What room can contain lasers, guitars and racks of batteries? The 2025 ARPA E Energy Innovation Summit was held just outside Washington DC this week.
The diversity of energy innovation was evident at the summit. ARPA-E is part of the US Department of Energy and provides funding to high-risk but high-reward projects. This summit brings together projects that the agency has supported, as well as investors, journalists, and policymakers.
The conference featured hundreds of innovative projects, including demonstrations and results from research. Four of the most innovative innovations are shown below MIT Technology Review Spotted on the site
Laser-cut steel
Startup Limelight Steel developed a method to produce iron, the primary component of steel, using lasers that heat ore at super-high temperature.
The majority of steel production is done in blast furnaces that rely on the combustion of coal to reach the temperatures needed for the chemical reactions.
Instead, lasers are used to heat iron ore up to over 1,600 degrees Celsius. The molten iron is then separated from the impurities and can go through current processes to produce steel.
A small laser demonstration system, with an output of 1.5 kilowatts and a processing capacity of 10 to 20 grams ore has been built by the company.. Each laser array is about the size of a stamp.
This particular laser type is found in projectors. The parts of the system can be purchased commercially. Andy Zhao, cofounder and chief technology officer of the startup, said that the lasers’ cost has been brought down by years of advancements in the telecoms industry.
Next, a system with 150 kilowatts will be built that could produce up to 100 tonnes of steel in a single year.
Fuel rocks
It may not appear that the rocks at MIT’s booth are high-tech but they might one day be used to produce chemicals and fuels.
The ARPA-E Summit was dominated by the topic of geologic hydrogen. There is a lot of interest in finding underground gas deposits that can be used for fuels across many industries including heavy industry and transportation.
ARPA-E supported a few projects in this area, one of which was Iwnetim Abate’s laboratory at MIT. Abate, a researcher at MIT, is one of the scientists who want to not only hunt down hydrogen but also use conditions underground to produce it. His team’s research published earlier this year showed that scientists could produce ammonia and hydrogen using conditions found in the underground. Abate founded Addis Energy to commercialize his research. The company has received ARPA E funding.
These chemicals can be made from any of the rocks, including the dark basalt and the soft talc.
A guitar with iron-nitride magnetic pickups
Music radiated from Niron Magnetics’ booth onto nearby sidewalks. The people who were passing by took turns to test out the magnets in the shape of an electric guitar.
The demand for neodymium magnets is expected to increase in coming years as more wind and electric cars are built. The supply could be limited, and geopolitics is complicated by the fact that most of the supplies come from China.
Niron makes new magnets without rare earths. Niron relies on materials that are more plentiful: iron and nitrogen.
This guitar was made as a demo product. Today, electric guitars use magnets consisting of aluminum, cobalt, or nickel-based materials to help convert the vibrations produced by steel strings into an electrical signal. The amplifier then amplifies this signal. Niron created an instrument instead using iron nitride magnetic materials. See photos here of a guitar at an event from last year.
Niron has opened its pilot commercial facility, which can produce up to 10 tons of magnets per year. Niron announced in 2024 that it would be building a large-scale facility with a capacity of 1,500 tones of magnets per year.
This company manufactures sodium-ion battery to meet the power needs of data centres.
The energy needs of data centers can vary greatly. As their power requirements increase, these swings may start to impact the grid. Natron’s sodium ion batteries are able to be installed in these facilities, helping to level out the largest peaks. This allows computing equipment to operate at full capacity without overtaxing the grid.
The sodium-ion battery is a more affordable alternative than lithium-based batteries. These batteries are also free of lithium, nickel and cobalt – materials that have limited production. In China, we’re starting to see some new varieties of batteries made from sodium-ion.
Natron has opened a manufacturing line in Michigan and plans to build a factory worth $1.4 billion in North Carolina.
