E-FinityDistributed Generation

Renew Financial, founded in 2008, specializes in affordable financing for renewable energy and energy efficiency projects and is developing an array of financing products that will help move America toward a clean energy model.

Central Washington Biodiesel (CWBiodiesel) is producing 100% Washington biodiesel using only Washington grown and processed vegetable oil.

Renewable Oil International is a Florence, AL based company that has received a grant(s) from the Department of Energy's SBIR/STTR program. The abstract(s) for these grant award(s) are provided as well since they provide insights into Renewable Oil International's business and areas of expertise. The project will produce liquid biofuels from wood biomass resources by fast pyrolysis followed by upgrading of the pyrolysis oils. This research will be a key step towards ending global warming, improving national security, and improving rural economies by reducing our dependence on petroleum feedstocks. Declining petroleum resources, combined with increased demand for petroleum by emerging economies, as well as political and environmental concerns about fossil fuels, are causing our society to search for new sources of liquid fuels. This project will develop a method for conversion of biomass into liquid fuels at a small scale called fast pyrolysis—a process whereby biomass is rapidly converted into a liquid biocrude which can be used for fuel oil or upgraded into gasoline and diesel fuels.

Bodega Algae, LLC, (Bodega) is a developer of scalable algae photobioreactors. The closed continuous-flow reactors produce high-energy algal biomass for use in the production of biofuel. nnThe Bodega photobioreactor is modular and stackable, allowing it to be co-located efficiently on the premises of industrial plants. The reactor uses nutrients readily drawn from a variety of waste streams. Sources for nutrients include wastewater from domestic sewage, municipal water treatment plants or carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrogen oxide (NOx) flue gases from industrial plants. The microalgae in the bioreactor converts these compounds to biomass, creating the feedstock for biofuel while improving the environment. nnMicroalgae has advantages when compared to conventional oil crop feedstocks. Algae produces over twenty times the amount of biofuel than soybeans on an equal amount of land due to rapid growth rates and high concentrations of lipids per cell density. In contrast to soybeans and other oil crops, the modest agricultural and resource requirements of microalgae make it an attractive low-cost alternative feedstock. Estimates indicate that algae grown in large volumes could reduce the cost of manufacturing a gallon of biodiesel by half of current rates. Lower costs and greater energy yield will make biofuels economically competitive with petro-fuels. n

Vortex Hydro Energy is a company that received a STTR Phase I grant for a project entitled: Havesting Hydrokinetic Energy Using Vortex Induced Vibration and Fish Biomimetics. Their project will transition an innovative 1-5 kW energy generating system from the University of Michigan (UM) Marine Renewable Energy Laboratory (MRELab) towards the commercial market place. The system is based on a system of cylinders that are made to oscillate by water currents at velocities as low as 1-2 knots (water turbines require 5-7 knots). It is through this mechanism that the converter harvests the hydrokinetic energy. This project, if successful, will yield a new means of harvesting energy from low velocity currents. Additionally, this system is believed to have fewer impacts on aquatic wildlife than turbine based systems.

Garbrook Knowledge Resources is a company that received a SBIR Phase I grant for a project entitled: Targeted Information Products Built from a Curated Knowledge Base. Their project addresses the problem of integrating advanced computational and curation techniques. Curated knowledge resources are important in fields like genomics, but have not yet made a significant impact in other fields like renewable energy. The purpose of a curated knowledge product is to provide comprehensive, non-redundant, concise, and unbiased information in a field where information is otherwise scattered and hard for users to gather objectively. Garbrook has built an encyclopedic knowledge base, the Advanced Biofuels Resource, to organize scientific, commercial, and policy-related information for the Biofuels community. This proposal will develop automated methods to produce multiple targeted information products from such a resource. For many users of technical, commercial, and policy information, the information landscape is cluttered and confusing. The Internet now contains a wide variety of newsletters, trade association sites, blogs, and other media reports, in addition to scholarly publications, consulting reports, white papers from policy organizations, and government sites. The solution to this problem is not more sites, but a new standard for curated knowledge resources to reduce the clutter. Garbrook proposes to build technology to automatically segment curated matter to establish a comprehensive resource into targeted knowledge products suitable for various sectors of the community. Combining its computational technology and its ability to train agent curators, Garbrook is positioned to build additional knowledge products in the future for topics related to energy and the environment.