Secure and reliable natural gas delivery is essential as the industry grows to meet an increasing portion of America’s energy needs. Natural gas accounted for nearly 32 percent of the electricity produced in the United States in 2017, and the U.S. Energy Information Administration expects that figure to rise to nearly 39 percent by 2050. More than 300,000 miles of large transmission pipelines transport vast amounts of domestic natural gas nationwide. Every inch is susceptible to threats such as corrosion, the natural deterioration of metal materials caused by chemical reactions to the environment. Corrosion is one of the leading causes of pipeline leaks and ruptures, which threaten the safety of industry employees and the security of the nation’s energy supply.  Researchers at NETL are working to address these concerns by developing advanced fiber-optic sensor systems that protect America’s pipelines by preventing leaks and failures before they occur. These systems will supersede conventional technologies, which are designed to detect pipeline leaks and failures that have already happened.

NETL, the only U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratory focused on development of advanced fossil energy technologies and the only government-owned and government-operated (GOGO) national laboratory, is playing a prominent part in DOE’s new Lab Partnering Service (LPS) Internet presence that offers technology investors and innovators multi-faceted search capabilities across a range of technology areas resident in the national laboratories.

In 1917, when Albert Einstein suggested that it might be possible, under the right conditions, to produce light rays that could be directed at atoms to produce energy in beams of light, he created the theory behind what would become light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation – what we call lasers today. Einstein never dreamed that researchers would someday use this principle to improve fossil fuel-based power generation systems – but that’s just what’s happening at NETL. NETL researchers are using lasers to make better sensors that work more efficiently inside the harsh environments of power generation systems, from traditional coal-fired power plants to solid oxide fuel cells, gas turbines, boilers, and oxy-fuel combustion.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has selected 15 projects to receive nearly $8.8 million in federal funding for cost-shared research and development (R&D) projects to develop innovative technologies that enhance fossil energy power systems. The newly selected projects fall under DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy’s Crosscutting Technology Research Program, which advances technologies that have a broad range of fossil energy applications. Specifically, the program fosters innovative R&D in sensors and controls, modeling and simulation, high-performance materials, and water management.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has selected 15 projects to receive nearly $8.8 million in federal funding for cost-shared research and development (R&D) projects to develop innovative technologies that enhance fossil energy power systems. The newly selected projects fall under DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy’s Crosscutting Technology Research Program, which advances technologies that have a broad range of fossil energy applications. Specifically, the program fosters innovative R&D in sensors and controls, modeling and simulation, high-performance materials, and water management.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has selected 15 projects to receive nearly $8.8 million in federal funding for cost-shared research and development (R&D) projects to develop innovative technologies that enhance fossil energy power systems. The newly selected projects fall under DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy’s Crosscutting Technology Research Program, which advances technologies that have a broad range of fossil energy applications. Specifically, the program fosters innovative R&D in sensors and controls, modeling and simulation, high-performance materials, and water management.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has selected 15 projects to receive nearly $8.8 million in federal funding for cost-shared research and development (R&D) projects to develop innovative technologies that enhance fossil energy power systems. The newly selected projects fall under DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy’s Crosscutting Technology Research Program, which advances technologies that have a broad range of fossil energy applications. Specifically, the program fosters innovative R&D in sensors and controls, modeling and simulation, high-performance materials, and water management.

NETL opened its doors – and its labs – June 4 to student researchers who are participating in the Mickey Leland Energy Fellowship (MLEF) and Consortium for Integrating Energy Systems in Engineering and Science Education (CIESESE) programs. Participants include more than 40 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors who will get hands-on experience in NETL’s cutting-edge research facilities and work one-on-one with the Lab’s world-class scientists and engineers. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy, MLEF kicks off its 23rd year with a class of undergraduate and graduate students. The program was named after late Congressman Mickey Leland of Texas, a passionate advocate on many issues who died in a 1989 plane crash while on a mission to Ethiopia. 

Because supercritical CO2 (sCO2) power cycles can improve thermal efficiency and enable energy production from domestic fossil fuels with responsible stewardship of the environment, NETL researchers are aggressively investigating how to maximize the service life of materials in sCO2environments. sCO2 power cycles operate similarly to other turbine cycles, but they use CO2 – rather than steam – as the working fluid in the turbomachinery.  In its supercritical state, CO2 remains liquid-like rather than gas-like and has unique properties for energy generation equipment. For example, turbomachinery that uses sCO2 can be very compact and highly efficient, requiring less compression and enabling better heat exchange. sCO2 power cycles operate at very high pressures, which means they operate more efficiently so more energy can be created from less fuel and with a reduced cost. Because sCO2power cycles require higher pressures than traditional power generation systems, the physics, chemistry, and components do not behave as they would in conventional systems.

NETL researchers are continually finding innovative ways to improve the efficiencies of fossil energy based power generation, but the improvements generally come at a cost. Advanced fossil energy technologies, such as ultra-supercritical steam plants and oxyfuel combustion boilers, have the potential to increase efficiency and bolster clean coal efforts, since they operate at higher temperatures and pressures. However, this leads to harsher and more corrosive conditions compared to traditional power plants in use today. A supercritical steam boiler and turbine operate at very high pressure. As a result, the quantity of coal needed to create equivalent energy is less, resulting in less coal used per unit of energy generated, and therefore, less emissions. Meanwhile, oxyfuel combustion boilers burn fuel using pure oxygen instead of air as the primary oxidant. Because the nitrogen component of air is not heated, fuel consumption is reduced in oxyfuel combustion boilers making higher flame temperatures possible, improving efficiency.