NETL experts attended the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Turbomachinery Technical Conference and Exposition — also known as the Turbo Expo — in Phoenix, Arizona, June 17-21 to support finding new solutions to today’s energy challenges. The three-day annual exhibition attracts the industry’s leading professionals and key decision-makers whose innovation and expertise help shape the future of the turbomachinery industry. At the expo, NETL showcased its capabilities by displaying its research and development competencies and exploration into coal-fueled turbine-based power systems to attendees. The conference featured over 300 paper sessions with more than 1,000 papers and more than 80 panel, tutorial and lecture sessions. Richard Dennis, a member of the NETL’s Efficient Energy Conversion team, chaired panel sessions surrounding important issues relevant to the turbomachinery industry. Topics ranged from discussing the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Turbines Program to future trends and opportunities in turbomachinery and clean energy technology.

NETL’s work with oxygen carrier technology is making waves in the alternative energy field. The Lab’s material research is cutting costs while maximizing efficiency and contributing to America’s future in clean energy while working to mitigate environmental impact. Specifically, NETL is exercising its world-class expertise through the investigation of special materials known as metal oxides, which are important due to their unique properties and energy applications. These oxides can serve multiple purposes as oxygen carriers, which provide oxygen during gasification.

Assistant Secretary for the Office of Fossil Energy (FE) Steven Winberg and National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) Director Brian Anderson, Ph.D., spoke at the 2019 Northeast Petrochemical Exhibition and Conference June 20, 2019, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Winberg and Anderson joined more than 1,000 world-class experts, industry-leading CEOs and innovation service providers to discuss challenges and developments in the northeast region. FE and NETL have a long history of advancing and maturing technologies beneficial to the petrochemical industry, such as the development of a new catalyst that can selectively convert syngas into light hydrocarbon compounds. NETL has also worked to advance carbon capture technologies, which can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide that enters the atmosphere as a result of industrial processes like petrochemical production. In his remarks, Anderson focused on carbon capture research, specifically technology readiness in advanced manufacturing.

An NETL research team was recently granted a patent for their groundbreaking invention for rapid kick detection, which results in safer drilling operation and significant cost savings for both consumers and operators by providing real-time updates of downhole conditions to aid in maintaining control of an oil or gas well. Kelly Rose, Ph.D., ORISE research fellow Brian Tost and University of Southern California professor Fred Aminzadeh were awarded the patent for their invention “System for kick detection during a drilling operation” April 9. Click here to view. During hydrocarbon exploration, limited information on subsurface environments can result in unexpected changes, which can cause “kicks,” or a sudden entry of water, gas, oil or other formation fluid into a wellbore during drilling.

NETL played a pivotal role in this week’s 2019 Clearwater Clean Energy Conference, one of the nation’s premier conferences on coal technologies for more than 40 years. Nearly a dozen Lab employees shared their work to develop fossil-energy technologies that promote responsible stewardship of the environment. The 44th International Technical Conference on Clean Energy, as the event is also known, wrapped up today in Clearwater, Florida. The weeklong event provided an extensive overview of emerging, evolving and innovative technologies, fuels and/or equipment in the power generation industry, attracting hundreds of participants from around the world for technical sessions, short courses, panel discussions and more. In addition to sharing NETL’s work, the conference offered valuable learning and networking opportunities for Lab participants. Ron Breault, Ph.D., supervisory general engineer for NETL’s Thermal Sciences team, helped organize the event as a conference co-chair, while Massood Ramezan, Ph.D., senior program director for NETL contractor KeyLogic, served on the conference committee.

Key economic development/energy officials from the State of Pennsylvania visited NETL in Pittsburgh Thursday to learn more about the NETL’s research activities, take a tour of key laboratories and discuss areas of mutual interest with NETL leadership. NETL Director Brian Anderson, Ph.D., hosted the visit, which was designed to highlight the energy research done at the Laboratory that can bolster local, state and national economic development and energy security initiatives. Bryan D. Morreale, Ph.D., executive director of NETL’s Research and Innovation Center, conducted a tour of the Laboratory’s facilities during the visit. The delegation consisted of the State of Pennsylvania’s Secretary of the Department of Community and Economic Development Dennis M. Davin; Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Governor’s Office of Energy Denise M. Brinley; Adam Walters, William Penn Energy Fellow in the Governor’s Office of Energy; and Ryan Unger, president of Team Pennsylvania Foundation.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy and NETL is announcing selections of seven projects to receive $5.4 million in federal funding for university-based research and development under funding opportunity announcement (FOA) DE-FOA-0001993, University Turbine Systems Research (UTSR). The projects will address and resolve scientific challenges and applied-engineering technology issues associated with advancing the performance and efficiency of combustion turbines and turbine-based power cycles in fossil fuel power generation. DOE selected these projects as part of the University Turbine Systems Research program, which manages a research, development, and demonstration portfolio designed to remove environmental concerns over the future use of fossil fuels by developing revolutionary, near-zero-emission advanced turbines technologies.

NETL-sponsored research aimed at developing smart sensing systems for harsh-environment applications is expanding to provide critical performance information and meet industry needs. As part of a $1.6 million project managed by NETL, researchers at West Virginia University (WVU) developed a smart refractory sensor system for wireless monitoring of temperature, degradation and overall health of slagging gasifiers. Although the project wrapped up in 2018, the research team continues to build upon its work to explore new materials for improved sensor systems with broad applicability for harsh-environment sensing, including coal-fired boiler technology, biomass gasification, and steel and glass manufacturing. Harsh-environment sensors with real-time monitoring capabilities can provide valuable insight into the performance of advanced energy systems, identifying opportunities to improve operations, cut costs and reduce downtime.

When NETL researcher Angela Goodman, Ph.D., appeared as a featured speaker this spring at a distinguished symposium sponsored by the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) New York Section, she shared key technical knowledge about geochemical interactions in the energy industry, helped honor her former graduate school advisor, and made history by participating ACS’s first all-female technical presentation panel. The event was the ACS William H. Nichols Distinguished Symposium in White Plains, New York, and honored Nichols medal awardee Vicki Grassian, Ph.D., for her work on chemistry and its impacts on the environment. She is only the third woman to win the medal recognition since 1903. The Nichols Medal Award is a gold medal presented to a chemical scientist for original research. It was first awarded in 1903. The award ceremony has evolved into a distinguished symposium and a medal award banquet.

National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) researchers studying reaction chemistry in the new cutting-edge ReACT (Reaction Analysis & Chemical Transformation) facility are working to unleash the power of microwaves to advance coal gasification technologies capable of providing cleaner and more affordable energy and valuable chemicals. Gasification involves reacting coal at a high temperature without combustion; however, traditional thermal heating can be costly and very energy intensive. Alternatively, NETL researchers are focusing on using microwaves to provide rapid and selective energitics on a molecular level. “Microwaves have many advantages over traditional thermal heating,” said Christina Wildfire, a researcher at NETL. “For instance, you don’t need to heat up the entire system. Microwaves can target just the materials, resulting in higher product yields and greater selectivity.”