Just as the newest jet aircraft technologies require cutting edge innovations like carbon-fiber composites, polymers, and avionics to make them fly, the next generation of high efficiency and environmentally sound energy-producing technologies demand a very specific set of functional materials to make them capable of answering the nation’s increasing energy needs.

A research team at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) has been honored with a Carnegie Science Award in recognition of the ways their work has serviced manufacturing and materials science in the western Pennsylvanian area. In a collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh, NETL assembled a multi-disciplinary team tasked with developing high-performance optical sensors capable of operating in harsh environments, such as those found in fossil-fuel power generations systems  including solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs).

Extreme environments are everywhere. From the pressures of the ultradeep ocean to the inferno heat of a power plant, harsh conditions make scientific ingenuity a necessity. To operate technology in extreme environments, new materials that can withstand those environments need to be created. Scientists at NETL are known for their ability to do just that.

What does a CT scanner have to do with safer drilling operations? The answer may surprise you. Researchers at NETL are combining their unparalleled expertise with unexpected tools like CT scanners to investigate a material that prevents leaks and spills during oil and gas drilling operations—foamed cement. To most people, cement is the material of buildings, roads, bridges, sidewalks, and security barriers. However, cement also plays a critical role in the safe recovery of oil and gas from wellbores beneath oceans and land sites around the world.

The U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Fossil Energy (FE) has selected seven projects to receive $5.9 million to focus on novel ways to use carbon dioxide (CO2) captured from coal-fired power plants.  In addition to federal funding, each project will also include non-federal cost share of at least 20 percent. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a commodity chemical used in many commercial applications, such as enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and production of chemicals, fuels, and other products.

A technology developed by researchers at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) has been recognized with a prestigious Excellence in Technology Transfer Award from the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer (FLC). The award, presented annually, recognizes outstanding work by laboratory employees in transferring technology developed in federal laboratories to the commercial marketplace.

A 2-year study by analysts at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), in which they synthesized new methane emission data from a series of ground-based field measurements, shows that 1.7 percent of the methane in the U.S. natural gas supply chain is emitted between extraction and delivery. Identifying the magnitude and sources of methane emissions will allow producers to prioritize opportunities to reduce emissions of the potent greenhouse gas.

Inside a new NETL laboratory, researchers are firing up a device that may one day enable unprecedented power generation performance without any moving parts. Jetting out of the nozzle of a high-velocity oxyfuel torch, a stream of plasma glows like a light-saber poised for combat. But this technology is designed to battle the low efficiencies that plague many of today’s energy conversion systems, rather than galactic evil-doers.