/ Financial / U.S. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette Announces $3,844,215 for Small Business Research and Development Grants in Colorado

U.S. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette Announces $3,844,215 for Small Business Research and Development Grants in Colorado

Parul Dubey on May 22, 2020 - in Financial, News

WASHINGTON, D.C. –U.S. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette today announced that the Department of Energy (DOE) will award 256 grants totaling $53 million to 211 small businesses in 35 states and the District of Columbia. These awards include 18 in Colorado totaling $3,844,215. Funded through DOE’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs, today’s selections are for Phase I research and development.

“A cornerstone of the American economy, small businesses play a major role in spurring innovation and creating jobs throughout the country. I applaud our Department’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs for awarding over two hundred small businesses across 35 states and the District of Columbia a total of $53 million dollars for research and development projects. Now more than ever, we want to lend support to our country’s small businesses to ensure they are thriving again soon,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette.

The Phase I grants will allow small businesses to research technical feasibility of new innovations that advance the mission of the Department.  Phase I grants are 6-12 months in duration with a median award amount of $200,000.  Successful Phase I grantees will be eligible to apply for Phase II awards in fiscal year 2021 that will allow them to develop novel prototypes or processes to validate their Phase I research findings. Phase II grants have a median award amount of $1,100,000 and a duration up to 2 years.       

Below are the grants for Colorado:

Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, $199,971 for Micro-Hydro Scroll Turbine Energy Recovery Device. Micro and modular desalination systems are targeted by the Water Security Grand Challenge to meet the need for remote and rural safe, secure, and affordable drinking water. The proposed Micro-Hydro Scroll Turbine is designed to translate the benefits of large scale cost-effective energy recovery devices to remote and rural communities.

Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, $206,050 for Rare Earth Element Extraction and Recycling. The large majority of rare earth metals used in the United States are imported from China. The Rare Earth Element Extraction and Recycling process employs green chemistry that will enable domestic, cost-effective rare earth recycling to significantly reduce strategic risks and price fluctuations associated with the import of these commodities.

Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, $206,500 for Novel Utilization Strategies for Ocean Plastic Waste. Conversion of ocean plastic waste to platform chemicals for production of virgin plastics would dramatically advance the circular plastics economy, having enormous environmental, social, and technical benefits. TDA will develop a catalyst to convert waste plastic to a liquid for existing chemical plants to convert to new plastics.

Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, $200,000 for Direct Recycling of Nickel-manganese-cobalt Cathode Materials from Lithium Batteries Using an All-In-One Rotary Kiln Reactor. The Hazen Research-ANL team will develop and demonstrate a low-cost and scalable method for the direct recycling of the cathode materials used in state-of-art LiBs. Accelerating and advancing direct recycling will facilitate the growth of a globally competitive direct recycling industry in the U.S. thereby reducing our reliance on foreign sources for materials and reducing the cost of LiBs. The project will result in multi-faceted benefits, including a positive effect on the U.S. economy.

Fossil Energy, $256,500 for Process Intensification for Enhanced Carbon Capture. A new absorption process technology is being developed to help capture and remove carbon dioxide emissions from post combustion processes. This new technology will help minimize the emissions of carbon dioxide gas to the atmosphere.

Fossil Energy, $250,000 for An Advanced Sorbent for Direct Air Capture. TDA proposes to develop a new material to effectively remove CO2 directly from air. This process will provide a highly efficient and environmentally responsible way to reduce greenhouse gases in air.

Fossil Energy, $256,489 for A Spectroscopy-Based, Online, Real-time Monitoring System with Integrated Machine Learning for Liquid Phase Selenium in Coal Power Plant Effluent Streams. A real-time monitoring system for selenium concentrations and various forms to improve fossil energy efficiency and provide safer and cleaner water supplies.

Fossil Energy, $256,500 for Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Multi-Gas Sensors. A sensor is being produced for solid oxide fuel cell systems that will monitor the fuel and oxidant streams to impart higher efficient operations. This sensor will further help commercialize SOFC power generators by offering improved and reliable electrical generation.

Fusion Energy Sciences, $199,813 for Plating Investigation for Aluminum Tritium Scroll Vacuum Pump to Improve Durability and Decrease Overall Cost. Fusion research is limited by steep production costs, long-lead times, and difficulty to machine institutionally preferred stainless-steel scroll vacuum pumps. This proposal will conduct a tritium containment performance and permeability study to evaluate the effectiveness of easily machined aluminum plated with nickel or other elements to replace stainless-steel tritium containment.

Fusion Energy Sciences, $200,000 for Kilohertz Laser Plasma Acceleration and Inverse Compton Scattering Light Source. This work addresses the long-term need for new technologies to make possible compact high-energy particle accelerators, driven by lasers. This project will develop the technologies required to generate very high Terawatt peak-power laser pulses at unprecedented average power, performance, and stability.

Fusion Energy Sciences, $200,000 for FEFLA Structures for High Intensity Short Pulse Fiber Laser Array. Fiber Laser Arrays have the promise to achieve both high peak powers and high average powers, which achieving both at the same time is critically necessary for Inertial Fusion and other DOE accelerator applications. For these fiber lasers to become a reality, complexity and cost must be reduced. The Fly’s Eye Fiber Laser Array utilizes bio mimicry concepts to achieve over 90% complexity reduction.

Fusion Energy Sciences, $206,474 for A Cloud Modeling Capability for Low Temperature Plasmas for Microelectronics. This project will develop an easy-to-use software application to predict the performance of plasma processing devices.

Fusion Energy Sciences, $200,000 for High-Strength Composite HTS CORC; Cables for Plasma Fusion Confinement Systems. The development of composite high-temperature superconducting magnet cables with superior strength is necessary for the U.S. to maintain its leadership position in superconductivity research, materials science, and fusion research.

Fusion Energy Sciences, $199,973 for Thermally Conductive Insulators for Conduction-Cooled Superconducting Magnets, Topic 27a. Improved electrical insulation systems will be developed for use in conduction-cooled superconducting magnets included those being developed by the U.S. Department of Energy for fusion energy and high energy physics applications. The products of this work will enable less costly operation of reliable high-field magnets that are integral to these systems. Additional benefits will be realized by the medical imaging industry.

High Energy Physics, $199,923 for Monte Carlo Simulation with CAD Interface for Calculation of 3D Maps of Residual Dose. This project will develop an easy-to-use software application to predict and mitigate radiation effects in research environment, space instruments, nuclear plants and medical facilities and help non-proliferation and national security efforts.

High Energy Physics, $200,000 for Novel High Peak-and Average-Power Ultrafast Lasers Using Parametric Beam Combination of Fiber Lasers. This work addresses the need for new energy-efficient ultrashort-pulse infrared laser technologies, for future implementation of advanced particle accelerator concepts and with immediate applications for science, industry, and defense. We will develop a novel technology that combines the output of many fiber lasers to generate a single, frequency-shifted, beam.

High Energy Physics, $206,022 for Integrated Multiphysics Design of High-Power Short-Pulse Lasers. Leadership in high-power laser technology is moving from the U.S. towards Europe and Asia. New software is being developed to revitalize the contributions of U.S. industry and academia to high-power laser design.

Nuclear Energy, $200,000 for Stress Corrosion Cracking Mitigation Coating. The stainless steel canisters which store nuclear waste underground are vulnerable to stress corrosion cracking. The development of highly effective corrosion-inhibiting coatings to stop stress corrosion cracking of the stainless steel dry storage containers will greatly increase the life-cycle safety of these interim (20-60 year storage before final geological storage) dry storage containers.

Small businesses play a major role in spurring innovation and creating jobs in the U.S. economy.  The SBIR and STTR programs were created by Congress to leverage small businesses to advance innovation at federal agencies. Additional information on the DOE SBIR and STTR programs is available HERE.

More information about the projects announced today is available at the following link: http://science.osti.gov/sbir/Awards/

 

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