NETL Director Brian Anderson, Ph.D., will speak at the Hydrogen Shot Summit, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) event set for Tuesday, Aug. 31, and Wednesday, Sept. 1, to accelerate the development of breakthrough technologies that can expand the use and lower the cost of this clean-burning fuel. “Researchers at NETL and our partners are advancing technologies capable of improving the performance, reliability and flexibility of methods to produce, transport, store and use hydrogen. The summit provides opportunities to share the steps we are taking to develop hydrogen as viable zero-emission fuel to fight climate change,” Anderson said. The Hydrogen Shot Summit is the first undertaking in DOE’s Energy Earthshots Initiative, which was established in June by Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm as an all-hands-on-deck call for innovation, collaboration and acceleration to drive development of clean energy solutions within the decade.

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) announced the selection of six projects to receive a total of nearly $1 million in federal funding for cost-shared research and development (R&D) under funding opportunity announcement (FOA) 2404, Advanced Processing of Rare Earth Elements and Critical Minerals for Industrial and Manufacturing Applications. Critical minerals (CM) are necessary to manufacture high-tech devices, especially technologies for national defense applications and green growth-related industries. However, the United States does not domestically produce fourteen of these CMs and imports more than 50 percent of many others. This dearth of domestic production leaves the nation dependent on imports to meet its demand. CMs include rare earth elements (REE), which are used to manufacture cell phones, LED screens, solar panels, energy infrastructure, defense technologies and other essential high-tech applications. The United States imports 80 percent of its REEs from China, with portions of the remainder indirectly sourced from China through other countries.                

NETL’s innovations toward transforming carbon dioxide (CO2) from an environmental liability into an economic asset will be detailed during the Lab’s upcoming Annual Project Review Meeting on Carbon Utilization, scheduled for Aug. 30-31 in a virtual setting. The meeting will highlight the latest technological advancements, techniques, studies and new concepts that are being explored to make beneficial use of CO2 emissions from power plants and other industrial sources. Many of these efforts are making it more feasible to adopt large-scale use of CO2 to cure concrete or to produce fuels, chemicals, aggregates, and other products. Using captured CO2 can address the effects of climate change while ensuring the continued supply of reliable, affordable energy in an environmentally sustainable manner. NETL CO2 utilization technologies scheduled to be presented include:

NETL, through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM), is collaborating on projects at universities and companies across the country to extract rare earth elements (REEs) and other critical minerals (CMs) from materials such as carbon ore and its waste materials. These projects have the potential to strengthen the U.S. economy and support revitalization in regions across the country that face economic adversity due to declines in carbon ore production and power plant communities. REEs and CMs are vital for the production of medical equipment, energy components, defense technologies, modern electronics and a wide variety of other important consumer goods. The U.S. uses about 15,000 tons of REEs and CMs annually, but imports nearly all of its supply. Domestic production of these minerals using the country’s abundant carbon resources could protect American industries from disruptions in the globalized supply chain.

Presenters at the Oil and Gas virtual session of NETL’s Carbon Management Oil and Gas Research project review meetings will discuss advances in oil and gas research from Aug. 23-27. The session will feature a number of projects in development with NETL partners to deliver solutions for an environmentally sustainable and prosperous energy future. The session will highlight environmentally responsible oil recovery methods from several laboratories and explore field pilot tests and evaluations of various shale plays. Other technologies in development that work to reduce the oil and gas industry’s environmental impact will also be shared. Presenters featured at the four-day meeting include representatives from leading organizations, corporations and research institutions from across the country. Participants from NETL include session moderators Scott Beautz and Robert Vagnetti, research scientists on NETL’s Natural Gas and Oil Team. View the full agenda here.

The August 2021 edition of RWFI E-Note Monthly, the newsletter of NETL’s Regional Workforce Initiative, outlines how schools and worker education programs can apply for funding from the National Science Foundation to prepare the next generation of technicians for high-technology fields. The foundation’s Advanced Technological Education program supports curriculum and professional development of college faculty and secondary teachers while encouraging partnerships among academic institutions (grades 7-12 and two-year institutes of higher education) and industry and economic development agencies to promote improvement in the education of science and engineering technicians. Materials developed may also be used for incumbent worker education.

Today, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) announced the selection of four additional research and development (R&D) projects that will receive $6 million to study new structured material systems and/or component designs for direct air capture (DAC) technology. These four projects join six previously announced DAC projects selected to receive $12 million in DOE funding. View the June 2021 selections here. “Georgia Tech is one of many institutions in Georgia’s Fifth Congressional District leading the charge towards improved air quality for all,” said Congresswoman Nikema Williams. “This award will allow them to continue innovating technology to reduce carbon emissions. I appreciate Secretary Granholm and the Department of Energy for recognizing this work."

Key collaborators with NETL will discuss carbon capture research initiatives during the Carbon Capture Removal Research project review meeting, taking place Aug. 18-19. The meeting is one of several Carbon Management and Oil and Gas Research project review meetings to be held throughout August. The virtual session “Carbon Dioxide Removal Research” will encompass emerging carbon dioxide removal projects and technologies in development by NETL partners. The projects largely involve direct air capture technology, which reduces the impact of carbon emissions by removing it from the atmosphere. This emerging technology is of great interest to the Biden Administration and is helping drive innovation and deliver solutions within the U.S. power sector.

The August 2021 edition of RWFI E-Note Monthly, the newsletter of NETL’s Regional Workforce Initiative, outlines how schools and worker education programs can apply for funding from the National Science Foundation to prepare the next generation of technicians for high-technology fields. The foundation’s Advanced Technological Education program supports curriculum and professional development of college faculty and secondary teachers while encouraging partnerships among academic institutions (grades 7-12 and two-year institutes of higher education) and industry and economic development agencies to promote improvement in the education of science and engineering technicians. Materials developed may also be used for incumbent worker education.

A special July Technical Focus Issue of Materials Evaluation (ME) detailed three University-led research and development projects made possible through a partnership with NETL under the Crosscutting Research University Training and Research (UTR) program, which supports energy research at colleges and universities nationwide, including minority institutions. Each project advances robotics-based inspection in unique ways and serves to underscore how NETL is helping to investigate novel technologies that will become viable solutions to industry in the future. NETL began collaborating with Florida International University (FIU), The Colorado School of Mines (CSM) and New Mexico State University (NMSU), through the “Automated Plant Component Inspection, Analysis, and Repair Enabled by Robotics” topic in the competitive 2018 UTR funding opportunity announcement (FOA). In recent years, each team has continued to advance their respective robotic-based inspection technologies.