Capital Region Inventors Pioneer Advanced Materials for Extreme Temperatures
GE Aerospace’s Hypersonic Dual-Mode Ramjet
Capital Region tech firms are developing advanced materials that can withstand high temperatures, ranging from those experienced by hypersonic vehicles, rockets and hydrogen-powered long-haul tucks.
Starfire Systems
Last year, Starfire Systems in Glenville was granted its first patent in a decade. The patent was for an ultra-high temperature ceramic forming precursor. The precursor, which cures at 200°C, transforms into a thermally stable hafnium carbide (HfC) and at 1600°C it becomes crystalline HfC. Starfire’s datasheet for the precursor, calledSPH-199 HFC, states, “The ceramics formed are stable up to 3500ºC based on conditions, making them ideal for high temperature hypersonic and re-entry vehicle applications.”
Free Form Fibers
Under a $1.2 million U.S. Navy Small Business Innovation Research grant, Free Form Fibers in Saratoga Springs is adapting its proprietary fiber laser printing technology for the fabrication of silicon nitride fibers, which are high-temperature, low dielectric constant ceramic fibers. Free Form Fibers identified them as a “next-generation material candidate” that could support the next generation of hypersonic vehicles.”
GE Aerospace
Researchers at GE Aerospace’s Advanced Research Center in Niskayuna developed what is believed to be the first silicon carbide (SiC) Metal–Oxide–Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistors (MOSFETs) that can operate at temperatures exceeding 800 degrees C. With an operating threshold 200 degrees C greater than anything previously demonstrated this SiC MSFET technology, GE Aerospace stated it will “enable robust, reliable electronics to support space exploration and to control and monitor hypersonic vehicles in extreme high temperature operating environments.” And shortly after announcing this SiC MOSFET breakthrough in 2023, GE Aerospace announced the demonstration of the world’s first hypersonic dual-mode ramjet (DMRJ) rig test with rotating detonation combustion (RDC) in a supersonic flow stream. This new architecture could support hypersonic vehicles that can travel farther at speeds up to 4,000 mph, or Mach 5.
UAlbany Huang Lab
At the University of Albany’s College of Nanotechnology, Science and Engineering, Professor
Mengbing Huang is also using single-crystal sapphire fibers to develop optic sensors with aerospace rocket applications. Huang is exploring the development of optic sensors that could potentially withstand temperatures of more than 2,000 C. His research has ben supported by SUNY’s Technology Accelerator Fund (TAF) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Mengbing Huang ‘s lab at UAlbany
“Once sapphire fiber optics sensors are deployed around the rocket engine, they can detect instantaneously the temperature and other quantities (e.g., vibration) around the engine and send the information down the fiber lines to the rocket control system without delay. This will provide an effective means to monitor the engine for better fuel efficiency and early safety warning as well as for design and test of new-generation engines where other existing sensing technologies are not possible to be put in,” Huang said.
Orion Polymer
Orion Polymer, a Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute spinout in Saratoga Springs, last summer received a $200,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy for R&D on its-high temperature Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cells based on ion-pair systems. With potential applications for long-haul tractor trailers, the PEM fuel cells could withstand temperatures up to 180 C and replace fuels cells made with perfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) membranes. used in long haul tractor trailers. The PEM fuel cells that Orion is developing do not need large and expensive radiator systems to humidify PFAS fuels cells as the truck’s motor nears water’s boiling point, according to Orion COO Cathryn Olsen.
“Hydrogen fuel cells which generate only water as byproduct are clean energy technology, particularly for transportation sector. The current membrane materials in fuel cell technology are made of environmentally hazardous perfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) chemicals. Furthermore, the state-of-the-art of fuel cell vehicles requires a large radiator as a critical component because external humification of hydrogen gas fuel is necessary,” said Chulsung Bae, Orion’s founder and a Ford Foundation Professor at RPI’s Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology.
“With support from the U.S. Department of Energy, Orion Polymer aims to develop novel non-PFAS membranes that enable fuel cells to operate without external humification. This will significantly broaden the range of possible fuel cell operating condition and reduce the cost by eliminating heat rejection and humidification in fuel cell design, which is critical in medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, such as trucks and trains,” Bae added.
Orion has also been awarded a second DOE research award to invent advanced Anion Exchange Membranes (AEMS). These AEMs work in a pH– alkaline solution, as opposed to a battery acid environment, making them an acid/corrosion-free alternative. The AEMs would support cheaper fuel cells, because their housing could include inexpensive steel instead of platinum. The fuel cell’s anode and cathode would also not require expensive precious metals, such as platinum, iridium and ruthenium.
Orion Polymer CTO Greg Kline works in a chemistry hood
CEG INITIATIVES
CEG has a decades-long tradition of supporting the Capital Region’s tech industries. CEG consistently represents the Capital Region at semiconductor industry events worldwide. CEG is also serving as a group sponsor several high-tech apprenticeship programs. CEG also promotes the region’s high tech industries, including R&D to Commercialization, Advanced Electronics and Advanced Materials at conferences and other events, such as Semicon West.
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