The Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA–E) intends to issue a new Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for the development of heat exchangers that operate in extreme environments (i.e. temperatures in excess of 800°C and pressures in excess of 100 bar). It is expected that recent advances in topological design methodologies, materials, and manufacturing techniques will enable the realization of an extreme-environment-durable heat exchanger capability that was heretofore unattainable. It is expected that this capability will serve as a critical enabling platform technology for next-generation, high efficiency modular power generation systems in a number of industrial sectors.
The primary focus of the upcoming FOA will be to push the boundaries of design for manufacturability, materials, and manufacturing technologies pertinent to highly effective, low pressure drop, low cost, and durable heat-exchangers. Consequently, given the diverse collection of skill sets that are expected to be required for the successful achievement of the FOA goals, multi-party proposing teams are encouraged.
Challenges on the materials side include use of materials capable of withstanding extreme temperature and pressure conditions while featuring attractive thermo-mechanical and manufacturability properties. On the design side, novel advanced topologies compatible with the selected materials will facilitate enhanced performance and low cost manufacturing. Even more transformative, the performance metrics of this FOA may require new advances in the machine and manufacturing features and process monitoring and control parameters to overcome some of the existing challenges such as the smallest feature size, surface finish quality, and economy-of-scale constraints, among others. Accordingly, ARPA-E anticipates that a dedicated and specifically budgeted portion of the efforts in respective projects be focused on enhancing the capabilities of materials and manufacturing machines and processes to achieve the broader goals of this FOA.
The platform technologies that will be developed in this FOA can lead to substantial technical advancements in fields of significance to U.S. national interests. The push for higher operating temperatures in a typical power generation cycle directly translates to higher energy conversion efficiencies and technology development. While high temperature heat exchangers are key components of most power conversion systems, a few industrial sectors can particularly benefit from such heat exchangers. Examples include conventional and hybrid space and aerospace applications, advanced nuclear and concentrated solar power generation systems, and high efficiency modular thermo-electric power conversion systems.
As described in more detail below, the purpose of this announcement is to facilitate the formation of new project teams to respond to the upcoming FOA. The FOA will provide specific program goals, technical metrics, selection criteria, and other terms and requirements. However, for purposes of the Teaming Partner List, a summary of the currently anticipated scope is provided below.
In order to realize the program goals, ARPA‐E aims to bring together diverse engineering and scientific communities, including researchers in the fields of materials, thermal fluids, thermo-mechanical modeling and design topologies, and advanced manufacturing, to develop enabling materials and manufacturing capabilities to model, design, develop, and demonstrate heat exchanger performance and durability. The FOA will encourage the development of heat exchangers at the demonstration scale of 30 kW with a set of prescribed performance metrics.
As a general matter, ARPA-E strongly encourages outstanding scientists and engineers from different organizations, scientific disciplines, and technology sectors to form project teams. Interdisciplinary and cross-sector collaboration spanning organizational boundaries enables and accelerates the achievement of scientific and technological outcomes that were previously viewed as extremely difficult, if not impossible.
The Teaming Partner List is being compiled to facilitate the formation of new project teams. The Teaming Partner List will be available on ARPA-E eXCHANGE (http://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov), ARPA-E’s online application portal, starting June 06, 2018. The Teaming Partner List will be updated periodically, until the close of the Full Application period, to reflect new Teaming Partners who have provided their information.
Any organization that would like to be included on this list should complete all required fields in the following link: https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov/Applicantprofile.aspx. Required information includes: Organization Name, Contact Name, Contact Address, Contact Email, Contact Phone, Organization Type, Area of Technical Expertise, and Brief Description of Capabilities.
By submitting a response to this Notice, you consent to the publication of the above-referenced information. By facilitating this Teaming Partner List, ARPA-E does not endorse or otherwise evaluate the qualifications of the entities that self-identify themselves for placement on the Teaming Partner List. ARPA-E will not pay for the provision of any information, nor will it compensate any respondents for the development of such information. Responses submitted to other email addresses or by other means will not be considered.
This Notice does not constitute a FOA. No FOA exists at this time. Applicants must refer to the final FOA, expected to be issued in July 2018, for instructions on submitting an application and for the terms and conditions of funding.