Technology Commercialization Funds boost Idaho technologies

Multiple Idaho technologies addressing national energy challenges will receive an extra boost through the Department of Energy Technology Commercialization Funds (TCF) program to further transition into the marketplace. ?

DOE announced $21 million across 16 national laboratories for 30 projects improving clean energy resources. Specifically, $4.8 million was allocated to Idaho National Laboratory to focus on seven projects advancing nuclear energy, hydrogen and fuel cell technologies, cybersecurity, and streamlining national lab processes.

“Commercialization of our technologies is extremely critical to the lab’s mission to discover, demonstrate and secure innovative nuclear energy solutions, other clean energy options and critical infrastructure,” INL Technology Deployment Director Jason Stolworthy said. “By securing funding through TCF, researchers can overcome barriers that often hinder transition of innovative technologies from the laboratory to the marketplace.”

Congress established TCF through the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and reauthorized it by the Energy Act of 2020 to promote promising energy technologies. TCF simplifies the commercialization processes, accelerates the development of existing promising technologies, and kickstarts the development of new energy solutions.

Here's a list of INL’s funded projects:

Low-cost hydrogen manufacturing

INL, in collaboration with a university research team, is working to develop a high-performance, proton-conducting solid oxide electrolyzers. TCF will enable researchers to scale up the technology to bring about low-cost hydrogen production as part of DOE’s Earthshots initiative to produce hydrogen at $1/kg by 2031.

Commercializing OmniTap

INL and Cynalytica Inc. are using TCF to accelerate the commercialization of OmniTap – a cybersecurity technology for any existing or new industrial control systems inside the nation’s critical infrastructure.

Designing nuclear reactors

INL, along with lead national laboratory Sandia National Laboratories and Coreform LLC, is working to improve safety and confidence in reactor designs through deployment of MOOSE. Many nuclear energy entities, including national laboratories and commercial partners, are interested in the analysis tool and its potential to accelerate the design of nuclear reactors.

Advancing radiation-tolerant liquid level instrumentation

INL, along with its partners at Industrial Measurement Systems Inc., BWR Owners Group and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will advance commercialization of a highly radiation-tolerant liquid level sensor. Specifically, this project will design, fabricate, test and qualify a robust, radiation-tolerant level instrument in representative environments under high pressure, high temperature, and high neutron flux and gamma fields.

Improving processes

INL, in collaboration with Ames Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, Kansas City National Security Campus, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, will undertake three projects to streamline laboratory processes. Projects will address foreign review processes, development of a standardized DOE-approved template to improve the negotiation process of DOE lab work scopes within future Cooperative Research and Development Agreements, and explore other transaction authorities to document best practices for rapid research and development.

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About Idaho National Laboratory Battelle Energy Alliance manages INL for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy. INL is the nation’s center for nuclear energy research and development, and also performs research in each of DOE’s strategic goal areas: energy, national security, science and the environment. For more information, visit?www.inl.gov. Follow us on social media:?Twitter,?Facebook,?Instagram?and?LinkedIn.