U.S. Dept. of Energy Awards Utah Companies $10 Million in R&D Grants

Brittany HancockUtah Innovation Center

Thirteen Utah companies received ten Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I and/or Phase II awards from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). 

DOE SBIR/STTR awards strive to transform DOE-supported science and technology breakthroughs into viable products and services. The awards support the development of specialized technologies and instruments that aid scientific discovery. 

The Utah Innovation Center is proud to have worked with many of these companies. 

Utah companies selected for awards:

Phase I

Afflo Sensors, Salt Lake City, UT

“Computation Model for an In-Field Localization of Biofuel Plant Damage Due to Herbivore Attacks” | Awarded Amount: $249,956

American Physics and Technology, LLC, Richmond, UT

“Innovative High-Volume Low-Cost Manufacturing of Conventional Neutron Supermirror Beam Guides, Mirrors and Filters for Future Large Projects” | Awarded Amount: $206,500

Coreform, LLC, Orem, UT

“Isogeometric analysis for nuclear engineering” | Amount Awarded: $206,500

Grid Modernization Solutions, LLC, Salt Lake City, UT

“Water, Power and Environmental Data Acquisition Protocol” | Amount Awarded: $199,927

Innosys, Inc., Salt Lake City, UT

“High Average Current and High Voltage Reliable and Stable Power Supplies for High Current Electron Beam Sources” | Awarded Amount: $199,996

Metascape, LLC, Salt Lake City, UT

“Context- Aware Neural- Accelerated Visualization Pipeline for Big Volumetric Data” | Awarded Amount: $199,310

Nielsen Scientific, LLC, Lehi, UT

“Scalable High-density Superconducting Flex Cables and Circuits” | Awarded Amount: $199,999

Sequent Logic, LLC, Logan, UT

“FPGA-Based High-Rate, High-Resolution Imaging Acquisition and Processing Solution” | Awarded Amount: $206,495

“Advanced Real-Time Seismic Monitoring Platform” | Amount Awarded: $206,493

Storagenergy Technologies, Inc., Salt Lake City, UT

“High-efficiency Continuous Electrolysis of Iron Ore for Carbon-Emission-Free Iron Production” | Amount Awarded: $200,000

Phase II

Coreform, LLC, Orem, UT

“Integrating MFEM for Commercial IGA Simulation Acceleration” | Award Amount: $1,650,000

  • Engineering simulation is critical for developing safer products and bringing them to market faster in automotive and other industries, but next-generation engineering designs require methods beyond the capabilities of mainstream software. This proposal will accelerate the development of a new simulation technology capable of running highly complex simulations to enable more efficient product design.

“Enabling the broader use of MOOSE for nuclear energy and other simulation” | Award Amount: $1,150,000

  • Nuclear energy reactor designs increasingly rely on engineering simulation software, but inefficiencies in existing products reduce the effectiveness of simulation on product design. This proposal will eliminate some of those inefficiencies and accelerate the use of simulation software to improve nuclear reactor designs.

GlycoSurf, LLC, Salt Lake City, UT

“Development of Novel Ligands used in Sludge Washing for Produced Water Value Extraction” | Award Amount: $1,049,072

  • Rare earth elements are designated as critical materials and produced water or its sludges contain significant quantities of these strategic metals. This technology will use surfactant enhanced sludge washing principles to extract rare earth metals using environmentally friendly and non- toxic sugar-based surfactants.

Particle Flux Analytics, Inc, Salt Lake City, UT 

“Miniaturized weather station with rapid switching between precipitation and meteorological measurement modes” | Award Amount: $1,641,506

  • Through this Phase II SBIR project, Particle Flux Analytics will bring to market a highly advanced automated precipitation and wind sensor suited for deployment in dense networked arrays for the scientific research and transportation safety sectors that will build the infrastructure required for supporting societal resilience to weather extremes.

Reaction Engineering International, Midvale, UT

“Web-based Decision Support Software for Hybrid Energy Systems Based on the IDAES Framework” | Award Amount: $1,149,386

  • A significant barrier to large-scale deployment of hybrid energy systems with Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) to combat climate change is the lack of access to decision-making software for stakeholders. This project will develop advanced hybrid energy CCS decision-making software to help quantify the costs and risks associated with the technology.

Zanskar Geothermal & Minerals, Inc., Salt Lake City, UT

“Developing and Applying Deep Learning Time-Frequency Denoising Tools to DAS Data to Enhance Passive Seismic Signals for Seismic Hazard Analysis and Reservoir Characterization” | Award Amount: $1,614,946

  • This project will develop an AI-based tool to better interpret seismic data at carbon capture sites. This will allow easier monitoring of geologic and safety conditions at carbon storage sites.