Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Announces Funding for Technology Commercialization Fund Projects

Today, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) announced more than $20.1 million in federal funding for 58 projects supported by DOE’s Office of Technology Transitions Technology Commercialization Fund (TCF). The projects are a part of a larger Department-wide TCF effort, in which 82 projects will receive more than $33 million in federal funding and more than $36 million in matching funds from the private sector.

TCF projects require a 50% match of nonfederal funds. A list of the EERE-funded projects and lab partnerships follows.

Ames Laboratory

  • Mechanically Robust High Magnetic Performance Sm-Co Sintered Magnets, $250,000
    • Electron Energy Corporation (Landisville, PA)

Argonne National Laboratory

  • A Comprehensive Validation Methodology For Benchmarking Wide Bandgap Power Devices for Aerospace Application and Improving Manufacturing Process, $250,000
    • Boeing (El Segundo, CA)
    • Kyma Tech (Raleigh, NC)
  • Advanced Drivetrain Lubricants for Enhanced Reliability in Harsh Conditions, $1,000,000
    • Exxon Mobil (Annandale, NJ)
    • GE Renewable Energy (Schenectady, NY)
    • National Renewable Energy Laboratory (Golden, CO)
    • Pixelligent Technologies (Baltimore, MD)
    • University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA)
  • Binder Jet Additive Manufacturing of Nickel Alloy Based Low-Cost Heat Exchangers for Harsh Environments, $250,000
    • ExOne Company (St Clairsville, OH)
  • Demonstration of Ceramicrete® as a Robust Geothermal Well Cement, $250,000
  • Dual-Fuel Technology for Diesel Combustion Engines, $650,000
    • Progress Rail, A Caterpillar company (La Grange, IL)
  • Preparing Large Area of Thermochromic Nanocomposite Films for Smart Window Application, $250,000

Brookhaven National Laboratory

  • Surface Modification of Graphite Anodes Enabling Fast Charging of Li-ion Batteries, $250,000
    • State University of New York, Stony Brook (Stony Brook, NY)
  • Sustainable Well Cement for Geothermal, Thermal Recovery and Carbon Storage Wells, $249,999
    • HERO (Seattle, WA)
    • Imerys (Chesapeake, VA)
    • Resource Cementing (Rio Vista, CA)
    • Trabits Group (Wasilla, AK)

Idaho National Laboratory

  • A Longitudinal Finned Heat Exchanger for Thermal Energy Storage and Recovery, $100,000
    • Rapid Cutting, LLP (Maumelle, AR)
  • Fractionation of Lignocellulosic Biomass into High-Value Products, $120,000
    • Golden Leaf Energy (New Orleans, LA)
    • Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Oak Ridge, TN)
  • Operational Integration and Scalable Deployment of Microgrid Control Algorithms into Nanogrid Inverter+PV+Storage Applications, $220,000
    • Inergy Holdings, LLC (Pocatello, ID)

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  • Adaptation of CRAGE for Clostridium Strains To Enable Rapid Strain Engineering for Production of Biofuels and Bioproducts from Low-Cost Gas Feedstock, $250,000
    • LanzaTech Inc. (Skokie, IL)
  • Nanosegregated Bimetallic Oxide Anode Catalyst For Proton Exchange Membrane Electrolyzer, $300,000
    • IRD Fuel Cells (Albuquerque, NM)
    • Pajarito Powder (Albuquerque, NM)
    • Proton OnSite/NEL (Wallingford, CT)
  • Production of a New Aviation Biofuel Precursor from Cellulosic Biomass Using an Engineered Strain of Novozymes’ C5/C6 Sugar Consuming Yeast, $250,000
    • Novozymes North America Inc. (Franklinton, NC)

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

  • Materials Design Simulator: A Practical Tool for Advanced Alloys Development, $250,000
    • MolyWorks (Cloverdale, CA)
  • Micro-liter Fuel Ignition Tester for Accelerated Discovery of Advanced Combustion Fuels, $100,000
  • System Integration of Rationally Designed Dilute Alloy Catalysts for Energy-Efficient Electrochemical CO2-to-Fuel Conversion, $250,000
    • Opus-12 (Berkeley, CA)
    • TOTAL American Services Inc. (Hopkinton, MA)
  • Zero-Order Reaction Kinetics: Enabling the Use of Detailed Chemical Kinetics in Combustion Simulations, $545,000
    • Convergent Science (Madison, WI)
    • Gamma Technologies, LLC (Westmont, IL)

National Energy Technology Laboratory

  • Catalyst Development for Automotive Exhaust Treatment, $101,146
    • Pyrochem Catalyst Company (Louisville, KY)

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

  • 3D-Printed Desiccant Wheel with Thermo-Responsive Desiccants for Energy Efficiency and Thermal Comfort in Buildings, $250,000
    • Blue Mountain Energy (Las Vegas, NV)
    • Gas Technology Institute (Woodland Hills, CA)
    • TCPoly Inc. (Atlanta, GA)
  • A Customizable Metric to Quantify the Quality of Mobility, $438,149
    • Street Light Data (San Francisco, CA)
  • Carbon Free Data Center Control and Assessment, $150,000
    • Daimler AG (Stuttgart, Germany)
    • Hewlett Packard Enterprise (Spokane, WA)
    • Power Innovations (Highland, UT)
  • Commercialization of Fully Renewable Non-Isocyanate Polyurethanes, $729,918
    • Algix (Meridian, MS)
    • Honda R&D Americas (Raymond, OH)
    • Patagonia (Ventura, CA)
  • Commercializing Biographite for Lithium Ion Batteries, $100,062
    • Ensyn (Ontario, Canada)
  • Cracked Film Lithography For Metal Grids in CdTe Modules, $250,000
    • First Solar (San Francisco, CA)
  • Full Area Quality Control for Advanced Membrane R2R Fabrication Lines By In-Line, High Resolution, Multilayer Thickness Mapping, $124,986
    • Middleton Spectral Vision (Middleton, WI)
  • Geothermal Resource Portfolio Optimization and Reporting Technique, $112,500
    • CanGEA (Calgary, Canada)
    • Hungarian Geological Survey (Budapest, Hungary)
    • International Geothermal Association (Bonn, Germany)
    • Jacobs Engineering Inc. (Auckland, New Zealand)
    • Reykjavik Energy (Reykjavik, Iceland)
  • High Fidelity Modeling Toolkit for Wind Farm Development, $850,000
    • GE Global Research (Niskayuna, NY)
    • GE Renewable Energy (Schenectady, NY)
    • Sandia National Laboratories (Albuquerque, NM)
  • Impacts of Hydrogen Blending in Natural Gas Networks, $175,000
    • Encoord, LLC (Edgewater, CO)
    • Institute of Gas Innovation and Technology (Stony Brook, NY)
    • Southern California Gas Company (Los Angeles, CA)
  • Improving the Accuracy of Building Energy Models used in the Design Process, $1,000,000
    • Autodesk (Boston, MA)
    • Cedar Stack (Seattle, WA)
  • Passivated Contacts for Direct Wafers, $149,905
    • 1366 Technologies (Bedford, MA)
  • Scribe and Interface Modification for Stable Halide Perovskite Modules, $450,000
    • Tandem PV Inc. (Santa Clara, CA)
  • Surface Modified Electrolyzer Components for Corrosion Resistance and Electrical Conductivity, $124,900
    • Treadstone Technologies Inc. (Princeton, NJ)
  • Technical and Commercial Assessment of a Newly Developed Secondary Reflector Design for Linear Fresnel Technology, $600,000
    • Hyperlight Energy (Lakeside, CA)
  • Urban Algal Forests to Capture Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide and Wastewater Nutrients: Algal Strain Development to Enhance Efficiencies, $240,000
    • Gross-Wen Technologies (Ames, IA)
    • MWRD Chicago (Chicago, IL)
  • Wet Waste for High-Performance Sustainable Aviation Fuels, $249,660
    • ALD Nanosolutions (Broomfield, CO)
    • Earth Energy Renewables (Bryan, TX)

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

  • 3D Printing Catalysts for Improved Efficiency and Selectivity: Converting Waste to Jet Fuel, $150,000
    • Honeywell UOP (McCook, IL)
  • 3D Reality Energy Modeling Software, $100,000
    • Bentley Systems (Washington, DC)
  • Expansion of Atmospheric CO2 Plasma Conversion Coatings on Lightweight Magnesium Alloys, $120,000
  • Misalignment Tolerant Three-Phase Wireless Fast Charging System for Electric Vehicles, $750,000
    • FCA US LLC (Auburn Hills, MI)
  • Primer-Less Self-Healing Sealant for Building Envelopes, $100,000
  • Recovery of Lithium from Geothermal Brine with Lithium-Aluminum Layered Double Hydroxide Chloride Sorbents, $500,000
    • All American Lithium (Brawley, CA)
    • Idaho National Laboratory (Idaho Falls, ID)
  • Self-Healing Films for Vacuum Insulation Panels and Air/Vapor Barrier Membranes, $200,000
    • FLEXcon Industrial Park (Spencer, MA)

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

  • Deep Learning for Fish Identification from Sonar Data, $489,000
    • Electric Power Research Institute (Palo Alto, CA)
    • Great Lakes Fishery Commission (Traverse City, MI)
    • SOUND METRICS (Bellevue, WA)
    • The Eel Passage Research Center (Palo Alto, CA)
    • The Technical University of Munich (Munich, Germany)
    • USGS, Great Lakes Science Center (Millersburg, MI)
  • Electrolyte Development for Fast-Charging High-Energy-Density Lithium Batteries, $250,000
    • American Lithium Energy Corporation (ALEC) (Carlsbad, CA)
    • Navitas Advanced Solutions Group (Navitas) (Ann Arbor, MI)
  • Manufacturing Hybrid Copper- Aluminum Rotors for High Power Induction and Permanent Magnet Electric Motors, $200,000
    • General Motors Research and Development (Warren, MI)
  • Multipurpose Advanced Coatings for Protection of High Temperature Alloys in Harsh Industrial Processes, $600,000
    • Praxair Inc. (Tonawanda, NY)
  • Optimization and Commercialization of the Juvenile Eel/Lamprey Acoustic Transmitter and Micro-battery, $600,000
    • Advanced Telemetry Systems (Isanti, MN)
    • Innovasea (Bedford, Canada)
    • MicroBatt Technologies Inc. (Bellevue, WA)
  • Optimize the Autonomous Sensor Fish Device for Understanding Interactions of Aquatic Animals with Marine and Hydrokinetic and Hydro Systems, $600,000
    • Advanced Telemetry Systems (Isanti, MN)
    • Electric Power Research Institute (Palo Alto, CA)
    • Natel Energy Inc. (Alameda, CA)
    • University of Alaska Fairbanks (Fairbanks, AK)
    • University of Washington (Seattle, WA)
  • Production of High-Pressure Hydrogen from the Decomposition of Formic Acid, $700,000
    • OCO Chem (Blue River, OR)
  • Retro-Commissioning Sensor Suitcase for Energy Efficiency, $250,000
    • BC Hydro (Vancouver, Canada)
    • GreenPath Energy Solutions (Windermere, FL)
    • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley, CA)
    • Sacramento Municipal Utility District (Sacramento, CA)
    • University of Idaho (Boise, ID)
    • Zepher (Bingen, WA)
  • Smart Building Start (SBS), $250,000
    • Verdicity (Newton, MA)
  • Smart Monitoring and Diagnostic System (SMDS) for Packaged Air Conditioners and Heat Pumps for Small/Medium Commercial Buildings: Preparation for Commercialization, $250,000
    • JouleSmart Solutions Inc. (Portland, OR)

Sandia National Laboratories

  • Continuous Interoperability for Distributed Energy, $500,000
    • SunSpec Alliance (San Jose, CA)
  • Development of Microfabricated Sensor Solutions for Petrochemical Applications, $469,406
    • Honeywell PMT UOP HPS (Des Plaines, IL)
  • Heliostat Observation System Commercial Qualification, $300,000
    • Heliogen (Pasadena, CA)
  • High-Temperature, Self-Healing Advanced Superalloy Components for High-Performance Reactors, $1,500,000
    • Dynetics (Huntsville, AL)
    • University of New Mexico (Albuquerque, NM)
    • Westwind Computer Products (Albuquerque, NM)