Director’s Corner

by Brian Anderson, Ph.D.

Throughout 2020, NETL’s talented team was hard at work developing and advancing technologies that will ensure reliable, resilient and affordable energy for America. Now, as we wrap up the first quarter of FY2021, I’m pleased to share with you a few highlights of our recent achievements. For example: 

•    Our Microwave Ammonia Synthesis process was awarded the 2020 IChemE Global award for its potential to aid in many applications, including those in agriculture and energy, while lowering costs and overall energy use. 

•    We released a new version of our world-renowned Multiphase Flow with Interphase eXchanges (MFiX) software suite that allows for more accurate descriptions of real particle-size distributions, offering a new tool for designing next-generation energy systems to power the nation. 

•    An NETL-supported field laboratory in Grant County, Utah, is generating strategies to efficiently extract oil from the region’s unconventional shales, thanks to a nearly 10,000-foot-deep characterization well drilled in the Paradox Basin in December 2020. 

These are only a few selections from a much longer list, which you can find in our Q1 FY21 Accomplishments Report. I’m proud of our progress in advancing technology solutions to our nation’s energy challenges. I invite you to read more about these other successes from Q1 in the newly released report (Download PDF).