ACT Advances Energy Research with Over $1 Million from U.S. Department of Energy
Lancaster, Pennsylvania – Tuesday, July 5, 2022 Advanced Cooling Technologies, Inc. (ACT) announced today that it has been awarded six new Department of Energy (DOE) SBIR and STTR Phase I contracts, for a total of $1.2 million. The awards will advance research the following programs:
- “Swiss-roll Ammonia Reformer for Gas Turbines” (University of Southern California)
- “Advanced Cooling Solutions for High-Frequency Medium-Voltage Planar Transformers” (University of Colorado Boulder)
- “Shielding of Electronic Circuits from Space Radiation via Additive Manufacturing” (Binghamton University and North Carolina State University)
- “Direct CO2 Air Capture Using Acid-Base Ion-Exchange and Low-Grade Heat” (Lehigh University)
- “Thermal Management of Low-Temperature Semiconductor Arrays” (Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory)
- “Integrated High Operating Temperature Storage (HOTS) System for Process Waste Heat”
According to Dr. Richard W. Bonner, Vice President of R&D at ACT, “These awards demonstrate our commitment to expand into new and diverse energy-related research areas. The application of the Swiss-roll to ammonia reforming will allow us to further increase our competency in compact reformers and combustors.”
Ammonia (NH3) is a promising carbon-free energy source for future power generation. However, direct air-ammonia combustion has proven challenging to implement in gas turbine applications due to inherently slow reaction rates. ACT’s concept is to pre-crack part of the ammonia fuel into a hydrogen-rich reformate using a novel reformer and waste heat from the gas turbine. The partially cracked fuel will improve the reaction rates to levels that are on par with other carbon-based fuels.
In 2011, ACT was awarded a Tibbets award from the Small Business Administration (SBA). SBA presents the awards nationally to small companies and individuals that have advanced technical innovation and economic growth through its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. “Many of ACT’s products were initially developed on SBIR and STTR programs. Space Copper-Water Heat Pipes were originally developed on a NASA Marshall Phase II SBIR, while ICE-Lok™ an enhanced Wedge lock, was developed on an Air Force SBIR.” said Dr. William G. Anderson, Chief Engineer for R&D at ACT. “We continue to commercialize SBIR research, recently achieving product sales of $115 million from technology developed on SBIR and STTR programs.”
More information on ACT’s R&D efforts can be found here, and ACT’s technical papers here.
About ACT
Advanced Cooling Technologies, Inc. (ACT) is a premier thermal management solutions company, providing design and manufacturing services to meet our customers’ needs across all points of the product lifecycle. We serve our global customers’ thermal management and energy recovery needs in diverse industries including Defense, Aerospace, Electronics, HVAC, Medical, Enclosure Cooling and Calibration Equipment. We specialize in providing performance and cost-optimized thermal management technologies and solutions that meet the unique needs of each customer.