Advanced Energy Materials
Materials Program Readies New Materials for Service in Achieving 2050 Emissions Goals
The Advanced Energy Materials program drives to characterize, produce, and certify advanced alloys and high-performance materials that are key to realizing dispatchable, reliable, high-efficiency, decarbonized power generation from hydrogen. In addition, the program aims to encourage change and stimulate innovation in the high-performance materials value chain to spur US competitiveness and enable meeting 2050 Zero-Emission Goals. Materials of interest include those that enable components and equipment to perform in the high-temperature, high-pressure, corrosive environments of advanced energy systems with specific emphasis on durability, availability, and cost.
The key focus areas of this program, which supports the Appalachian Regional Commission, Bi-Partisan Infrastructure Law goals to support disadvantaged communities, include:
- Robust domestic materials supply chain that includes good paying jobs for the American workforce
- NETL partnered with the Appalachian Regional Commission to develop training programs that teach high-tech welding skills
- Lifetime prediction and rapid repair critical to manage a flexible fleet of generators that enable high penetration of renewables into the grid
- Low-cost, high performance alloy development to enable the goals of zero-emissions by 2050.
Research Areas
The eXtremeMAT project addresses the materials of construction challenges by harnessing the unparalleled computational and experimental materials science expertise and capabilities within the DOE national laboratory, into an integrated team aimed at improving heat-resistant alloys.
The Advanced Materials program also participates in the multi-year collaboration with the United Kingdom's Department for Business, Energy, & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and DOE materials technologies. The partnership’s objective is to share and develop knowledge and expertise in high-temperature materials for advanced power plant applications.
DOE Fossil Energy supports the High-Performance Computing for Materials (HPC4Mtls) program as part of DOE’s High-Performance Computing for Energy Innovation Program. HPC4Mtls accelerates industry discovery, design, and development of materials in energy technologies by enabling access to computational capabilities and expertise in the DOE laboratories.
NETL researchers develop and maintain the Energy Data eXchange (EDX) to support private collaboration for ongoing research efforts, and technology transfer of finalized DOE and NETL research products. EDX offers a secure environment for multi-organizational research teams to share, build and collaborate online tools, data, and information.
NETL’s Systems Energy Analysis group conducts a variety of energy analyses to identify and evaluate promising R&D opportunities.