After taking first place in their respective regional Science Bowl competitions, Princeton Senior High School (Princeton, West Virginia) and Franklin Regional High School (Murrysville, Pennsylvania) competed in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Science Bowl® high school preliminary rounds Saturday, May 22. Unfortunately, neither team advanced to the elimination rounds.

NETL Director Brian Anderson, Ph.D., delivered the keynote address and connected with national and state energy experts this week at a virtual forum hosted by Discover the Real West Virginia Foundation, Inc. The forum, titled “The Value of Carbon and Coal in West Virginia’s Energy Future,” discussed how West Virginia can be an integral part of the solution in reducing the nation’s carbon emissions and identified the challenges and opportunities surrounding the advancement of carbon reduction technologies in the Mountain State.

U.S. Department of Energy Funds Projects to Recycle, Treat Water at Power Plants Today, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) selected two projects to receive nearly $2 million in federal funding for cost-shared research and development under funding opportunity announcement (FOA) DE-FOA-0002399, Water Management for Thermal Power Generation.

NETL’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Other Minority Institutions (HBCU-OMI) program has enabled more than 40 groundbreaking energy research projects since 2010.

Approximately 400,000 miles of gas transmission pipelines cross the nation. In this quarter’s Research Associate Spotlight and Mentor Profile, a young scientist discusses how he has teamed with his NETL mentor to develop an enhanced technology to monitor the integrity of these lines 24/7.

NETL’s 2021 Crosscutting Research and Advanced Energy Systems Project Review Meeting continues through May with seven days of presentations showcasing innovations to enhance the efficiency and reliability of electricity production and increase domestic supplies of rare earth elements (REEs).

University-Led R&D Projects Look to Increase the Performance and Reliability of Hydrogen Power and Advance Zero-Emissions Technology 

NETL is collaborating with Carnegie Mellon University to make faster and more accurate predictions on the properties of heat-resistant alloys and develop cost-effective, corrosion-resistant materials needed in flexible energy systems that will be highly efficient, produce fewer emissions and help meet the nation’s decarbonization goals while producing reliable supplies of electricity.

In partnership with NETL, researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) are building a new prototype sensor for rapid in-field detection and characterization of rare earth elements (REEs) in fossil fuel-based resources and waste materials. REEs are vital in the construction of medical equipment, energy components, defense technologies, modern electronics and a host of other consumer goods. In many cases, these REEs cannot be substituted with other minerals, and other countries control most of the world’s REE supplies.

NETL Director Brian Anderson, Ph.D., discussed “Paving the Way to a Decarbonized Energy Future” during his keynote address at the Board on Earth Sciences and Resources (BESR) Spring 2021 Meeting: Energy and Resources Needs for a Nation in Transition, which was held Monday, May 10.