USA Energy: DOE Awards $35 Million to Small Businesses Pursuing Clean Energy and Climate Solutions

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced $35 million in funding for diverse small businesses to pursue scientific, clean energy, and climate solutions. The funding will support 158 projects across 29 states that will aim to develop an array of clean energy technology, from climate research tools to improved batteries for electric vehicles. This investment will create good-paying jobs, build a diverse climate workforce, and help achieve President Biden’s goal of a net-zero carbon economy by 2050.

“Supporting small businesses will ensure we are tapping into all of America’s talent to develop clean energy technologies that will help us tackle the climate crisis,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “DOE’s investments will enable these economic engines to optimize and commercialize their breakthroughs, while developing the next generation of climate leaders and helping to build a sustainable future to benefit all Americans.”

This funding is administered by DOE’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs which support a diverse portfolio of small businesses, including startups, across technology areas and markets relevant to DOE’s missions to stimulate technological breakthroughs, meet federal research and development (R&D) needs, and increase commercialization by transitioning R&D into deployment. SBIR/STTR awardees have reported over $1.7 billion in sales resulting from funding awards. Recently developed technologies included measurement of nanoscale chemical interactions, automation across multiple industries, and measurement of aerosol levels for climate research.

A sampling of selected projects include:

Birch Biosciences, LLC (Portland, OR): Innovation in the plastic recycling industry is crucial to addressing the economic and environmental costs of the unsustainable use of plastics. This project will develop novel, next-generation plastic recycling technology using synthetic biology to enable sustainable, cost-effective solutions for closed-loop recycling of plastics. (Award Amount: $256,492)
Coreform LLC (Orem, UT): Engineering simulation is critical to developing safer products and bringing them to market faster in many industries, but next-generation engineering designs require methods beyond capabilities of mainstream software. This project will accelerate the development a new simulation technology capable of running highly complex simulations to enable more efficient product design. (Award Amount: $256,500)
ExMat Research, Inc. (Spokane, WA): The damage from phosphorus in the nation’s freshwater, estimated to cost $2.2 billion annually, includes biodiversity loss, increased costs for drinking water treatment, and economic losses related to recreation and angling and lake property values. This project will develop an affordable sensor capable of monitoring phosphorus to mitigate the health and economic impact. (Award Amount: $250,000)
Greenway Energy, LLC (Aiken, SC): This project aims to create and commercialize a new low-cost and efficient hydrogen energy storage system as an upgrade to current technology. (Award Amount: $200,000)
Novoreach Technologies LLC (Midland, MI): Through composite materials, this project will develop an effective and economic solution to capturing CO2 from the air. (Award Amount: $200,000)