The Department Of Energy’s Bioenergy Technology Office (BETO) has announced the awards for their latest round of grants. The grants are part of the Wood Heater Innovation Collaboration program, which “leverages the expertise of national laboratories to collaborate with award recipients on developing and validating innovative wood heater technologies.” Two of the three grants announced were awarded to HPBA members, MF Fire and Stove Builder International, and both build on earlier grants in order to refine new, innovative technologies. The third grant was awarded to Applied Ceramics, which supplies catalysts to several HPBA members.
Last year, DOE announced two CRADA grants to HPBA at HPBExpo: one to explore the performance of particulate matter sensor technology and another grant to develop a prediction tool for use with woodstoves. CRADA grants are cooperative grants, which means the companies advise the national laboratories that actually perform the research.
The details of this year’s grants:
- Applied Ceramics will work with BNL to develop and test novel catalytic combustors for improved particulate matter reduction in woodstoves.
- ISB Marketing Inc., in conjunction with Stove Builder International, will work with LBNL to create an autonomous, low-power combustion control system for affordable wood heaters by simplifying a previously designed high-end system.
- MF Fire will work with LBNL to validate Fire MAPS, an emissions reduction technology for wood heaters that can be easily added to any of the 12 million wood heaters in the US.