PNNL to work on cutting-edge energy projects

Three cutting-edge technologies to make energy cleaner or more efficient will be tackled by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory researchers after receiving recent grants from a Department of Energy program.

The DOE Advanced Research Project Agency-Energy, better known as ARPA-E, picked the projects after an open call for innovative technologies that show promise, but they are too early in development for private-sector investment.

Awards of $125 million for a total of 41 projects were announced ahead of the COP21 United Nations Climate Negotiations in Paris beginning today.

Solving a tough power grid problem

The national laboratory in Richland will lead a team that will develop a method to use high-performance supercomputers to perform many mathematical equations in parallel to help create daily plans for the nation’s electrical production.

Creating the plans has become increasingly challenging as the power grid grows in complexity, including the addition of wind and other intermittent renewable energy, new regulations and the increased use of natural gas and smart grid technologies. The goal is to have power plants lined up to generate power reliably for the next day at the lowest possible cost.

Researchers led by PNNL applied mathematician Feng Pan expect the new technology, called HIPPO for High-Performance Power-Grid Operation, will solve the problem more accurately and within a fraction of the time of current methods.

HIPPO could save consumers and power grid operators billions of dollars while also enabling greener and more sustainable grid operations, according to PNNL. The approach also could inspire other high performance computing-based algorithms for complex problems in other industries, such as scheduling air traffic.

ARPA-E awarded the project $3.1 million over three years.

Seaweed: The new biofuel

Biofuel to run cars and generators could come from large swaths of seaweed grown in the open ocean under a project to be led by Marine BioEnergy. PNNL will collaborate.

Marine BioEnergy has proposed a patented method to grow one of the fastest producers of biomass, giant kelp, in the open ocean. It plans to develop technology for kelp to attach to large grids towed by inexpensive robotic submarines that travel up and down in the ocean to provide the kelp sunlight at the sea surface and nutrients in deeper waters.

Once farmed, the kelp will be turned into biocrude oil and other liquids through a process developed by PNNL. PNNL laboratory fellow Douglas Elliott will lead research to turn kelp into hydrocarbons ready for final processing at a commercial oil refinery.

ARPA-E awarded the project about $2.1 million over three years, with about $479,000 going to PNNL.

Making hydrogen, storing energy with one device

Researchers at PNNL and Proton OnSite are developing the first prototype of a new technology they’re calling a “flow cell.”

The technology offers two modes of operation: either creating hydrogen to power fuel cells for cars or buildings or storing energy until it is needed on the power grid.

The flow cell will combine components of two established technologies — an electrolyzer, which uses electricity to split water molecules, and a redox flow battery — to take advantage of the best of both.

The result is expected to be a highly efficient process, with up to 80 percent of the energy initially used still being present in the final products of hydrogen and electricity.

PNNL materials scientist Wei Wang is the project co-leader. ARPA-E awarded the project about $2.5 million, with PNNL receiving half of that.

This story was originally published November 27, 2015 at 4:59 PM with the headline "PNNL to work on cutting-edge energy projects."