Project Grant DESC0023982

This $600,000 National Science Foundation project grant supports research at the University of Southern California to develop new manufacturing methods for recycling post-consumer carbon fiber composite materials. The research aims to preserve the value of continuous carbon fibers and recover the polymer matrix from aircraft and other composites currently buried in landfills or subjected to pyrolysis. The project will study techniques to remanufacture recycled carbon fibers and polymer matrix...

The National Science Foundation awarded $275,000 under the Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships federal grant program to FC Renew, LLC to develop a renewable platinum catalyst for fuel cell applications. The 12-month project grant aims to establish proof-of-concept for an in-stack electrocatalyst renewal approach that enables reuse of once end-of-life fuel cells. By renewing the platinum electrocatalyst without removing it from the vehicle, the technology has potential to significantly...

The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a $274,310 Project Grant to Falcon Fuel Cells Inc. under the NSF Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships program (CFDA 47.084) to evaluate the maximum concentration of impurities in reformed ammonia and syngas fuels that will allow their high-temperature proton exchange membrane (HT-PEM) fuel cell technology to remain technically and commercially viable. This research aims to contribute to the displacement of fossil fuel combustion technologies,...

The National Science Foundation awarded Elektroda LLC a $253,773 Project Grant under the NSF Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships program (CFDA 47.084) to develop a low-cost bipolar plate for proton-exchange membrane fuel cells. The one-year project aims to reduce the cost of a key component in PEM fuel cells, which currently account for approximately 30% of total fuel cell stack costs. Specifically, Elektroda will demonstrate a novel carbon-based sheet material can be stamped into bipolar...

This National Science Foundation (NSF) Convergence Accelerator Track M award of $649,990 to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) supports the development and commercialization of a family of sustainable bio-based plastics derived from hydroxy fatty acids. Key activities include scaling up monomer synthesis, conducting polymer characterization and recycling assessments, and performing techno-economic and life cycle analyses. RPI is collaborating with Danimer Scientific, a bioplastics...

This SBIR Phase I award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (TIP) program (CFDA 47.084) provides $274,991 to Molten Materials LLC, a woman-owned small business, to develop a sustainable solution for transforming waste plastics into high-value thermoplastic elastomers for infrastructure applications. The project aims to use reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization to produce durable elastomers from depolymerized plastic...

This $300,000 Project Grant awarded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Chemistry aims to develop novel polymeric materials based on segmented polar-polyolefin copolymers with complex architectures. Professors Eva Harth at the University of Houston and Krzysztof Matyjaszewski at Carnegie Mellon University are collaborating on this 3-year effort, which seeks to advance energy storage materials and plastic upcycling capabilities. The key products and services to be delivered...

This Project Grant from the National Science Foundation will support the development of sustainable nonwoven fabrics from off-specification and recycled carbon fiber. Endeavor Composites, Inc. will receive $256,000 to establish processes for fabricating mats using off-spec materials, including trims and recycled fibers. They will optimize operations for mats made from different blended combinations of carbon fiber grades and develop models to predict dispersion conditions for optimal nonwoven...

The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science awarded a $199,319 Project Grant to Orion Polymer Corp. in Cohoes, NY under the Office of Science Financial Assistance Program (CFDA 81.049). The grant, awarded on July 22, 2024, supports the development of high temperature PEM (proton exchange membrane) fuel cells based on ion-pair systems. This research aims to advance U.S. energy, economic, and national security priorities through transformative scientific discoveries in fuel cell...

The National Science Foundation Division of Materials Research awarded a $950,000 Project Grant to the Regents of the University of Minnesota under the Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049) to develop economically viable approaches for recycling the most prevalent commodity plastics. Specifically, the five-year award will fund research to synthesize triblock and multiblock copolymers that can localize at phase-separated domain interfaces when blended plastics are melt mixed,...