It is part of an initiative by DOE to stimulate cutting-edge research into new low-carbon energy sources. The funding was announced at an American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Cabinet meeting today by Vice President Joe Biden.
"By investing in our top researchers, we're not only continuing in the spirit of American innovation, but helping build a competitive American clean energy industry that will create secure jobs here at home for years to come," said Biden in a press release.
Among other projects that were funded are efforts to capture carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants using special absorbents.
Another is to develop a new generation of ultra-high-density, low-cost batteries in a field that is largely stagnating. About $5 million went to ReVolt Technology for its zinc-air batteries, produced in Portland, Ore.
"ReVolt's Recovery Act award, announced today, allows us to accelerate the expansion of our Portland presence," said James McDougall, the company's CEO.
Reprinted from Climatewire with permission from Environment & Energy Publishing, LLC. www.eenews.net, 202-628-6500
See what we're tweeting about
8 Comments
Add CommentThis bacteria sounds too proficient and not costly enough...it will not be allowed to come to market. If they can stagnate a high performance battery, can you imagine what they will do to a high performance bacteria that you can grow on your roof?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thiswhat HP battery?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLet's see, if they can make fuel for less than $2.00 per gallon, their getting close. All they have to do is get the cost of it down to about one quarter of that, down to about 50 cents, then after the taxes are added so that the roadways and other public services such as police, maintenance, emergency service, that we expect in order to use our transportation system will be adequately supported, it will be finally competitive, provided nobody is making any profit from it, except the guys with the algae....hmmmmm?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this$2 per gallon?! Americans - your fuel is really cheap if you think that is four times more than it should be. I live in Manchester in the UK, currently 1 litre (around 0.2 gallons) is £1.20 (that is $1.83 to you) at the pump. That is 17.5% VAT (purchase tax) plus another 57p/litre fuel tax so the actual cost of the fuel is about 45p/litre so $2 per gallon before tax is about the same as petrol costs now in the UK.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIan, consider what the actual cost is to extract oil from the field...pennies, really. I'd love to see algae do that, because really, I'd love to see an end to dirty oil being used as fuel. It's such usefull stuff and such a pity to simply burn it .
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this<<< The funding under ARPA-E is for three years, which places the researchers on a tight timeline to bring their projects to fruition before the money runs out, said Wyss. >>>
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis makes it sound like they just want more funding.
Photosynthesis cannot be that inefficient, as it is the best method that billions of years of evolution has come up with. It is also very robust and can be used in many climate zones. Biomass pyrolysis is for the moment the only economically viable method of extracting CO2 from the air and converting it into bioenergies. Indeed the technique will soon be adopted and mass-produced by chinese industrialists. See www.eprida.com for full details.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo I gather we'd use electricity to grow bacteria, and either solar or coal to make electricity, so as we run out of petroleum, and don't have enough solar to go around, we've found another reason for burning coal. Am I missing something? I tend to think any energy production or conservation gains we make will just be an excuse for continuing to grow the economy.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this