Washington, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) is offering a second round of grants totaling $100 million for advanced research projects, targeted at batteries for hybrid and electric vehicles, biofuels and carbon capture technologies. Applicants need to submit a concept paper by January 10, 2010. The deadline for full applications has not been determined yet. Click here for more details.
ARPA-E’s first round of grants funded 37 projects aimed at energy storage, biofuels, carbon capture, renewable power, building efficiency, and vehicles. This round focuses on three key project areas:
- Electrofuels: ARPA-E is seeking new ways to make liquid transportation fuels without using petroleum or biomass by using microorganisms to harness chemical or electrical energy to convert carbon dioxide into liquid fuels.
- Innovative Materials & Processes for Advanced Carbon Capture Technologies (IMPACCT): The objective is to fund high-risk, high-reward research efforts that will revolutionize technologies that capture carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants, which currently generate about 50 percent of the electricity in the U.S., to prevent carbon release into the atmosphere.
Areas of interest include: low-cost catalysts, materials that resist degradation from caustic contaminants in flue gas, and advanced capture processes that dramatically reduce the parasitic energy penalties and related increase in the cost of electricity required for carbon capture.
- Batteries for Electrical Energy Storage in Transportation (BEEST): ARPA-E seeks to develop a new generation of ultra-high energy density, low-cost battery technologies for long range plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and electric vehicles (EVs).
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