An NETL-developed technology improves the strength of cement by up to 30% and enhances durability by 60% using nanostructured carbon additives made from charred coal fine waste.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) removal (CDR) research — efforts to scale-up and commercialize technologies that will offset so-called hard-to-avoid carbon emissions and remove legacy CO2 from the atmosphere and store it at the gigaton scale — being conducted at NETL will be instrumental in meeting the decarbonization goals of the United States.

A revolutionary NETL technology that uses domestic coal as a feedstock to make better batteries, stronger construction materials and improve a wide range of consumer products has been acquired for commercial development by Carbon Holdings Intellectual Properties, a subsidiary of Ramaco Inc.

Research by NETL and its partners is advancing discoveries to produce graphite — a material whose unique properties make it an essential component for mass-producing battery electric vehicles (BEVs), energy storage systems and other green technologies — from unwanted carbon waste materials.

An award-winning technology, developed by an American company with support from NETL, uses coal waste as an anode material in lithium-ion batteries — an innovation that researchers believe is an eco-friendly way to help the U.S. reduce reliance on foreign countries for critical materials that are needed to support the growing demand for batteries used in battery electric vehicles (BEVs), energy storage, and other products.

The United States currently imports nearly all its supply of rare earth elements (REEs), which are a group of critical minerals that are vital for decarbonizing the energy system.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) and the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) announced $6 million in funding for six university-led research and development projects that will repurpose domestic coal resources for high-value graphitic products and carbon-metal composites that can be employed in clean energy technologies.

NETL researchers who asked the question — “How can we use coal without burning it and generating greenhouse gas?” — have been awarded a U.S. patent for an invention that transforms coal into a game-changing material to manufacture valuable products and generate jobs in coal communities as the nation transitions to clean energy.

Washington, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) has announced up to $6 million available for research and development (R&D) projects that will repurpose domestic coal resources for products that can be employed in clean energy technologies such as batteries and advanced manufacturing. Expanding innovative uses for coal and coal wastes has the potential to create local job opportunities for power plant communities as our country transitions to a net-zero greenhouse gas economy.

NETL leadership and experts, including NETL Director Brian Anderson, Ph.D., joined representatives from 11 universities as they gathered virtually to discuss project successes during the 2021 University Coalition for Fossil Energy Research (UCFER) Annual Technical Review Meeting this week. NETL Deputy Director and Chief Technology Officer Sean Plasynski, Ph.D., kicked off the second day of the meeting with opening remarks, proceeded by an administrative update from UCFER DOE Project Officer Omer Bakshi.