The research team of the US Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory and its technology won seven R&D 100 awards in 2021, as well as special recognition for COVID-19 related projects.
A press release stated that the winners of the finalists selected by the organization were announced at the virtual awards ceremony held from October 19 to 21, which is the second year of the conference that the winners were announced virtually.
The R&D 100 Awards was established in 1963 and commends 100 research results each year. These research results have led to new commercial products, technologies and materials from all over the world known for their technological importance. Since the establishment of the award, this year's award brings the total number of ORNL R&D 100 awards to 232.
"This recognition is a testament to our employees' commitment to developing truly innovative technologies," ORNL Director Thomas Zacharia said in a press release. "I am very proud of their creativity and dedication."
Among the 11 finalists, ORNL's researchers and technology were rated as winners including:
A team of ORNL researchers solved the problem of fragile and leaking sealants by developing a self-healing adhesive material. The press release stated that sealants are widely used in many fields such as construction and automobiles, but they are currently prone to cracking and cannot effectively adhere to dusty surfaces.
ORNL's team developed self-healing sealants by combining self-healing polymer poly (BCOE) with existing commercial sealants. This new material can automatically repair cracks that appear within a few days at room temperature. Compared with existing products, it also adheres better to dusty surfaces without the need to clean an area or apply primer on the substrate before use.
This discovery provides a simple solution to start working without external triggers. There are currently no other self-healing sealants on the market.
Funding for the project is provided by the Office of Building Technology of the Department of Energy.
Diana Hun, Pengfei Cao, and Tomonori Saito of ORNL led the development team, with contributions from Zhen Zhang, Bingrui Li, Natasha Ghezawi, and Zoriana Demchuk.
Researchers at ORNL have developed a method that can more accurately measure the amount of deicing material (such as salt or brine) required to deic a specific road.
In the case of limited resources, cities usually use the same amount of deicing material on each road and estimate the required amount based on traffic or road conditions, but rarely combine these two factors. In addition, deicing based solely on traffic usually leads to overtreatment in areas exposed to strong sunlight, and undertreatment in areas with mitigating factors other than traffic.
Precision deicers use light detection and ranging data to consider not only traffic, but also road conditions, slopes, and solar radiation to calculate a road vulnerability index, indicating how much deicing material should be used in a specific area. Unlike current methods, de-icers generate reports for specific areas rather than entire cities, ensuring that each area is handled correctly and minimizing unnecessary business closures.
In addition, precision deicers save national resources by ensuring that only the necessary amount of deicing material is distributed and reducing the runoff generated by the deicer.
The city of Knoxville adopted the prototype of the product.
Funding for the project is provided by ORNL Seed Money, a smart space modeling method for urban road deicing.
Olufemi Omitaomu of ORNL led the development. Budhendra Bhaduri, Dan Koch, Christi Johnson, Frederick Kyle Reed and Matthew Garrett of ORNL, Kevin Homan of Clinch River Computing and Ernest Cadotte of the University of Tennessee contributed to the development.
Scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory and ORNL are trying to develop a new method to protect information, called Quantum Assured Defense (QED), to get rid of the continuous attack defense loop of cybersecurity breeches.
"Based on cutting-edge quantum science and network security, QED uses quantum communication to protect power grid control signals from third-party penetration," the press release said.
This technology uses a single light particle or photon to distribute a key that can be used to lock a control signal into a password. This novel method brings the security of quantum communication system to the long-distance power grid system.
The team has demonstrated the operational use of QED on commercial systems in Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, and Chattanooga, New Mexico.
Funding for the project is provided by the Office of Cyber Security, Energy Security and Emergency Response of the Department of Energy.
ORNL's Muneer Alshowkan, Philip Evans and Nicholas Peters collaborated with LANL's Raymond Newell, Claira Safi and Justin Tripp and EBP's Steve Morrison and Scottie Summerlin to develop this technology.
Copper is a key element in many electrical equipment, but its resistance causes power loss, which means that new low-resistance conductors are needed to meet current clean energy goals.
Researchers at ORNL have developed a superconducting copper carbon nanotube composite (UCC) as an alternative to improve the mechanical and electrical properties of pure copper. The product is made of carbon nanotubes integrated in a copper matrix, with high mechanical strength and excellent electrical properties.
UCC composite materials have many applications in electric vehicles, power grids, and data transmission systems for network servers and aerospace purposes. They can also be used to reduce the charging time of electric vehicle batteries, or to make smaller and lighter motors with higher power output.
In addition to providing improved electrical and mechanical properties, the manufacturing process used to produce UCC conductors can also be easily extended to industrial production.
Funding for this project is mainly provided by the Office of Vehicle Technology of the U.S. Department of Energy and the ORNL Technology Innovation Program. Part of the research was conducted at the Nanophase Materials Science Center, which is the Office of Science User Facilities of the U.S. Department of Energy.
ORNL's Tolga Aytug led the research with help from Kai Li, Burak Ozpineci, Michael McGuire, Fred List, Soydan Ozcan, Lydia Skolrood (now a graduate student at North Carolina State University), Ilia Ivanov, Mina Yoon, and Andrew Lupini.
The increasing integration of renewable energy sources has caused more serious, more complex and more frequent electrical oscillations in the grid. If not adequately controlled, they can cause major power outages that cost billions of dollars. Effective suppression of various oscillations is essential to maintain the safe and reliable operation of the power grid.
GridDamper is a deployment-ready technology that can provide more renewable electricity in the grid. This technology will automatically update its parameters, sensors and actuators when renewable energy and power demand fluctuate to ensure the stability and reliability of the grid.
GridDamper is currently being deployed at the Terna National Control Center in Italy.
Funding for the project was provided by the Advanced Grid Modernization Program of the U.S. Department of Energy, the Electric Power Research Institute, and the National Science Foundation.
The main researchers developing the GridDamper technology include UT-ORNL Governor Yilu Liu, UT's Lin Zhu, and EPRI's Evangelos Farantatos.
The computer numerical control machine tool control system MSC MillMax uses measurement to eliminate wavy marks on the metal when the tool spindle is not hard enough during the milling process.
Milling uses rotating tools to cut metal, and metal workers usually adjust the machine manually in an unscientific process, which can take several hours. According to the press release, the new computerized system measures tool characteristics, tool holders and machine tools, and then generates reports on the ideal depth and spindle speed within 15 minutes.
Precise work by machines can reduce time, cost and scrap metal, and metal workers can increase productivity.
Funding for the project was provided by the US Department of Energy's laboratory guided R&D, the Department of Energy's Office of Science (CRADA), the Department of Defense, MSC Industrial Supply Company, and Manufacturing Laboratories.
Kevin Scott Smith of ORNL, Jamie Goettler of MSC Industrial Supply Co. and Dave Barton of Manufacturing Laboratories led the development. Tony Schmitz and Andrew Honeycutt of ORNL contributed to the development together with Scott Stickney, Steve Baruch, Alan Yang of MSC Industrial Supply Co. and the metal processing expert team of MSC and Tom Delio of the manufacturing laboratory.
Researchers at ORNL have developed a method to separate carbon dioxide from the air, which has the potential to permanently remove billions of tons of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. In this process, scientists use an aqueous solution containing biiminoguanidine or BIG, the receptor discovered by ORNL, to absorb carbon dioxide.
After absorbing carbon dioxide, BIG becomes an insoluble crystalline salt, which can be easily removed from the liquid solution. The carbon dioxide in the salt can then be extracted under mild conditions and sent to deep underground storage, whether in aquifers or previous oil fields.
In addition, industry partner ReactWell is developing a method to convert extracted carbon dioxide into ethanol for use in hand sanitizers and spirits.
Holocene Climate Corporation is also interested in the project and is working to expand the scale of the technology and commercialize it. The ultimate goal is to store carbon dioxide for a long time to mitigate climate change.
Funding for the project was provided by the US Department of Energy's Office of Science, the Department of Energy's Office of Technology Transformation and Fossil Energy, and ReactWell LLC.
Radu Custelcean of ORNL, Brandon Iglesias of ReactWell and Anca Timofte of Holocene Climate Company are leading the development. Charles Seipp, Neil Williams, Costas Tsouris and Kashif Nawaz of ORNL contributed to the development.
ORNL researchers adjusted the meltblown capacity in DOE's carbon fiber technology facility to produce filter materials for N95 masks to combat COVID-19. The team uses polypropylene, supplemented by additives from polymer material manufacturer Techmer PM. Peter Tsai, the inventor of the N95 mask material, assisted ORNL in constructing a new type of electrostatic charging device for charging meltblown materials during production.
The resulting process can produce 9,000 mask filter media per hour with a filtration efficiency of more than 95%. DemeTECH, a medical supply company, also uses the technology jointly developed by ORNL and Cummins, a supplier of air, fuel and lubricating oil filtration products, to manufacture filter materials and masks, and expands its business in Miami to include 15 production lines capable of producing 3 million surgical procedures. Surgical masks and 500,000 N95 masks per day.
ORNL’s COVID manufacturing work is coordinated with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and is partially funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science through the National Virtual Biotechnology Laboratory, which is composed of U.S. Department of Energy’s National Laboratories and focuses on responding to COVID -19, and funding is provided by the Coronavirus Care Act.
The US Department of Energy’s carbon fiber technology facility at ORNL is supported by the Office of Advanced Manufacturing and the Office of Vehicle Technology in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
Researchers on this project include Lonnie Love, Craig Blue, Merlin Theodore, Greg Larsen, and Paranthanman of ORNL; Peter Tsai, former University of Tennessee; Alan Franc of Techmer PM; Luis Arguello Jr. of DemeTECH; and Christopher Holm of Cummins . — Alexandra DeMarco