Below are news stories and blog posts related to the Energy Materials Network (EMN) from the Energy Department and the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
HydroGEN: R&D 100 Awards Honor Two HydroGEN Innovations
September 8, 2022: Two innovative technologies with ties to the HydroGEN consortium have been honored with a 2022 R&D 100 Award from R&D World magazine. These awards are presented annually to recognize 100 of the most innovative technologies, materials, and products from the past year.
ElectroCat: Fuel Cells Poised to Power the Future
June 7, 2022: As part of the ElectroCat consortium, researchers are using Argonne National Laboratory’s High-Throughput Research Laboratory to synthesize and test potential catalyst materials at a rapid pace.
HyMARC: Emerging Hydrogen Storage Technology Could Increase Energy Resilience
May 11, 2022: HyMARC researchers led a study investigating the cost competitiveness for materials developed through the consortium to be used in large-scale backup power applications.
ChemCatBio: CatCost Online Tool Offer Insight Into Catalyst Manufacturing Cost and Environmental Impact
March 31, 2022: Scientists from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s Catalytic Carbon Transformation and Scale-Up Center seek to reduce barriers to early-stage catalyst cost estimation by developing CatCost, a free and publicly available cost estimation tool that aims to equip researchers with the information they need to make informed R&D decisions.
HydroGEN: Research Contributed to ECS Interface Magazine Hydrogen’s Big Shot
March 2, 2022: HydroGEN lead researchers identified key R&D needs for electrolyzer materials, and described their efforts to advance four different types of electrolyzer technologies.
ChemCatBio: Open Concept Paper Call from MSI STEM Research & Development Consortium
January 26, 2022: The MSI (Minority-Serving Institutions) STEM Research & Development Consortium partnered with ChemCatBio on a call for proposal submissions from MSI STEM Research & Development Consortium member institutions, partnering academic institutions, and small business partners to collaborate on high-impact technology development for catalytic conversion technologies with emphasis on liquid transportation fuels, such as sustainable aviation fuel, diesel and marine fuels, their co-products, or intermediates.
HydroGEN: Sharing Data in Virtual Hubs Streamlines Energy Materials Research, Spurs Collaboration
December 8, 2021: A paper authored by researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory studies the success of the Energy Materials Network Data Hub - a secure, customizable scientific data sharing platform.
DuraMAT: Subwoofers Help Researchers Study the Spread of Cracks in Solar Panels
October 22, 2021: National Renewable Energy Laboratory researchers, working with colleagues at the Electric Power Research Institute as part of a DuraMAT project, have been studying how small cracks in the solar cells inside modules might or might not cause power loss over time.
HydroGEN: HydroGEN Researchers Outline Advanced Water Splitting Strategies to Achieve DOE Hydrogen Shot Goals
September 23, 2021: Scientists in the HydroGEN Consortium offered strategies for accelerating clean hydrogen production technologies during the 2021 Hydrogen Shot Summit.
ElectroCat’s 2019 Annual Merit Review Presentation
August 5, 2019 - The Electrocatalysis Consortium’s 2019 presentation from the June 2019 Department of Energy Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Program Annual Merit Review and Peer Evaluation Meeting is now available.
Energy Department Announces $31 Million Investment to Advance H2@Scale
March 19, 2019 - The U.S. Department of Energy announced approximately $31 million in funding to advance the H2@ Scale concept through R&D in the areas of hydrogen storage and infrastructure, hydrogen production and utilization, and the development of new integrated production, storage, and fueling systems.
HydroGEN Supernodes: A New Collaboration Strategy for Advanced Water Splitting Materials Research
March 4, 2019 - The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has established five new “supernodes” within the HydroGEN consortium through which multiple lab capability nodes and experts will work synergistically to address a specific water splitting materials problem or research need.
Hybrid Composite and Steel - the Best of Both Worlds
December 3, 2018 - Researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory are collaborating with Detroit-based Diversitak to test a novel carbon fiber reinforced epoxy (CFRE) developed by the automotive technology company.
June 7, 2018—The main goal of this solicitation for letters of interest from DuraMAT is to enable U.S. global competitiveness within the renewable energy sector by supporting research and development projects on module materials and designs that improve the performance and lifetime of photovoltaic modules and systems while decreasing the levelized cost of electricity toward the SunShot 2030 goals.
Two cool: a pair of patents filed on breakthrough materials for next-gen refrigerators
May 16, 2018—CaloriCool consortium members have filed a pair of provisional patent applications on two caloric materials, which are compounds that generate strong cooling effects when acted upon by magnetic, electric, or mechanical forces. One of the materials has a magnetocaloric effect 50% better than any material of this class known before. The second patentable discovery corrects a flaw in an already known material, which was formerly thought to be too brittle to use outside of the laboratory setting.
May 8, 2018—The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office announced funding opportunities up to $28 million to develop highly efficient conversion processes for improving the affordability of fuels and products from biomass and waste streams, including improving organic and inorganic catalysts for lignocellulosic biomass conversion. Topic Area 1: ChemCatBio Industry Partnerships will provide funding for collaborative projects between industry and the Chemical Catalysis for Bioenergy (ChemCatBio) Consortium aimed at tackling fundamental challenges in catalyst development that can reduce the cost and improve the efficiency of converting biomass feedstocks into fuels, intermediates, and coproducts.
April 19, 2018—Anticipated R&D topics include ElectroCat, H2@Scale, Innovative Fuel Cell Membrane R&D Concepts, and Innovative Reversible and Liquid Fuel Cell Component R&D Concepts.
Heavyweight Contenders: LightMAT Awards Round Two Funding for Lightweight Materials Technologies
Jan. 11, 2018—Five American-based organizations are receiving $2.25 million in technical assistance from DOE national laboratories to further develop lightweight materials technologies and more efficient vehicles. The awarded projects are part of a second round of industrial assistance opportunities supported by DOE’s LightMAT.
Nov. 8, 2017—The goal is to expedite the discovery and development of efficient, durable, and low-cost AWS materials capable of meeting the long-term hydrogen production cost goal of <$2/kg hydrogen through the establishment and implementation of best practices.
A solid pathway toward hydrogen storage
Sept. 25, 2017—An inexpensive and useful layered superconductor compound, magnesium diboride, also may be an efficient solid-state material for storing hydrogen. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists discovered a hydrogenation mechanism that directly forms magnesium borohydride. This avoids issues known to inhibit the speed at which a hydrogen vehicle can be refueled.