How do research breakthroughs and innovations create economic and workforce opportunities on the regional and national scale? This is the focus of the NETL Regional Workforce Initiative Energy 101 webinar series. The NETL RWFI Energy 101 Series provides a basic primer on the research conducted at NETL, including the challenges and potential economic and workforce opportunities that successful research into these topics, along with their related challenges may bring to the region and the nation. NETL researchers present information on their work in an easy to follow and easy to communicate fashion. This month we look at ongoing NETL research into sensors and controls. The Sensors and Controls program improves fossil energy power generation through sensors, distributed intelligent control systems, and increased security. Advanced sensors and controls provide pivotal insights into optimizing plant performance while also increasing plant reliability and availability.

NETL’s K-12 STEM Education & Outreach team provided support services during three West Virginia Regional Science Bowl (WVSB) Regional Education Service Agency (RESA) qualifying competitions in December. The competitions determined which middle and high school teams will compete in the main WVSB event, to be held Feb. 8-9 at West Virginia University in Morgantown. The winning teams from the WVSB will win an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington D.C. to compete in the annual National Science Bowl in April. During Science Bowl competitions, middle and high school students compete as teams in an action-packed quiz bowl format to answer questions on science, math and engineering. The events test students’ science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) knowledge while promoting and demonstrating the value of science and technology in education.

During his career with NETL, U.S. Army veteran Jimmy Thornton has worked tirelessly to advance new technology development for Fossil Energy (FE), and that remains true today with current efforts to investigate uses for artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) for FE technology development. Born in Kentucky and growing up in Campbells Creek, Thornton joined the U.S. Army at the encouragement of his high school baseball coach who was an Army Reserve drill instructor. Trained as an infantryman and entering service in early 1983, Thornton was stationed in Germany, where he completed French Commando School in Givet, France. Leaving active service in 1987, Thornton joined the Kentucky National Guard while studying at Eastern Kentucky University, and he later transferred to the West Virginia National Guard after accepting a professional internship with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in Morgantown in 1988. Commissioned as an officer in 1992, he served with the 201st Field Artillery and was deployed to Iraq in 2004 during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Today, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Fossil Energy (FE) and NETL have announced up to $20 million in federal funding for cost-shared research and development projects under the funding opportunity announcement (FOA), Extreme Environment Materials for Power Generation The projects will support FE’s Crosscutting Research program , which has a unique ability to identify needs and foster technology development across many applications. The projects will target material challenges that apply to both coal- and gas-based steam cycle components. By focusing on both new and existing applications, the program is intended to improve cost, performance, and reliability of fossil power generation and also enhance the competitiveness of the Nation’s high-temperature materials supply chain in the global marketplace.

NETL’s K-12 STEM Education & Outreach team engaged students during several day-long visits at area elementary schools, conducted an educational energy workshop for teachers, assisted in a cybersecurity competition and aided two preliminary West Virginia Science Bowl (WVSB) regional qualifying events in November. The team’s efforts to promote the value of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education across several platforms each month generates interest in STEM topics and provides opportunities for the next generation of scientists, problem-solvers and critical thinkers.WVSB Regional Education Service Agency (RESA) Areas I-IV Regional Competitions (Institute, West Virginia; Athens, West Virginia) – The K-12 STEM Education & Outreach team provided support services to local RESA area Science Bowl coordinators at several WVSB qualifying competitions Nov. 1 and Nov. 16. The events serve as the WVSB preliminary competition to qualify teams from former RESA areas I-IV for the 2020 WVSB high school regional tournament. The events were held at West Virginia State University and Concord University.

From developing energy conversion systems that use abundant fossil energy resources to produce power, fuels and chemicals, to developing and using advanced energy analysis models to support decision-making, NETL continues to aggressively pursue its mission to discover, integrate and mature technology solutions to enhance the nation’s energy foundation and protect the environment for future generations. NETL researchers had a productive year, underscored by forward-looking innovation and technology development. Here’s a look at a few of our leading-edge successes from 2019. Moving Advanced Sensors toward Commercialization An NETL-developed sensing technology designed to enable more flexible operation of gas-fired power plants advanced toward commercialization as part of a partnership with turbine manufacturer Solar Turbines Incorporated.

NETL highlighted its Joule 2.0 supercomputer and innovative applications to advance fossil energy research at this week’s SuperComputing 2019 (SC19) conference in Denver. Chief Information Officer Antonio Ferreira and other Lab personnel attended the conference Nov. 17-22 at the Colorado Convention Center. This year, NETL participated alongside the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) 16 other national laboratories as part of the DOE booth. The exhibit demonstrated the value of high-performance computing in providing clean, reliable and affordable energy to meet America’s needs.

NETL’s Computational Science and Engineering (CSE) directorate underpins much of the Lab’s research by generating information and analysis beyond the reach of physical experiments alone. CSE develops science-based simulation models, mathematical methods and algorithms and software tools required to address the technical barriers that often hinder development of next-generation fossil energy technologies. Through the integration of experimental information and computational sciences, scientists and engineers can efficiently simulate multitudes of technology variations to save time, money and materials. CSE work enabled advancements in several areas of NETL research in 2019, including significant achievements in multiphase flow science and carbon capture technology development.

NETL has issued a Notice of Intent (NOI) for a funding opportunity announcement (FOA) for cooperative agreements to competitively solicit and award projects that will focus on materials research, development, testing and validation to enhance the domestic materials supply chain and the reliability of the existing fossil power generation fleet.  Notice of Intent for DE-FOA-0002192, Extreme Environment Materials for Power Generation, will support DOE’s Crosscutting Research Program. It is anticipated that projects will fall under two areas of interest (AOIs). AOI 1: Addressing Fatigue Failures at Dissimilar Metal Joints in High-Temperature Steam-Cycle Components This AOI will focus on development of innovative materials or materials processing technologies that improve the cyclic durability of joined materials and components, reduce the time and cost associated with repairing and upgrading components and address barriers to deployment of mature joining technologies through demonstrating and documenting their value in a realistic environment.

NETL announced today up to $4.5 million in federal funding for cost-shared research and development (R&D) projects for fossil power plants. The projects fall under an amendment to funding opportunity announcement (FOA) DE-FOA-0002001.000001, Crosscutting Research for Coal-Fueled Power Plants. This amended FOA aims to develop advanced dry cooling technologies suitable for fossil power plants. Dry cooling is used to cool and condense steam in a thermoelectric power plant; however, costs and performance, particularly under hot conditions, remain a challenge. DOE will support projects that bring down costs and increase performance of dry cooling so it can be widely used and reduce water demand associated with power generation. While this FOA requires cooling technologies to be applicable to coal power plants, it is anticipated that most will also be applicable to natural gas-fired power plants as well.