Solution Statement Problem. Onsite industrial emissions represent about one-quarter of California’s overall greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. There is significant scope to reduce consumption of natural gas by food processors through more efficient boilers and related equipment like economizers, condensate return, and updated steam traps. The indirect emissions of electricity can also be mitigated through more efficient industrial equipment. However, businesses cannot justify the large upfront costs of equipment upgrades without sufficient demonstration and verification of benefits.
Solution Statement Problem. Grid energy storage needs significant advances in cost reduction in order to make renewable generation safe and reliable at high penetrations. The current manufacturing process for the Recipient’s flow battery is only suitable for prototype quantities. To successfully execute its cost reduction roadmap, demonstrate the first wave of multi-MW deployments, and fulfill the significant demand for its revolutionary energy storage product, the Recipient needs to transition to a mature, higher volume manufacturing process.
Solution Statement Problem. California is experiencing unprecedented levels of tree die-off. Factors that are contributing to the die-off include several consecutive years of drought, warmer temperatures, and an infestation of bark beetles. The U.S. Forest Service estimated in 2016 that there were more than 102 million dead trees over 7.7 million acres in California, the majority of which are located in the central and southern Sierra Nevada.2 The dead tree population in California greatly exceeds the level expected for healthy forests, and this overabundance of forest fuel increases the risk of catastrophic wildfires that threaten property and lives. Open pile burning is the conventional approach for treating dead trees. However, open pile burning creates unwanted air pollution and generates no useful output from the biomass resource. An alternative to open pile burning is to utilize a bioenergy facility that generates electricity3 using dead trees as a fuel source. There is a substantial shortage, however, of existing bioenergy facilities that can address the tree mortality crisis in California.
Solution Statement Problem. Worldwide, compressors driven by electric motors were estimated to use about 2270 TWh/year in 2006.That is roughly one third of the overall power demand by electric motors. Factoring in grid losses, the worldwide power demand by compressors becomes an equivalent power generation requirement of roughly 2475 TWh/year. The global average greenhouse gases emissions for electricity generation in as of 2017 was 0.48 MMmtCO2e/TWh (million metric tons of CO2 equivalent per terawatt-hour). This leads to emissions for the power generation requirement by compressors being about 1190 MMmtCO2e/year. A reduction of 20% in compressor power demand would therefore prevent about 238 MMmtCO2e/year. Even with a lower 50% adoption factor of the Carnot Compression technology, and further assuming a 50% reduction in greenhouse gases intensity of the global power generation mix, the potential for worldwide CO2 emission reductions remains in the order of 59 MMmtCO2e/year. The potential to apply the Carnot Compression technology broadly across compressor use case presents an enormous opportunity for energy savings. Air compressors are relatively energy inefficient despite having undergone decades or even centuries of research and development. They are severely limited by their operating thermodynamic process being mostly adiabatic (little to no heat exchange between the gas being compressed and the surrounding environment, resulting in the gas heating up as it is being compressed). Approximately 67% of air compressors sold in the market today address heat by flooding the compressor chamber with oil (e.g., oil-flooded rotary screw compressor). Introducing oil as a cooling and lubrication agent requires frequent oil/filter changes and disposal, along with the potential for oil carryover in the compressed air stream. For customers that require completely oil-free air, incumbent technology such as oil-free scrolls or dry rotary screws are often triple the capital cost of a comparable size oil-flooded alternative. Compressors represent about 12% of industrial electricity consumption in the United States.
