Director’s Corner

by Brian Anderson, Ph.D.

As a forward-looking Laboratory, NETL’s talented team of scientists and engineers drive innovation. The fourth quarter of 2020 was no exception, and we made great strides in advancing technologies that provide affordable, reliable energy to the American people. I’m pleased to share a few examples of our recent successes: 

• We surpassed a major research milestone toward unlocking Alaska’s vast resources of heavy oil through injection of a benign polymer fluid in the Milne Point Field of Prudhoe Bay. 
• We developed a method to custom-formulate low-cost membranes to more effectively separate carbon dioxide from nitrogen in a high volume of flue gas. 
• We made several advances in rare earth elements (REEs), including a collaboration that developed flexible REE extraction methods from low-rank coal ash, an NETL-developed REE extraction technology that was awarded a Technology Commercialization Fund grant, and an NETL-supported project that developed a safe, efficient processing technology to extract and concentrate REEs from coal refuse material. 

These and other highlights are collected in the newly released fourth-quarter Accomplishments Report (Download PDF). I invite you to read this publication and read more about our work to develop technology solutions to the nation’s energy challenges.