Energy leaders from around the world converged on NETL Pittsburgh Wednesday for an up-close review of the Lab’s growing expertise in a range of cutting-edge energy research areas including carbon dioxide (CO₂) storage, conversion, and utilization; development of carbon free fuels; use of drones to monitor emissions from oil and gas production; and advanced alloy development.

The high-level visitors were participants in the 2022 Global Clean Energy Action Forum (GCEAF) being held in downtown Pittsburgh through Friday. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Jennifer Granholm convened the landmark event, which is being attended by cabinet level officials from more than 30 countries; industry, youth, labor, and civil society leaders; innovators; and others to accelerate innovation, deployment and market uptake of clean energy solutions.  

NETL Director Brian Anderson, Ph.D., said the visit was a golden opportunity to show a world-wide audience how the Lab is performing key research to help enable the world’s transition to a new energy economy that will improve energy security, tackle climate change, and develop a clean energy market.

The visiting delegation included energy and science ministers from Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Nigeria and the European Commission

The delegation visited NETL facilities virtually and in person including:

• Reaction Analysis and Chemical Transformation (ReACT) Facility where researchers optimize chemical reactor designs for specific chemical transformations to selectively energize chemical reactions. The work is geared to increase energy conversion and power cycle efficiency and enable more power generation with less fuel and fewer emissions — efforts that support net-zero carbon emission goals.

• Advanced Alloys Signature Center where researchers develop affordable, high-performance alloys for energy and industrial applications that have increased temperature capabilities for highly efficient advanced energy systems, aerospace, and defense applications.

• CO₂ Capture and Removal facilities where researchers address technical challenges involved with developing, demonstrating, and deploying CO₂ capture and removal technologies. NETL uses molecular modeling and artificial intelligence to design new materials for direct air capture, a particularly challenging approach to mitigating hard-to-abate CO₂ emissions. The research helps ensure that CO₂ capture and removal technologies can be successfully deployed to address the climate challenge.

Visitors also learned about NETL’s work to: design and construct a direct air capture test center to accelerate the development of technologies that remove CO₂ directly from the atmosphere; evaluate how subsurface formations perform as carbon storage sites; convert captured CO₂ emissions into value-added products; use its mobile air monitoring laboratory to conduct targeted on-site measurements of emissions from oil and gas production activities; monitor commercial carbon storage sites; and expedite a range of other complex energy research assignments.

GCEF is a joint convening of the 13th Clean Energy Ministerial and the 7th Mission Innovation ministerial. GCEF works to empower communities and the next generation of the clean energy workforce, recognizing their integral role in the energy transition. The theme of the Forum is Rapid Innovation and Deployment.

NETL was part of a partnership between DOE and Carnegie Mellon University that helped plan the forum. Most events are occurring in Pittsburgh’s David L. Lawrence Convention Center. For additional information about the landmark event, visit the GCEAF web site.

NETL is a DOE national laboratory that drives innovation and delivers technological solutions for an environmentally sustainable and prosperous energy future. By using its world-class talent and research facilities, NETL is ensuring affordable, abundant and reliable energy that drives a robust economy and national security, while developing technologies to manage carbon across the full life cycle, enabling environmental sustainability for all Americans.