Two of NETL’s innovative technological achievements have been selected to receive prestigious awards from Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Science Center.

NETL’s global oil and gas infrastructure (GOGI) database won in the Innovation in Energy category, while the Lab’s permeability engineering through strain annealing technology won in the Advanced Manufacturing and Materials category. The honorees were announced at a VIP reception March 12, and the awards will be presented at a May 10 celebration.

The GOGI database, launched in 2018, provides critical information to decision-makers across the globe to ensure public health, safety and security as stakeholders tackle oil and gas infrastructure developments, improvements and challenges. An NETL-led team of 13 researchers created the first-of-its-kind database, which identifies and provides vital information about more than 6 million individual features — such as wells, pipelines and ports — from over 1 million data sets in 193 countries and Antarctica. Click here to access the database via NETL’s Energy Data eXchange.

A cooperative research and development agreement between NETL and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) facilitated the GOGI work, funded as part of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition’s (CCAC) Oil and Gas Methane Science Studies. The United Nations Environment manages the studies in collaboration with the office of EDF Chief Scientist Steven Hamburg. Funding was provided by CCAC, EDF, and Oil and Gas Climate Initiative companies Shell, BP, Eni, Petrobras, Repsol, Total, Equinor, CNPC, Saudi Aramco, Exxon, Oxy, Chevron, and Pemex.

Permeability engineering through strain annealing is a novel manufacturing process that involves heat-treating soft magnetic metal ribbons under tension to create electromagnetic cores — used in motors, electrical machinery and other devices — with unprecedented capabilities. Developed in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University and NASA’s Glenn Research Center, the market-ready technology offers the potential to boost efficiency, improve performance, spur economic investments and reduce infrastructure across a broad range of industries. Click here to learn more about this emerging technology.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot National Laboratory Multiyear Partnership (SuNLaMP), led by NETL as part of the Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium, funded the joint work by NETL, CMU and NASA.

NETL Director Brian Anderson, Ph.D., said the awards demonstrate the powerful impact of NETL’s innovative work to develop technological solutions to America’s energy challenges.

“These achievements represent the full spectrum of NETL’s work in providing solutions for today and options for tomorrow,” Anderson said. “GOGI is a technological tool that fills an urgent information gap for government regulators, industry representatives and researchers around the world, while the permeability engineering through strain anneal manufacturing process is a key enabling technology to facilitate next-generation power systems that ensure efficient, cost-effective and reliable electricity delivery.”

The Carnegie Science Awards program, now in its 23rd year, honors and celebrates innovators in 16 categories for outstanding scientific and technology achievements that benefit western Pennsylvania and inspire the next generation.