Manufacturing Efficiency
Innovative Development in Energy-Related Applied Science
The IDEAS program - short for Innovative Development in Energy-Related Applied Science - provides a continuing opportunity for the rapid support of early-stage applied research to explore pioneering new concepts with the potential for transformational and disruptive changes in energy technology. IDEAS awards, which are restricted to maximums of one year in duration and $500,000 in funding, are intended to be flexible and may take the form of analyses or exploratory research that provides the agency with information useful for the subsequent development of focused technology programs. IDEAS awards may also support proof-of-concept research to develop a unique technology concept, either in an area not currently supported by the agency or as a potential enhancement to an ongoing focused technology program. This program identifies potentially disruptive concepts in energy-related technologies that challenge the status quo and represent a leap beyond today's technology. That said, an innovative concept alone is not enough. IDEAS projects must also represent a fundamentally new paradigm in energy technology and have the potential to significantly impact ARPA-E's mission areas.
Modern Electro/Thermochemical Advances in Light Metals Systems
The projects that comprise ARPA-E's METALS program, short for "Modern Electro/Thermochemical Advances in Light Metal Systems," aim to find cost-effective and energy-efficient manufacturing techniques to process and recycle metals for lightweight vehicles and aircraft. Processing light metals such as aluminum, titanium, and magnesium more efficiently would enable competition with incumbent structural metals like steel to manufacture vehicles and aircraft that meet demanding fuel efficiency standards without compromising performance or safety.
For a detailed technical overview about this program, please click here.
Open Funding Solicitation
In 2012, ARPA-E issued its second open funding opportunity designed to catalyze transformational breakthroughs across the entire spectrum of energy technologies. ARPA-E received more than 4,000 concept papers for OPEN 2012, which hundreds of scientists and engineers thoroughly reviewed over the course of several months. In the end, ARPA-E selected 66 projects for its OPEN 2012 program, awarding them a total of $130 million in federal funding. OPEN 2012 projects cut across 11 technology areas: advanced fuels, advanced vehicle design and materials, building efficiency, carbon capture, grid modernization, renewable power, stationary power generation, water, as well as stationary, thermal, and transportation energy storage.
For a detailed technical overview about this program, please click here.
Open Funding Solicitation
In 2015, ARPA-E issued its third open funding opportunity designed to catalyze transformational breakthroughs across the entire spectrum of energy technologies. ARPA-E received more than 2,000 concept papers for OPEN 2015, which hundreds of scientists and engineers thoroughly reviewed over the course of several months. In the end, ARPA-E selected 41 projects for its OPEN 2015 program, awarding them a total of $125 million in federal funding. OPEN 2015 projects cut across ten technology areas: building efficiency, industrial processes and waste heat, data management and communication, wind, solar, tidal and distributed generation, grid scale storage, power electronics, power grid system performance, vehicle efficiency, storage for electric vehicles, and alternative fuels and bio-energy.
For a detailed technical overview about this program, please click here.
Alcoa, Inc.
Energy Efficient, High Productivity Aluminum Electrolytic Cell with Integrated Power Modulation and Heat Recovery
Alcoa is designing a new, electrolytic cell that could significantly improve the efficiency and price point of aluminum production. Conventional cells reject a great deal of waste heat, have difficulty adjusting to electricity price changes, and emit significant levels of CO2. Alcoa is addressing these problems by improving electrode design and integrating a heat exchanger into the wall of the cell. Typically, the positive and negative electrodes--or anode and cathode, respectively--within a smelting cell are horizontal. Alcoa will angle their cathode, increasing the surface area of the cell and shortening the distance between anode and cathode. Further, the cathode will be protected by ceramic plates, which are highly conductive and durable. Together, these changes will increase the output from a particular cell and enable reduced energy usage. Alcoa's design also integrates a molten glass (or salt) heat exchanger to capture and reuse waste heat within the cell walls when needed and reduce global peak energy demand. Alcoa's new cell design could consume less energy, significantly reducing the CO2 emissions and costs associated with current primary aluminum production.
BlazeTech Corp.
Hyperspectral Imaging for the Identification of Light Metals
Boston Electrometallurgical Corporation
Revolutionary Process for Low-Cost Titanium
Boston Electrometallurgical Corporation will develop and scale a one step molten oxide electrolysis process for producing Ti metal directly from the oxide. Titanium oxide is dissolved in a molten oxide, where it is directly and efficiently extracted as molten titanium metal. In this process, electrolysis is used to separate the product from the solution as a bottom layer that can then be removed from the reactor in its molten state. If successful, it could replace the multistep Kroll process with a one-step process that resembles today's aluminum production techniques. If successful, Ti ingots could be produced at cost parity with stainless steel, opening the doorway to industrial waste heat recovery applications and increasing its adoption in commercial aircraft.
Case Western Reserve University
Novel Titanium Electrowinning Process Using Specialized Segmented Diaphragms
Energy Research Company
Development of an Integrated Minimill for the Aluminum Industry: From Scrap to Product in One Step
Gas Technology Institute
Dual Electrolyte Extraction Electro-Refinery for Light Metal Production
Gas Technology Institute
Reactor Engine
The team led by Gas Technology Institute (GTI) will develop a conventional automotive engine as a reactor to convert ethane into ethylene by using a new catalyst and reactor design that could enable record-breaking conversion yields. The technology proposed by GTI would use a reciprocating engine as a variable volume oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) reactor. This means a conventional engine would be modified with a new valving mechanism that would take advantage of high flow rates and high pressure and temperature regime that already exists in an internal combustion engine. This process requires no energy input, does produce minimal CO2 emissions, and improves yields to about 80% at one third the cost. The ODH reactor engine's relatively small size and high throughput will enable ethylene producers to add ethylene production capacity without the financial risk of building a billion-dollar steam cracking plant. This technology will reduce energy-related emissions and could enable the U.S. plastics industry to increase utilization of low-cost, domestic ethane to produce ethylene for plastics.
Georgia Tech Research Corporation
Scalable and Robust Zeolitic Imidazolate Framework (ZIF) Membranes Supported on Hollow Fibers for Olefin Separations
The Georgia Institute of Technology will develop hollow fiber membranes containing metal-organic framework (MOF) thin films to separate propylene from propane. The nanoporous MOF film is supported on the inside surfaces of the tubular polymeric hollow fibers. Chemicals introduced into the center of the tube are separated through the MOF membrane by a molecular sieving process. Traditional olefin production processes are performed at pressures up to 20 bar, requiring large energy and capital costs. A key feature of the team's technology is the ability to synthesize membranes at near-ambient liquid-phase conditions and perform olefin separation at lower pressures as low as 6 bar. As the team evaluates using its MOF membranes to separate propylene from propane, the team will also develop detailed correlations between processing conditions, membrane morphology, and membrane performance. Another important task is to perform a detailed economic evaluation of the technology and establish its economic advantages compared to existing and other proposed technologies. The general separations concept also has potential to be used for a larger range of petrochemical and gas separations.
iMetalx Group, LLC
Advanced Titanium Electrowinning Using Alternative Ores
INFINIUM, Inc.
Clean Efficient Aluminum Oxide Electrolysis with SOM Inert Anodes
INFINIUM, Inc.
Ultra-Low Energy Magnesium Recycling for New Light-Weight Vehicles
Johns Hopkins University
Carbon Fiber from Methane
Johns Hopkins University will develop and assess components of a self-powered system to convert methane (the main component in natural gas) into carbon fiber. Methane can be separated into carbon and hydrogen, or burned for energy. The team will develop processes to use methane both to power the system and serve as carbon feedstock in a four stage system. First, methane is decomposed into hydrogen and carbon, and combined into a carbon/metal aggregate. Second, the carbon/metal aggregate is melted, producing a liquid melt containing carbon dissolved within it. Third, the melt is solidified into a homogeneous ribbon. Fourth, carbon is extracted from the ribbon in the form of fiber or fiber precursor. Finally, the metal content of the ribbon is reclaimed and recycled back to the start of the process for further methane decomposition. The project will focus on resolving the materials science challenges of directing carbon crystal growth into fiber and/or fiber precursors (steps 3 and 4). The final goal is to produce fibers that have the strength and stiffness of traditionally produced carbon fiber while requiring a fraction of energy and cost to produce.
Materials & Electrochemical Research (MER) Corporation
Advanced Electrolytic Titanium Powder Production from Titanium Oxycarbide
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
New High Temperature, Corrosion-Resistant Cast Alloy For Operation in Industrial Gaseous Environments
The team led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) will develop new cast alumina-forming austenitic alloys (AFAs), along with associated casting and welding processes for component fabrication. ORNL and its partners will prototype industrial components with at least twice the oxidation resistance compared to current cast chromia-forming steel and test it in an industrial environment. These innovations could allow various industrial and chemical processing systems and gas turbines to operate at higher temperatures to improve efficiencies and reduce downtimes, thus providing cost and energy reductions for a wide range of energy-intensive applications.
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Catalyzed Organo-Metathetical (COMET) Process for Magnesium Production from Seawater
PNNL is developing a radically new process to produce magnesium from seawater. Today's methods are energy intensive and expensive because the magnesium concentration in seawater is so low that significant energy is needed to evaporate off water and precipitate magnesium chloride salt. Further, conventional technologies involve heating the salt to 900°C and then using electric current to break the chemical bond between magnesium and chlorine to produce the metal. PNNL's new process replaces brine spray drying with a low-temperature, low-energy dehydration process. That step is combined with a new catalyst-assisted process to generate an organometallic reactant directly from magnesium chloride. The organometallic is decomposed to magnesium metal via a proprietary process at temperatures less than 300°C, thus eliminating electrolysis of magnesium chloride salt. The overall process could be significantly less expensive and more efficient than any conventional magnesium extraction method available today and uses seawater as an abundant, free resource.
Palo Alto Research Center
Probing Alloys for Rapid Sorting Electrochemically (PARSE)
Pages
![Subscribe to Manufacturing Efficiency](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20161225034557im_/https://arpa-e.energy.gov/misc/feed.png)