HITEMMP SBIR/STTR | DE FOA 0001972

Opportunity Information: Apply for DE FOA 0001972

The HITEMMP SBIR/STTR opportunity (DE-FOA-0001972) is a funding call from the Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) focused on pushing heat exchanger technology into operating conditions that current commercial approaches generally cannot handle. ARPA-E exists to back high-risk, high-reward energy technologies that are still too early for typical private investment, with the broader mission of improving U.S. energy and economic security, cutting energy-related emissions, and improving efficiency across the economy. Awards under this FOA are issued as cooperative agreements, meaning ARPA-E is typically more involved than in a standard grant, and projects must follow federal financial and administrative rules (including 2 C.F.R. Part 200, as amended by 2 C.F.R. Part 910).

Technically, HITEMMP (High Intensity Thermal Exchange through Materials and Manufacturing Processes) targets a very specific bottleneck in advanced power generation and thermal systems: compact, high-performance recuperator-type heat exchangers that can survive extremely harsh environments while staying efficient and cost competitive. The program is aimed at enabling more efficient and power-dense power cycles that matter in transportation, grid electricity generation, and industrial energy systems. The core challenge is to create heat exchangers that can simultaneously tolerate temperatures above 800 degrees C and pressures above 80 bar for operating lifetimes on the order of tens of thousands of hours, while also delivering strong thermal performance with low pumping power (so the system does not give back efficiency through excessive pressure drop). In other words, ARPA-E is looking for breakthroughs that improve heat transfer per unit volume and mass without making the device fragile, prohibitively expensive, or too lossy to operate.

The FOA makes clear that success depends on coordinated advances across three areas that are usually treated separately: materials, manufacturing, and design. On the materials side, teams are expected to identify or develop material systems that can survive the combined temperature and pressure extremes and still have attractive thermomechanical properties (creep resistance, fatigue resistance, oxidation/corrosion resistance, and stability over long service hours) while remaining realistically manufacturable. On the manufacturing side, the program is explicitly interested in additive and/or subtractive techniques that can cost-effectively produce small feature sizes, smooth surface finishes, and other geometric details that drive compactness and heat transfer performance. On the design side, ARPA-E wants advanced topology and design methodologies that take advantage of new material capabilities while acknowledging real manufacturing constraints, rather than proposing shapes that look good in simulation but cannot be built or cannot be built repeatedly at reasonable cost.

ARPA-E frames the work as two challenge categories for recuperator-type heat exchangers. One category targets operation above 800 degrees C, aligned with metallic material approaches, and the other targets operation above 1100 degrees C, aligned with ceramic or composite material sets. Applicants are expected to pick one category and design to that category's performance metrics (the detailed numerical targets are referenced as being in Section I.D of the FOA). Across either category, the program anticipates a development path that starts with analytical and computational design, then uses small-scale module experiments to retire key technical risks, and culminates in a demonstration of a heat exchanger that meets performance and durability requirements at a 50 kW thermal (50 kWth) scale. That structure signals that ARPA-E is not looking for purely theoretical work; it wants a credible, staged plan that ends with an integrated prototype demonstration at meaningful conditions.

From an applicant and logistics perspective, this is an SBIR/STTR opportunity restricted to small businesses as eligible applicants, and ARPA-E emphasizes multidisciplinary teams, which often means a small business leading with university, national lab, or industrial partners filling in specialized expertise in materials characterization, high-temperature testing, advanced manufacturing, or computational design. The FOA was released with a concept paper requirement, with concept papers due September 12, 2018, and applicants were encouraged to submit at least 48 hours before the deadline to avoid last-minute system issues. ARPA-E stated that submissions must go through its online portal (ARPA-E eXCHANGE) and that it will not review submissions delivered through other methods. The funding profile listed an award ceiling of $3,225,000 and an expectation of about 5 awards, which indicates a competitive selection aimed at a small number of relatively substantial projects rather than many small exploratory grants.

In practical terms, a strong HITEMMP proposal would normally spell out which of the two temperature regimes it is targeting, what specific material and fabrication pathway will be used to achieve both durability and compactness, how the design will balance heat transfer against pressure drop, and how long-duration performance will be validated (including test conditions that reflect the combined high temperature and high pressure environment). Because ARPA-E is trying to catalyze a step change beyond existing heat exchanger technologies, proposals are implicitly expected to show why the approach can beat state of the art on the FOA metrics while still having a believable pathway to repeatable manufacturing and cost competitiveness, not just a one-off lab demonstration.

• The Department of Energy, Advanced Research Projects Agency Energy in the science and technology and other research and development sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "HITEMMP SBIR/STTR" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 81.135.
• This funding opportunity was created on Aug 09, 2018.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Sep 12, 2018 Concept Papers are due by 9/12/2018. Applicants are strongly encouraged to submit their applications at least 48 hours in advance of the submission deadline. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $3,225,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 5 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Small businesses.

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