Press Release: CU Announces Renewable Energy Proof-of-Concept Grants

Grants will enable CU energy and cleantech technology to progress towards commercialization (LINK)

BOULDER (Jan. 14, 2009). The University of Colorado has selected 4 projects for funding under a new partnership between the CU Technology Transfer Office (TTO) and the CU-Boulder Energy Initiative (EI). These grants, known as ‘proof of concept’ grants, are designed to fill a funding gap between basic research funding and industrial commercialization of technology, and will help move CU-Boulder renewable energy and cleantech inventions towards commercial readiness. Projects were selected for POC funding by the TTO and EI using a competitive internal application process. The winning grant proposals were:

Conrad Stoldt, “Optimization of Silicon and Germanium Nanocrystal Solar Cell Architecture for Large Scale Manufacturing and Commercialization” – improved nano-scale materials for solar photovoltaics.

Chen Li, “Micro-scale Hybrid Wick Heat Pipe Cooling System for High Concentration Photovoltaic Cell” – micro-scale heat management for more efficient solar cells.

Will Medlin, “Bifunctional Catalysts” – efficient production of fuels and chemicals from renewable biomass feedstocks.

Additionally, one proposal was funded as a $100,000 proof of concept investment to ION Engineering, a newly-formed company based on technology from CU-Boulder. The proposal, “Continuous Process for the Removal of Carbon Dioxide from Natural Gas and Fossil Fuel Power Plant Emissions” (Jason Bara, Dean Camper, Christopher Gabriel, Richard Noble and Douglas Gin) provides for a more efficient and effective approach to the capture of CO2 and other contaminants in natural gas processing and coal-fired power plant emissions.