Director’s Corner

by Brian Anderson, Ph.D.

As an applied laboratory, NETL is focused on impact. Our research is developing innovations and technologies with the potential to improve lives, and as we apply our energy and environmental successes to the broader goal of decarbonization, we join efforts to literally save the planet. 

The third quarter of FY21 brought many noteworthy successes as our talented team of scientists and engineers worked hard to ensure affordable, abundant and reliable energy that drives a robust economy and national security while developing technologies to manage carbon across the full life cycle and enabling environmental sustainability for all Americans. 

A selection of our accolades are available in NETL’s Q3 FY21 accomplishments report. Examples include:   

•    Efforts to revitalize and provide opportunity to energy communities, including a leadership role in the Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic Revitalization and a technical education program that is delivering customized training to prepare workers for careers in advanced welding and manufacturing. 

•    A comprehensive white paper that provides updated cost guidelines for carbon capture and storage technologies, which will be essential to guiding research activities that aim to reduce cost and improve performance in different CCS applications. 

•    Several advances in NETL-supported projects for rare earth element extraction from domestic resources including a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Geological Survey to share geologic samples that will yield high-quality data valuable for research, new sensing methods to locate REEs using luminescent detection, and a prototype sensor for rapid in-field detection and characterization of REEs in fossil fuel-based resources and waste materials.  

We also touted several external awards this quarter, including the grand prize in the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE global competition, Excellence in Government Awards from the Pittsburgh Federal Executive Board, and induction as a NACE fellow — recognition that further underscores the reach and impact of our team’s achievements. 

These are only a selection of our team’s successes as we continue our mission to drive innovation and deliver solutions for an environmentally sustainable and prosperous energy future. I invite you to read more about our progress in the newly released report (PDF).