The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) NETL is supporting an award-winning startup company to help develop a novel power plant technology that can produce clean water from cooling tower plumes. The technology could significantly reduce water consumption in evaporative cooling tower systems by capturing water from cooling tower plumes, which are formed when water vapor generated in cooling towers mixes with colder ambient air as it leaves the tower and condenses. Both the United Nations and the U.S. State Department have warned that the world is facing a freshwater shortage by 2030. In the U.S. alone, decreasing precipitation and rising populations could pose a serious threat of water shortages.  According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), “About two-fifths of all the water that gets withdrawn from lakes, rivers, and wells in the U.S. is used not for agriculture, drinking or sanitation, but to cool the power plants that provide electricity from fossil fuels or nuclear power.” More than 65% of these plants use evaporative cooling, leading to huge white plumes that billow from their cooling towers. 

The July 2022 edition of the RWFI E-Note Monthly, NETL’s Regional Workforce Initiative (RWFI) newsletter, is now available and includes details on a range of grant funding and training opportunities from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

NETL researchers are helping the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) unlock the potential of an advanced artificial intelligence (AI) computing resource to perform critical climate modeling that could lead to better climate change predictions. NCAR will conduct the research using Carnegie Mellon University’s cutting-edge Neocortex high-performance computing resource, which features the Cerebras CS-2 system, a ground-breaking AI computational resource powered by the world’s largest computer chip — the wafer scale engine (WSE). NETL researchers have been collaborating with Cerebras Systems Inc. over the last two years on unique modeling capabilities using the WSE, and have been developing a user interface that allows users to easily write programs on the WSE for scientific modeling.

NETL’s Natalie Pekney led a career development panel featuring women from across the U.S. Department of Energy during a virtual segment of the 2022 GirlCon, held Friday, June 17. Pekney joined Kate Klise and Christine Downs from Sandia National Laboratory, Charu Varadharajan from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Chris Morency from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as they discussed their day-to-day routines and offered words of wisdom for working for the federal government. “This was a valuable, candid discussion where each of us was able to share our unique perspectives working at the different national labs,” Pekney said. “We hope we opened up the lines of communication and provided some inspiration for the next generation of scientists and engineers to consider government service.”

NETL researchers made important industry connections during the TechConnect World Innovation Conference and Expo held in Washington, D.C, June 13-15, sharing the Lab’s innovative research into computer modeling, rare earth elements, sensors and other energy research, while other NETL innovators pitched their technologies to investors during the concurrently held TechConnect Innovation Challenge. On the first day of the program, NETL’s Jessica Mullen, technology manager for Rare Earths and Critical Elements, provided an overview of the Lab’s Critical Materials Sustainability Program, which is working to rebuild the U.S. leadership role in extraction and processing technologies to support an economically and environmentally benign, geopolitically sustainable U.S. domestic supply chain for production of rare earth elements (REEs) and critical minerals for clean energy and national defense.

NETL researcher Ranjani Siriwardane is a trailblazer within her areas of expertise and in the advancement of diversity and inclusion to drive innovations for clean energy technologies. Besides finding solutions to complex technical issues, Siriwardane, as well as other women at NETL, are Ranjani Siriwardanetaking steps to close the gender gap that exists in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.

As a federal project manager, NETL’s Krista Hill is especially adept at handling multiple assignments as she focuses on the development of innovative decarbonization projects to address climate change. She refined and polished those multitasking skills early in her career. While completing graduate-level research in chemistry at the University of Oregon, Hill launched a tutoring business to help students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) courses, co-managed a construction company and even helped a friend start two food cart ventures. "I was always juggling several projects, which was great experience for project management," Hill explained. Growing up in West Virginia, Hill was impressed by the natural beauty of the state and enjoyed its outdoor recreation opportunities, which piqued an early interest in the environment. She was also exposed to strong role models, sparking a desire to excel in the classroom.

The May 2022 edition of the RWFI E-Note Monthly, the newsletter of NETL’s Regional Workforce Initiative (RWFI), is now available and includes details on a range of grant funding and training opportunities. Highlights include:

Through a collaboration with one of the world’s leading artificial intelligence (AI) hardware manufacturers, NETL is developing a cutting-edge computer modeling capability using next-generation computer architecture that is much smaller, more energy-efficient, and hundreds of times faster than current supercomputers. Cerebras Systems Inc. designed its revolutionary wafer-scale engine (WSE) to tackle tough AI problems, but NETL’s Dirk Van Essendelft, Ph.D., and his team realized that this new type of computer chip could be used to solve real-world engineering problems.

The latest edition of Water-Energy Nexus News is packed with research efforts undertaken by NETL and its partners to deliver world-class technology solutions that enhance the nation’s energy foundation while helping to protect water resources for future generations. This quarter’s newsletter welcomes Vanessa Núñez-López, the new director at the Office of Resource Sustainability. Núñez-López is focused on restructuring the division’s research and development portfolio to showcase the best advanced technologies and processes that minimize the environmental impacts associated with the extraction of oil and gas resources. Other updates in this edition of the newsletter include: ·       NETL’s Nicholas Siefert is leading a project on the co-treatment of flue gas desulfurization effluent from Longview Power Plant in Maidsville, West Virginia, and produced water from oil and gas wells near Morgantown, West Virginia.