Greentech Lead America: Eaton Corporation, a diversified
power management company, has received a $3.4 million grant from the Department
of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) to develop an
affordable home refueling station for natural gas vehicles.
Eaton will develop a production prototype for refueling
stations that will retail for about one tenth of the cost of currently
available systems. The new refueling stations will utilize existing natural gas
sources in the home and innovative compressor technology to deliver the
alternative fuel source safely and efficiently to vehicles.
“Innovative projects like these have the potential
to make natural gas vehicles more affordable and convenient for every American
family and revolutionize the way we commute. My hope is that these advanced
technologies will enable us to use our abundant domestic supply of natural gas
for transportation, diversifying our nation’s fuel and refueling portfolio for
the future,” said Dane Boysen, director of the Department of Energy’s
Methane Opportunities for Vehicular Energy (MOVE) program.
Eaton’s Innovation Center teams in Southfield, Mich., and
Milwaukee and the Advanced Hydraulics group in Eden Prairie, Minn., will lead
the project. The team will collaborate with the University of Minnesota on
thermodynamic analysis and modeling to enable the efficient transfer of heat in
the compression process.
“With the development of this breakthrough
compressor and refueling system, Eaton will remove an important barrier to
increased use of natural gas-powered cars and trucks,” said Chris Roche,
vice president, Innovation Center, Corporate Technology.
The refueling system will use liquid, which acts as a
piston, to compress natural gas. Innovative heat exchanger technology will
improve efficiency and cut cost dramatically.
Current natural gas refueling systems cost between $5,000
and $10,000. Eaton expects that its prototype will be available at a production
price of $500 before the end of 2015.
Eaton receives $1.84 million grant from U.S. Department of
Energy (DoE) for EV charging
Recently, Eaton received a $1.84 million grant from the
U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) for developing efficient commercial electric
vehicle (EV) chargers. The grant is part of a larger federal research and
development program to help reduce the current costs of EV chargers by 50
percent over the next three years and to support the adoption and deployment of
EVs.