Today, NETL announced an amendment to a funding opportunity announcement (FOA) that will build a talent pipeline from Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Other Minority Institutions (HBCU-OMIs) to support the creation of a clean hydrogen future and Biden Administration’s decarbonization and energy equity goals.  The amendment will provide an additional $2.05 million from Department of Energy’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office (HFTO) in support of this effort. Facilitated by the Crosscutting Research University Training Research program, the amendment will support the development of a highly skilled and diverse workforce of scientists, engineers, and managers by increasing the participation of students from underrepresented and historically marginalized communities. In addition, this funding will also be supporting research, development, demonstration and deployment activities that advance the science of decarbonization and net-zero greenhouse gas emission technologies at eligible U.S. colleges and universities.

NETL data analysis research is expanding the work of the Lab’s eXtremeMAT program to enable improved materials property prediction that could support the design of cutting-edge clean energy systems. In their 2021 study, “Data Science Techniques, Assumptions, and Challenges in Alloy Clustering and Property Prediction,” which was cited for excellence by a prestigious academic journal, the researchers explain steps taken to use data from eXtremeMAT to accelerate the development of materials for extreme environments, including the high-temperature, high-pressure conditions in advanced power plants. The study manuscript was named an Editor’s Choice Article by the Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance. In a Feb. 22 letter to the research team, Editor-in-Chief Rajiv Asthana noted, “This selection is reflective of the comprehensive nature of your paper and its overall excellence.” The journal selects only six papers annually for this recognition.

Doing business with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) can appear daunting. But it doesn’t have to be that way.  NETL is joining forces with DOE’s Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU), and the DOE Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) to help companies understand more about doing business with DOE program offices and procurement opportunities. A free Virtual Small Business Forum will be held on-line 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. EST Wednesday, May 11. Pre-registration is required for the live event. Registration information is available here.  The forum will feature DOE representatives from OSDBU, FECM and NETL who will present information about how to do business with their respective program offices. All registered attendees will receive an email confirmation, meeting agenda, and link to the WebEx virtual forum.

NETL leverages its expertise in computational modeling to advance the design and improve the capability to predict the performance of alloys in harsh environments needed to reduce the environmental impact of energy production. Several studies by researchers at the Lab and others affiliated with the NETL-led eXtremeMAT consortium, which focuses on developing next-generation computational models for design and performance prediction of alloys in extreme operating conditions, are featured in a special edition of JOM, The Journal of The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society devoted to computational design of alloys for energy technologies. 

NETL and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (DOE-FECM) will host the first in-person Regional Carbon Management Applicant Education Workshop on Wednesday, April 13, in Columbus, Ohio. This workshop supports implementation of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and will target potential applicants interested in developing various carbon management projects. The Lab will participate in several panel discussions scheduled throughout the day. Among these is the participation of NETL’s Briggs White, who also serves as deputy executive director of the White House’s Interagency Working Group (IWG) on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic Revitalization. The IWG was established by President Biden’s Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad and works to catalyze economic revitalization, create good-paying union jobs and support especially hard-hit coal, oil and gas and power plant communities across the country. White will discuss the latest job opportunities emerging in the nation’s energy sector.

NETL has significantly upgraded its computerized tomography (CT) scanning technology to provide researchers with an enhanced tool to look at dynamic processes inside rock cores. “CT scanning is among the unique capabilities we have refined at NETL to determine, for example, under what conditions carbon dioxide (CO2) generated by fossil energy production and industrial processes can be injected underground safely and permanently stored in rock formations deep within the subsurface to reduce emissions of greenhouses gases into the atmosphere,” said Dustin Crandall, Ph.D., an NETL research engineer. NETL is positioned to take its expertise in geologic CT scanning to the next level and will soon begin producing higher resolution images of microstructures within rock cores in a significantly shorter period of time. The technology to accomplish these goals is the 11,646-pound TESCAN DynaTOM CT scanner, the first to be installed in the United States, which arrived at NETL’s Center for Advanced Imaging and Characterization in Morgantown, West Virginia, a year ago.

Washington, D.C. – Today, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) announced $4 million in funding to advance the development of ceramic-based materials to improve the efficiency of hydrogen-fueled turbines that may one day be used in clean power plants. Electricity made from clean hydrogen—whether produced from renewable resources or from fossil or carbon-based waste resources, coupled with pre-combustion carbon capture and durable storage—will help in achieving the Biden-Harris Administration's goal of a zero-carbon U.S. power sector by 2035.

Read the latest edition of the Carbon Capture Newsletter to learn about recent developments in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)/NETL Carbon Capture Program. The Carbon Capture Program is developing the next generation of advanced carbon dioxide (CO2) capture technologies that can provide step-change reductions in both cost and energy requirements over currently available technologies. The Carbon Capture Program focuses on a broad portfolio of projects, including post- and pre-combustion capture to reduce carbon emissions from fossil fuel-based power generation and industrial sources. The program is also developing a wide array of approaches to remove CO2 that has accumulated in the atmosphere, such as direct air capture with durable storage, biomass carbon removal and storage, and enhanced mineralization. Information in this month’s edition includes:

NETL advanced research technologies and cutting-edge facilities were demonstrated for a contingent of NETL partners from the Pittsburgh region including representatives from Dortmund, Germany, when they visited western Pennsylvania on Monday, April 4, to engage with the Lab and other regional stakeholders. The Sister Cities Association of Pittsburgh connects the Pittsburgh region with international partner cities to develop mutually beneficial relationships in the areas of commerce, education and culture. Four representatives from Dortmund and one representative from the European Union met NETL’s Nate Weiland, senior fellow for Energy Conversion Engineering, who led a virtual tour of NETL lab facilities to highlight the Lab’s research and development efforts focused on hydrogen production.

NETL will host a webinar at 1 p.m. ET on Tuesday, April 12, to discuss research and development opportunities available within the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management’s (FECM) Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Other Minority Institutions (HBCU-OMI) program. The program seeks to increase participation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) among students from underrepresented and structurally marginalized communities. Attendees will receive information about how the HBCU-OMI program can strongly benefit students and young professionals from these communities and open pathways to success in STEM fields.