NETL’s David Miller, Ph.D., senior fellow for Strategic Systems Analysis and Engineering, delivered a keynote address to kick off the 2022 Advanced Manufacturing & Processing Conference (AMPc) in Bethesda, Maryland, sharing the Lab’s perspective on optimizing decarbonized industrial and energy systems.

NETL and West Virginia University researchers have successfully used reinforcement learning — which allows a computer program to learn without user input — to develop adaptive control strategies that could reduce environmental emission and treatment costs during flexible operation of the nation’s power plants. Reinforcement learning is a type of machine learning technique that involves an intelligent agent, such as a computer algorithm, taking action in an environment and receiving rewards or penalties based on its actions.

The expertise and capabilities of NETL’s Institute for the Design of Advanced Energy Systems (IDAES) will be featured at Smart Manufacturing Experience 2022, a three-day conference highlighting transformational technologies to begin Tuesday, June 7, at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

NETL researchers will provide updates on groundbreaking projects when the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Hydrogen Program hosts its 2022 Annual Merit Review (AMR) and Peer Evaluation Meeting Monday, June 6, through Wednesday, June 8.

New NETL research examines turbomachinery design for advanced, natural gas-fired direct supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) power generation systems that offer potential for high efficiency and high rates of carbon dioxide capture. The research was captured in a new manuscript published in Energy Conversion and Management Journal.

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.

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:

The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) comprise the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Net Zero Lab (NZL) pilot project ─ a $38 million initial investment announced today to advance new technologies and approaches for net-zero emissions and decarbonization that can be replicated in public and private facilities to benefit the entire nation.

Two NETL staff members who specialize in executing partnership agreements to enable the real-world application of the Lab’s expertise and technology were recognized for excellence at the 2022 Spring Meeting of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Technology Transfer Working Group.

During his two decades at NETL, William Fincham, a federal project manager, has pursued three passions: a love for technology development through the nurturing of external partnerships, musicianship and an enthusiastic regard for architecture and local history.