Posted on 05/08/2010 6:42:16 AM PDT by Titus-Maximus
ARPA-E Selects 37 Projects for $106M in Funding in Second Round; Electrofuels, Better Batteries and Carbon Capture 30 April 2010
The US Department of Energy is awarding $106 million in funding for 37 research projects selected in the second round by the DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). (Earlier post.)
ARPA-E’s first solicitation awarded $151 million to 37 projects aimed at transformational innovations in energy storage, biofuels, carbon capture, renewable power, building efficiency, vehicles, and other areas. (Earlier post.) The second round was focused specifically on three areas of technology representing new approaches for advanced microbial biofuels (electrofuels); much higher capacity and less expensive batteries for electric vehicles; and carbon capture.
More than 540 initial concept papers were received in the three focus areas. Of those, approximately 180 full applications were encouraged, and 37 final awardees were selected through a rigorous review process with input from multiple review panels composed of leading US science and technology experts and ARPA-E’s program directors. Evaluations were based on scientific and technical merit and the potential for high impact on national energy and economic goals.
The grants will go to projects in 17 states. Of the lead recipients, 24% are small businesses, 57% are educational institutions, 11% are national labs, and 8% are large corporations.
Electrofuels: Biofuels from Electricity. Today’s technologies for making biofuels all rely on photosynthesis—either indirectly by converting plants to fuels or directly by harnessing photosynthetic organisms such as algae. This process is less than 1% efficient at converting sunlight to stored chemical energy.
Electrofuels approaches will use organisms able to extract energy from other sources, such as solar-derived electricity or hydrogen or earth-abundant metal ions. Theoretically, such an approach could be more than 10 times more efficient than current biomass approaches.
(Excerpt) Read more at greencarcongress.com ...
The DARPA Bums - spending our bread to make the world a better place. Some interesting technologies with microbes that are genetically manipulated to absorb CO2 with electricity to make gasoline, without using photosynthesis, (UCLA). Energy storage is also big, finally a better battery!
It looks like some very interesting work was done by highly trained individuals from some of America's best schools and greatest minds. If one of these technologies hits, the world will be a better place.
We spend only $106MM on this, and we will spend billions on windmills, Greece and GM's cadillac health care plans - all of which perpetuate problems rather than solve them.
As far as renewable energy, I would solve the storage issue beforr spending money on wind and solar that only bring instability to the grid. People do not understand that the wind and sun can stop abruptly - (clouds for solar), and thousands of MegaWatts can drop off the grid. The grid operators must have "spinning reserves" - which are huge fossil plants that are idling, with the clutch in, waiting to be ramped up at a moment's notice. This costs huge money and burns CO2 producing fuel! SO instead of wasting money on wind and solar - let's solve a problem that has plagued the electric industry from it's inception and this is "storing" power. Our battery technology is lousy, with lead acid still being used. I would use all those wind and solar dollars and create US physicists and materials scientists and at the end, even if we still don't find the solution, we are better off with 100,000 scientists than 100,000 bird-killing wind mills that are destabilizing our power supply and littering the countryside.
Compressed air ?
Not efficient and dependent on geology, underground caverns.
When we built our house in ‘02, I looked at as many high-tech HVAC as I could find. We settled on a ground source heating/AC system with thermal floor. Our power bill for an all electric house is +/- $100.
We have a lot of Coop and hydro power generated electricity in this part of the country so our rates are reasonable.
The obvious long term solution (speaking from a background in coal and oil) is nuclear.
Union Electric of St. Louis wanted to build a second nuke at Callaway but the funding mechanism (rate payers would pre-pay) didn’t happen.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.