Several NETL advanced research technologies and cutting-edge facilities were demonstrated for a contingent of NETL partners from the Pittsburgh region including representatives from Dortmund, Germany, during their visit to western Pennsylvania Monday, April 4, to engage with the Lab and other regional stakeholders.

In celebration of Earth Day 2022, NETL will join with the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) other national laboratories for a daylong showcase of the department’s commitment to the planet and research being pursued to reach a sustainable energy future.

NETL’s Ale Hakala, Ph.D., recently spoke with seniors in the AP Environmental Science class at Charlotte Latin School in Charlotte, North Carolina, highlighting her career as an energy researcher focused on environmental sustainability. Laura Helsabeck, Ph.D., who teaches the class, invited Hakala, who is currently an NETL senior fellow leading the Lab’s geological and environmental systems research, to share her perspective on issues surrounding natural gas and carbon storage.

Washington, D.C. — Today, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) announced $3.5 million for two projects to develop natural gas demand response (NGDR) pilot programs. The primary goal of the programs is to reduce supply constraints by providing incentives for customers to reduce their natural gas consumption during periods of peak demand or periods of system strain.

NETL will lend its wealth of knowledge on carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) to stakeholders in western Pennsylvania for a special Carbon Capture Symposium Wednesday, April 20, 2022, to provide crucial information and best practices on sustainable energy. The objective of this invite-only gathering, organized by the Pennsylvania Environmental Council in partnership with the Great Plains Institute and Clean Air Task Force, is to share perspectives on the opportunities and challenges presented by carbon capture, storage, and utilization.

Five thousand years ago, someone discovered that by melting copper and combining it with a small amount of similarly melted tin, they could create bronze, a stronger metal used for weapons, pots and tools. It became known as the first metal alloy and ushered in the “Bronze Age.”

NETL has released “Comparison of Commercial, State-of-the-Art, Fossil-Based Hydrogen Production Technologies,” which reports the levelized cost of hydrogen, in real 2018 dollars, as well as carbon dioxide-equivalent life cycle emissions (cradle-to-gate basis) of select hydrogen production plants, providing critical perspectives for researchers, regulators and policymakers as the nation transitions to a clean energy future.

Washington, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced $14 million in funding for five front-end engineering design (FEED) studies that will leverage existing zero- or low-carbon energy to supply direct air capture (DAC) projects, combined with dedicated and reliable carbon storage. DAC is a process that separates carbon dioxide (CO2) from ambient air.

Today, NETL announced an amendment to a funding opportunity announcement (FOA) that will build a talent pipeline from Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Other Minority Institutions (HBCU-OMIs) to support the creation of a clean hydrogen future and Biden Administration’s decarbonization and energy equity goals.  The amendment will provide an additional $2.05 million from Department of Energy’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office (HFTO) in support of this effort.

NETL data analysis research is expanding the work of the Lab’s eXtremeMAT program to enable improved materials property prediction that could support the design of cutting-edge clean energy systems.