ARPA-E Application

LPP has submitted a “Concept paper” to the new Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy.  We are asking for $ 3 million to complete the current experiment and, mainly, to fund a two-year preliminary engineering efforts, which would overlap with the second year of the experiment.

ARPA-E is a new agency, molded on DARPA, which is soliciting proposals for “transformational” energy technology. Based on the 8-page concept papers, ARPA-E will ask selected proposers to submit a full 50-page application. We will know if we are selected for that step by late June/early July. This is a HIGHLY competitive solicitation, but we thought it worthwhile to do the concept paper, which we can also use elsewhere.

Here is a summary of our proposal from the concept paper:

The proposed ARPA-E funding will make possible the completion of this scientific feasibility and validation phase and complete validation of technological feasibility by carrying out engineering studies and component testing of the three critical engineering challenges of Focus Fusion—cooling, X-ray energy conversion and ion beam conversion.  Cooling is critical to high-output functioning of the DPF, as there will be an unavoidable minimum of waste heat generated by electrical resistance, X-ray absorption and contact with the hot plasma.  This cooling will be particularly critical for the small anode at the center of the device.  A very high efficiency compressed helium cooling system will be designed, and key components will be fabricated in this phase of the project.  Second, the ion beam converter will be designed, and key components such as the helical coils will be tested in our testing facility.  Third, the multi-layered X-ray conversion system will be designed and tested with the X-ray output from the DPF, allowing scaling up to the full several-thousand-layer converters.

LPP will carry out the technological feasibility phase of the project in a 24-month period, overlapping by 12 months with the 24-month scientific feasibly experiment, which is expected to run through December 2010.  A full-time experienced engineer will be working on each engineering challenge, and a fourth engineer will act to integrate the work and interface with the scientific staff.  In the second 12 months of the engineering feasibility phase (essentially calendar 2011), the DPF facility will be mainly devoted to testing the components and modification of the DPF function for overall system optimization. The goal of the engineering phase is the demonstration that the engineering goals required for Focus Fusion functioning are attainable