Energy efficiency in cars is heating up with a Department of Energy grant the University of Michigan engineers are receiving through its partnership with General Motors.
The Smart Materials and Structures division of the GM/U-M Automotive Research Institute will work to develop devices that convert waste heat from car engines into electricity with part of a $2.65 million award from the DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E).
Cars lose significant amounts of energy as heat. A shape memory alloy energy recovery device could significantly increase fuel efficiency in cars and could be used in many other heat recovery applications.
The award is one of 37 research projects funded with $151 million to develop nimble, creative and inventive approaches to transform the global energy landscape while advancing America’s technology leadership. This is the first round of projects funded under ARPA-E, which is receiving a total of $400 million under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
This is a team effort with General Motors as head with U-M’s portion lead by John Shaw, an associate professor of aerospace, along with other U-M contributors Diann Brei, an associate professor of mechanical engineering and Jonathan Luntz, assistant research scientist along with two California firms, HRL Laboratories LCC; and Dynalloy Inc., which will also work on the project.
In supporting these teams, ARPA-E seeks to bring together America’s brightest energy innovators to pioneer a low cost, secure, and low carbon energy future for the nation.
To date, the University of Michigan has received more than $103 million in Recovery Act funding, making the university’s research program one of the largest recipients of ARRA funding.
Other ARRA support of energy research at U-M include $19.5 million for the Energy Frontier Research Center for Solar Energy Conversion in Complex Materials and $2.5 million to lead a partnership to create classes at universities, as well as educational programs for K-12 students and the general public to foster a vibrant work force that can create a new green breed of vehicle.
A second set of ARPA-E funding opportunities will be announced later this fall. See www.arpa-e-.energy.gov for more information about these selections, upcoming technical workshops, and new funding opportunities.
The project selections announced today can be found here.
