NETL representatives recently attended a groundbreaking ceremony at the City Water, Light and Power (CWLP) plant in Springfield, Illinois, to celebrate the advancement of a large pilot carbon dioxide (CO2) capture project made possible with funding and project management support from the Lab. The project is led by the University of Illinois, in partnership with the Linde Group, BASF Corporation, Affiliated Engineers, Inc., Affiliated Construction Services, Inc., and Visage Energy.

Barbara Kutchko, Ph.D., a celebrated and award-winning NETL researcher who works to increase the safety and efficiency of oil and gas well operations around the world, will share her technical and personal perspectives with a new generation of young people as part of Penn State University’s Celebrating Women in Energy and Water Research seminar series in February.

NETL and the University of Pittsburgh have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to explore areas of cooperation in the field of novel sensors for infrastructure monitoring. Such sensors are essential to ensuring the optimum operation of existing and new energy technologies while driving economic development. “This MOU presents an exciting opportunity for both the Lab and our academic partners at Pitt to combine our strengths in pursuit of common goals,” said NETL’s David Alman, associate director, Materials Engineering & Manufacturing.

NETL-funded research on an approach to recycle hydraulic fracturing water using natural filtration and biogenic activity in specific layers of rock is attracting international attention with a “highly commended” recognition in a global competition sponsored by an acclaimed engineering organization.

An NETL specialist whose work significantly reduced the complexity of transferring the Lab’s technologies to the private sector and increased the number of agreements executed by 27% is being recognized as the “Rookie of the Year” by a prestigious national organization of more than 300 federal laboratories, agencies and research centers dedicated to increasing the impact of technology transfer for the benefit of the U.S. economy, society and national security.

Community leaders and water researchers can now access publicly available online datasets curated and processed by NETL to better understand the composition of energy-related wastewater streams. The data will help mitigate environmental risks and identify possible sources of valuable critical minerals (CMs).

A pair of NETL employees — Alexandra “Ale” Hakala, Ph.D., and Joseph Stoffa, PhD. — have been named Fellows in the 2023 cohort of the Oppenheimer Science and Energy Leadership Program (OSELP), the premier, yearlong leadership development initiative of the National Laboratory Directors’ Council (NLDC).

Often, bright orange flames can be seen dancing atop vertical pipes that rise above landscapes where oil and gas is retrieved from below the ground. It’s called flaring and it is a way to dispose of associated gases that come with oil production. It’s a practice that has been used for nearly 160 years when other options for the use or transport of the gas are not readily available to the producers, but it’s also a source of greenhouse gas emissions and significant waste of a valuable natural resource that could be used to make useable products.

NETL’s commitment to driving innovation and delivering solutions for an environmentally sustainable and prosperous energy future requires more than state-of-the-art research facilities and a talented roster of talented researchers. It also requires the kind of departmental leadership that can empower innovative thinking through keen project management skills.

Editor’s note: In 2021, NETL awarded nearly $1 million to six recipients for project development under funding opportunity announcement (FOA) 2404, Advanced Processing of Rare Earth Elements and Critical Minerals for Industrial and Manufacturing Applications. This is the second article highlighting these projects. Each article reviews three projects.