ARPA-E Impacts: a Sampling of Project Outcomes, Volume II
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ARPA-E Impacts: A Sampling of Project Outcomes, Volume II Dear Colleagues, The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) is demonstrating that a collaborative model has the power to deliver real value. The Agency’s first compilation booklet of impact sheets, published in 2016, began to tell the story of how ARPA-E has already made an impact in just seven years—funding a diverse and sophisticated research portfolio on advanced energy technologies that enable the United States to tackle our most pressing energy challenges. One year later our research investments continue to pay off, with a number of current and alumni project teams successfully commercializing their technologies and advancing the state of the art in transformative areas of energy science and engineering. There is no single measure that can fully illustrate ARPA-E’s success to date, but several statistics viewed collectively begin to reveal the Agency’s impact. Since 2009, ARPA-E has provided more than $1.5 billion in funding for 36 focused programs and three open funding solicitations, totaling over 580 projects. Of those, 263 are now alumni projects. Many teams have successfully leveraged ARPA-E’s investment: 56 have formed new companies, 68 have partnered with other government agencies to continue their technology development, and 74 teams have together raised more than $1.8 billion in reported funding from the private sector to bring their technologies to market. However, even when viewed together, those measures do not capture ARPA-E’s full impact. To best understand the Agency’s success, the specific scientific and engineering challenges that ARPA-E project teams have overcome must be understood. This booklet provides concrete examples of those successes, ranging from innovations that will bear fruit in the future to ones that are beginning to penetrate the market as products today. Importantly, half of the projects highlighted in this volume stem from OPEN solicitations, which the agency has run in 2009, 2012, and 2015. ARPA-E’s OPEN programs are an extraordinary opportunity for the R&D community to challenge ARPA-E in areas of technology not covered by the agency’s focused technology programs. Please share this report with your colleagues—we hope to encourage innovative scientists and engineers to continue to engage us with their ideas and consider joining our team as a Program Director, Fellow, or Tech-to-Market Advisor. Sincerely, Eric Rohlfing Acting Director of ARPA-E February 10, 2017 TABLE OF CONTENTS DESCRIPTIONS OF ARPA-E’S PROGRAMS .................................................................................. 3 TRANSPORTATION FUELS ............................................................................................................ 7 North Carolina State University and University of Massachusetts (PETRO) – Engineering the Optimized Biofuel Crop ................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 8 University of Illinois (PETRO) – Oilcane: An Ideal Bioenergy Feedstock ............................................................................... 12 Agrivida (OPEN 2009) – Engineering the Optimized Biofuel Crop ......................................................................................... 15 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Electrofuels) – Liquid Transportation Fuel from Electricity and CO2 ..... 18 Dioxide Materials (OPEN 2012) – Converting Carbon Dioxide into Fuel ............................................................................. 21 Lanzatech (REMOTE) – Cheaper, Faster Waste-Gas Fermenters for Fuels and Chemicals ............................................ 24 Bio2Electric (Ecocatalytic) (OPEN 2012) – Flameless Combustion: Chemical Looping Ethane to Ethylene ............ 27 POWER GENERATION AND DISTRIBUTION ............................................................................ 30 RTI International (IMPACCT) – Carbon Capture with Water-Free Solvents ......................................................................... 31 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory/University of California, Berkeley (IMPACCT) – Novel Metal-Organic Framework Sorbents for Carbon Capture ......................................................................................................................................... 33 General Electric (OPEN 2012) – Back to the Future, for the Electric Power Grid ............................................................... 37 University of California, Berkeley (OPEN 2012) – Precise, Time Synchronized Distribution Grid Measurements 40 Brown University (OPEN 2012) – Self-Optimizing River and Tidal Power Conversion Devices ................................... 44 Integral Consulting (OPEN 2012) – Low-Cost, Real-Time Wave-By-Wave Assessment Tool ...................................... 47 Otherlab (OPEN 2012) – Pneumatically-Actuated PV Tracking System Reduces Cost and Improves Reliability........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 50 Glint Photonics (OPEN 2012) – Low-Power Microscale Tracking for Low-Profile Daylighting .................................... 53 BUILDING, TRANSPORTATION, AND INDUSTRIAL EFFICIENCY ........................................... 56 Utah State University (AMPED) – Cell-Level Control in Large Battery Packs ...................................................................... 57 General Electric (AMPED) – Getting the Best from a Battery .................................................................................................... 60 Otherlab (MOVE) – Intestine-Structured Gas Storage ................................................................................................................. 63 United Technologies Research Center (MOVE) – Flat, Modular Tank Technology for Natural Gas Vehicles ........ 66 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (HEATS) – Advanced Thermal Battery for Climate Control ......................... 68 University of Texas, Austin (OPEN 2012) – Low Cost Voltage-Controlled Window Can Be Tuned to Block Visible and/or Infrared Light ................................................................................................................................................................................. 71 University of California, Berkeley (OPEN 2012) – Fast, Automated Building Energy Auditing .................................... 75 iBeam Materials (SWITCHES) – Low-Cost LEDs on Flexible Metal Tapes ............................................................................. 78 Alcoa (METALS) – Reimagining Aluminum Manufacturing ....................................................................................................... 81 University of Utah ( METALS) – A Thermal Pathway to Low Cost Titanium Powder ........................................................ 84 2 DESCRIPTIONS OF ARPA-E’S PROGRAMS Acronym Title Year Brief Description ADEPT Agile Delivery of Electric Power Technology 2010 Power Conversion Efficiency: Wide band-gap semiconductors for high-power, high-current applications ALPHA Accelerating Low-Cost Plasma Heating and 2014 Fusion energy, focused on intermediate density regime, reducing Assembly the cost of experimental tests for fusion energy AMPED Advanced Management and Protection of Energy 2012 Battery storage, primarily for EV. Addressing efficiency from Storage Devices perspective of the overall battery pack with new approaches to the battery management system. Strong DoD engagement ARID Advanced Research in Dry-Cooling 2015 Developing technology to protect power plant efficiency under water constraints - More efficient ‘dry-cooling’ BEEST Batteries for Electric Energy Storage in 2010 All aspects of battery design and materials, supporting a large Transportation amount of alternative battery chemistry work (supplemented by project awards under OPEN 2009 and 2012) BEETIT Building Energy Efficiency Through Innovative 2010 Lower energy approaches to heating, ventilation and air Thermodevices conditioning (HVAC). Some projects funded by DoD CHARGES Cycling Hardware to Analyze and Ready Grid-Scale 2014 Two test sites to allow grid-scale batteries to be validated under Electricity Storage realistic grid operation conditions DELTA Delivering Efficient Local Thermal Amenities 2014 Local thermal management for comfort of individuals, goal to reduce overall AC costs by allowing less stringent building-wide AC ELECTROFUELS Microorganisms for Liquid Transportation Fuel 2010 Exploratory development of fuel productions by organisms that directly use electric charge as an energy source 3 Acronym Title Year Brief Description ENLITENED Energy-Efficient Light-Wave Integrated Technology 2016 Integrated photonic interconnects and novel switching networks Enabling Networks that Enhance Datacenters for more energy efficient manipulation and movement of data FOCUS Full Spectrum Optimized Conversion and 2014 Solar energy approaches that capture both PV and thermal Utilization of Sunlight energy, including spectrum splitting to different collectors and development of PV cells that can work at the high T of thermal collection GENI Green Electricity Network Integration 2011 Electric power network - Power flow controllers & software to allow more effective integration of renewables GENSETS Generators for Small