[Fremont, CA], July 22, 2021 – The U.S. Department of Energy announced awards totaling $127 million to support 110 American small businesses and entrepreneurs innovative projects – each focused on tackling the climate crisis by harnessing market-oriented solutions and emerging technologies.
DOE’s Office of Energy and Efficiency and Renewable Energy will award $57 million to 53 projects with phase II funding based on the initial success of their phase I awards, including follow-on awards to support projects closer to market.
Through DOE’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program, the phase II awards support the research and development of innovative clean energy technologies toward commercialization. EERE phase II awards are awarded for a two-year project duration, with initial funding up to $1.1 million, and two potential follow-on awards of up to $1.1 million each.
Automat Solutions’ project titled “A High Energy Density Vehicle Battery with Drop-In Lithium Anode Enabled by a Stable Liquid Electrolyte” is among the EERE selections. This project will develop additives to improve the stability of liquid electrolytes for lithium metal batteries. Enabling high energy density lithium metal batteries improves the range and cost of batteries and could facilitate widespread adoption of electric vehicles, key to EERE’s goal of decarbonizing the transportation sector.
For EERE’s announcement, click here.
About Automat Solutions, Inc.: Automat Solutions, Inc. develops a transformative approach to simplify advanced material Research and Development (R&D) and to accelerate Time to Market (TTM) with a current focus on battery material development. The approach consists of a Materials AI Robotics-driven System (MARS) that is purposefully built for R&D, combining machine learning and high-throughput robotic automation. Promising to solve one of the biggest struggles of material innovation—lengthy TTM—it cuts the discovery time for new material solutions drastically by ten times. The company’s vision is to employ an autonomous centralized facility with AI and Robotics as the foundation for material innovation, education, and commercialization.
About the Department of Energy (DOE)'s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Programs: The SBIR and STTR programs are U.S. Government programs, intended to help certain small businesses conduct R&D. At DOE, funding takes the form of grants. Projects must have the potential for commercialization and meet specific DOE mission-specific R&D needs. DOE offers more than sixty technical topics and 250 subtopics, spanning research areas that support the DOE mission in: Energy Production, Energy Use, Fundamental Energy Sciences, Environmental Management, and Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation.