Abstract: ARPA-E

Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E)

ARPA-E is a federal agency under the Department of Energy. Its origins lie in the Rising Above the Gathering Storm report produced by the National Academies of the Sciences which outlined the struggles of U.S. R&D. In 2007 ARPA-E was commissioned by the America COMPETES Act to sponsor creative transformational energy research. ARPA-E has a FY2011 Budget request of $300 million and received an estimated $385 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

ARPA-E is based on the framework of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). DARPA was founded in response to the Soviet’s launching of Sputnik, and focuses on high-risk high-reward research. DARPA employs a unique organizational model employing a lean staff, a non-bureaucratic structure, and a focus on change-state technologies.

ARPA-E is designed along the same lines as DARPA and focuses on high-risk high-reward research in six areas: energy efficiency, materials science, carbon capture and storage, electrofuels, batteries, and short-term duration variability energy storage (for renewables).

ARPA-E Programs

BEETIT

• Building Energy Efficiency Through Innovative Thermodevices
• Program designed to fund research to develop sensible and low carbon impact cooling and heating for buildings that can retrofit into current buildings including:
• Cooling systems that emit fewer greenhouse gases
• Energy-efficient air conditioning systems especially those designed for warm and humid areas.
• Vapor-Compression AC systems
• Current projects funded
• ADMA: High-Efficiency, on-Line Membrane Air Dehumidifier Enabling Sensible Cooling for Warm and Humid Climates
• Architectural Applications: Innovative Building-Integrated Ventilation Enthalpy Recovery
• Astronautics Corporation of America: An Efficient, Green Compact Cooling System Using Magnetic Refrigeration

GRIDS

• Grid-Scale Rampable Intermittent Dispatchable Storage
• Seeks to establish the U.S. as a leader in stationary electricity storage infrastructure, designed for short-term duration variability in renewables.
• GRIDS considers two areas
• Proof of concept storage components projects focused on validating future electrical energy storage concepts
• Advanced prototypes that address the short comings of the current electrical grid system.
• Current projects funded
• ABB Inc.: Superconducting Magnet Energy Storage System with Direct Power Electronics Interface
• Beacon Power Corporation: Development of a 100 kWh/100 kW Flywheel Energy Storage Module 
• Boeing: Low-Cost, High-Energy Density Flywheel Storage Grid Demonstration

IMPACCT

• Innovative Materials & Processes for Advanced Carbon Capture Technologies 
• Program designed to fund research to develop the next generation of carbon capture and storage technologies
• Areas of Interest
• Capture processes that reduce energy-loss, and cost increases
• Materials that can resist caustic conditions related to flue emissions.
• Low-cost catalysts
• Current projects funded
• ATK: A High Efficiency Inertial CO2 Extraction System - ICE 
• Codexis, Inc.: Low-Cost Biological Catalyst to Enable Efficient CO2 Capture
• GE Global Research: CO2 Capture Process Using Phase-Changing Absorbents

Electrofuels

• Program designed to fund research to develop fuels for cars from microorganisms capturing CO2 from the air.  
• Areas of Interest
• Organisms capable of extracting energy from hydrogen, reduced earth-abundant metal ions, robust readily available organic redox active species, or from direct electrical current.
• Has the potential to be 10 times more efficient than current photosynthetic-biomass approaches to liquid fuel production.
• Current projects funded
• Columbia University: Biofuels from CO2 Using Ammonia-Oxidizing Bacteria in a Reverse Microbial Fuel Cell
• Ginkgo BioWorks: Engineering E. Coli as an Electrofuels Chassis for Isooctane Production
• Harvard Medical School- Wyss Institute: Engineering a Bacterial Reverse Fuel Cell 

BEEST

• Batteries for Electrical Energy Storage in Transportation  
• Program designed to fund research to develop the next generation of car batteries for plug in hybrids and full electric vehicles.
• Current projects funded
• Missouri University of Science and Technology: High Performance Cathodes for Li-Air Batteries
• ReVolt Technology LLC: Zinc Flow Air Battery (ZFAB), the Next Generation Energy Storage for Transportation
• Stanford University: The All-Electron Battery- A Quantum Leap Forward in Energy Storage

ADEPT

• Agile Delivery of Electrical Power Technology
• Program designed to fund research to develop advances in soft magnetics, high-voltage switches, and reliable high density charge storage.
• Areas of Interest
• Fully-integrated, chip-scale power converters for applications, including: compact, efficient drivers for solid-state lighting, distributed micro-inverters for photovoltaics, and single-chip power supplies for computers
• Kilowatt-scale package-integrated power converters by enabling applications such as low-cost, efficient inverters for grid-tied photovoltaics and variable speed motors
• Lightweight, solid-state, medium-voltage energy conversion for high-power applications such as solid-state electrical substations and wind turbine generators
• Current projects funded
• Case Western Reserve University: High-Power Titanate Capacitor for Power Electronics
• GE Global Research: Nanostructured Scalable Thick-Film Magnetics
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Advanced Technologies for Integrated Power Electronics

ARPA-E is funding some pretty impressive work, I encourage you to poke around on their website a little bit, as what I have linked here is just a small sample of their overall research portfolio. I can only hope that the DARPA model will work as well for energy as it did for defense, and look forward to seeing this basic research head to commercialization.