Award Data

Neutron scattering facilities are a key resource aiding the diverse and growing revolution in nano-science and technology-An ongoing challenge for these facilities is providing sufficient neutron flux for an acceptable signal-to-noise ratio for ever more precise experiments-Presently much of the neutron flux is lost because of inefficiencies in the hundreds of meters beam guides and other optics- ...

Cathodes in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) that run on hydrogen are coated with a thin layer of conductive ionomer- The ionomer facilitates proton conduction to the costly platinum group metal (PGM) catalyst in the cathode, where oxygen reduction and reaction to form water occurs- Higher catalyst efficiency and lower catalyst loadings are desirable for industry PEMFC cost reductions- ...

C4 olefins are important petroleum refinery and petrochemical plant products- They are used in a variety of downstream processes, such as the production of alkylate fuel for gasoline- About 65 million metric tons of alkylate fuel is produced globally from C4 olefins- Other downstream products are secondary butyl alcohol, maleic anhydride, and butylene oxide, butyl rubber, and methyl methacrylate, ...

The next generation nuclear physics accelerator facility, the Electron Ion Collider (EIC), will accelerate and collide spin polarized electrons and ions focused to an unprecedented density at their point of collision- To achieve the desired electron/ion density at the focal point, random velocity variations in the ions will be reduced using the technique of electron cooling- In this technique, the ...

Mesa Photonics proposes to develop signal processing for timing used in X-ray free electron oscillators- This diagnostic will be able to provide sub-femtosecond relative timing between X-ray pulses and optical pulses at the pulse repetition rates of X-ray free electron laser oscillators- In this SBIR project, Mesa Photonics will develop signal processing for measuring the time arrival between opti ...

The increasing applications of ethylene intermediates in various industries are expected to drive the demand for ethylene- Methane produced from shale gas and tight oil is not economically attractive to transport for commercial use- If a process is developed to utilize the methane to directly produce ethylene, a significant commercial opportunity emerges- OxEon Energy proposes a catalytic process ...

This SBIR project proposes an innovative fully-autonomous Smart Cyber Physical System (SCPS) for control and management of buildings, facilities and process control- The proposed technology is comprised of self-federating A-I--driven edge computing nodes that aggregate local sensors, provide coordinated physics-based control decisions, and generate automatic semantic analytics from the big data ge ...

Xergy and RPI will develop a novel composite membrane that enables electrochemical hydrogen compression at > 1 kg/hour at 875 bar with an energy consumption of 1.4 kWh/kg, given hydrogen input at 100 bar. Phase I of this research will include synthesis of membrane samples, followed by bench-top evaluation of key performance characteristics, including polarization curves, Tafel plots, and evaluatio ...

Optical cryocoolers, which are compact and produce no vibrations, are ideal for many electronics and sensor applications. In particular, some advanced metrology systems require cooling to around 124 K, the temperature at which the coefficient of thermal expansion for crystalline silicon goes through a null point. Currently, the dominant solid-state cooling technology is thermoelectric cooling, whi ...

Ethylene demand is expected to increase by 50% domestically and worldwide over the next 5 years with a scramble to increase supply via expansion or grass root facilities. US capacity will remain at about 20% of the world’s supply and exceed 100 BPPY. To meet this challenge, US-DOE has invented a mixed metal oxide catalyst, M1 for the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane (C2-ODH) to ethylene at hi ...