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What are we planning with the Department of Energy?

Feel free to use this as an indicator:

USU-Led Team Awarded $1.9M DOE Energy Efficient Transport Tech Grant-Aug. 28, 2014

Can Utah State University-developed synthetic spider silk fibers transform the next generation of cars and trucks into lighter, more energy-efficient vehicles?

That’s the challenge USU researcher Randy Lewis will explore over the next two years with partners from the University of California, Riverside and Tennessee’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The USU-led team, awarded $1.9 million in funding, is one of 14 projects selected nationally for a U.S. Department of Energy program aimed at exploring environmentally friendly highway transportation technologies to help reduce the nation’s petroleum use. DOE secretary Ernest Moniz announced the awards Aug. 21, 2014.

“We’re looking at two things: ‘Does it make sense to use spider silk fibers in place of carbon fibers in composites used in vehicles?’ and ‘Does it work to use spider silk fibers in current manufacturing processes?’” says Lewis, director of the university’s USTAR-initiated synthetic spider silk research lab.

While composites made from carbon fibers are lightweight, strong and a technological step ahead of sheet metals, they’re stiff and crack when bent.

“Unlike synthetic spider silk fibers, carbon fibers offer little elongation or flex,” says Lewis, professor in USU’s Department of Biology. “Vehicle side panels made from composites using spider silk would be light, strong and flexible. They’d be more damage-resistant, while promoting greater fuel efficiency.”

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