JUST IN: DOE announces $2 million award to Knoxville’s SkyNano LLC
Some really good news came in yesterday for Anna Douglas and the team at Knoxville’s SkyNano LLC.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced that her start-up, an alum of the “Innovation Crossroads” program operated by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, was one 18 companies sharing $39 million in funding. Each of the projects is seeking to develop technologies that can transform buildings into net carbon storage structures.
Led by DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), selectees for the “Harnessing Emissions into Structures Taking Inputs from the Atmosphere” (HESTIA) program will prioritize overcoming barriers associated with carbon-storing buildings, including scarce, expensive and geographically limited building materials. Decarbonization goals for the HESTIA program mirror President Biden’s plan to reach zero emissions by 2050 and aim to increase the total amount of carbon stored in buildings to create carbon sinks, which absorb more carbon from the atmosphere than released during the construction process.
SkyNano received $2 million to develop a composite panel that contains bio-derived natural fibers that exhibits excellent mechanical and functional properties while maintaining a carbon-negative footprint. The technology will enable interior building surfaces to be carbon negative.
Click here for the DOE news release.
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