The Department of Energy national laboratory named materials scientist Jun Liu Inventor of the Year for his work developing battery materials that can store large amounts of energy, ease impacts to the electrical grid, and reduce the time it takes to charge cell phones, electric vehicles and other battery-powered devices.

Other staff were recognized for receiving patents, developing commercially valuable software products, making key contributions to technology commercialization efforts, and receiving R&D 100 and Federal Laboratory Consortium Awards over the past year. 

"As a national laboratory we continuously strive to move new technologies into the marketplace so others can benefit from federal investments in research," said Technology Deployment and Outreach Director Cheryl Cejka. "In 2012, PNNL researchers responded by accelerating commercialization and innovation that protects the nation and the environment, and increases our energy capacity." 

The Inventor of the Year honor is awarded annually to a staff member who — over the previous two years — has created intellectual property, or whose innovations have the potential to create intellectual property.

Liu received four U.S. patents in 2011 and 2012. During the same time, he contributed to 25 additional U.S. patent applications and filed 17 invention reports related to battery innovation. Since joining PNNL in 1993, Liu has received 43 patents and written or co-written more than 300 peer-reviewed journal articles.

"By focusing on the fundamental science and obtaining insights for different energy storage systems, Jun and his colleagues have pushed the frontiers of batteries from conventional lithium-ion batteries to high-capacity redox-flow systems and cutting-edge lithium-air batteries," noted Cejka.

Ninety-six PNNL staff were recognized for receiving 42 U.S. patents for advancements in analytical instrumentation, bio-based products, electricity infrastructure, energy storage, fuel cell and information system technology, materials processing, microtechnology and sensors. Since PNNL's inception in 1965, staff have received more than 2,200 U.S. and foreign patents with more than 500 of those issued in the past five years.

PNNL honored 26 staff for developing and commercializing four software products in 2012, and another 38 staff for their contributions to the development of innovations that resulted in two R&D 100 Awards and two Federal Laboratory Consortium Awards.

In addition, PNNL acknowledged 62 staff members for making key contributions to the creation, development and commercialization of five technologies and one software suite of products that were licensed to private companies the previous year. The commercially available products enhance the ability to sort through vast amounts of information, the delivery of medical radiogels and isotopes, and the sensitivity of analytical instruments. They also have led to the creation of batteries that hold promise for storing large amounts of renewable energy and providing greater stability to the energy grid.

Last, but not least, PNNL recognized three staff with Distinguished Inventor of Battelle awards, which go to Battelle staff at PNNL and worldwide who have received 14 or more U.S. patents for their work. Staff members Michael Lilga, Kerry Meinhardt, and Keqi Tang joined 21 previous Distinguished Inventors from PNNL, including Liu, and 60 others worldwide.

Researchers at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory developed an organic binder to reduce the impurities in reactive metals, allowing them to be utilized in a powder injection molding process. Standard binders used to hold metal powders together in high volume molding processes can introduce oxygen, nitrogen or carbon into the metal as impurities, which can result in impacts to their mechanical properties (i.e. potentially making machine parts less structurally sound). But the PNNL-developed method uses a novel binder system that leaves very few impurities when it is completely burned up during a later stage of fabrication.

The innovation also reduces or eliminates the swelling, cracking or other distortions to the component that can result from traditional binders used in powder injection molding processes. The result is faster production time and lower costs.

The TechConnect Innovation awards are given annually to top early-stage innovations from around the world by TechConnect, a global outreach and development organization based in Austin, Texas. TechConnect honors technologies based on the potential impact they will have on specific industrial sectors.

"Titanium is strong and corrosion resistant, making it ideally suited to the automotive, aerospace, chemical production, and biomedical implant or equipment industries," said PNNL commercialization manager Eric Lund. "However, until now, use of injection molding to produce titanium components has been severely limited by the introduction of impurities with the binders, which then degrade the component properties."

Lund noted the PNNL-developed method overcomes this problem by using an organic binder that is cleanly removed during sintering and leaves few or no impurities that can cause degradation in material properties.

PNNL will be recognized at the TechConnect National Innovation Summit in Washington, D.C. later this month. The PNNL research team includes Eric Nyberg, Kevin Simmons and former staff member Scott Weil.

For information on commercializing the binder for use in injection molding processes, contact Eric Lund at (509) 375-3764.

The findings come from an in-depth look at the water resources that would be needed to grow significant amounts of algae in large, specially built shallow ponds. The results were published in the May 7 issue of Environmental Science and Technology, published by the American Chemical Society.

"While there are many details still to be worked out, we don't see water issues as a deal breaker for the development of an algae biofuels industry in many areas of the country," said first author Erik Venteris of the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

For the best places to produce algae for fuel, think hot, humid and wet. Especially promising are the Gulf Coast and the Southeastern seaboard.

"The Gulf Coast offers a good combination of warm temperatures, low evaporation, access to an abundance of water, and plenty of fuel-processing facilities," said hydrologist Mark Wigmosta, the leader of the team that did the analysis.

Wooing algae as fuel

Algae, it turns out, are plump with oil, and several research teams and companies are pursuing ways to improve the creation of biofuels based on algae — growing algae composed of more oil, creating algae that live longer and thrive in cooler temperatures, or devising new ways to separate out the useful oil from the rest of the algae.

But first, simply, the algae must grow. The chief requirements are sunlight and water. Antagonists include clouds, a shortage of water, and evaporation.

A previous report by the same team looked mainly at how much demand algae farms would create for freshwater. That report demonstrated that oil based on algae have the potential to replace a significant portion of the nation's oil imports and drew the attention of President Obama.

The new report focuses on actual water supplies and looks at a range of possible sources of water, including fresh groundwater, salty or saline groundwater, and seawater. The team estimates that up to 25 billion gallons of algal oil could be produced annually, an increase of 4 billion gallons over the previous study's estimate. The new amount is enough to fill the nation's current oil needs for one month — about 600 million barrels — each year. The study's authors note that the new estimate is exactly that — an estimate — based to some degree on assumptions about land and water availability and use.

"I'm confident that algal biofuels can be part of the solution to our energy needs, but algal biofuels certainly aren't the whole solution," said Wigmosta. Most important, he notes that the cost of making the fuel far exceeds the cost of traditional gasoline-based products right now.

Big ponds, big potential

An algae farm would likely consist of many ponds, with water maybe six to 15 inches deep. A few companies have built smaller algae farms and are just beginning to churn out huge amounts of algae to convert to fuel; earlier this year, one company sold algae-based oil to customers in California. Players in the algae biofuels arena range from Exxon-Mobil, which launched a $600 million research effort four years ago, to this year's teenage winner of the Intel Science Talent Search, who was recognized for her work developing algae that produce more oil than they normally do.

The availability of water has been one of the biggest concerns regarding the adoption of broad-scale production of algal biofuel. Scientists estimate that fuel created with algae would use much more water than industrial processes used to harness energy from oil, wind, sunlight, or most other forms of raw energy. To produce 25 billion gallons of algae oil, the team estimates that the process annually would require the equivalent of about one-quarter of the amount of water that is now used each year in the entire United States for agriculture. While that is a huge amount, the team notes that the water would come from a multitude of sources: fresh groundwater, salty groundwater, and seawater.

For its analysis, the team limited the amount of freshwater that could be drawn in any one area, assuming that no more than 5 percent of a given watershed's mean annual water flow could be used in algae production. That number is a starting point, says Venteris, who notes that it's the same percentage that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency allows power plants to use for cooling.

"In arid areas such as the Desert Southwest, 5 percent is probably an overstatement of the amount of water available, but in many other areas that are a lot wetter, such as much of the East, it's likely that much more water would be available," says Venteris.

"While the nation's Desert Southwest has been considered a possible site for vast algae growth using saline water, rapid evaporation in this region make success there more challenging for low- cost production," Venteris added.

Venteris and colleagues weighed the pluses and minuses of the various water sources. They note that freshwater is cheap but in very limited supply in many areas. Saline groundwater is attractive because it's widely available but usually at a much deeper depth, requiring more equipment and technology to pump it to the surface and make it suitable for algae production. Seawater is plentiful, but would require much more infrastructure, most notably the creation of pipelines to move the water from the coast to processing plants.

The team notes that special circumstances, such as particularly tight water restrictions in some areas or severe drought or above-average rainfall in others, could affect its estimates of water availability.

The work was funded by the DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. In addition to Venteris and Wigmosta, PNNL scientists Richard Skaggs and Andre Coleman contributed to the project and authored the study.

Reference: Erik R. Venteris, Richard L. Skaggs, Andre M. Coleman, and Mark S. Wigmosta, A GIS Cost Model to Assess the Availability of Freshwater, Seawater, and Saline Groundwater for Algal Biofuel Production in the United States, Environmental Science and Technology, http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es304135b.

Compressed air energy storage plants could help save the region's abundant wind power — which is often produced at night when winds are strong and energy demand is low — for later, when demand is high and power supplies are more strained. These plants can also switch between energy storage and power generation within minutes, providing flexibility to balance the region's highly variable wind energy generation throughout the day.

"With Renewable Portfolio Standards requiring states to have as much as 20 or 30 percent of their electricity come from variable sources such as wind and the sun, compressed air energy storage plants can play a valuable role in helping manage and integrate renewable power onto the Northwest's electric grid," said Steve Knudsen, who managed the study for the BPA.

Geologic energy savings accounts

All compressed air energy storage plants work under the same basic premise. When power is abundant, it's drawn from the electric grid and used to power a large air compressor, which pushes pressurized air into an underground geologic storage structure. Later, when power demand is high, the stored air is released back up to the surface, where it is heated and rushes through turbines to generate electricity.  Compressed air energy storage plants can re-generate as much as 80 percent of the electricity they take in.

The world's two existing compressed air energy storage plants — one in Alabama, the other in Germany — use man-made salt caverns to store excess electricity. The PNNL-BPA study examined a different approach: using natural, porous rock reservoirs that are deep underground to store renewable energy.

Interest in the technology has increased greatly in the past decade as utilities and others seek better ways to integrate renewable energy onto the power grid. About 13 percent, or nearly 8,600 megawatts, of the Northwest's power supply comes from of wind. This prompted BPA and PNNL to investigate whether the technology could be used in the Northwest.

To find potential sites, the research team reviewed the Columbia Plateau Province, a thick layer of volcanic basalt rock that covers much of the region. The team looked for underground basalt reservoirs that were at least 1,500 feet deep, 30 feet thick and close to high-voltage transmission lines, among other criteria.

They then examined public data from wells drilled for gas exploration or research at the Hanford Site in southeastern Washington. Well data was plugged into PNNL's STOMP computer model, which simulates the movement of fluids below ground, to determine how much air the various sites under consideration could reliably hold and return to the surface.

Two different, complementary designs

Analysis identified two particularly promising locations in eastern Washington. One location, dubbed the Columbia Hills Site, is just north of Boardman, Ore., on the Washington side of the Columbia River. The second, called the Yakima Minerals Site, is about 10 miles north of Selah, Wash., in an area called the Yakima Canyon.

But the research team determined the two sites are suitable for two very different kinds of compressed air energy storage facilities. The Columbia Hills Site could access a nearby natural gas pipeline, making it a good fit for a conventional compressed air energy facility. Such a conventional facility would burn a small amount of natural gas to heat compressed air that's released from underground storage. The heated air would then generate more than twice the power than a typical natural gas power plant.

The Yakima Minerals Site, however, doesn't have easy access to natural gas. So the research team devised a different kind of compressed air energy storage facility: one that uses geothermal energy. This hybrid facility would extract geothermal heat from deep underground to power a chiller that would cool the facility's air compressors, making them more efficient. Geothermal energy would also re-heat the air as it returns to the surface.

"Combining geothermal energy with compressed air energy storage is a creative concept that was developed to tackle engineering issues at the Yakima Minerals Site," said PNNL Laboratory Fellow and project leader Pete McGrail. "Our hybrid facility concept significantly expands geothermal energy beyond its traditional use as a renewable baseload power generation technology."

The study indicates both facilities could provide energy storage during extended periods of time. This could especially help the Northwest during the spring, when sometimes there is more wind and hydroelectric power than the region can absorb. The combination of heavy runoff from melting snow and a large amount of wind, which often blows at night when demand for electricity is low, can spike power production in the region. To keep the regional power grid stable in such a situation, power system managers must reduce power generation or store the excess power supply. Energy storage technologies such as compressed air energy storage can help the region make the most of its excess clean energy production.

Working with the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, BPA will now use the performance and economic data from the study to perform an in-depth analysis of the net benefits compressed air energy storage could bring to the Pacific Northwest. The results could be used by one or more regional utilities to develop a commercial compressed air energy storage demonstration project.

The $790,000 joint feasibility study was funded by BPA's Technology Innovation Office, PNNL and several project partners: Seattle City Light, Washington State University Tri-Cities, GreenFire Energy, Snohomish County Public Utility District, Dresser-Rand, Puget Sound Energy, Ramgen Power Systems, NW Natural, Magnum Energy and Portland General Electric.

Details on the Northwest's two potential compressed air energy storage sites:

Columbia Hills Site

• Location: north of Boardman, Ore., on Washington side of Columbia River
• Plant type: conventional, which pairs compressed air storage with a natural gas power plant.
• Power generation capacity: 207 megawatts
• Energy storage capacity: 231 megawatts
• Estimated levelized power cost: as low as 6.4 cents per kilowatt-hour
• Would work well for frequent energy storage
• Continuous storage for up to 40 days

Yakima Minerals Site

• Location: 10 miles north of Selah, Wash.
• Plant type: hybrid, which pairs geothermal heat with compressed air storage
• Power generation capacity: 83 megawatts
• Energy storage capacity: 150 megawatts
• Estimated levelized power cost: as low as 11.8 cents per kilowatt-hour
• No greenhouse gas emissions
• Potential for future expansion

REFRENCE:  BP McGrail, JE Cabe, CL Davidson, FS Knudsen, DH Bacon, MD Bearden, MA Chamness, JA Horner, SP Reidel, HT Schaef, FA Spane, PD Thorne, "Techno-economic Performance Evaluation of Compressed Air Energy Storage in the Pacific Northwest," February 2013, http://caes.pnnl.gov/pdf/PNNL-22235.pdf.

The top supercomputers nowadays work at the petascale level, performing in one hour what would take a typical laptop more than roughly 20 years to do. But as computer programs that help solve energy and environmental problems get more useful, they also get much bigger. Exascale computing seeks to solve problems that are about one thousand times bigger than what the top computers can do today.

That magnitude requires supercomputers to perform different parts of calculations simultaneously, sometimes on different kinds of computer hardware, and then put all the pieces back together on the fly. This computational style is called parallel computing and its complexity creates challenges such as making sure all the parts of the system are working as well as they can be. In addition, complex, multi-component calculations have more chances to err and crash. Krishnamoorthy has been studying ways to make computers better deal with these issues.

Currently, computational scientists must translate equations that work on conventional machines into computer language and a style that can be used by a parallel computer. Krishnamoorthy has begun to automate parts of this process. He has also created a set of tools that allows programmers to write code in modules that can be automatically matched to different computing platforms, making it easier to customize programs to different systems.

He has also improved how supercomputers handle errors that could make them crash. When a fault crops up, supercomputers return to the last good checkpoint. By creating programs that identify just the work lost due to a fault and only redo that portion, Krishnamoorthy has narrowed the amount of work that a supercomputer has to repeat. This can greatly improve the speed of science on supercomputers.

He will be using the new support from DOE to delve deeper into how parallel computing solves problems and making sure that the different pieces of the full calculation are working as efficiently as possible. After understanding when and where certain approaches work best in different programs and platforms, he will be testing how they will perform on the computer systems of the future.

Innovate Washington, the lead agency of the state of Washington focused on fostering growth of the state's innovation sectors, and the U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland are working with ten other state, county and private industry partners to be selected as one of six locations nationwide to conduct critical research that will safely accelerate the integration of civil unmanned aircraft systems into the national airspace system.

"Our testing and proving facilities include all elements industry will need to safely conduct sophisticated research and development activities," said Steve Stein, PNNL project manager. "Our proposal offers essentially a turn-key option from complete ground support operations for fueling, maintenance, and emergency response, to the existing control tower with regional radar systems, ample hangar space, conference rooms and advanced communications networks."

The proposal identifies Grant County International Airport in Moses Lake, Wash., as the location of the flight center's principal office and facilities. In addition, the proposal identifies several locations in central and western Washington where a broad range of testing may occur. For example, the proposal provides a testing range over the Pacific Ocean near Grays Harbor for those developers needing "blue water" testing capability. To evaluate the next generation of aircraft traffic control systems, a testing area that simulates an active airport environment—similar to activity experienced daily at a metro airport— is also included. A map of the testing facilities is below.

Consortium members possess technical research and development capabilities in areas such as advanced navigation, collision avoidance, and alternative fuel system development. Through research and test flights in its test ranges, located over remote and sparsely populated areas in Washington, the consortium says it can advance the application of unmanned aircraft use in search and rescue, weather data acquisition, agriculture crop management, avalanche control and snow pack analysis.

"Siting a new flight center in central Washington will allow the state to build off of the established strengths of its thriving aerospace industry," said Bart Phillips, vice president for economic development for Innovate Washington. "The Flight Center supports the commercial growth of the UAS sector, attracting and additional aerospace research and development dollars, providing users with cost-effective, safe, flight testing facilities and fostering the development of more companies and high quality jobs in Washington."

The consortium members include Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Innovate Washington, the Ports of Moses Lake and Grays Harbor, Washington State University, University of Washington, Washington Army National Guard, the Center of Excellence for Aerospace and Advanced Materials Manufacturing at Everett Community College, the Governor's Office of Aerospace, Washington State Department of Commerce and economic development agencies in Klickitat and Grays Harbor counties.

The FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 enacted by Congress calls for establishing six unmanned aircraft system research and testing sites in the U.S. The final proposal submittals are due to the FAA by May 6, with decisions on siting the flight centers scheduled to be made before December 31, 2013.

"Our system will enable power plants to use less natural gas to produce the same amount of electricity they already make," said PNNL engineer Bob Wegeng, who is leading the project. "At the same time, the system lowers a power plant's greenhouse gas emissions at a cost that's competitive with traditional fossil fuel power."

PNNL will conduct field tests of the system at its sunny campus in Richland, Wash., this summer.

With the U.S. increasingly relying on inexpensive natural gas for energy, this system can reduce the carbon footprint of power generation. DOE's Energy Information Administration estimates natural gas will make up 27 percent of the nation's electricity by 2020. Wegeng noted PNNL's system is best suited for power plants located in sunshine-drenched areas such as the American Southwest.

Installing PNNL's system in front of natural gas power plants turns them into hybrid solar-gas power plants. The system uses solar heat to convert natural gas into syngas, a fuel containing hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Because syngas has a higher energy content, a power plant equipped with the system can consume about 20 percent less natural gas while producing the same amount of electricity.

This decreased fuel usage is made possible with concentrating solar power, which uses a reflecting surface to concentrate the sun's rays like a magnifying glass. PNNL's system uses a mirrored parabolic dish to direct sunbeams to a central point, where a PNNL-developed device absorbs the solar heat to make syngas.

Macro savings, micro technology

About four feet long and two feet wide, the device contains a chemical reactor and several heat exchangers. The reactor has narrow channels that are as wide as six dimes stacked on top of each other. Concentrated sunlight heats up the natural gas flowing through the reactor's channels, which hold a catalyst that helps turn natural gas into syngas.

The heat exchanger features narrower channels that are a couple times thicker than a strand of human hair. The exchanger's channels help recycle heat left over from the chemical reaction gas. By reusing the heat, solar energy is used more efficiently to convert natural gas into syngas. Tests on an earlier prototype of the device showed more than 60 percent of the solar energy that hit the system's mirrored dish was converted into chemical energy contained in the syngas.

Lower-carbon cousin to traditional power plants

PNNL is refining the earlier prototype to increase its efficiency while creating a design that can be made at a reasonable price. The project includes developing cost-effective manufacturing techniques that could be used for the mass production.  The manufacturing methods will be developed by PNNL staff at the Microproducts Breakthrough Institute, a research and development facility in Corvallis, Ore., that is jointly managed by PNNL and Oregon State University.

Wegeng's team aims to keep the system's overall cost low enough so that the electricity produced by a natural gas power plant equipped with the system would cost no more than 6 cents per kilowatt-hour by 2020. Such a price tag would make hybrid solar-gas power plants competitive with conventional, fossil fuel-burning power plants while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The system is adaptable to a large range of natural gas power plant sizes. The number of PNNL devices needed depends on a particular power plant's size. For example, a 500 MW plant would need roughly 3,000 dishes equipped with PNNL's device.

Unlike many other solar technologies, PNNL's system doesn't require power plants to cease operations when the sun sets or clouds cover the sky. Power plants can bypass the system and burn natural gas directly.

Though outside the scope of the current project, Wegeng also envisions a day when PNNL's solar-driven system could be used to create transportation fuels. Syngas can also be used to make synthetic crude oil, which can be refined into diesel and gasoline than runs our cars.

The current project is receiving about $4.3 million combined from DOE's SunShot Initiative, which aims to advance American-made solar technologies, and industrial partner SolarThermoChemical LLC of Santa Maria, Calif. SolarThermoChemcial has a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement for the project and plans to manufacture and sell the system after the project ends.

More information about PNNL's concentrating solar power system for natural gas power plants.

REFERENCE: RS Wegeng, DR Palo, RA Dagle, PH Humble, JA Lizarazo-Adarme, SK, SD Leith, CJ Pestak, S Qiu, B Boler, J Modrell, G McFadden, "Development and Demonstration of a Prototype Solar Methane Reforming System for Thermochemical Energy Storage — Including Preliminary Shakedown Testing Results," 9th Annual International Energy Conversion Engineering Conference, July-August 2011, http://arc.aiaa.org/doi/abs/10.2514/6.2011-5899.

A leader in energy materials research, Stevenson has focused his research at PNNL on the development, characterization and fabrication of electrical ceramic materials and devices. A large body of research and professional leadership has established Stevenson as an international expert on the emerging applied science of solid oxide fuel cells — a highly efficient and clean technology for electric power generation.

Over a 35-year career, he has authored or co-authored more than 135 technical papers and two book chapters, and he has received nine U.S. patents.

Election to American Ceramic Society Fellow is a peer recognition that requires the nomination by at least seven ACerS members. Society Fellows are selected for contributions to the ceramic sciences, either through broad and productive scholarship in ceramic science and technology, by achievement in ceramic industry or by outstanding service to the Society. New Fellows will be recognized at the ACerS 115th Annual Meeting on Oct. 28, 2013 in Montréal, Canada. 

Stevenson earned a bachelor's degree in ceramic engineering in 1977 from Missouri University of Science and Technology and a doctorate in ceramic engineering in 1991 from Missouri University of Science and Technology.

Founded in 1898, the American Ceramic Society is the professional membership organization for international ceramics and materials scientists, engineers, researchers, manufacturers, plant personnel, educators and students. Drawing members from 60 countries, ACerS serves the informational, educational and professional needs of its 6,000 members and provides them with access to periodicals and books, meetings and expositions, and technical information. ACerS also maintain an extensive materials science website that provides online access to its journals, publications, science and career forums and specialized technical knowledge centers.

Recently, the Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate and Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory issued an informative report that summarizes an extensive list of commercially available, hand-portable biodetection technologies. The report — Biodetection Technologies for First Responders — helps end-users such as firefighters, police officers and HazMat workers make informed decisions about procuring the right technology for their particular need and circumstance.

"The report serves as a product buying guide for end-users as well as procurement specialists," says Cindy Bruckner-Lea, PNNL project manager. "It provides specifics and details on dozens of commercially available technologies. This free report will be an important and useful resource for first response teams everywhere."

The release of the report is one part of a larger effort at PNNL to create partnerships with first responders that provide value to all parties. Early on in the process, PNNL conducted dozens of interviews and surveys, and held a workshop at Seattle's Joint Training Facility to better understand first responder biodetection and information needs, gaps and priorities. The exchanges helped researchers have a better grasp of the context by which first responders perform their duties. This leads to better results and the ability to get the best solution faster and more efficiently.

PNNL is also conducting biodetection assay and instrument performance tests for both anthrax and ricin bio-threats and is investigating the impact of commonly encountered "hoax" white powders. PNNL plans to facilitate performance and ergonomic testing of the most promising technology by first responders. 

PNNL is also working with other agencies to help refine detection system performance requirements, standardized test plans and conditions, create guidelines for use and limitations of biodetection technology, and establish training and proficiency testing procedures.

According to law enforcement statistics, HazMat teams across the country respond to hundreds of white powder calls each year in large cities where quick decision-making is critical. 

"Rapid biodetection is extremely important to the first responder community. In white powder response incidents where the health and safety of individuals may be in jeopardy, accurate and reliable results are needed promptly," says Seattle Fire Department, Assistant Chief, A.D. Vickery.

The information listed in the report is primarily provided by the vendor. However, when possible the report has been supplemented with additional information obtained from peer-reviewed publications, reports and websites that evaluate the performance of the technologies. Other findings and results will be published as the information becomes available.

PNNL has significant expertise in studying the biodetection process and in evaluating biodetection assays. It also has established an ongoing relationship with first responders in the Pacific Northwest. In coming months, PNNL will conduct third-party testing of biodetection assay systems and instruments. Researchers will publish a report outlining performance testing in working with anthrax, ricin and commonly encountered white powders. 

PNNL will attend the International Hazardous Materials Response Teams Conference on June 6-9 in Baltimore, MD, and will be available to discuss the report and the next phase of testing that is just getting underway.

The "Fellow" designation distinguishes senior MSA members who have made significant contributions to the advancement of the science. Browning was recognized for advancements in electron microscopy, a type of microscopy that allows scientists to see structures on the molecular level.

A scientific leader in the field, Browning has led a large-body of ground-breaking research since the early 1990s. In 2008, with colleagues from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Browning received an R&D 100 award for developing dynamic transmission electron microscopy, or DTEM. This technology can focus on objects as small as a few nanometers and catch a moment in time to reveal what happens over about 15 billionths of a second. This high resolution in both time and space allows researchers to take snapshots of what happens during chemical reactions.

Browning joined PNNL in 2011 with a goal of making DTEM work at normal pressures and temperatures. Currently, it requires samples to be in a vacuum. In addition, he is exploring how to use DTEM to control how nanoparticles form and grow - a method that could lead to new and improved materials for use in energy applications.

A Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Browning earned a bachelor's degree in physics and mathematics from the University of Reading in the United Kingdom in 1988 and a doctorate in physics from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom in 1992.

The Microscopy Society of America (MSA), founded in 1942, is a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion and advancement of the knowledge of the science and practice of all microscopic imaging, analysis and diffraction techniques useful for elucidating the ultrastructure and function of materials in diverse areas of biological, materials, medical and physical sciences. Further information can be obtained by visiting www.microscopy.org or by calling 1-800-538-3672.

To do so, the team created a simulated bacterium using just the proteins thought to shuttle the electrons from the inside of the microbe to the rock. They inserted these proteins into lipid layers of vesicles, which are small bubbles of lipids such as the ones that make up a bacterial membrane. Using instruments and expertise at EMSL, the Department of Energy's Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, the team showed that the proteins protruded through the lipid bubbles in the same way they do in real bacteria, known as Shewanella oneidensis.

Then they tested how well electrons traveled between an electron donor on the inside and an iron-bearing mineral on the outside. The electron transfer rate they measured was fast enough to support bacterial respiration, showing that those proteins were the only ones the bacteria would need to conduct electricity.

In addition to contaminant cleanup and bio-batteries, the finding is important for understanding how carbon works its way through the atmosphere, land and oceans. If researchers understand electron transfer, they can learn how bacteria control the carbon cycle.

The team of researchers included Thomas A Clarke, Gaye White, Julea N Butt, and David J Richardson from the University of East Anglia and Zhi Shi, Liang Shi, Zheming Wang, Alice C Dohnalkova, Matthew J Marshall, James K Fredrickson and John M Zachara at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. This work was supported by the DOE Office of Science and UK's Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.

Read the entire release from the University of East Anglia.

Battelle operates the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash. 

AeroVironment will use a portion of the licensed technology in a new prototype version of its Level II charging systems.

While electric vehicles will ultimately reduce the nation's dependency on oil, some are concerned that millions of electric cars on the road will threaten the stability of the electrical grid. Developed at PNNL, the Grid Friendly EV Charger Controller technology tells the car's battery charger when to start and stop charging based upon existing conditions on the electrical grid.  Since electric vehicles can now be charged when electricity is most readily available, the technology could translate into lower bills for vehicle owners and a more stable grid.

AeroVironment's new prototype EV charging station, incorporating the PNNL technology, will help stabilize the electrical grid by continuously monitoring the grid's alternating current, or AC, frequency and varying the vehicle charging rate in response. If an unexpected event on the grid causes a rapid drop in the AC frequency, the charging system will stop charging, providing a grid "shock absorber." Under normal conditions, this stabilizing technology will be particularly important as the power grid is expected to rely more and more on variable renewable resources such as wind and solar technologies. 

An earlier PNNL study found America's existing power grid could meet the needs of about 70 percent of all U.S. light-duty vehicles if battery charging was managed to avoid new peaks in electricity demand.  

"If a million owners plug in their vehicles to recharge after work, it could cause a major strain on the grid," said PNNL lead engineer Michael Kintner-Meyer. "The Grid Friendly Controller could prevent those peaks in demand from plug-in vehicles and enable our existing grid to be used more evenly. And our studies have shown that those who use the technology could save $150 or more a year on their electricity bill, and they could potentially receive rebates for providing shock-absorbing services to the grid operator," Kintner-Meyer added.

"These technologies will result in a triple-win," said Alec Brooks, chief technology officer of AeroVironment's EES business segment. "First, reducing the cost of integrating variable renewable generation reduces the electricity costs for all ratepayers. Second, plug-in cars can be powered by renewable generation that might not have been possible to add to the grid without the charging rate flexibility offered by vehicles and this technology. Third, the reduced cost of electricity to plug-in vehicle drivers will further improve on the cost advantage of driving on electricity as compared to gasoline."

"Vehicle charging infrastructure is important for the market adoption of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles," said Dan Ton, DOE's program manager of Smart Grid Research and Development. "We need charging stations and we need them to be intelligent in order to work with smart vehicles and smart grid infrastructure to avoid potential strain on the grid and to provide flexible billing transactions for energy purchases and grid services."

Prototypes of the new AeroVironment charging system are available for beta testing. The prototypes include Bluetooth wireless connectivity for data streaming and local control functions. For more information, contact AeroVironment at sales@avinc.com.

The honor highlights the impact and contributions of engineers age 30 or younger. Vlachopoulou was one of 13 engineers recognized for this international honor and was featured in a full-page ad in USA Today on Feb. 18.

Moe Khaleel, director of PNNL's Computational Sciences & Mathematics Division, says Vlachopoulou's research in energy systems, statistical and mathematical modeling, optimization and software engineering is supporting the transition of the U.S. power grid to a more secure, efficient and robust system. "Maria's work directly impacts two national priority areas — securing our long-term energy security and reliability while reducing our dependence on foreign sources of oil," he said.

Vlachopoulou earned master's degrees from Purdue University in 2010 in electrical and computer engineering, and in industrial engineering. She also has multiple publications related to her work on novel algorithms for energy forecasting — a vital component of power grid reliability.

The New Faces of Engineering honor also recognizes each recipient's work within their communities. Vlachopoulou is the founding chair of the IEEE Women in Engineering group in Richland, Wash.; and in the Tri-Cities, Wash. community, she volunteers with local high school and middle school students to cultivate interest in careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, areas.

All 2013 New Faces of Engineering honorees and their contributions are featured at the National Engineers Week Foundation website.

IEEE-USA advances the public good and promotes the careers and public policy interests of more than 205,000 engineering, computing and technology professionals who are U.S. members of IEEE.

Nighttime solar power with cheaper thermal energy storage

Booth 1211

Solar power is a clean source of energy, but its use is limited to when the sun shines. One option that extends solar energy into the night involves capturing the sun's heat during the day and releasing it when it's dark. Called thermal energy storage, the practice has been limited because the molten salts typically used to store solar heat for power production require large, expensive equipment. PNNL materials scientist Ewa Rönnebro and her team have shown that a powder made of a proprietary metal hydride can store up to 10 times more heat per mass than molten salts and operate at higher temperatures. PNNL and project partners University of Utah and Heavystone Lab are developing a 3 kilowatt-hour thermal demonstration system that will collect heat for six hours and discharge it over another six hours. If successful, the project could make thermal energy storage systems smaller and more cost-competitive.

New fuel storage tanks lighten the load for compressed natural gas vehicles

Booth 1237

With the nation's supply of natural gas increasingly abundant and inexpensive, the fuel is being considered as a cleaner way to power light-duty cars and trucks. But while more than 15 million natural gas vehicles operate throughout the world, only about 150,000 are running on America's roads. One challenge is that natural gas exists as a vapor, meaning it contains less energy per volume than the denser, liquid gasoline most of us pump into our cars. Natural gas must be compressed into a pressurized fuel tank to increase its energy density. PNNL engineer Kevin Simmons and his team are developing special, lightweight fuel tanks that make better use of the limited space available in vehicles. PNNL's fuel tank design uses a unique manufacturing method called superplastic forming. The method involves welding together metal sheets at specific points and blowing air in between the sheets to expand them, forming internal chambers like an air mattress. The expanded metal tank will conform to more of a vehicle's space than traditional cylinder tanks. It also helps the cars weigh less, which makes them more fuel-efficient. The PNNL tank is expected to cost $1,500 to make and pack 12 megajoules of energy per kilogram, about twice the energy density of today's metal compressed natural gas tanks. Lincoln Composites is a partner in the project.

Rare earth-free magnet makes electric motors cheaper with more abundant materials

Booth 1114

From wind turbines to electric vehicle motors, magnets play an essential role in a variety of today's electronic devices. But there's a limited supply of the rare earth minerals that are traditionally used in these magnets. In particular, dysprosium is added to increase a magnet's operating temperature, which is high in motors. But dysprosium has been named a critical material with unstable availability. PNNL materials scientist Jun Cui and his team are developing a manganese-based nano-composite magnet that doesn't contain dysprosium or any other rare earth mineral. The new magnet can operate at 200 degrees Celsius. The team's immediate goal is to make a permanent magnet with 10 MGOe, or megagauss-oersteds, a measurement of magnetic energy. With additional funding, the team will work to develop a 20-MGOe magnet, which would be more useful for a broader set of commercial applications. Project partners include PNNL, the universities of Maryland and Texas at Arlington, Ames Laboratory, Electron Energy Corp. and United Technologies.

Membrane dehumidifier makes air conditioners up to 50 percent more efficient

Booth 635

Americans unnecessarily spend billions of dollars on power bills when humid air causes their air-conditioning systems to be inefficient. To cut electricity use for cooling in hot, humid climates by 50 percent, a team led by ADMA Products and including PNNL and Texas A&M University is developing a novel dehumidifier. The system uses a thin membrane developed by PNNL chemical engineer Wei Liu and his PNNL colleagues that acts as a molecular sieve and soaks up water from the air. The membrane consists of a thin, foil-like metal sheet that's coated with a layer of a water-attracting material called zeolite. Just one-fifth the width of human hair and made from common, inexpensive materials, the membrane removes moisture from air many times faster than dehydration membrane products currently on the market. PNNL is developing a small, lab-scale prototype of its system, and the project team has created a manufacturing method that can be used at larger scales. Visit Liu at the ADMA Products booth, or hear him pitch the technology to a panel of investors at ARPA-E's Future Energy Pitching Session, which runs 6:30-8:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 25. Click here for more info on the pitching session. 

New way to heat, cool electric vehicles reduces drain on driving range

Booth 1112

The combustion engines in gasoline-powered cars generate a lot of heat, which is great for heating the passenger cabin in winter. But energy-efficient electric vehicles produce very little waste heat. Providing electricity for the same amount of heat used in gasoline cars would reduce electric vehicles' driving range by up to 40 percent. PNNL engineer Pete McGrail is leading a team that includes the University of South Florida to develop a material called an electrical metal organic framework, also called an EMOF, for electric vehicle heating and cooling systems. The material would work as a molecular heat pump that efficiently circulates heat or cold. By directly controlling the material's properties with electricity, their design is expected to use much less energy than traditional heat and cooling systems. A 5-pound, EMOF-based heat pump that is the size of a 2-liter bottle could theoretically handle the heating and cooling needs of an electric vehicle with far less impact on driving distance. While using a unique testing system that applies voltage to the material, the team observed for the first time an EMOF transitioning from an off, or insulating, state to an on, or semiconducting, state. The transition demonstrated the project's premise, coincided with a change in the material's crystal structure and was completely reversible. The team is now making other EMOFs with similar switching abilities and higher adsorption capacities that improve performance in an electric heat pump.

Reporters interested in scheduling interviews with the PNNL scientists about the above projects should contact Franny White at (509) 375-6904 (office) or (360) 333-4793 (cell). More information about these projects and other PNNL research, including transactive control of a smart power grid, is also available at the PNNL display, located at booth 1108.

The summit's Technology Showcase, where PNNL's project booths are located, is open 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. and 4:45-8 p.m. on Feb. 26, as well as 7:30-8:45 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.-1:45 p.m. on Feb. 27. Click here for a map of the Technology Showcase layout, including PNNL booth locations.

Press passes for the 2013 Energy Innovation Summit can be obtained by visiting the summit's press website here.

Rather than searching for particle residue using a typical method like surface swipes or using pulses of air to dislodge particles for analysis, the system 'sniffs' directly for explosives vapors, much the way bomb-sniffing canines do.

"We have demonstrated direct, real-time vapor detection for the low-volatility explosive compound RDX, which is used in many types of explosives," said David Atkinson, senior research scientist at PNNL. Low-volatility compounds are those which release very small amounts of the explosive vapor typically at parts per trillion levels or lower, making it extremely difficult to detect. The PNNL system easily detects vapors from a fingerprint-sized sample of RDX at levels below 25 parts per quadrillion.

"The system correctly identified the RDX vapor using selective atmospheric pressure chemical ionization with mass spectrometry," explained Atkinson. The approach involves pulling an air sample stream and ionizing it within a reaction region in an atmospheric flow tube. The ionized sample moves to a mass spectrometer for ion detection and identification. These air samples need no heating or pre-concentrating.  Analysis happens in about one second.

"The key part is ionization," said Atkinson. "We tailored the chemistry to greatly enhance both ionization efficiency and selectivity, which results in the best possible detection."

Only a limited number of ultra-sensitive detection methods have been found capable of detecting low-volatility explosive compounds at levels below parts-per-trillion. But these methods typically take much longer and require pre-concentration of the sample from the vapor phase.

Currently, most airport security agents use cloth-like material to swipe luggage and cargo to collect explosives particles for detection. The samples are then analyzed one at a time in a process that requires the swipe to be heated to a temperature needed to volatilize the particles for detection.

In some cases, airport security will turn to canines for detection, especially for large items where size such as vehicles or cargo make particle sampling impractical.

"What we are attempting to develop is an instrument that replicates or surpasses the capabilities of a dog," said Atkinson. However, while canine olfactory systems are highly developed, dogs present issues that machines don't. Man's best friend only works limited hours, must be fed, exercised regularly and rested. While a dog's ability to smell and detect explosives is extremely sensitive, instruments may soon surpass their capabilities and perform at a lower cost.

Robert Ewing, PNNL senior research scientist, sees a bright future for the technology and is hoping to push the performance even further.

"Currently we have demonstrated the detection of explosive compounds such as RDX, PETN, nitroglycerine and tetryl, along with plastic explosives that contain these materials at low parts per quadrillion levels," said Ewing. "Future research will focus on detecting other explosive threats by manipulating the ionization chemistry and lowering detection limits."

PNNL's vapor detection technology is part of the lab's Initiative for Explosives Detection, which has received financial support from the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program at PNNL.

"A drawback with today's fuel cells is that the platinum they use is more than a thousand times more expensive than iron," said chemist R. Morris Bullock, who leads the research at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

His team at the Center for Molecular Electrocatalysis has been developing catalysts that use cheaper metals such as nickel and iron. The one they report here can split hydrogen as fast as two molecules per second with an efficiency approaching those of commercial catalysts. The center is one of 46 Energy Frontier Research Centers established by the DOE Office of Science across the nation in 2009 to accelerate basic research in energy.

Fuel cells generate electricity out of a chemical fuel, usually hydrogen. The bond within a hydrogen molecule stores electricity, where two electrons connect two hydrogen atoms like a barbell.

Fuel cells use a platinum catalyst — essentially a chunk of metal — to crack a hydrogen molecule open like an egg: The electron whites run out and form a current that is electricity. Because platinum's chemical nature gives it the ability to do this, chemists can't simply replace the expensive metal with the cheaper iron or nickel. However, a molecule that exists in nature called a hydrogenase (high-dra-jin-ace) uses iron to split hydrogen.

Bullock and his PNNL colleagues, chemists Tianbiao "Leo" Liu and Dan DuBois, have taken inspiration for their iron-wielding catalyst from a hydrogenase. First Liu created several potential molecules for the team to test. Then, with the best-working molecule up to that point, they determined and tweaked the shape and the internal electronic forces to make additional improvements.

One of the tricks they needed the catalyst to do was to split hydrogen atoms into all of their parts. If a hydrogen atom is an egg, the positively charged proton that serves as the nucleus of the atom would be the yolk. And the electron, which orbits around the proton in a cloud, would be the white. The catalyst moves both the proton-yolks and electron-whites around in a controlled series of steps, sending the protons in one direction and the electrons to an electrode, where the electricity can be used to power things.

To do this, they need to split hydrogen molecules unevenly in an early step of the process. One hydrogen molecule is made up of two protons and two electrons, but the team needed the catalyst to tug away one proton first and send it away, where it is caught by a kind of molecule called a proton acceptor. In a real fuel cell, the acceptor would be oxygen. 

Once the first proton with its electron-wooing force is gone, the electrode easily plucks off the first electron. Then another proton and electron are similarly removed, with both of the electrons being shuttled off to the electrode.

The team determined the shape and size of the catalyst and also tested different proton acceptors. With the iron in the middle, arms hanging like pendants around the edges draw out the protons. The best acceptors stole these drawn-off protons away quickly.

With their design down, the team measured how fast the catalyst split molecular hydrogen. It peaked at about two molecules per second, thousands of times faster than the closest, non-electricity making iron-based competitor. In addition, they determined its overpotential, which is a measure of how efficient the catalyst is. Coming in at 160 to 220 millivolts, the catalyst revealed itself to be similar in efficiency to most commercially available catalysts.

Now the team is figuring out the slow steps so they can make them faster, as well as determining the best conditions under which this catalyst performs.

This work was supported by the Department of Energy's Office of Science.

Reference: Tianbiao Liu, Daniel L. DuBois and R. Morris Bullock. An iron complex with pendent amines as a molecular electrocatalyst for oxidation of hydrogen, Nature Chemistry, February 17, 2013, doi:10.1038/NCHEM.1571.

DOE's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit the Office of Science website.

The analysis, presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting by toxicologist Justin Teeguarden of the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Wash., shows that BPA in the blood of the general population is many times lower than blood levels that consistently cause toxicity in animals. The result suggests that animal studies might not reflect the human BPA experience appropriately.

"Looking at all the studies together reveals a remarkably consistent picture of human exposure to BPA with implications for how the risk of human exposure is interpreted," said Teeguarden. "At these exposure levels, exposure to BPA can't be compared to giving a baby the massive dose of estrogens found in a birth control pill, a comparison made by others."  

In addition to evaluating the likelihood of BPA mimicking estrogen in humans, Teeguarden also analyzed another set of BPA studies that looked at the chemical's toxicity in animals and cells in the lab. These 130 studies are significant as a group because they refer to the exposures as "low dose," implying they are very relevant to human exposures.

According to his analysis, however, the "low doses" actually span an immense range of concentrations, a billion-fold. In addition, only a small fraction of the exposures in these self-described "low dose" studies are in the range of human exposures, from 0.8 percent to 7 percent depending on the study.

"The term low-dose cannot be understood to mean either relevant to human exposures or in the range of human exposures. However, this is in fact what it has come to mean to the public, as well as many in the media," said Teeguarden.

Analysis of 150 Exposure Studies

The first analysis covered 30,000 individuals, including women and infants, in 19 countries. Human blood concentrations were calculated multiple ways using many kinds of exposure data.

Teeguarden looked to see if BPA concentrations were sufficiently high to be a significant source of estrogen-like activity in the blood. Researchers have long known that BPA can bind to the same proteins that estrogen does — called estrogen receptors — when estrogen is doing its job in the body. However, in most cases, BPA does so much more weakly than estrogen. To trigger biological effects through receptors, BPA concentrations have to be high enough in the blood to overcome that weakness.

"Systematically testing the estrogenicity, or the bioactivity of BPA at the part per trillion concentrations we expect in human blood would seem the most scientific way to substantiate or refute this conclusion," said Teeguarden.

Teeguarden analyzed the data in these studies using multiple independent approaches applied systematically to the data from thousands of individuals. The results showed that human blood levels of BPA are expected to be too far below levels required for significant binding to four of the five key estrogen receptors to cause biological effects.

Teeguarden's analysis also confirmed the findings of many academic and government scientists that biologically active BPA is at such low concentrations in the blood that it is beneath toxicologists' current ability to detect it, raising questions about the role of sample contamination in studies reporting high levels of BPA.

Analysis of 130 Toxicity Studies

In this analysis, Teeguarden compiled all the BPA studies that included the term "low dose" as it referred to human exposure by using such terms as "low-concentration," "environmentally relevant," or "human exposure." From the 130 studies found, he and PNNL biologist Sesha Hanson-Drury compiled all the doses that were actually used in the studies.

The results showed that a small fraction of the "low doses" used in these studies are within the range of human exposures, with the vast majority being at least 10 to thousands of times higher than what humans are exposed to daily. In addition, the range of concentrations spans from upwards of 10 grams per kilogram of weight per day down to 100 picograms per kilogram of weight per day (a picogram is one trillionth^* of a gram).

"Unfortunately, the low dose moniker has been used by some to promote the importance of selected toxicity studies, for example, in arguments to ban BPA," said Teeguarden. "For BPA and all chemicals, we need more accurate language to present these findings so the public and scientists in other disciplines can understand how human exposures compare to exposures in laboratory studies reporting toxicity."

Justin Teeguarden, Ph.D., is a senior scientist in the Systems Toxicology and Exposure Science group at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.  This work was entirely supported by the United States Environmental Protection Agency under the Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program.

Reference: Justin Teeguarden, Estrogen Receptor Activation Potential of Internal Concentrations of BPA in Humans, Feb. 16, 1:30 p.m.-4:30 p.m., Room 302, Hynes Convention Center. http://aaas.confex.com/aaas/2013/webprogram/Paper8720.html

^*Ed note: The original version of this story defined a picogram incorrectly.

As director, Ensign will oversee a comprehensive lab-wide auditing program that provides independent and objective analysis of PNNL's financial and operating activities. 

Ensign joined PNNL in 2007 as the laboratory's prime contract manager. He later was PNNL's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act lead, and most recently served as manager of the laboratory's Business Development and Analysis department.  

Prior to PNNL, Ensign worked at DOE's Office of River Protection in Richland, where he managed all Chief Financial Officer and contracting activities. He also worked more than eight years at DOE's Richland Operations Office as an auditor and as director of the office's Financial Management Division, and worked five years as an auditor and supervisor with the Defense Contract Audit Agency in California.

During his career, Ensign has performed hundreds of government audits, overseen the financial and internal audit functions of numerous DOE contractors and has provided extensive public briefings on DOE costs, including briefings to members of Congress.

Ensign is a native of Olympia, Wash., and earned a bachelor's degree in accounting from Western Washington University in Bellingham.  He received a Project Management Professional certification in 2007.

The agreement will allow Vorbeck to bring lithium batteries incorporating Vor-X® graphene technology to market for use in consumer portable electronic and medical devices, tools and electric vehicles. Lithium-ion batteries are rechargeable and are widely used in electronic devices such as laptops and smartphones, and to power electric cars and trucks.

"Today, a typical cell phone battery takes between two and five hours to fully recharge, and an electric vehicle has to be plugged in most of the night to recharge," explained John Lettow, president of Vorbeck Materials. "The pioneering work done by Vorbeck, Princeton University, and PNNL is leading to the development of batteries that recharge quickly, reducing the time it takes to charge a smartphone to minutes and an electric vehicle to just a couple of hours." 

Lettow noted the research effort also could lead to the development of batteries that are more stable, have a longer life and store larger amounts of energy.

"We are very pleased to add this substantial portfolio of graphene-based battery technologies, developed with PNNL and Princeton, to our already very strong graphene patent portfolios in conductive inks, printed electronics, composite materials, and energy storage," added Lettow.

"This license is the culmination of a substantial investment of laboratory-directed research and development funds, innovative work by our researchers and a proactive patenting strategy recently deployed at PNNL," said Cheryl Cejka, the national laboratory's director of technology commercialization. "PNNL is a leader in linking research to real-world impact, so we are thrilled to see a company like Vorbeck bring our technology to US consumers."

Electronics and auto manufacturers would like to develop the next generation of batteries using low-cost materials such as titanium dioxide to replace the more expensive materials used today. But titanium dioxide on its own doesn't perform well enough to serve as a replacement.

Recently, PNNL researchers collaborated with Vorbeck to develop a method for building tiny titanium oxide and carbon structures and then demonstrated that small quantities of Vor-X® graphene — a good electronic conductor made from ultra-thin sheets of carbon atoms — can dramatically improve the performance of the batteries, especially with respect to how rapidly the batteries can be charged. 

Structural analysis studies of the material were conducted with scientists at EMSL, the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a DOE national user facility located at PNNL. When they compared how well the new combination of electrode materials charged and discharged electric current, the electrodes containing graphene outperformed the standard titanium dioxide by up to three times. 

Lettow noted the Vorbeck-PNNL team recently received a grant from the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or ARPA-E, to develop advanced battery chemistries, and has contracts with major manufacturers for graphene-based printed electronics and battery systems. "As a result, Vorbeck anticipates continued breakthroughs, new patents and rapid commercialization of the new technology in consumer goods," he said. "Prototypes of Vorbeck's battery technologies were already on display earlier this month at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas."

"PNNL's technology represents a major leap forward in our nation's ability to manage grid reliability, balance the ever-expanding complexities of our electricity distribution system, integrate renewables and engage consumers in energy savings programs," said PNNL engineer Rob Pratt, who led the team that developed the licensed technology. "We look forward to seeing utilities and consumers benefit from this technology."

PNNL's development of the technology was funded by DOE's Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Read Calico's news release for more information about the technology and license.