GoNano receives $149,000 grant

GoNano Technologies, a tech startup in Moscow, has received a $149,000 National Science Foundation SBIR phase one grant to develop a Nanospring catalytic converter for diesel engines.

Diesel engines generally emit more small carbon particles than other combustion vehicle engines.

The Idaho company will use the funds to develop a catalytic converter that incorporates up to four functions into one device. Most diesel emission reductions now rely on using multiple devices.

Nanospring materials are the company’s trademarked term for very small-scale structures that can increase efficiency and reduce the size of catalytic converters. The Nanospring materials, when used in this type of application, produce a surface area that ranges from 300 to 350 square meters per gram.

The company also received an SBIR grant in July 2010 to work on a carbon dioxide recycling system using the same Nanospring technology with a different active catalyst.

In a new release Wednesday, company CEO Tim Kinkeade said: “The objective is to demonstrate the technical feasibility of a novel four-way catalytic converter for diesel emissions. While there is ongoing research to combine multiple functions into a single catalytic converter, GoNano is applying its proprietary Nanospring technology to improve on current concepts.”

In 2013, stricter EPA requirements for diesel emissions standards will come into effect.

These new regulations will affect carbon emissions standards for allowable particle size and number of particles.