During a visit to western North Dakota this week, Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy Steven Winberg got a firsthand look at technology originally developed for the U.S. Army but now to be assessed by NETL in producing fresh water from brine used in energy operations. The equipment is being tested at the University of North Dakota (UND) Energy & Environmental Research Center’s Brine Extraction and Storage Test site, which is among several research sites Winberg is touring. “This project is one of many NETL-led technologies underway within the Office of Fossil Energy to address competing water needs and challenges,” Winberg said. “Water is a limited resource, yet there’s an inextricable link between water and energy. We need treatment technologies that economically derive clean water from alternative sources and facilitate water reuse to increase efficiency and reduce water consumption.”

NETL research has resulted in a technology that offers a practical, affordable and green approach to removing the threat of lead and other heavy metals from streams that ultimately contaminate the drinking water of American homes – a threat that jeopardizes the health of millions of children – and can also help recover valuable rare earth elements (REEs) from water supplies. The heart of the technology is an NETL-developed material known as basic immobilized amine/silica sorbent (BIAS). It was initially developed to separate gases as part of carbon capture research and has received numerous awards and recognitions for its effectiveness. NETL’s McMahan Gray led a Laboratory team consisting of Brian Kail, Walter Wilfong, Qiuming Wang, Fan Shi, Tom Tarka, and Tuo Ji that had ideas for wider applications for BIAS. They adapted the core BIAS technology to create a product that resists water, is regenerable, and can target heavy metals and even REEs from water supplies.

Throughout the school year, NETL’s K-12 STEM Education & Outreach team encourages positive attitudes surrounding science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) by bringing engaging hands-on, minds-on activities to children. During the summer when classrooms are empty, the team continues to provide STEM instruction at day camps, summer programs and other educational events located near the Lab’s research sites in Pittsburgh; Morgantown, West Virginia; and Albany, Oregon. Team members, along with the Lab’s STEM Ambassadors, led four active learning experiences throughout July that served to enhance children’s critical thinking skills and foster an early interest in STEM topics.

With sponsorship by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy (FE) and NETL, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) has advanced a harsh environment sensor technology from concept to full industrial validation. The sensor system will enable real-time, accurate and reliable monitoring of temperatures inside a power plant’s boiler system, lowering operating costs through better operational control. “Temperature measurement helps optimize processes and detect failures, reducing downtime and improving operational efficiency,” said NETL’s Jessica Mullen, who managed the project. “Advantages like these could help make technologies like coal gasifiers, gas turbines, ultra-supercritical steam cycle designs and other critical power systems more cost-competitive.”

Six college students and two professors, who participated in a mentored training program at NETL sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and designed to encourage pursuit of careers in energy industries, presented the results of their summer research projects during a technical forum held this week in Morgantown, West Virginia. The individuals were participants in the Consortium for Integrating Energy Systems in Engineering and Science Education (CIESESE) – a program that supports DOE's goal of building a continuing cadre of professionals, particularly from the Hispanic community, who are ready to take on the challenges of new energy systems – the infrastructure, technologies, and procedures used to generate, store, and distribute energy. CIESESE consists of five Hispanic-serving institutions: Universidad Ana G. Mendez – Recinto Gurabo (formerly Universidad del Turabo) under the Puerto Rico Energy Center, Miami Dade College, University of New Mexico, Recinto Universitario De Mayaguez and the University of Texas El Paso. Sandia National Laboratory and NETL are also part of the consortium.

More than 1,000 K-12 students and their parents learned about NETL’s work to develop innovative technology solutions through hands-on educational exhibits at a recent international First LEGO League competition in Fairmont, West Virginia. First LEGO League is a global robotics competition program that helps children expand their knowledge, develop beneficial learning habits and build their confidence as they tackle research, problem-solving, coding and engineering challenges. Fairmont State University welcomed more than 1,000 participants from 11 countries and 15 U.S. states to its campus July 12-14 for the Mountain State Invitational competition, co-organized by NASA’s Independent Verification & Validation facility.

Nodeworks inside of MFiX, being used to create and run 100 cyclone simulations.When NETL recently upgraded its supercomputer Joule, tripling its CPUs and increasing its computational powers by eight-fold, the Lab bolstered one of its most valuable research competencies — computational science and engineering (CSE). NETL’s CSE directorate works with many of the research programs at the lab, especially those that focus on energy conversion engineering by simulating a variety of combustion and gasification processes to ultimately design more efficient energy systems that can deliver affordable and reliable power to consumers.

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.

NETL welcomes the children of employees this week for Bring Your Kids to Work Day festivities, which reflect the Lab’s strong commitment to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education outreach. All three NETL sites will celebrate Bring Your Kids to Work Day. Festivities will begin in Morgantown, West Virginia, on Tuesday; continue in Albany, Oregon, on Wednesday; and wrap up in Pittsburgh on Thursday. Approximately 200 children are expected to participate across all locations. Employees will host interactive indoor activities, engaging outdoor demonstrations and educational Lab tours for the children to enjoy before spending the afternoon shadowing their parents. In years past, NETL volunteers have used slime, LEGO bricks, magnetics and more to excite participating kids about the wonders STEM as they learn about the Lab’s fossil energy research and development.

NETL’s highly ranked Joule 2.0 supercomputer is breaking barriers by accelerating the development of innovative, cost-effective energy technologies to ensure affordable, reliable energy for all Americans. The high-performance system ranks 21st in the United States and 55th in the world per the latest rankings by TOP500, announced today. A recent $16.5 million upgrade boosted Joule’s computational power by nearly eight times, enabling researchers to tackle more challenging problems than ever before as they work to make more efficient use of the nation’s vast fossil fuel resources. Named for the familiar unit of energy, Joule allows researchers to model energy technologies, simulate challenging phenomena and solve complex calculations using computational tools that save time and money to ensure that technology development ultimately proves successful. The upgrade work more than tripled the number of central processing unit (CPU) cores — from 24,192 to 73,240 — and added graphics processing units to further enhance simulations of advanced energy technologies.