PNNL awarded $4.4M to advance lab-developed technologies
June 21, 2016 
RICHLAND, Wash. - A dozen clean energy technologies that enable everything from lightweight, fuel-sipping cars to the expansion of renewable energy and cleaner fossil fuel use are getting a boost at the D.O.E.'s Pacific Northwest National Lab.
D.O.E. is awarding PNNL about $4.4 million to bring the twelve technologies closer to commercial use, according to an announcement from DOE's Office of Technology Transitions about the 1st DOE-wide grants from its Technology Commercialization Fund. Companies partnering with PNNL to advance these technologies will also provide matching support, while PNNL will provide backing from its technology licensing income to support plans not involving industrial partners. PNNL is among twelve D.O.E. national labs receiving a total of nearly $16 million to advance 54 different lab-developed technologies through today's grant announcement.
"Deploying new clean energy technologies is an essential part of our nation's effort to lead in the 21st century economy and in the fight against climate change," said Lynn Orr, DOE's undersecretary for science and energy. "The funds announced today will help to accelerate the commercialization of cutting-edge energy technologies developed in our national labs, making them more widely accessible to American consumers and businesses."
PNNL's 12 winning technologies, how they could be used, the lead PNNL researchers involved, and their partner organizations are as follows:
- Solar system that converts natural gas into hydrogen for fuel cell vehicles
- Bob Wegeng and Richard Zheng, with STARS LLC, Southern California Gas Company, Infinia Technology Corp., Barr Engineering and Diver Solar LLC
- Making fertilizer from coal fly ash, a byproduct of coal-fired power plants
- James Amonette and Josef Matyas
- Self-powered acoustic fish-tracking tag for evaluating fish passage at dams
- Daniel Deng, with Advanced Telemetry Systems Inc., Idaho Power Company and Grant Co. Public Utilities District
- Material manufacturing techniques to make more durable, longer-lasting components for dams
- Method to join aluminum parts made of different thicknesses and alloys for car manufacturing
- Piyush Upadhyay, with Honda R&D Americas and Alcoa Incorporated
- Highly conductive copper composite made with a new manufacturing process for use in high-powered electric motors
- Glenn Grant, with General Motors
- Computational prediction tools to enhance power grid operations
- Yuri Makarov and Pavel Etingov, with California Independent System Operator and AWS Truepower
- Kilowatt-scale vanadium flow battery using an enhanced electrolyte for renewable energy storage
- David Reed, with ITN Energy Systems
- Electrolytes for rechargeable lithium batteries
- Wu Xu, with Farasis Energy, Incorporated and Navitas Systems
- Seals for membranes used to convert natural gas to syngas
- Protective coating for solid oxide fuel cells
- Jeff Stevenson, with Protonex
- Seals for solid oxide fuel cells
- Yeong-Shyung "Matt" Chou, with LG Fuel Cell Systems, Incorporated
A full list of all of the winning Technology Commercialization Fund-supported plans is accessible on DOE's Office of Technology Transitions website.
Tags: Energy, Environment, Fundamental Science, Technology Transfer and Commercialization, Renewable Energy, Fuel Cells, Batteries, Solar Power, Chemistry, Fish, Licensing, Materials
Interdisciplinary teams at Pacific Northwest National Lab address many of America's most pressing issues in energy, the environment and national security through advances in basic and applied science. Founded in 1965, PNNL employs 4,400 staff and has an yearly budget of nearly $1 billion. It is managed by Battelle for the D.O.E.'s Office of Science. As the single biggest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, the Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information on PNNL, visit the PNNL News Center, or follow PNNL on Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and Twitter.
