Director’s Corner

by Brian Anderson, Ph.D.

“The best way to have a good idea,” reasoned American chemist, author and educator Linus Pauling, “is to have a lot of ideas.”

At NETL, we have a lot of good ideas for innovations that can help decarbonize our planet, create good-paying jobs, and work toward a net-zero carbon nation. And, we have the knowledge to help back up those ideas. Over the last three months alone, we have gone the extra mile to share them with the organizations, institutions, individuals and conferences that can help move good ideas into action.

For example:

• I addressed the virtual 2022 Spring Symposium of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Energy Initiative and highlighted NETL’s ongoing contributions to building a sustainable energy future via hydrogen power generation and carbon capture. The symposium’s theme, “Hydrogen’s Role in a Decarbonized Energy System: How to Enable It,” explored the hydrogen markets, infrastructure, production and policies needed to achieve a future in which the needs of the economy are met by a hydrogen-based power sector — actions essential to meet the administration’s greenhouse gas emission reduction and net zero-carbon economy goals by 2050.
• NETL’s Sean Plasynski and Jen Scharrer presented at the DOE Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Forum on how to do business with the lab to encourage small business engagements. 
• Kelly Rose gave the Claude R. Hocott Lectureship at the University of Texas in April and talked about "Resurrecting over 160 Years of Subsurface Energy Data to Drive Next-Generation, Carbon Negative Solutions," which illustrated NETL's Applied Energy-AI research. 
• Dustin Crandall presented on the importance of laboratory-scale testing of CO₂ properties in rocks at a National Academy of Sciences Committee on Earth Resources webinar/meeting on basin-scale carbon sequestration in June
• NETL’s Tom Sarkus and Dave Lyons participated in the 6th Annual “Energizing North Dakota’s Energy Future” Partnership Summit at the University of North Dakota’s Energy & Environmental Research Center in Grand Forks in June. 
• Angela Goodman, Foad Haeri, and Sean Sanguinito provided training to the Global CCS Institute on how to use the CO₂-SCREEN tool’s residual oil zone modules for storing CO₂. In addition, Goodman and Haeri provided training to Repsol Green Ventures Americas on how to use the newly released CO₂-SCREEN tool V.4.1. 
• NETL researcher Jennifer Bauer served as a panelist for four sessions at the 2022 DOE Cybersecurity and Technology Innovation Conference in June.
• Robert Dilmore gave a presentation at the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Earth Resources 2022 Spring Meeting titled, "Toward a science-based framework for evaluating basin-scale risks of large-scale geologic carbon storage deployment." 
• NETL’s David Miller, Ph.D., senior fellow for Strategic Systems Analysis and Engineering, delivered a keynote address at the Advanced Manufacturing & Processing Conference where he shared the Lab’s perspective on optimizing decarbonized industrial and energy systems. 
• NETL researcher Yuhua Duan, Ph.D., summarized the progress of NETL FY17-22 tritium projects at the American Physical Society Meeting in March. At the same meeting, Jongwoo Park, Ph.D., presented the results of a study in which temperature dependence of band gap renormalization in pristine and oxygen-vacant LaCrO₃-δ perovskite was assessed. 
• Yinkai Lei, Ph.D., delivered a virtual oral presentation on NETL’s work on nickel redistribution in nickel yttria-stabilized zirconia (Ni-YSZ) electrodes. at the TMS Annual Meeting in March. 
• NETL researchers showcased critical decarbonization projects and important research initiatives at the 12th Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) Energy Innovation Summit in Denver, Colorado. The summit is an annual conference and technology showcase that brings together experts from different technical disciplines and professional communities to think about America’s energy challenges in new and innovative ways.
• In April, NETL advanced research technologies and cutting-edge facilities were demonstrated for a contingent of NETL partners from the Pittsburgh region and representatives from Dortmund, Germany, who visited the region to engage with the Lab and other regional stakeholders. Four representatives from Dortmund and one representative from the European Union met NETL’s Nate Weiland, senior fellow, Energy Conversion Engineering, who led a virtual tour of various NETL lab facilities and highlighted the Lab’s research and development efforts focused on hydrogen production.

Management consultant Peter Drucker once wrote that, “The basic economic resource — the means of production — is no longer capital, nor natural resources, nor labor. It is and will be knowledge.” We agree with the emphasis he placed on knowledge, and our NETL team will continue to pursue opportunities to circulate the knowledge we have been privileged to uncover.