What’s new at PNNL? Fake fish, seaweed farming and smart lights

Paciific Northwest National Laboratory is getting some help to move several of its inventions out of the laboratory and into real world use.

In other news, the lab has announced the conversion of a warehouse into a test facility for “smart” new lighting systems. And it is helping make seaweed fuel for cars a reality.

Here’s some of what’s new at the Department of Energy’s national laboratory based in Richland:

Let there be light

At a Portland warehouse being managed by PNNL for DOE, outdoor streetlights equipped with sensors and controls are mounted on the walls.

Indoor lighting systems are installed on a drop-down ceiling that researchers can raise and lower with a flip of a switch to swap out lighting components and change circuits.

The lighting systems being studied at the new research test bed do more than turn on a bulb at the flip of a switch.

New LED systems, which can include sensors and microcomputers, may report their own energy usage or glow brighter when people walk by.

The systems, called “connected lighting,” may have additional capabilities, such as inventory control for warehouses or remembering a worker’s preferred office temperature.

“Connected lighting has huge potential to improve lighting quality, save energy and provide new services,” said Michal Poplawski, a PNNL engineer who manages the test bed.

“But the convergence of LEDs and networking capabilities makes for a complex technology landscape. That’s where we can help,” he said.

Because commercial buildings use nearly 20 percent of the energy consumed in the United States, PNNL researchers at the test bed want to ensure the new technology meets the needs of commercial users such as hotel chains and big box stores.

Accurately assessing the energy use of connected lighting systems is a primary research goal.

PNNL also is looking at the practical matter of how well individual components work with other components, since connected lighting systems often are assembled with pieces from multiple manufacturers.

Fill ’er up with seaweed

When it comes to making fuel, the world’s oceans may be an untapped resource.

The Department of Energy estimates the United States could produce enough seaweed to convert into biofuel to supply about 10 percent of the nation’s transportation fuel needs.

Two grants from DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy will help PNNL develop new ways to grow the seaweed.

A PNNL team will use $500,000 to help develop a seaweed farm that would float untethered in the ocean. Seaweed would be grown along a 3-mile carbon-fiber rope kept afloat by buoys.

The system, called Nautical Offshore Autonomous Device, or NOMAD, would be equipped with sensors that track the location of the farm, determine the amount of underwater light and calculate the growth of seaweed.

A second grant of $2 million will be used by PNNL researchers to help determine the best places to grow seaweed in the ocean.

Researchers will develop an advanced computer model that can evaluate seafood growth potential, nutrient availability and how wind, currents, tides and storms might affect man-made seaweed farms.

Out of the lab, into the marketplace

Researchers at PNNL are improving a synthetic “fish” that can travel past dams, just as real fish do, to measure the physical stresses fish endure at the dams.

The improved sensor fish and five other technologies at the lab are getting a boost to help move them from the lab to commercial use with a $1.5 million Department of Energy Technology Commercialization Fund grant.

PNNL and industry partners are working on developing an efficient manufacturing process to allow mass production of the 3.5-inch long, tube-shaped sensors.

The sensors float just below the water’s surface like a real fish and are powered by rechargeable batteries long enough for a five-minute trip past a dam.

PNNL researchers also are creating a mini sensor fish that can be used for smaller hydropower projects, such as those in irrigation ditches.

The improved sensor fish and other projects show promise, but need help to develop them enough to move into the marketplace, according to PNNL.

The five other projects that will be helped by the DOE grant include:

▪  Long-term sensors are being created that can be sprayed onto surfaces like paint to inspect nuclear reactors and nuclear storage containers.

▪  The long-term operation of batteries used for large-scale energy storage is being improved with a system that monitors battery health. The batteries store power from intermittent sources, such as wind, until it is needed.

▪  Software that analyzes underwater video is being improved to automatically detect fish near tidal turbines.

▪  Computerized data analysis is being sped up to enable electric utilities to quickly tie into energy resources like rooftop solar.

▪  Fuel cells are being improved by better sealing their ceramic and metallic parts together.

The grant is being supplemented with money from industry partners and PNNL’s licensing income.

This story was originally published September 24, 2017 at 2:47 PM with the headline "What’s new at PNNL? Fake fish, seaweed farming and smart lights."