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August 08, 2019 | Tom Ballard

Six East Tennessee-based companies only listed recipients of FY19 DOE SBIR and STTR awards

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently released a listing of recipients of Phase I and Phase II awards for FY2019 under its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs, and it probably comes as no surprise that all of the winners are from East Tennessee.

They include three double recipients – Analysis and Measurement Services Corporation (AMS) in Knoxville, Cryomagnetics Inc. of Oak Ridge, and Coulometrics in Chattanooga. All three had both awards announced as part of Release 2 of the SBIR and STTR grants.

Founded by Hash Hashemian, a well-known community business executive, AMS won two Phase II SBIRs that collectively total almost $2 million. One award was for a project titled “Health Monitoring of Digital I&C Systems Using Online Electromagnetic Measurements”; the other is titled “Fault Detection of Digital Instrumentation and Digital Control Systems Using Integrated Electromagnetic Compatibility and Automated Functional Testing.”

We spotlighted Hashemian and his nuclear services company in this three-part teknovation.biz series published in early 2016 (Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3).

Two other double winners and their awards were:

  • Coulometrics of Chattanooga that received a $200,000 Phase I SBIR for “The Development of a Stabilized SEI Layer of SI Containing Lithium Ion Battery Anodes” and a $1,100,000 Phase II SBIR award for its project t named “High Quality Natural Graphite for Lithium Ion Batteries”; and
  • Cryomagnetics Inc. of Oak Ridge that received a $199,879 Phase I SBIR award for a project titled “Pulsating Heat Pipes for Particle Accelerator Magnet Systems” and $1,000,000 Phase II STTR award for a project titled “Very High Field Hybrid Superconducting Magnet Using Bi-2212.”

Other SBIR Phase I recipients announced this year were:

  • eSpin Technologies Inc. of Chattanooga that was awarded $206,500 for a project titled “Nanostructured Proton Exchange Membrane”;
  • Carbon Rivers LLC of Knoxville that won a $92,052 Phase I STTR grant for “Second Generation Glass Fiber Composites Fabricated from Retired Wind Turbine Blades”; and
  • PGDs Co. of Knoxville that was awarded a $225,000 Phase I SBIR for a project titled “Dynamic Gamma Ray Imaging for In Vivo Tracking of Microelement Transport Across Plant Microbial Systems.”

To see a list of all SBIR and STTR recipients for the last five fiscal years, click here.


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