Brayton Energy - Research and Development in Alternative Energies - Hampton, NH - 603-601-0450

ULTRA-EFFICIENT ENGINE DEVELOPER ICRTEC CLOSES $10 MILLION SERIES A FINANCING LED BY NEW VENTURE PARTNERS

brayton — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 16:09:40 +0000

ULTRA-EFFICIENT ENGINE DEVELOPER ICRTEC CLOSES $10 MILLION SERIES A FINANCING LED BY NEW VENTURE PARTNERS

New Round to Fund Product Development and Early Commercialization Efforts

Hampton, NH – November 21, 2012 – ICR Turbine Engine Corporation (ICRTec), developer of an innovative turbine engine using advanced ceramics that will replace today’s diesels in mobile and stationary markets, today announced that it has closed $10 million in Series A financing led by New Venture Partners (NVP) with participation from two strategic investors. Andrew Garman, a Managing Director with NVP, joins ICRTec’s board with this announcement.

“With this first round of institutional financing, we are well-positioned to continue ongoing engine testing and development and to initiate commercialization with OEM partners in heavy-duty truck transportation and on-site power generation,” said Frank Trotter, President and CEO of ICRTec. “Our ICR350™ engine competes head-to-head on price and fuel efficiency with today’s best diesel engines and surpasses the new generation of natural gas engines, allowing us to deliver efficient transportation, grid-competitive energy, and the lowest possible emissions today without the need for any added equipment or after-treatment.”

Targeting the $12 billion North American engine market, the ICR350 is a breakthrough in turbine size and efficiency that is ideal for highway transportation and other mobile users, as well as powering oil and gas operations, data centers and a wide variety of industrial applications. Priced the same as a diesel engine, it operates on any fuel, has near-zero emissions, offers significantly better fuel efficiency, enhanced reliability, and reduced size and weight when compared to all other engine options. The ICR350’s unique ability to switch on the fly from natural gas to diesel makes it a major bridge to accelerate adoption of natural gas for our nation’s transportation network.

“ICRTec is a great example of how to spin out exceptional technology from a corporate entity, in this case Brayton Energy LLC, and bring it to market more quickly,” said Andrew Garman. “ICRTec has developed an engine that delivers on the promise of micro turbines – clean, efficient, and reliable at a low cost. We look forward to working with Frank and the team to move this flexible engine into trials in both the transportation and power-generation markets during the next year.”

ABOUT ICRTec
ICRTec, based in Hampton, NH, is a 2011 Clean Energy Venture Award winner, from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). It is the developer of the ICR350™, an innovative gas turbine engine that is a fuel-efficient, flexible and cost-effective replacement for today’s diesel engines in a variety of mobile and stationary markets, including heavy-duty truck transportation, oil and gas production and data centers. See www.icrtec.com for more information.

ABOUT NEW VENTURE PARTNERS LLC
Formed in December 2001, New Venture Partners is a pioneering venture capital investment firm focused on corporate technology spin-outs. Unlike traditional venture capital firms, New Venture Partners bridges the divide between technology corporations and traditional venture capital to commercialize innovations systematically and provide companies with an alternative path to market. Through its unique hands-on approach, working with its established network of exclusive partners and world-class R&D labs, New Venture Partners has developed an impeccable track record of successful exit valuations of venture-backed companies. New Venture Partners now has over $650 million under management. See www.nvpllc.com for more information.

For more information, please contact:

Stephanie Driscoll
TENOR Communications
steph@tenorcom.com
650.200.8233

Brayton Energy Receives Competitive US DOE Sun Shot Award

brayton — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 15:29:55 +0000

Brayton Receives US DOE Sun Shot Award. Emerging from a very competitive field, Brayton received the award to design, fabricate, and test an advanced supercritical CO2 solar receiver. The Brayton team will combine experience in manufacturing compact S-CO2 heat exchangers with proven experience in air-Brayton solar receivers. A receiver adapted to the S-CO2 recompression cycle would represent a major advancement in CSP technology.

Brayton Hosts Nobel Laureate Robert Laughlin

brayton — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 15:27:30 +0000

Brayton hosts Nobel Laureate, Robert Laughlin. Bob Laughlin, winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in physics for his explanation of the fractional quantum hall effect, author of The Crime of Reason: And the Closing of the Scientific Mind, and a current Stanford University physics professor, visited Brayton this month. He met with the team to review a wide range of Brayton’s renewable energy projects as well as to take part in an intense innovation session. Brayton Energy hopes to team up with Nobel Laureate Laughlin again in the near future.

ICRTec wins NREL Outstanding Venture Award

brayton — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 15:57:22 +0000

ICRTec was selected from over 300 presenting companies for one of two Outstanding Venture Awards at the recent NREL 2011 Clean Energy Venture Awards, sponsored by Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. ICRTec is Brayton’s partner in the development of the Next Generation Microturbine, a 350 kWe, a high efficiency intercooled recuperated gas turbine with a ceramic hot section. NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is operated for DOE by The Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.

Full press release details can be found here: NREL News Release NR-5311

Photo (click to enlarge):

The Wilson Solar Cooker

brayton — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 12:44:39 +0000

Brayton has begun assembly and testing of David Gordon Wilson’s Solar Cooker. The following marketing materials outline the device, its purpose, and its goals.

This video was made by Theodora Vardouli, Derek Allen Ham, and Eric Uva, as part of their work
for an entrepreneurship course taught by Professor Fiona Murray, Sloan School, MIT, May 2011.

Brayton and Southwest Solar Technologies demonstrated World’s Second Dish Brayton System

brayton — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 15:18:57 +0000

Though a few notable projects have tested gas turbines on small solar towers with mirror fields, there have only been two truly Dish-Brayton demonstrations. The first, in 1984, was led by Sanders Associates, using a microturbine designed by Allied Signal (Torrance, CA), a Lajet 460 dish, and a Sanders receiver. On August 30, 2011, Brayton and SST successfully tested the world’s second dish-Brayton. This system employed the SST 320 Sq. meter dish, with a purpose-built gas turbine and receiver designed and built by Brayton Energy. The Dish-Brayton is believed by many engineers to offer substantially better reliability and a long (60,000 hour) maintenance-free life as compared to the Dish-Stirling.

Brayton Wins SBIR Phase-2 to Demonstrate Undersea Compressed Air Storage Sub-Systems

brayton — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 14:08:51 +0000

The successful Phase-1 created a viable undersea air storage design, focusing the design on early demonstration in Hawaii. With support from the Hawaiian Electric Company, the Brayton UCAES team will be expanding our survey of the Hawaiian Islands looking for the best demonstration site for an 80 MWH pilot plant. On our Phase-2 project, the team will build and demonstrat the critical technology subsystems while developing a financeable plan for the pilot plant.

Brayton Represented at the ASME International Gas Turbine Institute (IGTI) Annual Conference

brayton — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 16:05:09 +0000

Jim Kesseli, Chair or the Microturbine and Small Gas Turbine Committee of the IGTI, and Shaun Sullivan, Committee Organizer participated in the well-attended program in Vancouver BC. The conference and committee demonstrated its long commitment to small turbomachinery and heat exchangers (recuperators) with seven sessions and roughly 30 papers by researchers in the field of small turbomachinery.

Brayton Demonstrates Ceramic Turbine and Hot Section Operation

brayton — Mon, 30 May 2011 13:02:11 +0000

Brayton completed the assembly and commission testing of the USA’s first microturbine with an operating ceramic turbine and hot section. In the 1990’s, the Japan Ministry of Industry and Technology sponsored and demonstrated the first ceramic microturbine, a 300 kWe recuperated engine. Brayton’s program expects to build upon the earlier experience to create a cost-effective engine for CHP and vehicular applications. To date, the engine has been tested to a TIT of 1100 C, a level well above that of current metal-based microturbines.

Professor David Gordon Wilson Joins Brayton Team

brayton — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 15:58:24 +0000

The author of “Design of High Efficiency Turbomachinery and Gas Turbines”, Dr. Wilson is well-known in the industry as a teacher, gas turbine designer, and inventor. Professor Wilson has joined Brayton as a staff consultant to support Brayton’s Next Generation Microturbine initiative. Dr. Wilson (Professor Emeritus at MIT) will be applying his significant expertise to the design of ceramic hot sections and regenerators for gas turbines. The engineering staff at Brayton are excited to have the opportunity to work with one the of the gas turbine industry’s leading researchers.