Innovative Development in Energy-Related Applied Science (IDEAS) 2015

The summary for the Innovative Development in Energy-Related Applied Science (IDEAS) 2015 grant is detailed below. This summary states who is eligible for the grant, how much grant money will be awarded, current and past deadlines, Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) numbers, and a sampling of similar government grants. Verify the accuracy of the data FederalGrants.com provides by visiting the webpage noted in the Link to Full Announcement section or by contacting the appropriate person listed as the Grant Announcement Contact. If any section is incomplete, please visit the website for the Advanced Research Projects Agency Energy, which is the U.S. government agency offering this grant.

Innovative Development in Energy-Related Applied Science (IDEAS) 2015: This announcement is purposely broad in scope to encourage the submission of the most innovative, out-of-the-box ideas in energy technology. Since the first law of thermodynamics states that energy is always conserved, i.e. it can never be created or destroyed, our principal concern is with the conversion of energy into useful energy or maximizing usable energy (exergy). Useful energy can take many forms including: radiant energy from lights, electrical energy for appliances, thermal energy to heat homes, mechanical energy for transportation, chemical energy in the form of food, and energy used to make products. From the second law of thermodynamics, the entropy of a system cannot decrease when converting energy from one form to another (ΔS ≥ 0), the end effect being that all useful energy humans consume ultimately results in the production of heat that is radiated into space, except for a few exceptions such as the energy embedded in products. It is therefore our endeavor to identify technologies that enable the efficient and cost-effective conversion between or within the various different forms of energy (Figure 2) while minimizing exergy destruction. Within this general framework, ARPA-E seeks transformative ideas that enable the most efficient, economical, sustainable, and environmentally benign conversion of energy while minimizing exergy destruction.

The Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E), an organization within the Department of Energy, is chartered by Congress in the America COMPETES Act of 2007 (P.L. 110-69), as amended by the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-358), to support the creation of transformational energy technologies and systems through funding and managing Research and Development (R&D) efforts. Originally chartered in 2007, the Agency was first funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Since that time, the Agency has funded about 285 projects totaling approximately $770 million across the entire technology landscape.

The mission of ARPA-E is to identify and fund research to translate science into breakthrough energy technologies that are too risky for the private sector and that, if successfully developed, will create the foundation for entirely new industries. Successful projects will address at least one of ARPA-E’s two Mission Areas:

1. Enhance the economic and energy security of the United States through the development of energy technologies that result in:
a. reductions of imports of energy from foreign sources;
b. reductions of energy-related emissions, including greenhouse gases; and
c. improvement in the energy efficiency of all economic sectors; and
2. Ensure that the United States maintains a technological lead in developing and deploying advanced energy technologies.

This program seeks to fund transformative new technologies for the primary processing of light metals (Al, Mg, and Ti) and for their cost effective, domestic recycling. These metals are widely viewed as essential to achieving substantial energy savings and reduced carbon emissions through lightweighting in both automotive and aircraft applications; however their widespread adoption will only be realized when they are produced with lower costs, less energy consumption, and reduced carbon emissions so that they are competitive with incumbent structural metals - steel and stainless steel. Of particular interest to primary light metal production are integrated system approaches that allow for one or more of the following operational characteristics: variable energy inputs (including renewable energy), high temperature heat recovery, high temperature thermal storage, and use of domestically abundant ores. Of particular interest to light metal recycling are transformative technologies and processes that enable rapid, high precision, and automated sorting of metals and alloys that are or can be integrated with high efficiency secondary light metal production. Innovative concepts focused on energy intensive and/or high cost stages of both the primary and secondary production processes will also be considered.

The impact of technologies successfully emerging from the program will be to provide substantial benefits germane to the ARPA-E mission, including reduced domestic energy consumption, reduced emissions, and a technological lead in advanced light metal production technologies. These technologies could have both a transformative and disruptive impact on the global structural metals market.

To obtain a copy of the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) please go to the ARPA-E website at https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov. Concept Papers, Full Applications, and Replies to Reviewer Comments must be submitted through ARPA-E eXCHANGE (https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov/), ARPA-E’s online application portal. ARPA-E will not review or consider applications submitted through other means. For detailed guidance on using ARPA-E eXCHANGE, please refer to the “ARPA-E eXCHANGE User Guide” (https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov/Manuals.aspx). Templates for the Concept Paper, the Technical Volume of the Full Application, and the Reply to Reviewer Comments are provided as appendices to the FOA.