SLC company awarded grant to capture sun's energy

SLC company awarded grant to capture sun's energy

(Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)


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SALT LAKE CITY — The ability to unlock the secrets of electrochemistry is unleashing a new stage in renewable energy innovation, something a top U.S. Department of Energy official said he witnessed on many fronts during a tour of a Salt Lake company.

Dr. Lynn Orr, undersecretary for science and energy at the federal agency, visited multiple labs Tuesday at the headquarters of Ceramatec, which was awarded a Department of Energy grant of $2.4 million to bring one project to demonstration phase in a three-year period.

"It's a great talent to take fundamental scientific knowledge and turn it into something we care about," Orr said, adding that the labs at Ceramatec were rife with renewable energy projects full of innovation.

"Our part is to get a lot of these ideas into the pipeline and feed the ones with real potential to grow," Orr said.

Ceramatec, a technology spinoff from the University of Utah that incorporated in 1976, is developing an engine with no moving parts for concentrating solar power systems.

Under Secretary for Science and Energy Lynn Orr takes a tour of Ceramatec in Salt Lake City, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2015. (Photo: Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)
Under Secretary for Science and Energy Lynn Orr takes a tour of Ceramatec in Salt Lake City, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2015. (Photo: Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)

These technologies use mirrors to reflect concentrated sunlight onto receivers that in turn collect the energy and convert it into heat. The heat then produces electricity via a turbine or energy.

One such example of concentrating solar power is the massive Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in the Mohave Desert that produces 400 megawatts of energy, enough to power 140,000 homes.

Ceramatec, which shares the Department of Energy grant with partner Georgia Tech, aims to develop a modular heat engine power block designed to convert heat directly into electricity without moving parts. Such an advancement would have efficiencies greater than 50 percent, in contrast to concentrating solar plants that operate at a 35 percent to 45 percent efficiency rate.

"The sun is the really big resource," Orr said. "But it's figuring out how to (capture) that cost effectively that is the big challenge."

Ceramatec faced a "tough audience" to survive grant reviewers, Orr added, stressing that teams at the company are working on projects that "really make a difference to the future."

Over the past five years, the company has received nearly $20 million in contracts from the U.S. Department of Energy.

Under Secretary for Science and Energy Lynn Orr takes a tour of Ceramatec in Salt Lake City, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2015. (Photo: Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)
Under Secretary for Science and Energy Lynn Orr takes a tour of Ceramatec in Salt Lake City, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2015. (Photo: Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)

Some of its current projects include:

• Conversion of asphalt material into a near zero sulfur fuel for use in the world's shipping fleet, reducing not only costs per barrel but the overall carbon footprint. A 10 barrel-per-day pilot project is slated to begin production in Canada next week, with the goal of hitting 10,000 barrels per day at a Houston facility.

• Using the discarded byproducts of turkey carcasses or other so-called "waste products" to convert into biofuel and lubricants in a process with very low electricity costs.

• Developing a sodium iodine prototype cell for grid-scale energy storage with an eye to better integrate renewable energy resources. Sodium is cheaper than the metallic lithium used in current battery applications.

Ceramatec's research focuses on a variety of energy technologies that include ceramics, fuel cells, batteries, biofuels, oil and gas technologies, and solar engines.

In 2014, the company took top honors in the Utah Innovation Awards competition hosted by the Utah Technology Council. The award recognized the company for its HiTech Membrane Reactor that converts natural gas to benzene, a versatile liquid used in many chemical products. A one-step process developed by the company significantly reduces environmentally hazardous impacts, while decreasing greenhouse gas emissions.

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