The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced it is honoring additional commitments to 10 previously selected Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) awardees for a total of $20 million.
These projects are part of an evaluation process that ensures best practices and good governance principles are applied consistently with the new administration’s policy directives.
The DOE says this completes the approval process for projects selected in ARPA-E’s Next-Generation Energy Technologies for Connected and Autonomous On-Road Vehicles (NEXTCAR) and Renewable Energy to Fuels Through Utilization of Energy-Dense Liquids (REFUEL) programs. Four REFUEL projects are also part of the DOE’s Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) programs, which support technological innovation specifically in the small business community.
NEXTCAR projects will take advantage of the increasingly complex and connected systems in today’s – and tomorrow’s – cars and trucks to drastically improve their energy efficiency, with a goal of reducing individual vehicle energy usage by 20%. REFUEL projects will use water, molecules from the air and electricity from renewable sources to produce high-energy liquid fuels for transportation and other uses.
Below is additional information on each of the 10 awardees moving forward:
NEXTCAR:
Southwest Research Institute – San Antonio: Model Predictive Control for Energy-Efficient Maneuvering Of Connected Autonomous Vehicles Equipped with 12 V Micro-Hybrid Engine Technology – $2,900,000
REFUEL:
Gas Technology Institute – Des Plaines, Ill.: A Novel Catalytic Membrane Reactor for DME Synthesis from Renewable Resources – $2,300,000
Giner Inc. – Newton, Ma.: High-Efficiency Ammonia Production from Water and Nitrogen – $1,500,000
Sustainable Innovations LLC – East Hartford, Conn.: Electricity From an Energy-Dense Carbon-Neutral Energy Carrier – $1,200,000
Wichita State University – Wichita, Kan.: Alkaline Membrane-Based Ammonia Electrosynthesis with High Efficiency for Renewable and Scalable Liquid-Fuel Production – $855,000
University of Minnesota – Minneapolis: Small Scale Ammonia Synthesis Using Stranded Wind Energy – $2,900,000
REFUEL SBIR/STTR:
Bettergy Corp. – Peekskill, N.Y.: Low Temperature Ammonia Cracking Membrane Reactor for Hydrogen Generation – $1,524,607
Molecule Works Inc. – Richland, Wash.: Novel Electrochemical Membrane Reactor for Synthesis of NH3 From Air and Water at Low Temperature and Low Pressure – $2,300,000
Opus 12 Inc. – Berkeley, Calif.: Renewable Electricity-Powered Carbon-Dioxide Conversion to Ethanol for Storage and Transportation – $1,903,268
Storagenergy Technologies Inc. – Salt Lake City: High Rate Ammonia Synthesis by Intermediate Temperature Solid-State Alkaline Electrolyzer (ITSAE) – $2,523,958
