ARPA-E grants millions in funding to clean energy and mobility projects

The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced $175 million for 68 R&D projects. The projects, selected by DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), include a wide range of clean energy solutions, with this report focussing on electric transportation.

Overall, the selectees span 22 states and include renown universities, national laboratories, and private companies, so ARPA-E. The awarded funding varies but is often in the lower multi-million range for e-mobility advances. The project featured below to seek, for example, to improve fuel cells or batteries and battery charging, vehicles or components thereof, also their manufacture.

Hinetics (Champaign, Illinois) seeks to develop an ultra-compact 10MW+ electric aircraft propulsion system by developing a transformational high-power-density electric machine. (Award amount: $5,761,467)
UC Berkeley is also looking into aviation and seeks to develop ultra-lightweight bi-directional power converters for electric aircraft. The university claims the design could enable a 12x reduction in weight and a 3-5x reduction in power loss compared to what is possible today. (Award amount $1,195,345)
The University of Maryland (UMD) seeks to fabricate fast-charging solid-state batteries in which the electrolyte comprises a cellulose fibre-based ion conductor. The conductor overcomes the gap from current solid-state electrolytes to solid-state batteries because they use natural materials, are easy to process, and are compatible with conventional coating processes. (Award amount $2,600,000)
The University of Michigan team aims to develop a new battery separator that can effectively prevent rather than block the formation of dendrites. (Award amount: $950,000)
The University of Houston (Houston, Texas) seeks to create a quick-charging transportation solution using magnesium anodes instead of lithium. (Award amount: $3,400,000)
Cornell University seeks to develop a wireless charging system for stationary and dynamic EV charging. Specifically, the project will demonstrate a 50-kW capacitive wireless charging system with 150 kW/m2 power transfer density and 95% efficiency while meeting fringing-field safety standards and increasing grid reliability by minimizing power pulsations. (Award amount: $1,425,000)
The Ohio State University team will transform the design and manufacturing processes of electric machines for EVs through two innovative magnetic and insulation materials, namely a novel composite magnetic powder (CMP) material and ceramic electrophoretic deposition (EPD) insulation. (Award amount $2,405,076)
Precision Combustion wants to demonstrate a new solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) architecture that permits a power-dense, lightweight design ideal for transportation applications. The team’s novel approach will include a scalable, electrochemical chip-based SOFC. (Award amount $1,540,224)
Carnegie Mellon University will work to electrify vehicles by developing more efficient fuel cells to enable low-cost, high-efficiency options for trucks and SUVs. (Award amount: $3,220,310)
Columbia University seeks to lower the production cost of carbon-free, green hydrogen through the development of a low-temperature electrolyzer that uses proton-conducting oxide membranes (POM) with the potential to achieve step-change increases in current density and efficiency compared to today’s commercial polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolyzer. (Award amount: $3,375,712)

OPEN 2021 is ARPA-E’s latest instalment of the OPEN program. The first four iterations — 2009, 2012, 2015, and 2018 — awarded over $600 million in funding to 225 projects working to achieve breakthroughs in commercializing energy solutions.

Since its founding in 2009, ARPA-E claims it has provided $2.93 billion in R&D funding and has attracted more than $7.6 billion in private-sector follow-on funding to commercialize clean energy technologies.

greencarcongress.com, energy.gov, arpa-e.energy.gov (full list of selectees)