable to…

Status: ALUMNI
State: AZ
Project Term: 10/01/2010 - 03/31/2013
Program: GRIDS
Award: $2,984,396

Fluidic Energy

Fluidic Energy is developing a low-cost, rechargeable, high-power module for Zinc-air batteries that will be used to store renewable energy. Zinc-air batteries are traditionally found in small, non-rechargeable devices like hearing aids because they are well-suited to delivering low levels of power for long periods of time. Historically, Zinc-air batteries have not been as useful for applications which require periodic bursts of power, like on the electrical grid. Fluidic hopes to fill this need by combining the high energy, low cost, and long run-time of a Zinc-air battery with new chemistry…

Status: ALUMNI
State: MI
Project Term: 01/01/2013 - 03/31/2016
Program: AMPED
Award: $3,092,109

Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company is developing a commercially viable battery tester with measurement precision that is significantly better than today's best battery testers. Improvements in the predictive ability of battery testers would enable significant reductions in the time and expense involved in electric vehicle technology validation. Unfortunately, the instrumental precision required to reliably predict performance of batteries after thousands of charge and discharge cycles does not exist in today's commercial systems. Ford's design would dramatically improve the precision of electric…

Status: CANCELLED
State: MI
Project Term: 09/17/2012 - 03/31/2015
Program: MOVE
Award: $3,624,551

Ford Motor Company

ARPA-E and Ford Motor Company agreed to mutually conclude this project. Ford is developing an on-board adsorbed natural gas tank system with a high-surface-area framework material that would increase the energy density of compressed natural gas at low pressures. Traditional natural gas tanks attempt to compensate for low-energy-density and limited driving range by storing compressed gas at high pressures, requiring expensive pressure vessels. Ford and their project partners will optimize advanced porous material within a system to reduce the pressure of on-board tanks while delivering the…

Status: ALUMNI
State: MA
Project Term: 07/31/2019 - 08/31/2023
Program: DAYS
Award: $2,929,296

Form Energy

Form Energy will develop a long-duration energy storage system that takes advantage of the low cost and high abundance of sulfur in a water-based solution. Previous MIT research demonstrated that aqueous sulfur flow batteries represent the lowest chemical cost among rechargeable batteries. However, these systems have relatively low efficiency. Conversely, numerous rechargeable battery chemistries with higher efficiency have high chemical costs. The solution requires low chemical cost, high efficiency, and streamlined architecture. The team will pursue several competing strategies and…

Status: ACTIVE
State: MA
Project Term: 07/19/2024 - 07/18/2025
Program: ROSIE
Award: $999,873

Form Energy

Form Energy is leveraging its patent-pending breakthrough to directly produce iron powders from alkaline iron ore slurries in a first-of-a-kind powder-to-powder process. The technology features an electrolyzer designed to allow continuous electrolytic production of high-purity iron with high efficiency from slurries with low solids content. Using domestically available iron ore feedstocks, the process has the potential to produce greenhouse gas emission-free iron at cost parity with today’s carbon-intensive ironmaking methods.

Status: ALUMNI
State: CO
Project Term: 01/15/2010 - 09/30/2013
Program: OPEN 2009
Award: $9,141,029

Foro Energy

Foro Energy is developing a unique capability and hardware system to transmit high power lasers over long distances via fiber optic cables. This laser power is integrated with a mechanical drilling bit to enable rapid and sustained penetration of hard rock formations too costly to drill with mechanical drilling bits alone. The laser energy that is directed at the rock basically softens the rock, allowing the mechanical bit to more easily remove it. Foro Energy's laser-assisted drill bits have the potential to be up to 10 times more economical than conventional hard-rock drilling technologies…

Status: ALUMNI
State: CO
Project Term: 08/01/2019 - 07/31/2022
Program: OPEN 2018
Award: $3,049,998

Foro Energy

Foro Energy will develop a high-power laser tool to assist in removing the extremely tough materials constituting aging energy assets in a timely, cost-effective, safe, and environmentally responsible manner. This cutting and melting tool will be capable of transmitting high-power laser light at long distances in a field environment, greatly boosting decommissioning efficiency.

Status: ACTIVE
State: CO
Project Term: 04/08/2022 - 04/07/2025
Program: OPEN 2021
Award: $3,976,020

Foro Energy

Foro Energy will use a downhole, high-power laser access tool to create geometric and surface area access in wells to set an alternative barrier material—a bismuth alloy plug (BiSN)—instead of cement. The proposed technology will be cost effective and reduce methane emissions as well as some CO2 by (1) abating oil and gas wells currently leaking methane, (2) providing more effective sealing for wells that will be abandoned in the future, (3) replacing the current use of cement and thereby eliminating greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere during production, and (4) using surface…

Status: ACTIVE
State: MA
Project Term: 09/19/2023 - 09/12/2025
Program: Exploratory Topics
Award: $449,100

Foundation Alloy Technology Explorations

Foundation Alloy Technology Explorations will develop a new class of alloys specifically engineered for powder metallurgy-based processing. These new alloys would be engineered at the atomic level for improved properties and for potential applications in critical reactor components. Foundation Alloy’s integration of new material design with part production could enable rapid delivery times, lower costs, and more consistent part quality.

Status: ACTIVE
State: VA
Project Term: 10/01/2020 - 06/30/2025
Program: GEMINA
Award: $1,822,895

Framatome

Framatome aims to reduce advanced reactor costs by leveraging advanced diagnostics methods to demonstrate feasible fault detection with an optimized set of sensors; develop reliable automatic fault detection algorithms on wide range of systems; and minimize the resources required to perform fault detection. Framatome will develop two novel digital twins for use with Metroscope, a software package that connects digital twins and their associated fault libraries and monitors them with an algorithm to detect problems early on. The digital twins will simulate a passive cooling system with…

Status: ALUMNI
State: CA
Project Term: 07/05/2021 - 11/04/2023
Program: Exploratory Topics
Award: $451,676

Frost Methane Labs

Flares are widely used address methane emissions, eliminating a safety issue, and reducing greenhouse gas impacts up to 90%. There are many technical and economic challenges for designing small flares that operate reliably with high destruction efficiency, however. Frost Methane Labs proposes to develop a “micro-flare,” capable of handling emissions from sources from 10-200 tonnes of methane per year per site. The micro-flare consists of a combustion chamber, pilot light or electronic ignition source, upstream flow and methane concentration monitoring, controls electronics, and remote…

Status: CANCELLED
State: NJ
Project Term: 01/01/2021 - 06/30/2022
Program: REEACH
Award: $1,656,427

Fuceltech

Fuceltech proposes to develop an innovative low-cost, lightweight Energy Storage and Power Generation (ESPG) system for commercial aircraft. Fuceltech will develop a monopolar wound single fuel cell potentially as high as 10 kW rating and a novel stacking approach to deliver hundreds of kWs of power from a single small and lightweight stack. Fuceltech will use ethanol as a fuel and a reformer that delivers extremely low CO concentration in the reformate to the fuel cell. In phase 1, Fuceltech will develop 2kW power single cells and demonstrate stacked cells of >5kW output power; in phase 2…

Status: CANCELLED
State: CT
Project Term: 08/15/2018 - 08/01/2023
Program: INTEGRATE
Award: $11,099,612

FuelCell Energy

FuelCell Energy will develop technology for pressurized solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) stack modules for use in hybrid power systems. The Compact Stack Architecture (CSA) platform will operate at a high pressure, enabling its integration with a wide range of small-to-mid-sized power cycles, including gas turbines and piston engines. Stack design will incorporate features such as internal reforming (producing hydrogen from natural gas), extending the fuel cell’s use to higher pressure values, and adding robustness to tolerate system-imposed pressure differentials. Current studies show that the…

Status: ALUMNI
State: CT
Project Term: 10/01/2014 - 09/30/2017
Program: REBELS
Award: $3,499,967

FuelCell Energy

FuelCell Energy will develop an intermediate-temperature fuel cell that will directly convert methane to methanol and other liquid fuels using advanced metal catalysts. Existing fuel cell technologies typically convert chemical energy from hydrogen into electricity during a chemical reaction with oxygen or some other agent. FuelCell Energy’s cell would create liquid fuel from natural gas. Their advanced catalysts are optimized to improve the yield and selectivity of methane-to-methanol reactions; this efficiency provides the ability to run a fuel cell on methane instead of hydrogen. In…

Status: ALUMNI
State: CT
Project Term: 05/22/2017 - 09/30/2021
Program: REFUEL
Award: $4,600,000

FuelCell Energy

FuelCell Energy will develop an advanced solid oxide fuel cell system capable of generating ammonia from nitrogen and water, and renewable electricity. The unique design will also allow the system to operate in reverse, by converting ammonia and oxygen from air into electricity. A key innovation in this project is the integration of proton-conducting ceramic membranes with new electride catalyst supports to enable an increase in the rate of ammonia production. Combining their catalyst with a calcium-aluminate electride support increases the rate of ammonia formation by reducing coverage of…

Status: ACTIVE
State: PA
Project Term: 08/26/2022 - 11/25/2024
Program: Exploratory Topics
Award: $500,000

GaNify

GaNify seeks to develop 10-kV/10-A power diode prototypes for medium-voltage power electronics systems. Medium-voltage power switches are needed for a range of power electronics. GaNify’s medium-voltage power diodes are based on a novel charge-balanced GaN super-heterojunction technology, which has already demonstrated ~2X higher effective electric field, scalability to over 10 kV, and ~3X lower on-resistance over the existing wide bandgap semiconductor technology. The team will study scalability, manufacturability, and reliability of this technology and seek to develop engineering prototypes…

Status: ACTIVE
State: PA
Project Term: 10/01/2023 - 09/30/2025
Program: Exploratory Topics
Award: $500,000

GaNify

GaNify will develop a unique power switch for gyrotron modulators in nuclear fusion systems that could switch 50-kV/1-A in less than a microsecond without the need to stack multiple switches in series. Their design would significantly reduce the complexity and shorten the modulation voltage rise time, effectively pushing the voltage limit of solid-state power switches toward the high voltage regime.

Status: ACTIVE
State: PA
Project Term: 05/10/2024 - 05/09/2027
Program: ULTRAFAST
Award: $3,060,000

GaNify

GaNify is developing a power integrated circuit building block that would enable an enhanced control of power electronics converters for a more efficient and reliable grid. GaNify’s medium-voltage gallium nitride light-controlled integrated circuit takes advantage of low cost, manufacturable, and scalable components to design and build an integrated wide-bandgap semiconductor module for grid-level power electronics. If successful, the module would feature high noise immunity, enhanced protection, and five-fold lower power loss than legacy silicon-based technology.

Status: ALUMNI
State: IL
Project Term: 05/13/2014 - 01/31/2018
Program: FOCUS
Award: $3,969,400

Gas Technology Institute (GTI)

Gas Technology Institute (GTI) is developing a hybrid solar converter that focuses sunlight onto solar cells with a reflective backside mirror. These solar cells convert most visible wavelengths of sunlight to electricity while reflecting the unused wavelengths to heat a stream of flowing particles. The particles are used to store the heat for use immediately or at a later time to drive a turbine and produce electricity. GTI’s design integrates the parabolic trough mirrors, commonly used in CSP plants, into a dual-mirror system that captures the full solar spectrum while storing heat to…

Status: ALUMNI
State: IL
Project Term: 09/07/2016 - 09/30/2017
Program: IDEAS
Award: $500,000

Gas Technology Institute (GTI)

Gas Technology Institute (GTI) will develop a sulfur-based methane oxidation process, known as soft oxidation, to convert methane into liquid fuels and chemicals. Current gas-to-liquid technology for converting methane to liquid hydrocarbons requires massive scale to achieve economic production. The large plant size makes this approach unsuitable to address the challenge of distributed methane emissions. Soft oxidation is a method better suited to address this challenge because of its modular nature. It also addresses a major limitation of conventional gas-to-liquid technology: the…

Status: ALUMNI
State: IL
Project Term: 01/01/2014 - 03/31/2015
Program: METALS
Award: $807,426

Gas Technology Institute (GTI)

Gas Technology Institute (GTI) is developing a continuously operating cell that produces low-cost aluminum powder using less energy than conventional methods. Conventional aluminum production is done by pumping huge electrical currents into a vat of molten aluminum dissolved in mineral salts at nearly 2000 degrees Fahrenheit. GTI’s technology occurs near room temperature using reusable solvents to dissolve the ore. Because GTI’s design relies on chemical dissolution rather than heat, its cells can operate at room temperature, meaning it does not suffer from wasteful thermal energy losses…

Status: ALUMNI
State: IL
Project Term: 01/01/2013 - 12/31/2014
Program: MOVE
Award: $873,515

Gas Technology Institute (GTI)

Gas Technology Institute (GTI) is developing a natural gas tank for light-duty vehicles that features a thin, tailored shell containing microscopic valves which open and close on demand to manage pressure within the tank. Traditional natural gas storage tanks are thick and heavy, which makes them expensive to manufacture. GTI's tank design uses unique adsorbent pellets with nano-scale pores surrounded by a coating that functions as valves to help manage the pressure of the gas and facilitate more efficient storage and transportation. GTI's low-pressure tanks would have thinner walls…

Status: ALUMNI
State: IL
Project Term: 10/01/2012 - 03/31/2014
Program: MOVE
Award: $1,485,612

Gas Technology Institute (GTI)

Gas Technology Institute (GTI) will partner with Northwestern University, NuMat Technologies, a Northwestern start-up company, and Westport Fuel Systems to identify materials with the best characteristics for low-pressure natural gas storage. The gas-storing materials, known as metal organic framework (MOF) adsorbents, hold natural gas the way a sponge holds liquids. The project team will further develop their computer modeling and screening technique to support the creation of a low-pressure adsorbent material specifically designed for natural gas vehicles. The team will also validate the…

Status: ALUMNI
State: IL
Project Term: 01/01/2013 - 09/30/2015
Program: OPEN 2012
Award: $1,640,390

Gas Technology Institute (GTI)

Gas Technology Institute (GTI) is developing a new process to convert natural gas or methane-containing gas into methanol and hydrogen for liquid fuel. Methanol serves as the main feedstock for dimethyl ether, which could be used for vehicular fuel. Unfortunately, current methods to produce liquid fuels from natural gas require large and expensive facilities that use significant amounts of energy. GTI’s process uses metal oxide catalysts that are continuously regenerated in a reactor, similar to a battery, to convert the methane into methanol. These metal oxide catalysts reduce the energy…

Status: ALUMNI
State: IL
Project Term: 03/01/2016 - 02/28/2018
Program: OPEN 2015
Award: $3,199,931

Gas Technology Institute (GTI)

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. This process…

Status: ALUMNI
State: IL
Project Term: 06/01/2017 - 03/31/2022
Program: REFUEL
Award: $2,300,000

Gas Technology Institute (GTI)

Gas Technology Institute (GTI) will develop a process for producing dimethyl ether (DME) from renewable electricity, air, and water. DME is a clean-burning fuel that is easily transported as a liquid and can be used as a drop-in fuel in internal combustion engines or directly in DME fuel cells. Ultimately carbon dioxide (CO2) would be captured from sustainable sources, such as biogas production, and fed into a reactor with hydrogen generated from high temperature water splitting. The CO2 and hydrogen react on a bifunctional catalyst to form methanol and a subsequently DME. To improve…

Status: CANCELLED
State: TN
Project Term: 10/01/2012 - 08/07/2014
Program: AMPED
Award: $173,428

Gayle Technologies

Gayle Technologies is developing a laser-guided, ultrasonic electric vehicle battery inspection system that would help gather precise diagnostic data on battery performance. The batteries used in hybrid vehicles are highly complex, requiring advanced management systems to maximize their performance. Gayle's laser-guided, ultrasonic system would allow for diagnosis of various aspects of the battery system, including inspection for defects during manufacturing and assembly, battery state-of-health, and flaws that develop from mechanical or chemical issues with the battery system during use…

Status: ACTIVE
State: NY
Project Term: 05/17/2024 - 05/16/2027
Program: GOPHURRS
Award: $3,674,998

GE Vernova Advanced Research

GE Vernova Advanced Research is developing a robotic worm tunneling construction tool that would dig and install conduit and cables for underground distribution powerlines in a single step. GE’s SPEEDWORM would mimic the natural movement of earthworms and tree roots to install 1,000 feet of cable and conduit in two hours with unmatched flexibility. The tool could deploy from a standard pickup truck and would eliminate the cost, complexity, and surface disruption compared with conventional approaches.

Status: Selected
State: TBD
Project Term: TBD
Program: Exploratory Topics
Award: TBD

GE Vernova Advanced Research Center

GE Vernova Advanced Research will implement a high-fidelity and cost-effective gas sensing technology based on dielectric excitation of sensing materials and will couple it with physics enhanced analytics to detect and identify hydrogen leaks at industrial sites. The localization capability will differentiate and rank multiple leaks with a spatial resolution within 10 meters of actual leak locations. The cost-effective and simple deployment of hydrogen leak monitors with their 5-10 parts per billion detection sensitivity will support the evaluation of hydrogen sites over diverse geographic…

Status: ALUMNI
State: NY
Project Term: 03/13/2019 - 11/12/2021
Program: OPEN 2018
Award: $549,000

Geegah

Geegah will develop an inexpensive wireless sensor, using ultrasound from MHz to GHz, that can measure water content, soil chemicals, root growth, and nematode pests (a type of small worm), allowing farmers to improve the output of biofuel crops while reducing water and pesticide use. The reusable device will include a sensor suite and radio interface that can communicate to aboveground farm vehicles. This novel integration of sensing and imaging technologies has the potential to provide a low-cost solution to precision sensor-based digital agriculture.

Status: ACTIVE
State: MA
Project Term: 08/23/2022 - 11/22/2024
Program: Exploratory Topics
Award: $494,015

Gencores

Gencores enables technology for ultra-light vehicles to decarbonize transportation. Herein they demonstrate a scalable and digital production of low-cost and high-performance hybrid Polymethacrylimide (PMI) foam cores for sandwich composite constructions. Sandwich composites feature a foam core wrapped in fiber-reinforced skins and offer a 40-75% weight reduction potential compared with traditional metal alternatives. Current PMI foam cores are costly and time-consuming to produce in complex shapes. Gencores’ hybrid material and digital manufacturing technology will reduce the production cost…

Status: ALUMNI
State: CA
Project Term: 01/09/2012 - 07/31/2013
Program: GENI
Award: $2,268,543

General Atomics

General Atomics is developing a direct current (DC) circuit breaker that could protect the grid from faults 100 times faster than its alternating current (AC) counterparts. Circuit breakers are critical elements in any electrical system. At the grid level, their main function is to isolate parts of the grid where a fault has occurred—such as a downed power line or a transformer explosion—from the rest of the system. DC circuit breakers must interrupt the system during a fault much faster than AC circuit breakers to prevent possible damage to cables, converters and other grid-level components…

Status: ALUMNI
State: CA
Project Term: 09/01/2010 - 08/28/2013
Program: GRIDS
Award: $1,979,619

General Atomics

General Atomics is developing a flow battery technology based on chemistry similar to that used in the traditional lead-acid battery found in nearly every car on the road today. Flow batteries store energy in chemicals that are held in tanks outside the battery. When the energy is needed, the chemicals are pumped through the battery. Using the same basic chemistry as a traditional battery but storing its energy outside of the cell allows for the use of very low-cost materials. The goal is to develop a system that is far more durable than today's lead-acid batteries, can be scaled to deliver…

Status: ALUMNI
State: MA
Project Term: 09/13/2010 - 04/01/2011
Program: GRIDS
Award: $750,000

General Compression

General Compression has developed a transformative, near-isothermal compressed air energy storage system (GCAES) that prevents air from heating up during compression and cooling down during expansion. When integrated with renewable generation, such as a wind farm, intermittent energy can be stored in compressed air in salt caverns or pressurized tanks. When electricity is needed, the process is reversed and the compressed air is expanded to produce electricity. Unlike conventional compressed air energy storage (CAES) projects, no gas is burned to convert the stored high-pressure air back into…

Status: CANCELLED
State: NY
Project Term: 01/01/2011 - 07/17/2012
Program: ADEPT
Award: $811,520

General Electric (GE) Global Research

Magnetic components are typically the largest components in a power converter. To date, however, researchers haven’t found an effective way to reduce their size without negatively impacting their performance. And, reducing the size of the converter’s other components isn’t usually an option because shrinking them can also diminish the effectiveness of the magnetic components. General Electric (GE) Global Research is developing smaller magnetic components for power converters that maintain high performance levels. The company is building smaller components with magnetic films. These films are…

Status: ALUMNI
State: NY
Project Term: 01/01/2013 - 12/31/2016
Program: AMPED
Award: $3,122,076

General Electric (GE) Global Research

General Electric (GE) Global Research is developing low-cost, thin-film sensors that enable real-time mapping of temperature and surface pressure for each cell within a battery pack, which could help predict how and when batteries begin to fail. The thermal sensors within today's best battery packs are thick, expensive, and incapable of precisely assessing important factors like temperature and pressure within their cells. In comparison to today's best systems, GE's design would provide temperature and pressure measurements using smaller, more affordable sensors than those used in…

Status: ALUMNI
State: NY
Project Term: 09/01/2015 - 03/02/2017
Program: ARID
Award: $1,099,940

General Electric (GE) Global Research

General Electric (GE) Global Research will design, manufacture, and test an absorption heat pump that can be used for supplemental dry cooling at thermoelectric power plants. The team’s project features a novel, absorbent-enabled regenerator that doubles the coefficient of performance of conventional absorption heat pumps. The new absorbents demonstrate greater hygroscopic potential, or the ability to prevent evaporation. To remove heat and cool condenser water, these absorbents take in water vapor (refrigerant) and release the water as liquid during desorption without vaporization or boiling…

Status: ALUMNI
State: NY
Project Term: 04/13/2020 - 12/31/2022
Program: ATLANTIS
Award: $3,092,918

General Electric (GE) Global Research

GE Global Research and Glosten will design a new FOWT based on the 12 MW (megawatt) Haliade-X rotor and a lightweight three-legged acutated tension-leg platform. Applying a CCD methodology, the team will use advanced control algorithms to operate the turbine and concurrently design the integrated structure of the FOWT. The proposed turbine designs will have the potential to reduce the mass of the system by more than 35% compared with installed FOWT designs.