Status: ALUMNI
State: MA
Project Term: 07/01/2010 - 09/30/2013
Program: Electrofuels
Award: $4,194,124

Harvard University

Harvard University is engineering a self-contained, scalable electrofuels production system that can directly generate liquid fuels from bacteria, carbon dioxide (CO2), water, and sunlight. Harvard is genetically engineering bacteria called Shewanella, so the bacteria can sit directly on electrical conductors and absorb electrical current. This current, which is powered by solar panels, gives the bacteria the energy they need to process CO2 into liquid fuels. The Harvard team pumps this CO2 into the system, in addition to water and other nutrients needed to grow the bacteria. Harvard is also…

Status: ALUMNI
State: MA
Project Term: 06/01/2017 - 11/30/2018
Program: IDEAS
Award: $498,566

Harvard University

Harvard University in partnership with Sandia National Laboratories will develop a transistor-less 16kW DC to DC converter boosting a 0.5kV DC input to 8kV that is scalable to 100kW. If successful, the transistor-less DC to DC converter could improve the performance of power electronics for electric vehicles, commercial power supplies, renewable energy systems, grid operations, and other applications. Converting DC to DC is a two-step process that traditionally uses fast-switching transistors to convert a DC input to an AC signal before the signal is rectified to a DC output. The Harvard and…

Status: ALUMNI
State: MA
Project Term: 08/01/2018 - 09/30/2020
Program: IDEAS
Award: $499,727

Harvard University

Harvard University will develop new methods to harness naturally occurring microbial communities for the biological production of ethane and propane. Strong indirect evidence suggests that ethane and propane are produced in the ocean by communities of benthic microorganisms in unique deep-sea sediments under specific conditions. The team will target the microbial communities in the ethane- and propane-rich hydrothermal sediments of the Guaymas Basin in the Gulf of California. During the project, the team will recover and characterize seafloor sediment from the basin with the goal of…

Status: ALUMNI
State: MA
Project Term: 02/01/2013 - 03/25/2017
Program: OPEN 2012
Award: $4,340,035

Harvard University

Harvard University is developing an innovative grid-scale flow battery to store electricity from renewable sources. Flow batteries store energy in external tanks instead of within the battery container, permitting larger amounts of stored energy at lower cost per kWh. Harvard is designing active material for a flow battery that uses small, inexpensive organic molecules in aqueous electrolyte. Relying on low-cost organic materials, Harvard’s innovative storage device concept would yield one or more systems that may be developed by their partner, Sustainable Innovations, LLC, into viable grid-…

Status: ACTIVE
State: MA
Project Term: 07/22/2019 - 07/21/2024
Program: OPEN 2018
Award: $3,386,582

Harvard University

Harvard University will develop a compact NMR system to provide detailed information on composition and environment in subsurface oil exploration and production. By building the electronics for the system with gallium-nitride-based integrated circuitry, the team seeks to greatly miniaturize the NMR system, reducing both the volume and weight by two orders of magnitude, and enabling it to withstand the high temperatures found in a deep drill hole. The proposed technology will place the majority of the essential NMR electronics on a single board. This will reduce the complexity and bulkiness of…

Status: CANCELLED
State: MA
Project Term: 09/01/2021 - 07/31/2022
Program: ECOSynBio
Award: $2,985,025

Harvard University

The Harvard University team will draw from efficient infrastructures for cheap sugar supply, maturing gas fermentation technology, and sophisticated strategies to engineer fatty acid metabolism. Current bioproduction platforms are limited regarding to carbon efficiency, product versatility or productivity. These platforms have left legacies that will aid Harvard in developing the next generation of carbon-efficient bioproduction, however. It will leverage these to develop a road map for transitioning to a carbon-efficient, highly productive bioeconomy for energy-rich long-chain carbon…

Status: ACTIVE
State: MA
Project Term: 03/09/2023 - 03/08/2026
Program: MINER
Award: $1,889,308

Harvard University

Harvard University (Harvard) aims to advance nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques for CO2 reactive rocks to better determine carbonation potential and storage capacity by quantifying CO2 pore filling saturation based on pore size distribution and in-situ wettability. Mineralization reactions occur only in pores occupied by CO2; thus, understanding CO2 transport and distribution in rock porosities is key to efficient mineralization and sequestration. The technique can be used in the exploration phase to locate the optimal CO2 injection formation and production phase to monitor…

Status: ALUMNI
State: CA
Project Term: 09/06/2021 - 09/05/2022
Program: Exploratory Topics
Award: $476,811

Heirloom

One promising method for reducing atmospheric CO2 is a repeated enhanced weathering process, in which a natural reaction between CO2 in air and magnesium- and/or calcium-rich minerals is accelerated to form a solid carbonate that can be processed to regenerate the minerals for reuse and create a captured CO2 stream. The proposed technology combines enhanced weathering innovations with an engineered system that passively exposes these reactive minerals to the air. The approach may significantly reduce the cost of permanent, high-quality carbon removal, and the resulting pure CO2 can be…

Status: ALUMNI
State: WA
Project Term: 09/30/2015 - 09/29/2018
Program: ALPHA
Award: $3,971,263

Helion Energy

Helion Energy's team will develop a prototype device that will explore a potential low-cost path to fusion for a less expensive, simplified reactor design. In contrast to conventional designs, this prototype will be smaller than a semi-trailer – reducing cost and complexity. The smaller size is achieved by using new techniques to achieve the high temperatures and densities required for fusion. The research team will produce these conditions using field-reversed configuration (FRC) plasmas, a special form of plasma that may offer significant advantages for fusion research. FRC plasmas are…

Status: ALUMNI
State: CA
Project Term: 04/01/2020 - 12/31/2023
Program: OPEN 2018
Award: $3,191,608

Hewlett Packard Labs

Hewlett Packard Labs will develop a low energy consumption, ultra-efficient, high-speed technology to transmit data as light in high-performance computing systems and data centers. The team will combine recent breakthroughs in low-cost laser manufacturing and ultra-efficient photonic tuning technology with their established platform. It will demonstrate a fully integrated optical transceiver capable of sending data faster than 1,000 gigabytes per second over 40 simultaneous channels, even in rigorous practical operating conditions with widely varying temperatures.

Status: ALUMNI
State: NC
Project Term: 02/05/2013 - 05/31/2016
Program: OPEN 2012
Award: $2,807,237

HexaTech

HexaTech is developing new semiconductors for electrical switches that will more efficiently control the flow of electricity across high-voltage electrical lines. A switch helps control electricity: switching it on and off, converting it from one voltage to another, and converting it from an Alternating Current (A/C) to a Direct Current (D/C) and back. Most switches today use silicon or silicon-based semiconductors, which are not able to handle high voltages, fast switching speeds, or high operating temperatures. HexaTech has developed highest quality, single crystalline Aluminum Nitride (AlN…

Status: ALUMNI
State: NC
Project Term: 05/05/2016 - 11/10/2017
Program: IDEAS
Award: $499,833

Hi Fidelity Genetics

Hi Fidelity Genetics will develop a low-cost device to measure the characteristics of plant roots and the environmental conditions that affect their development. Their device, called the "RootTracker," is a cylindrical, cage-like structure equipped with sensors on the rings of the cage. Before a seed is planted, farmers can push or twist the RootTracker directly into the soil. A seed is then planted at the top of the cage, allowing the plant to grow naturally while sensors accurately measure root density, growth angles, and growth rates, while having minimal impact on the growth of…

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

High Temperature Superconductors

High Temperature Superconductors will increase the production speed and reduce the cost of high-temperature superconducting coated conductor tapes by using a pulsed laser deposition process to support the development of transformational energy technologies including nuclear fusion reactors. By developing tools to expand the area on which the superconducting layers are deposited, the team at High Temperature Superconductors will raise production speeds by five to ten times compared to that of present-day levels while improving the quality and consistency of the materials.

Status: ALUMNI
State: MD
Project Term: 05/13/2020 - 09/12/2022
Program: Exploratory Topics
Award: $500,000

HighT-Tech

Ammonia synthesis reactions, enabled by the Haber-Bosch process, account for approximately 3% of the world’s total energy use. HighT-Tech proposes a cascade reactor with a sequence of non- platinum group metals catalyst compositions tailored to a specific stage of the synthesis reaction. HighT-Tech’s novel, direct joule (electric current) heating process enables synthesizing high entropy alloy nanoparticles with various catalyst compositions. This method will produce ammonia synthesis catalysts that deliver more ammonia per pass and require significantly less capital cost and energy to…

Status: ACTIVE
State: MD
Project Term: 07/01/2022 - 06/30/2025
Program: OPEN 2021
Award: $2,994,607

HighT-Tech

HighT-Tech aims to develop advanced high-entropy alloy (HEA) catalysts for ammonia oxidation with enhanced catalytic activity, selectivity, and stability. HighT-Tech’s technical approach includes scalable high-temperature thermal shock manufacturing of uniformly mixed multi-metallic nanoparticle HEA catalysts, reduced precious metal contents by >50%, reduced operating temperature, enhanced selectivity to desired reaction products, and extended catalyst lifetime. The team will scale up HEA catalyst manufacturing, perform studies mimicking industrial operation conditions to compare catalytic…

Status: ACTIVE
State: IL
Project Term: 08/05/2022 - 08/04/2025
Program: OPEN 2021
Award: $5,754,096

Hinetics

Hinetics will develop and demonstrate a high-power density electric machine to enable electrified aircraft propulsion systems up to 10 MW and beyond. Hinetics’ technology uses a superconducting machine design that eliminates the need for cryogenic auxiliary systems yet maintains low total mass. The innovative concept features a sub-20 K Stirling-cycle cooler integrated with a low-loss rotor to maintain the SC coils below 30 K. This design could enable a 10 MW, 3000 RPM aircraft propulsion motor weighing less than 250 kilograms that rejects up to 10 times less total heat to the ambient…

Status: ALUMNI
State: VA
Project Term: 10/01/2018 - 03/31/2022
Program: MEITNER
Award: $2,773,321

HolosGen

HolosGen is developing a transportable gas-cooled nuclear reactor with load following ability. The reactor concept is essentially a closed-loop jet engine (Brayton cycle) with the typical combustor replaced by a nuclear heat source. The nuclear heat source is comprised of multiple subcritical power modules (SPMs) that only produce power when they are positioned in close proximity, allowing sufficient neutron transfer to reach criticality (steady-state). The modules will be positioned using an exoskeletal structure with fast-actuation technologies currently employed by the aviation industry.…

Status: ACTIVE
State: AZ
Project Term: 08/01/2021 - 01/31/2025
Program: ASCEND
Award: $6,860,117

Honeywell International

Honeywell Aerospace and the University of Maryland propose to develop a novel high-voltage 500 kW advanced electric propulsion system (AEPS) with a high efficiency and a high-power density. The system will provide direct drive to the propulsive device without using a torque amplifier for low weight, cost, and volume, and high reliability. The major components, the electric rotating machine (motor) and the motor drive (power and control electronics), will be heavily integrated for better performance, sharing a common chassis and cooling system. The AEPS will include a highly effective and…

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

HP

As part of their Category A effort, HP will work with partners to develop an aggressive liquid cooling solution that reduces the need for thermal interface material and the number of thermal interfaces between high-power CPUs/GPUs and the coolant, thereby dramatically lowering the package thermal resistance. The proposed approach leverages HP’s inkjet microfluidics platform and relies on first coupling silicon microchannels to a device’s surface, and then by embedding microfluidics deeper into the device as a future step. This design would reject server heat to 40°C and 60% relative humidity…

Status: ALUMNI
State: CA
Project Term: 10/01/2010 - 06/30/2014
Program: ADEPT
Award: $5,425,912

HRL Laboratories

HRL Laboratories is using gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductors to create battery chargers for electric vehicles (EVs) that are more compact and efficient than traditional EV chargers. Reducing the size and weight of the battery charger is important because it would help improve the overall performance of the EV. GaN semiconductors process electricity faster than the silicon semiconductors used in most conventional EV battery chargers. These high-speed semiconductors can be paired with lighter-weight electrical circuit components, which helps decrease the overall weight of the EV battery…

Status: ALUMNI
State: CA
Project Term: 03/07/2014 - 04/15/2018
Program: SWITCHES
Award: $3,510,986

HRL Laboratories

HRL Laboratories will develop a high-performance, low-cost, vertical gallium nitride (GaN) transistor that could displace the silicon transistor technologies used in most high-power switching applications today. GaN transistors can operate at higher temperatures, voltages, and currents than their silicon counterparts, but they are expensive to manufacture. HRL will combine innovations in semiconductor material growth, device fabrication, and circuit design to create its high-performance GaN vertical transistor at a competitive manufacturing cost.

Status: ACTIVE
State: CA
Project Term: 08/29/2022 - 08/28/2025
Program: OPEN 2021
Award: $2,601,986

HRL Laboratories

HRL Laboratories’ surface laser architected magnets (SLAM) approach can reduce the use of HRE by locally optimizing the crystallographic orientation of the microstructure on the magnet’s surface. Using laser-based post-processing methods, SLAM magnetically hardens the weakest points on a NdFeB magnet surface against demagnetization, which enables higher torque and more energy efficient motors. By increasing demagnetization resistance, the extent of usable magnetic energy produced at elevated operating temperatures can be increased up to 2X in permanent magnets. Magnet and motor size and mass…

Status: ACTIVE
State: CA
Project Term: 09/28/2023 - 09/27/2026
Program: COOLERCHIPS
Award: $1,299,281

HRL Laboratories

As part of a Category A project, HRL Laboratories will develop a novel data center thermal management system with low thermal resistance and greater energy efficiency to reduce power consumption for the next generation of data center servers. HRL’s system utilizes aligned graphite micro-fins and additively manufactured flow manifolds to overcome performance limitations common to existing cooling blocks and provide unprecedented cooling for current and future processors.

Status: ACTIVE
State: OH
Project Term: 04/12/2021 - 10/11/2024
Program: ASCEND
Award: $2,910,479

Hyper Tech Research

Hyper Tech Research Inc., aims to design and demonstrate a multi-MW, high-efficiency, and high-power density integrated electric propulsion motor, drive, and thermal management system that meets the performance requirements of future hybrid electric, single-aisle passenger aircraft. The proposed technology incorporates an advanced and high-performance induction electric motor and drive system with novel advanced thermal management techniques for synergistic cooling that safely uses cryogenic bio-liquified natural gas (LNG) as the energy source for power generation and a large thermal-battery…

Status: ACTIVE
State: OH
Project Term: 08/13/2021 - 08/12/2024
Program: Exploratory Topics
Award: $1,600,000

Hyper Tech Research

There are two key engineering challenges in the development of 10 kV, 10 MW electric power distribution cables for double-aisle passenger aircraft. One is providing sufficient electrical insulation at high voltages and the second is transferring heat away from the conductors. Hyper Tech Research will decrease the resistivity of copper-clad aluminum conductors by a factor of three by maintaining the temperature of the conductors at around 120 Kelvin. The goal of the technology is to reduce the conductor size, cryostat size, and cable volume and weight to significantly lower the mass-…

Status: ALUMNI
State: VA
Project Term: 03/27/2020 - 03/26/2021
Program: Exploratory Topics
Award: $500,000

HyperJet Fusion

HyperJet Fusion is advancing a potentially faster and cheaper approach to fusion energy that would result in reduced energy emissions. In plasma jet driven magneto-inertial fusion (PJMIF), an array of discrete supersonic plasma jets is used to form a spherically imploding plasma liner, which then compresses a magnetized plasma target to fusion conditions. HyperJet Fusion has been developing the plasma guns required for an experimental demonstration of the plasma liner formation. The proposed project focuses on developing the magnetized plasma target. The concept could potentially introduce an…

Status: ALUMNI
State: NM
Project Term: 03/10/2014 - 06/30/2019
Program: SWITCHES
Award: $3,146,043

iBeam Materials

iBeam Materials is developing a scalable manufacturing method to produce low-cost gallium nitride (GaN) LED devices for use in solid-state lighting. iBeam Materials uses an ion-beam crystal-aligning process to create single-crystal-like templates on arbitrary substrates thereby eliminating the need for small rigid single-crystal substrates. This process is inexpensive, high-output, and allows for large-area deposition in particular on flexible metal foils. In using flexible substrates, in contrast to rigid single-crystal wafers, the ion-aligning process also enables roll-to-roll (R2R)…

Status: ALUMNI
State: NY
Project Term: 04/27/2020 - 12/31/2022
Program: DIFFERENTIATE
Award: $1,386,001

IBM T.J. Watson Research Center

IBM Research will develop a reinforcement learning (RL)-based electrical power converter design tool. Such converters are widely used and critically important in many applications. Designing a specific converter is a lengthy and expensive process that involves multiple manual steps—selecting and configuring the correct components and topologies; evaluating the design performance via simulations; and iteratively optimizing the design while satisfying resource, technology, and cost constraints. In this project, the design problem will be formulated as mixed integer optimization to be…

Status: ALUMNI
State: NY
Project Term: 10/01/2017 - 03/31/2020
Program: ENLITENED
Award: $2,424,000

IBM T.J. Watson Research Center

The IBM T.J. Watson Research Center will develop datacenter networking technology incorporating extremely fast switching devices that operate on the nanosecond scale. At the heart of the process is the development of a new type of photonic switch. The dominant switching technology today are electronic switches that toggle connections between two wires, each wire providing a different communication channel. A photonic switch toggles connections between two optical fibers, where each individual fiber themselves can carry many communication channels allowing immense numbers of data transfers.…

Status: ACTIVE
State: NY
Project Term: 10/31/2017 - 03/29/2024
Program: ENLITENED
Award: $10,059,406

IBM T.J. Watson Research Center

IBM T.J. Watson Research Center will develop a two-pronged approach to improve future datacenter efficiency.. New optical interconnect solutions can provide a path to energy-efficient datacenters at higher bandwidth levels, but they must also meet key metrics including power density, cost, latency, reliability, and signal integrity. IBM's team will use their expertise with vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) to develop VCSEL-based optical interconnect technology capable of meeting the necessary future demands. VCSEL-based interconnects offer an appealing combination of low…

Status: ALUMNI
State: NY
Project Term: 08/10/2015 - 08/09/2018
Program: MONITOR
Award: $4,500,000

IBM T.J. Watson Research Center

IBM’s T.J Watson Research Center is working in conjunction with Harvard University and Princeton University to develop an energy-efficient, self-organizing mesh network to gather data over a distributed methane measurement system. Data will be passed to a cloud-based analytics system using custom models to quantify the amount and rate of methane leakage. Additionally, IBM is developing new, low-cost optical sensors that will use tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (TDLAS) for methane detection. While today’s optical sensors offer excellent sensitivity and selectivity, their high cost…

Status: ACTIVE
State: NY
Project Term: 10/01/2022 - 09/30/2025
Program: COOLERCHIPS
Award: $2,629,666

IBM T.J. Watson Research Center

IBM will develop an energy-efficient two-phase cooling system for data center servers to significantly reduce energy and water usage. The system will improve data center energy efficiency over traditionally air-cooled data centers that consume 25-35% of the total data center energy usage. The proposed system will flow non-conductive, dielectric liquid coolant within a server by placing heat extracting cold plates in direct contact with high power components (CPUs, GPUs, etc.), reducing the thermal resistance between the chip and coolant and allowing above ambient coolant temperature. This can…

Status: ALUMNI
State: ID
Project Term: 01/01/2020 - 06/30/2022
Program: Exploratory Topics
Award: $1,659,014

Idaho National Laboratory (INL)

INL and its partners are proposing a next generation metal fuel in support of a megawatt-scale compact fast reactor – being developed by Oklo Inc – that is uniquely sized for off-grid applications. The team seeks to develop a fuel with a demonstrated production process and validated performance that incorporates engineered porosity to absorb and retain produced gasses, allowing for higher operating temperatures, as well as a diffusion barrier between the fuel alloy and the cladding to avoid material degradation, which removes the need for the complicated-to-manufacture sodium bond between…

Status: ACTIVE
State: ID
Project Term: 04/04/2022 - 04/03/2025
Program: ONWARDS
Award: $2,076,343

Idaho National Laboratory (INL)

Idaho National Laboratory (INL) will develop a thermal treatment process for extracting metallic actinides as a group and separating active fission products from used metal fuels. The INL team will leverage the anticipated formation of immiscible (unmixable) liquid layers and subsequent precipitation of solid phases upon cooling to improve the purity of resulting products at a potentially lower cost. A traveling molten zone system will rapidly extract actinides from used metallic fuels. One rapid pass of the molten zone from the bottom to the top of the metallic rod incorporating species of…

Status: ACTIVE
State: ID
Project Term: 01/12/2023 - 05/04/2026
Program: MINER
Award: $3,517,422

Idaho National Laboratory (INL)

Idaho National Laboratory (INL) will advance state-of-the-art of integrated reservoir stimulation and sensing technology for enhanced in-situ mining (ISM) and carbon mineralization. This project will use disruptive electro-hydraulic fracturing to increase permeability of intact ore bodies, expanding the accessibility of CO2-charged fluid to carbonation-target minerals and dispersed energy-relevant minerals. It will also use cost-effective distributed fiber-optic sensing for quantifying permeability enhancement, flow characterization, degree of carbonation, and detecting potential CO2 leakage…

Status: ACTIVE
State: ID
Project Term: 04/03/2023 - 04/02/2026
Program: CURIE
Award: $1,564,150

Idaho National Laboratory (INL)

Idaho National Laboratory (INL) will design, fabricate, and test robust anode materials for recovering actinide elements from used LWR fuels through a molten salt electrochemical process. Current anode materials, which are typically fabricated from either platinum or graphite, are expensive, degrade rapidly, contaminate the reduced actinide product, and generate greenhouse gases when used to manufacture metallic products. The proposed anode materials consist of monolithic ruthenium metal, alloys of ruthenium and iridium (with transition metals), and ruthenium- and iridium-coated electrodes.…

Status: ALUMNI
State: TX
Project Term: 01/30/2012 - 05/29/2015
Program: Solar ADEPT
Award: $2,499,787

Ideal Power

PV inverters convert DC power generated by modules into usable AC power. Ideal Power's initial 30kW 94lb PV inverter reduces the weight of comparable 30kW PV inverters by 90%—reducing the cost of materials, manufacturing, shipping, and installation. With ARPA-E support, new bi-directional silicon power switches will be developed, commercialized, and utilized in Ideal Power's next-generation PV inverter. With these components, Ideal Power will produce 100kW inverters that weight less than 100lb., reducing the weight of conventional 3,000lb. 100kW inverters by more than 95%. The new…

Status: ALUMNI
State: IL
Project Term: 12/18/2017 - 12/31/2022
Program: CIRCUITS
Award: $2,011,800

Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT)

Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) will develop autonomously operated, programmable, and intelligent bidirectional solid-state circuit breakers (SSCB) using transistors based on gallium nitride (GaN). Renewable power sources and other distributed energy resources feed electricity to the utility grid through interfacing power electronic converters, but the power converters cannot withstand a fault condition (abnormal electric current) for more than a few microseconds. Circuit faults cause either catastrophic destruction or protective shutdown of the converters, resulting in loss of power…

Status: CANCELLED
State: IL
Project Term: 01/01/2014 - 12/31/2015
Program: RANGE
Award: $2,294,446

Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT)

Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) is collaborating with Argonne National Laboratory to develop a rechargeable flow battery for EVs that uses a nanotechnology-based electrochemical liquid fuel that offers over 30 times the energy density of traditional electrolytes. Flow batteries, which store chemical energy in external tanks instead of within the battery container, are typically low in energy density and therefore not well suited for transportation. However, IIT’s flow battery uses a liquid electrolyte containing a large portion of nanoparticles to carry its charge; increases its energy…

Status: ACTIVE
State: IL
Project Term: 06/14/2021 - 06/13/2024
Program: Exploratory Topics
Award: $779,374

Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT)

Fault protection must be provided for future turboelectric aircraft’s medium-voltage direct current power systems, but not necessarily from conventional circuit breakers. Illinois Institute of Technology will develop a 10 kV/150A superconducting momentary circuit interrupter (SMCI) to provide fault protection with ultralow power loss (<1 W), ultrafast response (<10 μs or ten millionth of a second), and high-power density. The architecture comprises an SMCI with a fast mechanical disconnect switch. Under normal operation, the SMCI conducts a DC load current through a high-temperature…

Status: ACTIVE
State: IL
Project Term: 03/22/2022 - 03/21/2025
Program: OPEN 2021
Award: $1,885,932

Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT)

The Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) will develop a novel electrochemical process for electrochemically synthesizing C2+ alcohols, i.e., ethanol and propanol from captured CO2, at high rates in a laboratory-scale zero-gap flow electrolyzer. The IIT team will study the effects of flue gas composition and operating conditions on the reaction kinetics parameters and mass transport rate of the flue-gas-based CO2 reduction reaction. Ultimately, an environmentally friendly, economically feasible, and energy efficient CCU process will be developed for large-scale carbon-neutral production of…

Status: ALUMNI
State: WI
Project Term: 12/19/2017 - 05/31/2022
Program: CIRCUITS
Award: $1,172,888

Imagen Energy

Imagen Energy will develop a silicon carbide (SiC)-based compact motor drive system to efficiently control high-power (greater than 500 kW) permanent magnet electric motors operating at extremely high speed (greater than 20,000 rpm). Imagen’s design will address a major roadblock in operating electric motors at high speed, namely overcoming large back electromotive forces (BEMF). Their solution hopes to maximize the capabilities of the SiC technology and associated digital control platform, thereby bringing the overall drive system performance parameters to levels unachievable by current Si-…

Status: CANCELLED
State: CA
Project Term: 02/24/2014 - 07/14/2014
Program: METALS
Award: $94,604

iMetalx Group

iMetalx is scaling up an advanced electrochemical process to produce low-cost titanium from domestic ore. While titanium is a versatile and robust structural metal, its widespread adoption for consumer applications has been limited due to its high cost of production. iMetalx is developing an new electrochemical titanium production process that avoids the cyclical formation of undesired titanium ions, thus significantly increasing the electrical current efficiency. iMetalx will test different cell designs, reduce unwanted side reactions to increase energy efficiency, and minimize the heat…

Status: ACTIVE
State: AL
Project Term: 09/30/2022 - 09/29/2024
Program: COOLERCHIPS
Award: $500,000

Impact Cooling

Impact Cooling will develop a novel data center cooling solution that can cool server equipment efficiently using only air. Data centers are predicted to consume 8% of global electricity by 2030; approximately one-third of that energy is used for cooling server equipment rather than actual computations. State-of-the-art data center cooling has come from better separation of hot and cold air. State-of-the-art air-cooled data centers use air at ambient atmospheric pressure to cool the server equipment. Impact Cooling’s patented air jet impingement cooling technology can achieve dramatically…

Status: ALUMNI
State: CA
Project Term: 01/12/2018 - 05/30/2022
Program: CIRCUITS
Award: $2,235,994

Infineon Technologies

Infineon Technologies will develop a new, low-cost integrated circuit (IC) gate driver specifically for use with gallium nitride (GaN) high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) switches. The GaN HEMT switches would be used as a component for controlling variable speed electric motors in variable speed drives (VSDs). Electric motors, which account for about 40% of U.S. electricity consumption, can be made substantially more efficient by replacing constant speed motors with variable speed motors. Most VSDs today use silicon-based semiconductors, which are limited in performance compared to…

Status: ALUMNI
State: MA
Project Term: 12/12/2013 - 12/10/2016
Program: METALS
Award: $3,980,000

INFINIUM

INFINIUM is developing a technology to produce light metals such as aluminum and titanium using an electrochemical cell design that could reduce energy consumption associated with these processes by over 50%. The key component of this innovation lies within the anode assembly used to electrochemically refine these light metals from their ores. While traditional processes use costly graphite anodes that are reacted to produce CO2 during refining, INFINIUM’s anode can use much cheaper fuels such as natural gas, and produce a high-purity oxygen by-product. Revenue from this by-product could…

Status: CANCELLED
State: MA
Project Term: 02/05/2016 - 05/19/2017
Program: OPEN 2015
Award: $2,022,919

INFINIUM

INFINIUM will convert low-grade magnesium scrap into material of sufficient purity for motor vehicle components by a novel high-efficiency process using less than 1 kWh/kg magnesium product. Other magnesium purification technologies such as distillation and electrorefining use 5-10 kWh/kg, and primary production uses 40-100 kWh/kg. This is also a high-speed continuous process, with much lower labor and capital costs than other batch purification technologies. This technology could enable cost-effective recycling of magnesium, converting low-grade scrap metal into high-purity magnesium at low…

Status: ACTIVE
State: CA
Project Term: 09/02/2022 - 09/01/2024
Program: Exploratory Topics
Award: $500,000

Inlyte Energy

Inlyte Energy will engineer robust cyclability of the sodium metal halide (NaMx) battery’s iron chemistry for next-generation grid storage. The NaMx iron chemistry’s raw storage materials are table salt and iron, two of Earth’s most abundant and low-cost materials. The NaMx battery displays excellent safety, high efficiency, and a long life. Limited research on the sodium/iron chloride battery chemistry has shown variable cycling performance, the number of charge/discharge cycles it can complete before losing performance. Inlyte Energy will perform a systematic study, using a sodium/iron…

Status: ACTIVE
State: WI
Project Term: 03/15/2022 - 03/14/2025
Program: REMEDY
Award: $2,230,693

INNIO Waukesha Gas Engines

INNIO’s Waukesha Gas Engines will develop a new piston, liner, and head gasket design that dramatically reduces crevice volumes, the largest source of unburned fuel, in engine combustion chambers. The team will optimize a large-bore steel piston to achieve the same reciprocating mass as current aluminum pistons. The new technology will broadly apply to all natural-gas-fueled lean-burn engines and can be used to retrofit a fleet of existing engines with little-to-no increase in budgeted costs. The technology will reduce emissions of regulated pollutants such as carbon monoxide, volatile…

Status: CANCELLED
State: OH
Project Term: 12/01/2009 - 11/03/2011
Program: OPEN 2009
Award: $1,640,916

Inorganic Specialists

Inorganic Specialists’ project consists of material and manufacturing development for a new type of Li-Ion battery material, a silicon-coated paper. Silicon-based batteries are advantageous due to silicon’s ability to store large amounts of energy. Yet, the technology has not been able to withstand multiple charge/discharge cycles. The thinner the silicon-based material, the better it can handle multiple charge/discharge cycles. Inorganic Specialists’ extremely thin silicon-coated paper can store 4 times more energy than existing Li-Ion batteries. The team is improving manufacturing…