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The topics to be covered in this presentation include: --Applications of triplet finding --Problems with pairing --Tiny Triplet Finder --An example of track
In partnership with Bergey Windpower, this project explored the use of recyclable and recycled materials in small- to medium-wind turbine blades (WTBs). A recyclable epoxy resin and infusible thermoplastic resin were investigated using identical fiber reinforcements and manufacturing practices used as Bergey, and the substitution of continuous virgin glass fiber (GF) layers with recycled nonwoven GF (rGF, NW) mats was trialed. The alternative resins both showed very promising performance in terms of static tensile and flexural behavior as well as thermal properties and fatigue behavior in comparison with that of the incumbent materials used at Bergey. The NW rGF materials, however, were found to be a poor substitute for the continuous GF materials for two primary reasons. Firstly, the NW mats took up significantly more resin than their continuous counterparts, which would increase both the weight and the cost of the WTBs. Additionally, an unexpected reaction occurred between the rGF and epoxy materials that resulted in a highly porous, foamed structure. The foaming phenomenon was not observed with the rGF NW and infusible thermoplastic material, but the resin uptake was still prohibitively high. Based on the results of this study, recyclable infusible resins could be viable candidate materials for Bergey in the future. The foaming reaction with the rGF NW mats could prove highly useful in other applications requiring structural foams and has been used to produce demonstrative sandwich panels.
Eliminating photolithography from solar cell processing is a significant opportunity for cost reduction for III-V solar cells. In this work, we test femtosecond laser ablation and scribing as an alternative to contact photolithography and wet chemical etching for mesa isolation, when processing multijunction cells. We demonstrate that upright multijunction solar cells isolated by using the laser as a scribe to cleave through the substrate had virtually no performance loss when compared to a baseline cell processed with photolithography. By contrast, cells isolated by laser ablating through the active layers have performance losses that cannot be fully eliminated with post-processing etches. This demonstration of photolithography-free mesa isolation with no performance losses is promising for less expensive III-V manufacturing.
Holocene Climate Corporation (Holocene) partnered with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to conduct bench-scale testing of a new optimized Direct Air Capture (DAC) process to assist the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in achieving the Carbon Negative Shot target of under $\$$100/net tonne CO₂ removed by 2031. Holocene’s DAC process for carbon dioxide (CO₂) removal uses amino acids and guanidine compounds, an ORNL-invented chemical process and licensed by Holocene. Holocene will use this novel chemistry to develop a new process and deploy the technology commercially.
The rapid growth of variable renewable power generation increases the need to economically store electrical energy over durations up to several days in long-duration energy storage (LDES) applications. LDES can bridge the intermittency of increasing variable renewable energy (VRE) and facilitate emission-free dispatchable electricity to improve the resilience of the grid and provide reliable and potentially cost-effective energy. Several energy storage approaches including mechanical, chemical and electrochemical methods are currently deployed or under development. However, LDES requirements pose unique challenges for scalability, energy capacity, and cost. Electro-thermal energy storage (ETES) can store a large capacity of energy with site flexibility and has attracted significant interest for LDES purposes. This paper shows the progress of developing a demonstration test facility for particle ETES technology including pilot-scale component design and fabrication.
Phase I Final Technical Report
Presentation for the 2025 Materials Science & Technology Conference summarizing NETL work involving development and testing of environmental barrier coatings for protecting ceramic matrix composites in high efficiency gas turbines.
This report describes the scale-up and pilot validation of Alpha-En's Reductive Lithium Extraction (RLE) process, which directly converts lithium ions from aqueous brine-derived feedstocks into thin-film lithium metal anodes, demonstrating greater than 50% extraction efficiency, battery performance matching or exceeding commercial lithium metal controls in coin and pouch cells, and continuous roll-to-roll production of a meter-scale lithium metal anode strip.
Equitable and automated bottoms-up power restoration following an extreme event will be demonstrated at a site in Puerto Rico. To do so, the team will develop enhanced grid situational awareness techniques integrating behind-the-meter (BTM) distributed energy resources (DER) discovery, impedance sweeping based outage boundary detection, and feasible restoration path identification algorithms. Resilience metric will be developed and incorporated along with situational awareness information in a distributed Model Predictive Control (MPC)-based restoration optimization algorithm to control and mobilize grid assets. These algorithms will be validated through power hardware-in-the-loop experiments and ultimately, a site demonstration to show that outage recovery time and total recovered load could be improved by >20% over the baseline.
Electrically conductive composites are emerging across diverse industries such as electronic, automotive, aerospace, advanced air mobility, biomedical, infrastructure, defense and security offering static charge dissipation, electromagnetic interference shielding, lighting protection, sensing, dicing, corrosion monitoring, etc. Conductivity enhanced composites provide several advantages compared to conventional metals including weight reduction, corrosion resistance, energy efficient processability, tunable properties and multifunctionality. Polymers are typically insulating in nature and require conducting filler for electron transport. However, dispersion and polymer-filler interphases are critical and often disrupt conducting pathways. Besides, conductive fillers such as graphene, carbon nanotube, MXene, silver nanowire, etc. are expensive, limiting their wide adoption in composite industry. On the other hand, a limited number of intrinsically conductive polymers are available among which polyaniline (PANI) has been widely studied due to its high conductivity, thermal and chemical stability. However, PANI is difficult to process and exhibits weak mechanical properties. In brief, there is a significant demand for electrically conductive polymer formulation with cost-effective conducting fillers that offer processability in scale to expand the market of conductivity enhanced materials.
Marine energy capture systems offer great promise for providing clean energy, but they operate in a challenging and dynamic environment and must be optimized to the highest extent possible. Computational studies predict that drag reduction on marine energy and blue economy systems will result in meaningful improvements in energy efficiency. Based on extensive coating experience, PNNL is proposing to bring to market a new drag-reducing coating called Superhydrophobic Lubricant-Infused Drag-Efficient Coating – SLIDE-Coat. PNNL has a deep knowledge base regarding this class of slippery coatings, and we have a group of enthusiastic industry partners who have committed to partnering, conducting field testing, and providing well over 50% cost share. In addition to validating the technology, the team will create a commercialization roadmap to ensure the commercial success of the technology after the government-sponsored two-year program is complete. The main technical goal is to design, manufacture, and experimentally validate a new coating that can reduce hydrodynamic skin friction drag by 20%. The main commercialization goal is to develop a roadmap that identifies activities needed to complete SLIDE-Coat’s development after the conclusion of this project. Year 1 will focus on adaptation and modification of the existing SLIC coating system to optimize drag reduction and assessment and quantification of drag reduction on relevant materials in a laboratory setting. Year 2 will focus on optimizing and demonstrating drag reduction with preferred coatings. The manufacturability, ease of application, adhesion to relevant surfaces, and consistency will be assessed. Quantification of drag reduction on prototype materials in a relevant marine field setting will be executed.
Final technical report
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High-temperature processing has an irreplaceable role in many research and industrial applications. Despite remarkable development spanning over a century, the pursuit of even higher thermal flux density and more rapid thermal transients has not slowed down. As part of the ongoing energy evolution, many industrial applications are transitioning from direct combustion of fossil fuels as primary energy sources to increasing electrification, capable of adapting to renewable power grids. Thus, there is an emerging need for electrical heaters that can replace burners and supply the heat demand, especially at the highest temperatures. In this study, we report on a radiant heater design that can achieve cyclic heating/cooling rates of up to 400 K min –1 and a temperature range in excess of 1,800 K, comparable to those of commercial infrared gold image furnaces, at high surface and volumetric power densities. The heater consists of a modular unit of incandescent tungsten filament and is enclosed in an evacuated ceramic envelope, chemically inert, tolerant of thermal shock, and impervious to gasses. The material and manufacture cost of such heaters, which is estimated at ~$0.05/W, is less than 0.03% of that for infrared gold image furnaces, which is at >$2/W. Tests of more than 10,000 demanding cycles (high temperature and high heating/cooling rate) over 350 h of total operational time and in different temperature ranges confirm the robust performance of radiant heater prototypes. The design is widely applicable to high-temperature reactor and furnace designs. In thermochemistry research and practice, these radiant heaters could offer multiple benefits compared to solar simulators, lasers, infrared gold furnaces, ceramic heaters, or direct concentration of solar input.
Camera-based sensing has benefited in recent years from developments in machine learning data processing methods, as well as improved data collection options such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) mounted sensors. However, cost considerations, both for the initial purchase of sensors as well as updates, maintenance, or potential replacement if damaged, can limit adoption of more expensive sensing options for some applications. To evaluate more affordable options with less expensive, more available, and more easily replaceable hardware, we examine the use of machine learning-based image classification with custom datasets, utilizing deep learning based-image classification and the use of ensemble models for sensor fusion. Utilizing the same models for each camera to reduce technical overhead, we showed that for a very representative training dataset, camera-based detection can be successful for detection of electrical arcing. We also use multiple validation datasets, based on conditions expected to be of varying difficulty, to evaluate custom data. These results show that ensemble models of different data sources can mitigate risks from gaps in training data, though the system will be less redundant for those cases unless other precautions are taken. We found that with good quality custom datasets, data fusion models can be utilized without specialization in design to the specific cameras utilized, allowing for less specialized, more accessible equipment to be utilized as multispectral camera components. This approach can provide an alternative to expensive sensing equipment for applications in which lower-cost or more easily replaceable sensing equipment is desirable.
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