OARS Awarded CEAT Proposals

Thursday, June 29, 2017

In the most recent funding round of the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science & Technology (OCAST), two CEAT proposals were awarded through the Oklahoma Applied Research Support Program (OARS). The OARS program provides support for innovative technologies with commercial potential.

Dr. Raj Singh, Williams Companies Distinguished Chair Professor and Regents Professor, Director of the Energy Technologies Program in the School of Materials Science and Engineering, received an OARS Proof-of-Concept award for his project entitled “Nanostructured Materials for Li-Ion Batteries with High Capacity and Performance.” Dr. Nirmal Govindaraju, Assistant Professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering, is Co-PI for the project.

Dr. Christian Bach, Assistant Professor in the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, received an Accelerated OARS award for his project entitled “Reducing Time to Market for Commercial AC Equipment through Development of a Simulation Platform for Multi-Circuit Evaporator Coil Performance.” Dr. Craig Bradshaw, Assistant Professor in MAE, is Co-PI for the project.

Congratulations to these faculty members on receiving these OCAST awards! Summaries of their awards are below:

Li-ion batteries are extensively used in cell phones, computers and are promising for energy storage. While these batteries have performed well in portable electronic devices, significant improvements in performance, capacity, and life are needed to make them useful for widespread applications in automobiles and energy storage from wind and solar generators. One way to enhance capacity and performance of Li-batteries is to use novel nanostructured materials as promising electrodes and arrange them in such a way as to enhance capacity and performance. Drs. Singh and Govindaraju will pursue these approaches in their new OCAST OARS award, which is expected to result in new state-of-the-art Li-ion battery materials with more than twice the capacity and performance of current materials. In particular, the research will result in: (1) the development of high performance nanostructured anodes and cathodes, and their processing based on the transformative concept of hierarchical nanostructured and textured anode and cathode nanomaterials so that the performance barriers to Li-batteries useful for EV commercialization are removed, and (2) assessment and demonstration of durability for 500 cycles of charge and discharge of the nanostructured electrodes in a Li-battery. The development of these high performance battery materials will result in lighter weight, compact, and high efficiency energy generation and storage technology for automobiles, portable electronics, and alternative energy applications.

Drs. Bach and Bradshaw are working with Johnson Controls International (JCI), a manufacturer of commercial air-conditioning units, as the commercial partner in their OCAST OARS project. The research project will focus on the development of a new heat exchanger simulation model for multi-circuited heat exchangers. This model will include consideration of cross-fin conduction for multi-circuited coils. The proposed model will allow JCI a more competitive product development process. The end objectives of the modeling tool will be to: (1) Obtain predictions of new heat exchanger circuit’s performance with a smaller margin of error, reducing development time by cutting the required number of prototype coil tests; (2) Decrease not only development cost and time but also production cost through a more effective use of fin surface area; (3) Allow JCI to fulfill future and more stringent efficiency requirements, such as the 25-30% minimum efficiency increase for rooftop units upcoming in 2023; and (4) Allow JCI’s Commercial Air-Conditioning division in Norman to improve market position by a faster readjustment of its product portfolio to market forces.