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California Investing Millions to Build Hundreds of EV Charging Stations

June 20, 2014 in Electric Vehicles, EV charging, EV News, San Francisco

Photo courtesy of Office of Governor Brown

Photo courtesy of Office of Governor Brown

SACRAMENTO – The California Energy Commission approved funding for cutting-edge clean energy projects at its monthly business meeting yesterday, including money for hundreds of electric vehicle charging stations, an innovative natural gas fuel tank, and emerging but proven technologies that are ready for the marketplace.

Electric Vehicle Fueling Infrastructure

To continue building the infrastructure needed to charge California’s growing number of electric vehicles, the Energy Commission approved 15 grants totaling more than $5 million to install 475 electric vehicle chargers in communities throughout California, including the cities of San Francisco, Burbank, Torrance and San Diego and the counties of Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Orange, Riverside and Los Angeles. These grants are funded by the Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program (ARFVTP).

“The Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program continues to support California’s goal of 1.5 million zero-emission vehicles on the road by 2025,” said Commissioner Janea A. Scott. “These community investments assist in building the network of charging stations needed, and help accelerate growth in the electric vehicle market.”

Natural Gas Advancements

To develop and demonstrate an advanced natural gas storage tank for light-duty vehicles, the Energy Commission approved a $1.2 million contract with BlackPak, Inc, funded by the Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) natural gas program. BlackPak plans to build a storage system from carbon materials that will allow natural gas to be stored at a lower pressure. The system would reduce complexity and cost. The material can be easily formed into a range of shapes, allowing designers to integrate the storage system into a vehicle’s design without sacrificing passenger space. The award provides financial support to develop a prototype of the technology, building upon funding provided by the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) for early research and development. The Commission also approved PIER grants to develop natural gas plug-in hybrid vehicles to Transportation Power Inc., Efficient Drivetrains Inc., and Gas Technology Institute for $900,000 each.

“Developing alternative and cleaner transportation fuels and technologies are essential if California is to achieve its long term greenhouse gas reduction goals” said Chair Robert B. Weisenmiller “Our federal partners, including ARPA-E, are key players in advancing these initiatives.”

Emerging Technologies

The Energy Commission approved $4.4 million in PIER grants for proposals demonstrating emerging energy efficiency technologies that are past the “proof-of-concept” stage and ready to be demonstrated in an industrial setting under “real-world” conditions. Grants include funds for:

  • A novel infrared technology for dry blanching fruits and vegetables on a commercial scale that is up to 40 percent more energy efficient compared to methods currently used to produce crisp fruit and vegetable snacks.
  • A filtration system for wastewater treatment that uses a chemical reaction instead of the current energy-intensive processes.
  • A combustion system that uses an energy-efficient low-swirl burner that can switch between natural gas, propane and biogas in real time — which could make use of biogas from small source generators economically viable.

Also approved at the business meeting:

  • Solar Photovoltaic (PV) System: A $2.3 million loan for South El Monte to install solar PV systems at city-owned facilities. Each year, the project is expected to produce a million kilowatts of electricity, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save the city approximately $135,000 in utility expenses. The loan is funded by the Energy Conservation Assistance Act.
  • Biodiesel: A $5 million ARFVTP grant was approved for Crimson Renewable Energy. The money will be used to upgrade equipment at its existing facility and increase biodiesel production from 17 million gallons to 22 million gallons a year.
  • Alternative Fuel Readiness Plans: The Commission also approved two more ARFVTP projects to help various regions of the State develop strategies for the deployment of alternative fuel infrastructure.

View all items that were on the June business meeting agenda.

This article is a repost (6-19-14), credit: CEC.

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ARPA-E awards IIT-Argonne team $3.4 million for breakthrough battery technology

September 3, 2013 in Battery Energy Storage, Electric Vehicles, EV News

Researchers (left to right) Dileep Singh, Carlo Segre, Mike Duoba, John Katsoudas, Elena Timofeeva, and Chris Pelliccione stand by one of the plug-in electric vehicles they hope to revolutionize with the IIT-Argonne “nanoelectrofuel” flow battery technology they are developing. Photo courtesy of Argonne National Laboratory

Researchers (left to right) Dileep Singh, Carlo Segre, Mike Duoba, John Katsoudas, Elena Timofeeva, and Chris Pelliccione stand by one of the plug-in electric vehicles they hope to revolutionize with the IIT-Argonne “nanoelectrofuel” flow battery technology they are developing.
Photo courtesy of Argonne National Laboratory

CHICAGO – Carlo Segre, Duchossois Leadership Professor of Physics at Illinois Institute of Technology, has received a $3.4 million award from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA-E) to develop a breakthrough battery technology that may more than double the current range of electric vehicles (EV), increase safety, reduce costs and simplify recharging.

Segre and his collaborators John Katsoudas, also of IIT, and Elena Timofeeva, Dileep Singh and Michael Duoba of Argonne National Laboratory will develop a prototype for a rechargeable “nanoelectrofuel” flow battery that may extend the range of EVs to at least 500 miles and provide a straightforward and rapid method of refueling. Current EV ranges are 100-200 miles, with recharging taking up to eight hours.

Flow batteries, which store chemical energy in external tanks instead of within the battery container, are generally low in energy density and therefore not used for transportation applications.  The IIT-Argonne nanoelectrofuel flow battery concept will use a high-energy density “liquid” with battery-active nanoparticles to dramatically increase energy density while ensuring stability and low-resistance flow within the battery.

“I am delighted by this award, not only because of the quality and importance of the proposed research but also as another example of the longstanding and effective collaboration between IIT and the world-class researchers and facilities at Argonne,” said Russell Betts, dean of the College of Science at IIT.

Segre’s expertise is in the structure and properties of materials using synchrotron radiation techniques. He has a wide variety of ongoing research projects, including fuel-cell catalysts and battery materials. Segre is deputy director of the Materials Research Collaborative Access Team (MR-CAT) beamline at the Advanced Photon Source (APS), located at Argonne; and director of the Center for Synchrotron Radiation Research and Instrumentation (CSRRI) at IIT.

Katsoudas and Timofeeva began their work on the IIT-Argonne nanoelectrofuel flow battery at Argonne, leveraging Timofeeva’s expertise in nanofluids engineering and electrochemistry. Katsoudas is an expert in instrumentation design, automation of experiments and materials characterization.

Singh will bring to bear on the project his knowledge of how nanoparticle-fluid interaction effects the thermal management and behavior of nanoparticles in the IIT-Argonne nanoelectrofuel flow battery. Duoba’s expertise in vehicle systems and EV testing, in particular, will provide critical guidance in the development of a nanoelectrofuel battery prototype for EV applications.

The IIT award is one of 22 projects across the country awarded a total of $36 million through the DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy Robust Affordable Next Generation EV Storage (RANGE) program, which seeks to develop innovative EV battery chemistries, architectures and designs. ARPA-E was officially authorized in 2007 and first funded in 2009. The agency invests in high-potential, high-impact energy technologies that are too early for private sector investment.

IIT and Argonne will share the funding award to continue their research.

Founded in 1890, IIT is a Ph.D.-granting university offering degrees in engineering, sciences, architecture, psychology, design, humanities, business, and law. IIT’s interprofessional, technology-focused curriculum is designed to advance knowledge through research and scholarship, to cultivate invention improving the human condition, and to prepare students from throughout the world for a life of professional achievement, service to society, and individual fulfillment. Visit www.iit.edu.

Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. The nation’s first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific problems, advance America’s scientific leadership and prepare the nation for a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.

This article is a repost (news release 8-30-13), credit: Argonne National Laboratory, http://www.anl.gov/.

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Creating Next Generation Electric Vehicle Batteries

August 27, 2013 in Battery Energy Storage, Electric Vehicles, EV News

Dr. Cheryl Martin, ARPA-E Deputy Director Photo courtesy of DOE

Dr. Cheryl Martin, ARPA-E Deputy Director
Photo courtesy of DOE

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Two research teams from the University of Maryland Energy Research Center (UMERC) were awarded research grants from the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) to develop transformational electric vehicle (EV) energy storage systems using innovative chemistries, architectures and designs.

The two UMD projects were among 22 selected nationwide that received a total of $36 million in research funding from ARPA-E’s new program, Robust Affordable Next Generation Energy Storage Systems (RANGE). ARPA-E’s RANGE program aims to accelerate widespread EV adoption by dramatically improving driving range and reliability, and by providing low-cost, low-carbon alternatives to today’s vehicles.

Multiple-Electron Aqueous Battery

Lithium-ion batteries have not been extensively adopted in electric vehicles due to short driving range, high cost, and low safety and reliability, which can increase the cost and reduce energy density. Researchers at UMD and the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) will develop a new battery—a hybridized ions aqueous battery—by doubling the cell voltage and capacity, which could cut the lithium-ion battery system cost in half and would enable an EV to travel two times as long per charge.

Washington Auto Show Photo courtesy of DOE

Washington Auto Show
Photo courtesy of DOE

The new battery could significantly reduce the cost of battery management, improve the reliability, and operate in a wide temperature range. If successful, UMD’s battery would make EVs cost/safety-competitive and travel 300 miles on a single charge, contributing to the widespread public acceptance of EVs. Increased use of EVs would decrease U.S. dependence on foreign oil, and reduce CO2 emissions from burning the gasoline, which accounts for 28 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions.

Led by professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering Chunseng Wang, in partnership with Kan Xu at ARL, the “Multiple-Electron Aqueous Battery” project was awarded $405,000.

Solid-State Lithium-Ion Battery with Ceramic Electrolyte

A second group of UMD researchers will develop ceramic materials and processing methods to enable high-power, solid-state, lithium-ion batteries. While most lithium-ion batteries are liquid based, solid-state batteries have a greater abuse tolerance that reduces the need for heavy protective components. UMD will leverage multi-layer ceramics processing methods to produce a solid-state battery pack with lower weight and longer life. The team will develop intrinsically safe, robust, low-cost, high-energy-density all-solid-state lithium-ion batteries.

“Due to their all solid state construction, these lithium-ion batteries are non-flammable and intrinsically safe. Moreover, their novel highly conductivity materials and fabrication methods will exceed current goals for electric vehicle range, acceleration, and cost,” says UMERC director and professor of materials science and engineering Eric Wachsman, the lead on the project, which was awarded $574,275.

In addition to Wachsman, UMD professor Liangbing Hu and University of Calgary professor Venkataraman Thangadurai are team members on the project.

This article is a repost (press release 8-23-13), credit: University of Maryland, http://www.umdrightnow.umd.edu/.

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Taking Battery Technology from the Lab to the Big City, Source: DOE

July 29, 2013 in Environment, EV News, Greentech, Large Energy Storage

Watch the video to learn how Urban Electric Power is taking battery technology from the lab to the market. | Video by Matty Greene, Energy Department.

Matty joined the Department of Energy as a videographer in May 2013, producing, filming and editing online video content for Energy. Prior to joining the Department of Energy, her other video pursuits included interning at the White House in the Office of Digital Strategy, where she filmed the President and First Lady, and making short films that played at festivals including South by Southwest. A native Austinite and avid live music fan, Matty is also a graduate of the improv program at the Second City Training Center in Chicago. Photo courtesy of DOE

Matty joined the Department of Energy as a videographer in May 2013, producing, filming and editing online video content for Energy. Prior to joining the Department of Energy, her other video pursuits included interning at the White House in the Office of Digital Strategy, where she filmed the President and First Lady, and making short films that played at festivals including South by Southwest. A native Austinite and avid live music fan, Matty is also a graduate of the improv program at the Second City Training Center in Chicago.
Photo courtesy of DOE

Urban Electric Power — a small New York City startup — is hoping it has the next big solution in energy storage.

Formed last May by researchers from the City University of New York (CUNY) Energy Institute, Urban Electric Power is taking breakthroughs in battery technology from the lab to the market — technology that was initially developed with funding from the Energy Department. The company’s low-cost, lead-free zinc anode rechargeable batteries are designed for a wide range of applications in the growing energy storage market — from reducing peak energy demand in urban areas to storing variable renewable energy for future use.

Inexpensive, non-toxic and widely available, zinc has long been known to be an excellent electricity storage material because of its high energy density. Invented more than 100 years ago, the zinc anode battery is still used today. Yet, for all its benefits, zinc has one major shortcoming — dendrite formation develops over the battery’s life, causing the battery to short after a few hundred cycles. This dendrite formation — or buildup of zinc deposits — significantly reduces the life of zinc batteries, making them too expensive for large-scale applications like grid storage.

With industry and government funding — including a grant from the Energy Department — the CUNY Energy Institute began developing innovative solutions for this problem in 2008. The result: a zinc-nickel oxide battery in which the electrolyte circulates constantly, eliminating dendrite formation and preventing battery shortages. This breakthrough helped the CUNY Energy Institute create a zinc battery that has a round trip efficiency of 85 percent, and can be charged and discharged more than 5,000 times.

Over the past year, Urban Electric Power has worked to scale up manufacturing of this technology while driving down its price — making the zinc-nickel oxide battery a quarter of the cost of conventional lead-acid batteries per cycle. In June, the CUNY Energy Institute and Urban Electric Power unveiled part of a 200 kilowatt installation of their zinc-nickel oxide batteries at the City College of New York’s Steinman Hall. The batteries will be used to reduce the building’s peak electricity demand by 10 percent.

Building on lessons learned from the zinc-nickel oxide battery, the CUNY Energy Institute received funding from ARPA-E to develop a zinc-manganese dioxide battery for grid-scale storage — essentially a larger, rechargeable version of the disposable alkaline batteries we use in our daily lives. The CUNY Energy Institute researchers were able to create a zinc-manganese dioxide battery that is half the weight and five times the life of a lead-acid battery, without the manufacturing, handling and recycling costs of lead-acid batteries. Urban Electric Power hopes to offer these batteries on an industrial scale by 2014, and once fully scaled up, the zinc-manganese dioxide battery will be even more cost-effective than the company’s zinc-nickel oxide batteries.

Watch the video above to learn how researchers overcame the technical challenges with making zinc rechargeable, and what this breakthrough means for the future of grid-scale energy storage.

This article is a repost, credit: US Department of Energy, Rebecca Matulka, Digital Communications Specialist, Office of Public Affairs, http://energy.gov/articles/taking-battery-technology-lab-big-city.

Video courtesy of US Department of Energy, Matty Greene, Videographer

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Join Us: 2013 National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition Finals. Source: DOE

June 10, 2013 in Environment, EV News, Greentech

April Saylor Digital Outreach Strategist, Office of Public Affairs Photo courtesy of DOE

April Saylor
Digital Outreach Strategist, Office of Public Affairs
Photo courtesy of DOE

Tune in on energy.gov this Tuesday and Wednesday (June 11-12) for coverage of the 2013 National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition.

Now in its second year, the initiative is inspiring university teams across the country to create new businesses to commercialize promising energy technologies developed at U.S. universities and national labs. The competition is designed to build regional networks of student-focused business creation contests across the country, and was launched in 2011 as part of President Obama’s Startup America Initiative. Last year’s winning team was recently awarded $1.5 million in ARPA-E funding, but the successes don’t end there. In the first year of the competition alone, more than 52 startups have been incorporated, 55 patents and disclosures have been filed, and more than $7 million in follow-on funding has been provided by the private sector.

After pitching their business plans to panels of judges at the regional semifinals and finals, six regional winners have advanced to the national competition for a chance to compete in the popular vote and a grand prize determined by an expert panel of judges. You can cast your ballot for People’s Choice Award until 4pm Wednesday – so be sure to vote for your favorite before time runs out.

We’ll be livetweeting from the event beginning Tuesday morning. Follow @ENERGY on Twitter for updates throughout the week, and tune in on Google+ or energy.gov/live to watch a fireside chat between entrepreneur Steve Blank and Venrock Capital’s Ray Rothrock at 12pm EDT Tuesday.

More of the competition will be available on energy.gov/live Wednesday as well, including presentations from six regional finalists, who will pitch their business plans in front of an esteemed panel of judges and the general audience. Learn more about the teams on the National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition blog. Congratulations to all the teams who have made it this far, and good luck in the finals!

This article is a repost, credit: April Saylor, Digital Outreach Strategist, Office of Public Affairs, US Department of Energy, http://energy.gov/articles/join-us-2013-national-clean-energy-business-plan-competition-finals.

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