Wednesday, June 22, 2016

DOE announces funding for energy technology partnerships

The U.S. Department of Energy Tuesday announced nearly $16 million in funding to help national laboratories and industrial partners move promising energy technologies to the marketplace.

This first round of funding through DOE's Technology Commercialization Fund will support 54 projects at 12 national labs involving 52 private-sector partners. Nine projects totaling more than $1.04 million involve Idaho National Laboratory.

“Moving research and development from the laboratory to market increases INL's impact,” said Amy Lientz, the lab’s director of Partnerships, Engagement and Technology Deployment. "Over the past decade, INL has signed 697 new technology license agreements, executed 145 competitive research and development agreements and completed 417 agreements with federal agencies and private-sector entities worth nearly $250 million. The nine INL projects awarded federal funds today will advance Idaho's role as an international clean energy and national security innovation hub.”

Projects include:

  1. Advanced Outage Control Center Dashboard with Predictive Tools, $60,500
  2. Commercialization Research and Development of Change Detection Systems for Nuclear Applications, $62,500
  3. Computer-Based Procedure System for Field Workers, $130,000
  4. Enhancing Lithium-Ion Battery Safety for Vehicle Technologies and Energy Storage, $119,005
  5. 
Vibro-Acoustic Testing for Microstructure Characterization and Metrology, $150,000

  6. Additive Manufacturing as an Alternative Fabrication Technique for the Fabrication of Uranium Silicide Fuel, $150,000: Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Pittsburgh, Pa.
  7. 
Development of In-Core Three-Omega Thermal Conductivity Probe, $74,911: Radiation Detection Technologies, Inc. (RDT), Manhattan, Kan.
  8. 
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, Calif.

  9. Vehicle Controller Area Network (CAN) Bus Network Safety and Security System, $150,000: Mercedes-Benz Research and Development North America, Inc., Sunnyvale, Calif.