RTI wins contracts worth up to $7.1M for nanotech energy project

Research Triangle Park, N.C. — With contracts worth some $7.1 million from the Department of Defense, RTI International researchers will explore high-tech means of improving energy and fuel efficiency.

Under one contract that could be worth up to $5.8 million, RTI and scientists from several universities and United Technologies Research will collaborate on developing means of converting waste heat into electricity. Researchers hope to develop so-called thermoelectric materials at a nanoscale level.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, is backing the project. The goal is to develop new materials and devices that can convert some 30 percent of waste heat to usable power.

DARPA and RTI were already working together on a project called Direct Thermal Energy Conversion.

RTI also has been a leader in development of thermoelectric materials, including technology its scientists developed that led to the launch of Nextreme Thermal Solutions in 2004.

The advances also could be used in civilian uses, such as improving fuel efficiency of cars.

"Since about 60 percent of the world’s energy from fossil fuels is wasted as heat, there is a considerable interest in converting even a fraction of this heat into useful electric power for significant savings in overall fuel-efficiency," said Rama Venkatasubramanian, who directs RTI’s Center for Solid State Energetics and is the principal investigator for the project.

Other partners in the project include N.C. State University, California Institute of Technology, Purdue University, Iowa State University, University of California Riverside, University of Delaware and United Technologies Research.

Under a second contract totaling $1.3 million, RTI is working with the U.S. Army to develop means of improving fuel efficiency of portable diesel generators through use of thermoelectric technology.