U-M granted $5.4M for energy efficiency projects

Two new U.S. Department of Energy grants totaling $5.4 million will enable mechanical engineering researchers to work on “transformational” engine and battery projects. Their efforts could lead to efficiency gains in cars and trucks, the electrical grid and beyond.

The grants are part of $125 million in funding that the department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy recently doled out to 41 groups across the nation.

One U-M project leader, Associate Professor Jeff Sakamoto, received $3.5 million to search for a battery construction method that can eclipse lithium-ion batteries. While widely used, lithium-ion batteries are fragile, flammable, temperature-sensitive and not rechargeable. They are also relatively expensive to manufacture. The batteries Sakamoto envisions could be safely used in cars and trucks, as well as in the electrical grid. Better grid-scale batteries could make solar and wind power more feasible, because they could provide storage when it’s cloudy or when the air is still.

To achieve his goal, Sakamoto will work with researchers from U-M, Ford Motor Company, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, Solid Power and the University of Rochester.

Professor Anna Stefanopoulou, director of the U-M Automotive Research Center, was granted $1.9 million to develop technologies for highly efficient and responsive small automobile engines. Stefanopoulou’s plans include augmenting traditional turbocharging to provide instant air-flow control as well as using stored energy generated by other vehicle systems. The application of these technologies would greatly enhance the ability of automakers to produce cleaner cars.