The May 2022 edition of the SSAE Newsletter provides updates about recent research initiatives undertaken within NETL’s Strategic Systems Analysis and Engineering (SSAE) directorate. Click here to access this latest edition and learn about activities that SSAE is leading to gain insights into new energy concepts, support the analysis of energy system interactions and advance its capabilities. Highlights in this edition include: An SSAE report that evaluates the impact of proprietary data on machine learning (ML) model performance for geoscience applications. The advanced modeling capabilities within SSAE’s Institute for the Design of Advanced Energy Systems (IDAES), that can improve the effectiveness and efficiency of pilot-scale demonstrations, were highlighted in a submission to the Pilot Program Request for Information (RFI) from the National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI).

NETL Director Brian Anderson, Ph.D., will moderate a panel discussion on efforts to establish a collaborative network dedicated to advancing low-carbon and hydrogen technologies as part of the West Virginia Manufacturers Association’s Energy Growth Summit Tuesday, May 3 in Wheeling, West Virginia. According to Rebecca McPhail, president of the West Virginia Manufacturers Association, which sponsors the event, the summit, set for Wheeling’s Oglebay Resort, is intended to “build upon the foundation of our manufacturing and natural gas development industries, while exploring broader industry issues. We will examine environmental and sustainability trends, job creation, and dive into the current regional economic outlook. The summit agenda is designed to explore the intersections of our manufacturing and energy sectors, and the challenges and opportunities they face.”   NETL senior fellow Nathan Weiland, who leads the Lab’s hydrogen research and development activities, is also scheduled to participate in the summit that was formally known as the Marcellus and Manufacturing Development Conference.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is recognizing outstanding entrepreneurs and small businesses during National Small Businesses Week, May 1-7. To mark the occasion NETL is highlighting the efforts of its own robust Small Business Program to enhance small business companies across the country.    The SBA’s Office of Advocacy reports that over 99% of all firms in the United States are small businesses. Small businesses are the lifeblood that keeps the American economy functioning. Small businesses drive innovation, create jobs, and play an important role in supporting their local communities. Small businesses thrive at NETL, providing the Lab with a significant amount of goods and services in support of NETL’s research efforts. In fact, during fiscal year (FY) 2021 NETL procured $179,056,780.33 with small businesses, which equates to approximately 50.21% of its procurement dollars—an amount that exceeds the SBA’s federal government-wide small business goal of 23%. 

Ammonia is used to clean our homes, workplaces, schools and hospitals; treat wastewater; fertilize our crops; make chemicals; and serve as a refrigerant for cooling systems. But it also has vast potential to be a carbon-free fuel for transportation and power generation if researchers can overcome a few key hurdles — hurdles that NETL is helping to clear thanks to some new laboratory capabilities. For some time, scientists have known that using ammonia in combustion processes like internal combustion engines and gas turbines could help the world quickly transition to a carbon-free economy. NETL’s Clint Bedick said ammonia can help solve many challenges related to America’s energy future without changing the nation’s existing infrastructure for distribution options if critical challenges can be overcome. Research capabilities like new additions to NETL’s Fundamental Combustion Laboratory at the Pittsburgh site are targeting those challenges as part of the Laboratory’s pursuit of the clean energy goals to attain economy-wide net-zero emissions by 2050.

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.

NETL Director Brian Anderson, Ph.D., will deliver first day keynote remarks at NETL’s annual Fossil Energy Carbon Management (FECM) Spring Project Review meeting Monday, May 2 - 12. The meeting is a two-week-long virtual public forum which will showcase approximately 100 research projects supporting the U.S. Department of Energy’s FECM mission to minimize the environmental impacts of fossil fuels while working towards net-zero emissions.  The event will provide researchers from industry, academia, national laboratories, and NETL an opportunity to present the results from projects funded by NETL in support of FECM and a forum for discussion and collaboration. Participants will review research on gasification systems, emissions control programs, and crosscutting programs, which include high performance materials, sensors and control, simulation-based engineering, energy storage and university research and training.

With a new $2.2 million cooperative agreement from a key NETL program that works to create novel technologies and products from carbon ore and related wastes, a research and manufacturing company with facilities in the heart of Appalachia is one step closer to building a prototype structure with carbon materials, offering a chance at revitalizing the economy in economically distressed communities. X-MAT®, with a manufacturing pilot line in Bluefield, West Virginia, has been developing carbon ore-derived building materials and, with the support of NETL’s Carbon Ore Processing (COP) program, has plans to build a prototype structure to test its roof tiles, siding panels, bricks, and blocks by 2023.   According to X-MAT, its building materials are:

NETL researchers will discuss transformational technologies to produce value-added products from fossil energy resources at Focus Forward 2022: West Virginia’s New Narrative, an event set for Wednesday, April 27, to ensure the Mountain State remains competitive, relevant and resilient in an evolving global economy. The Lab’s expertise will be showcased in the panel discussion “Leveraging West Virginia’s Energy Assets of the Past to Generate Products of the Future,” which will begin at 10 a.m. at the Morgantown Marriott at Waterfront Place in Morgantown, West Virginia. This panel discussion and other Focus Forward 2022 presentations are free and open to the public, but registration is required. Click here to review the day’s complete agenda and to register.

NETL’s world-class artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities are being leveraged to design the cleaner, more efficient power generation systems necessary for near-term decarbonization of the nation’s power sector and economy. AI refers to machines that can, for a given set of human-defined objectives, learn, predict, and make decisions, only much faster and more efficiently than humans. Most AI applications use ML to find patterns in massive amounts of data. The patterns are then used for making predictions that have numerous applications across the energy landscape.

The April 2022 edition of the RWFI E-Note Monthly, the newsletter of NETL’s Regional Workforce Initiative (RWFI), highlights funding opportunities for advancing undergraduate STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education from the National Science Foundation (NSF). This month’s edition focuses on the NSF’s Future of Manufacturing program to support fundamental research and education of a future workforce to overcome scientific, technological, educational, economic and social barriers, and  catalyze new production capabilities.