Based on recent federal funding announcements, United Technologies Corporation, a global leader in providing innovative and sustainable solutions for the building and aerospace industries, is now poised to develop the next generation of geothermal design and a new carbon capture technology. 

The Hartford, Conn. based company, made up of such recognizable brands as Carrier, Otis Elevator and Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Engines, also has under its huge wings the United Technologies Research Center (UTRC), the company’s think tank across the river in East Hartford.  Last week, the Center was the recipient of several grants courtesy of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. These include:

• A $2.2m carbon capture project which is part of the first round of projects funded under DOE’s recently-formed Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). ARPA-E’s mission is to develop nimble, creative and inventive approaches to transform the global energy landscape while advancing America’s technology leadership.  ARPA-E is receiving total of $400 million under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The funds will support an effort by the UTRC to develop new synthetic enzymes that could make it easier and more affordable to capture carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and factories.  If successful, the effort would mean a much lower energy requirement for industrial carbon capture and significantly lower capital costs to get carbon capture systems up and running.  Success of this project could substantially lower the cost of carbon capture relative to current, state-of-the-art amine and ammonia based processes.  This would represent a major breakthrough that could make it affordable to capture the carbon dioxide emissions from coal and natural gas power plants around the world.
• UTRC will receive about $3m in funding for several geothermal projects involving the exploration and development of new geothermal fields and research into advanced geothermal technologies. Administered by DOE’s Geothermal Technologies Program, UTRC will explore the optimization of hybrid‐water/air-cooled condenser to reduce water consumption and to improve cooling of binary power plants in an enhanced turbine geothermal binary system. The Center will also identify and test more efficient heat transfer fluids for binary power plants.

Several other Connecticut organizations and institutions received funding from the DOE’s Geothermal Technologies Program including Milford, Conn. based Gas Equipment Engineering Corporation and the University of Hartford in West Hartford.

Filed under: ARRA Programs, Carbon, Corporate Responsibility, Energy, Green Buildings, Green Technology