Inaugural Energy Innovation Seed Grants awarded

The Maryland Energy Innovation Institute (MEI²) awarded Energy Innovation Seed Grants of $100K each to four projects to educational institutions across the state of Maryland. The grants are intended to bridge the gap between academic transformative laboratory research results and prototype demonstrations while fostering commercialization through technology development, creation and/or advancement of university start-up companies within the state of Maryland.

Those chosen in the inaugural call for proposals include:

· Biogas Enhancement and Ammonia Extraction for Increased Revenue in Waste-to-Energy Systems; Lead PI: Stephanie Lansing, Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Science & Technology, University of Maryland College Park, Partnering Company: Planet Found Energy Systems, LLC

· Large Area Quantum Dot Solar Cells for Building Integrated Photovoltaics; Lead PI: Susanna Thon, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Johns Hopkins University; Partnering Company: NanoDirect LLC

· Prototype Study of One-Step Membrane Reactor for Stranded Natural Gas to Liquids; Lead PI: Dongxia Liu, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, University of Maryland College Park; Partnering Company: Protonic Membranes

· RoCo (the Roving Comforter); Lead PI: Reinhard Radermacher, Professor and Director Center for Environmental Energy Engineering, University of Maryland College Park; Partnering Companies: Mobile Comfort, Daikin and Alliance Material Handling

"We had a tremendous response from across the state of Maryland indicating the excellent breadth and depth of energy innovations coming out of our universities and I want to thank the MEI² Investment Committee for their work in identifying the most qualified awardees”, said Dr. Eric Wachsman, Director of the Maryland Energy Innovation Institute.

Proposals were evaluated and selected by the MEI² Investment Committee based on the likelihood of attracting outside funding, innovation, and the potential for commercial readiness. Dr. Ellen Williams, Distinguished University Professor and Chair of the MEI²Investment committee noted, “We received an outstanding group of proposals - based on such high quality work we can see a great future for Energy Innovation in Maryland. The teams that are receiving awards will be moving forward quickly on their work, and we’re looking forward to seeing great progress.”

MEI²brings together science, industry, government and economic leaders to develop new energy technologies and facilitate the transfer of technology ideas into a reality. For more information, please visit: http://energy.umd.edu

Published January 22, 2018