DOE Announces $16 Million for 54 Projects to Help Commercialize Promising Energy Technologies: Technology Commercialization Fund Will Support 12 National Labs and 52 Private Sector Partners

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced nearly $16 million in funding to help businesses move promising energy technologies from DOE’s National Laboratories to the marketplace. This first Department-wide round of funding through the Technology Commercialization Fund (TCF) will support 54 projects at 12 national labs involving 52 private-sector partners.

The TCF is administered by DOE’s Office of Technology Transitions (OTT), which works to expand the commercial impact of DOE’s portfolio of research, development, demonstration and deployment activities. In February of 2016, OTT announced the first solicitation to the DOE National Laboratories for TCF funding proposals. It received 104 applications from across the laboratory system, for projects in two topic areas:

Topic Area 1: Projects for which additional technology maturation is needed to attract a private partner; and
Topic Area 2: Cooperative development projects between a lab and industry partner(s), designed to bolster the commercial application of a lab developed technology.
All projects selected for the TCF will receive an equal amount of non-federal funds to match the federal investment.

“Deploying new clean energy technologies is an essential part of our nation’s effort to lead in the 21st century economy and in the fight against climate change,” said Lynn Orr, DOE’s Under Secretary for Science and Energy. “The funds announced today will help to accelerate the commercialization of cutting-edge energy technologies developed in our national labs, making them more widely available to American consumers and businesses.”

“The great work at the national labs and across DOE’s program make the Department one of the largest supporters of technology transfer within the federal government” said Jetta Wong, Director of the Office of Technology Transitions. “These TCF selections will further strengthen DOE’s important mission to transition technologies to the market.”

DOE’s national labs have supported the critical research and development that lead to many technologies in the marketplace today, including the batteries powering electric vehicles, the foundation of Internet servers, and the optical digital recording technology behind DVDs. These first department-wide TCF selections will expand the Department’s efforts to catalyze the commercial impact of today’s portfolio of research, development, demonstration, and deployment activities to increase return-on-investment from federally-funded research, and to give more Americans access to cutting-edge energy technologies.

A list of TCF selections, as well as the Topic Area 2 projects and their private sector partners is below.

AMES NATIONAL LABORATORY

Manufacturing Of Advanced Alnico Magnets for Energy Efficient Traction Drive Motors, $325,000: Carpenter Powder Products, Wyomissing PA.
ARGONNE NATIONAL LABORATORY

Application of Resin-Wafer Electrode Ionization Technology in Biorefineries, $600,000.
Ultrathin Nanoparticle Membranes to Remove Emerging Hydrophobic Trace Organic Compounds In Water with Low Applied Pressure and Energy Consumption, $150,000:
Advanced Manufacturing of Ultra-High Density Interposers, $250,000: ICAMR (International Consortium for Advanced Manufacturing Research), Osceola County, FL.
Graphene Coating for Dry Gas Seal Applications, $579,852: John Crane Inc., Morton Grove, IL.
UNCD-Based Electron Field Emission Source for Accelerator Applications, $150,000: Euclid TechLabs, Gaithersburg, MD.
BROOKHAVEN NATIONAL LABORATORY

Direct Fabrication of Fuel Cell Electrodes by Electrodeposition of High-performance Core-shell Catalysts, $100,000.
Nitride-Stabilized Pt Core-Shell Electrocatalysts for Fuel Cell Cathodes, $100,000.
IDAHO NATIONAL LABORATORY

Advanced Outage Control Center Dashboard with Predictive Tools, $60,500.
Commercialization Research and Development of Change Detection Systems for Nuclear Applications, $62,500.
Computer-Based Procedure System for Field Workers, $130,000
Enhancing Lithium-Ion Battery Safety for Vehicle Technologies and Energy Storage, $119,005.
Vibro-Acoustic Testing for Microstructure Characterization and Metrology, $150,000.
Additive Manufacturing as an Alternative Fabrication Technique for the Fabrication of Uranium Silicide Fuel, $150,000: Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Pittsburgh, PA.
Development of In-Core Three-Omega Thermal Conductivity Probe, $74,911: Radiation Detection Technologies, Inc. (RDT), Manhattan, KS.
Enhanced and Miniaturized Wireless Valve Position Indicator Prototype, $149,600: Analysis and Measurement Services Corporation (AMS), Rolls Royce, Reston, VA (US HQ’s), Westinghouse Electrical Corporation (WEC), Pittsburgh, PA, Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), Palo Alto, CA.
Vehicle Controller Area Network (CAN) Bus Network Safety and Security System, $150,000: Mercedes-Benz Research and Development North America, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA.
LAWRENCE BERKELEY NATIONAL LABORATORY

Large Area Polymer Protected Lithium Metal Electrodes with Engineered Dentrite-Blocking Ability, $73,831.
Flame-Powered SOFC Generators, $150,000.
LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LABORATORY

Fire and Water Resistant Pre-filter, $150,000.
Cryo-Compressed Hydrogen Tank Technology in an Internal Combustion Engine Application, $431,995: GoTek Energy, Inc., Oak View, CA.
LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY

Efficient Groundwater Restoration at Uranium In-Situ Recovery Sites to Enable Domestic Uranium Production for Nuclear Energy, $700,000: Cameco Resources, Inc., Casper, WY.
FracMan/dfnWorks: From Geological Fracture Characterization to Multiphase Subsurface Flow and Transport Simulation, $150,000: Golder Associates, Inc., Redmond, WA.
NATIONAL ENERGY TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY

Cooperative Development of NETL Electrode Engineering Process for SOFC Commercialization, $250,256: Acumentrics, Westwood, MA
Development of Spouting Bed Reactor for Reduction of Hematite to Magnetite, $749,781: Siox, LLC. Louisville, KY
Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) Subsurface Sensor Maturation, $246,423: Applied Spectra, Inc., Fremont, CA.
Raman Gas Analyzer Cooperative Development, $106,640: Oxergy, Inc., Juneau, AK
NATIONAL RENEWABLE ENERGY LABORATORY

Improved Wind Plant Energy Production by Application of Wind-Plant Integrated Systems Engineering Model (WISDEM™) to Wind Plant Controls, $225,000: NextEra Energy Resources, Juno Beach, FL, Ystrategies, Pittsburgh, PA
New DC Power System Topology for Telecommunications Facilities, $140,000: Verizon Wireless, New York NY (Headquarters).
Scaled Production Of High Octane Biofuel From Biomass-Derived Dimethyl Ether, $740,000: Enerkem, Montreal, Canada.
Thermal Management for Planar Package Power Electronics, $250,000: John Deere Electronic Solutions (JDES), Fargo, ND
OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY

Molten Salt Reactor Neutronics Tools, $150,000.
Novel High Permeability Membranes for CO2 Capture, $150,000.
On-Vehicle Emission Sensor, $150,000.
Additive Manufacturing of Thermoset Cellular Structures, $500,000: Magnum Venus Products, Knoxville, TN.
Carbon Fiber Plasma Surface Treatment, $500,000: RMX Technologies, LLC., Knoxville, TN, C.A. Litzler Company, LLC., Cleveland, OH.
Liquid Salt Environment Creep Testing System Development and Commercialization, $700,000: Applied Testing Systems, Inc., Butler, PA.
New High-Strength Ni-based Alloys for High Temperature Service in Liquid Fluoride Salt Environments, $135,000: Haynes International, Kokomo, IN.
Residential Gas Heat Pump (RGHP), $750,000: Blue Mountain Energy, Las Vegas, NV, Intellichoice Energy, Las Vegas, NV, Alagasco, Birmingham, AL, Mestex, Dallas, TX.
The ENABLE (Environmentally Neutral Automated Building Electric Energy) Platform, $625,000: Flex Power Control, Woodland Hills, CA
PACIFIC NORTHWEST NATIONAL LABORATORY

Assembly Of Dissimilar Aluminum Alloys For Automotive Application, $500,000.
Controlled-Release Solid Nitride Fertilizer From Coal Fly Ash: Demonstrating Fluidized-Bed Synthesis And Environmental Performance, $125,000.
Solid State Processing for Improved Performance of Current and Next-Generation Hydropower Components, $200,000.
Commercialization of Uncertainty Prediction Tools for Wind and Solar Energy for Probabilistic Electric Power Grid Operations, $290,000: California Independent System Operator (CAISO), Folsom, CA, AWS Truepower (AWST), Albany, NY (Headquarters).
Demonstration of a kW class Redox Flow Battery using an Advanced Bi-additive Vanadium Sulfate Electrolyte, $600,000: ITN Energy Systems, Inc., Littleton, CO.
Development of Electrolytes for Lithium Ion Batteries in Wide Temperature Range Applications, $375,000: Farasis Energy, Inc., Hayward, CA, Navitas Systems, Woodridge, IL.
Development of Protective Coatings for 1 kW Hot Zone, $124,332: Protonex Technology Corporation, Southborough, MA.
Direct Extruded High Conductivity Copper for Electric Machines Manufactured Using the ShAPE Process, $600,000: General Motors R&D, Detroit, MI (Headquarters).
Dish-STARSTM Commercialization, $684,000: STARS LLC, Richland, WA, Southern California Gas Company, Los Angeles, CA, Infinia Technology Corporation, Richland WA, Barr Engineering, Minneapolis, MN, DiverSolar LLC, Albuquerque, NM.
Glass Seals with Low or Zero Boria Content for High Temperature SOFC Applications, $175,000: LG Fuel Cell Systems, Inc., North Canton, OH.
Reliability and Durability Testing of Glass Ceramic Seals for Praxair’s Oxygen Transport Membranes, $600,000: Praxair, Danbury, CT.
A Self-Powered Acoustic Transmitter, $150,000: Advanced Telemetry Systems Inc., Isanti, MN, Idaho Power Company, Boise, ID, Grant County Public Utilities District, Ephrata WA.