Dais Analytic Corporation, a commercial nanotechnology materials business selling its industry-changing technology into the worldwide energy and water markets, today announced it has been selected to receive additional funding of $1.2 million from the U.S Department of Energy (DOE) to further commercialize its Heating, Ventilation, and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) membrane technology for its NanoAir™ product.
The award is part of a total investment of nearly $8 million announced at the end of April by the Energy Department to advance research and development of next-generation heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) technologies.
Dais Analytic was selected to negotiate an award based on a proposal submitted to the Building Energy Efficiency Frontiers and Innovation Technologies (BENEFIT) funding opportunity in January. The funding comes from the Buildings Technology Office (BTO) within the Energy Department, which is tasked with increasing widespread adoption of innovative technologies within the commercial marketplace.
According to the Energy Department, HVAC systems use almost 14 quadrillion British thermal units (quads) of primary energy annually -- or almost 30 percent of all energy used in U.S. commercial and residential buildings -- making the systems the largest end-use consumer of energy in buildings at this time. As such, there is a great need for innovative technologies that are environmentally friendly and cost effective -- a void that can be filled by Dais' Aqualyte™ nanostructured polymer membrane materials. These materials allow Dais to manipulate water molecules in an innovative manner to condition air while improving energy efficiency and eliminating fluorocarbon refrigerants.
The project will build and test a full size rooftop unit with 7.5 tons of refrigeration capacity. Project testing will take place at the renowned Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), providing the HVAC industry with independently verified data demonstrating that Dais technology can improve rooftop unit energy efficiency by almost 90 percent over units installed today, reduce CO2 emissions, eliminate fluorocarbon refrigerants that accelerate climate change, and improve end-user comfort with independent management of temperature and humidity.
"We're excited to build on the success of our past DOE projects and test our system in this environment to showcase our sustainability, efficiency, and cost effectiveness," said Brian C. Johnson, Chief Technology Officer of Dais. "Almost all buildings, from older buildings undergoing retrofits to the newest and most efficient projects under construction, are potential installation sites for our energy efficient HVAC systems. Dais technology represents a paradigm shift for heating and cooling in buildings, yet there is excellent backward compatibility. This is significant when you are offering the world improved HVAC and refrigeration technology, as existing buildings which will be in use for decades were designed around technology that has not changed much over the last 100 years."
"This is a terrific step forward for the Company, as it shows continued validation of our technology and recognition of the Dais team's progress from two previous awards from the U.S. DOE's Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E)," said Tim Tangredi, CEO of Dais Analytic. "Together with select HVAC manufacturing and distribution partners worldwide, Dais is looking ahead towards commercializing a family of products that in our work to date offer a fundamentally better architecture for HVAC and refrigeration systems. The world-wide impact of NanoAir, using our Aqualyte™ materials, will be felt every day with energy savings, lower environmental emissions, and greater comfort experienced by end-users."
Source: http://www.daisanalytic.com/