News

As both global energy demands and the effects of climate change

climate change

A change in the average conditions — such as temperature and rainfall — in a region over a long period of time.

Source: NASA Climate Kids Source

increase, finding fossil fuel free energy sources remains an urgent challenge. Clean H2, produced by water electrolysis

water electrolysis

Defined as a chemical process in which water molecules (H2O) are divided into hydrogen gas (H2) and oxygen gas (O2) via an electric current.

Source: Source

from renewable resources, is an attractive alternative to store energy but is challenging to transport as a pure liquid or gas. Finding pathways to bind and store hydrogen reversibly in a solid or liquid carrier is a significant area of research.

The circular economy just closed the loop on scrap aluminum, thanks to a new patent-pending technology developed at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. That twisted aluminum mesh, those banged up bicycle frames, and the used car parts now languishing in junk yards could gain new life as building structures such as door and window frames, facades, lighting, decorative features and a myriad of other uses—all while conserving nearly all the energy required to manufacture new aluminum products.

Much as the gut microbiome is increasingly linked in human health, so the soil microbiome is key to the fate of plants. At Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Ilenne Del Valle is combining her expertise in soil science and synthetic biology to devise technologies like biosensors

biosensors

A device that measures biological or chemical reactions by generating signals proportional to the concentration of an analyte in the reaction.

Source: NIH Source

and artificial soils that can yield important clues from the soil environment to encourage climate-resilient ecosystems.

ecosystem

A natural community of plants, animals, and other living organisms and the physical environment in which they live and interact.

Source: A student's guide to Global Climate Change Source

She and her colleagues in the lab’s Biosciences Division have an end goal of engineering natural ecosystems for resilience.

Atop the Caribbean Sea’s famously pristine waters floats a 5,000-mile-wide heap of rust-colored, brambly seaweed. When that seaweed, a form of sargassum,

sargassum

A genus of large brown seaweed (a type of algae) that floats in island-like masses and never attaches to the seafloor.

Source: NOAA Source

clumps up on beaches and decomposes, it emits hydrogen sulfide gas (also known as swamp gas), which smells like rotten eggs and, in high doses, can be toxic. For obvious reasons, this seaweed swarm is a huge problem for the Caribbean’s tourism industry and residents—and potentially for Florida, where the heap is headed next.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Bioenergy

bioenergy

A renewable energy derived from biological sources, to be used for heat, electricity, or vehicle fuel.

Source: USDA Source

Technologies Office (BETO) announced 15 student teams advancing as finalists in the AlgaePrize 2023–2025 competition. This year’s finalist teams include students from high schools, community colleges, and universities from 12 states across the United States and Puerto Rico. Each finalist team receives $10,000 to conduct their proposed research over the next approximately 15 months.

A Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientist is part of a research team shedding new light on how to access the sugars locked up in plant materials in order to convert byproducts into new feedstocks for production of fuels, materials and chemicals. Converting grasses, weeds, wood and other plant residues into sustainable products normally produced using petroleum products could be one of the keys to achieving carbon neutrality.

Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are using a new modeling framework in conjunction with data collected from marshes in the Mississippi Delta

delta

Where rivers discharge a large quantity of sediment directly into the ocean. These deposits commonly assume a triangular shapes and are termed deltas because they resemble the Greek capital letter delta (Δ).

Source: NPS Source

to improve predictions of climate-warming methane

methane

A hydrocarbon that is a primary component of natural gas. Methane is also a greenhouse gas (GHG), so its presence in the atmosphere affects the earth’s temperature and climate system

Source: EPA Source

and nitrous oxide emissions from soils in coastal ecosystems.

coastal ecosystem

Coastal habitats include estuaries, wetlands and marshes, coral reefs, kelp forests, tidepools, and barrier islands.

Source: USGS Source

Underlying processes such as sulfur cycling and influences like salinity

salinity

Salinity is the dissolved salt content of a body of water. It is a strong contributor to conductivity and helps determine many aspects of the chemistry of natural waters and the biological processes within them.

Source: EPA Source

in these waterlogged wetland

wetland

An area of land that is periodically saturated with water, which influences the types of plants and animals that can live there. Wetlands include swamps, marshes, bogs, and other similar areas.

Source: A student's guide to Global Climate Change Source

soils drive how quickly organic matter is broken down and how much is converted into methane, a gas 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide

carbon dioxide (CO2)

An important heat-trapping gas, also known as a greenhouse gas, that comes from the extraction and burning of fossil fuels (such as coal, oil, and natural gas), from wildfires, and natural processes like volcanic eruptions.

Source: NASA Source

at warming the atmosphere.

As sea levels rise due to global warming, ecosystems are being altered. One small silver lining, scientists believed, was that the tidal wetlands found in estuaries

estuaries

A partially enclosed, coastal water body where freshwater from rivers and streams mixes with salt water from the ocean.

Source: EPA Source

might produce less methane – a potent greenhouse gas – as the increasing influx of seawater makes these habitats less hospitable to methane-producing microbes.

microbe

Microbes are tiny living things that are found all around us and are too small to be seen by the naked eye. They live in water, soil, and in the air.

Source: NIH Source

However, research from biologists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and UC Berkeley indicates that these assumptions aren’t always true.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar District Cup Collegiate Design Competition announced today that 60 teams from 53 schools are advancing as finalists in the Class of 2023–2024, including 17 teams from 17 schools that joined the competition for the one-semester division since December. Competitors are designing distributed energy solar systems for a real-world district or campus, giving them practice with industry tools and procedures that can make a significant impact as they prepare for careers in the renewable energy

renewable energy

Renewable energy comes from unlimited, naturally replenished resources, such as the sun, tides, and wind. Renewable energy can be used for electricity generation, space and water heating and cooling, and transportation.

Source: U.S Department of Energy Source

industry.

Gasoline became unleaded in the 1970s. The sulfur content of diesel has been lowered over decades. Ethanol

ethanol

A renewable fuel made from corn and other plant materials.

Source: US Department of Energy Source

has been blended into gasoline for years. The historical timeline of liquid transportation fuels is colored by change after change to fuel chemistry. However, that cannot be said of petroleum jet fuel. Its properties have changed little since it first became widely used beginning in the 1950s, buoyed by a long record of safety, performance, and ease-of-use.

A new analysis from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) found that, coupled with building envelope improvements, installing geothermal

geothermal

Heat energy from the earth—Geo (earth) + thermal (heat).

Source: US Department of Energy Source

heat pumps in around 70% of U.S. buildings could save as much as 593 terawatt-hours of electricity generation annually and avoid seven gigatons of carbon-equivalent emissions by 2050.

American nuclear power plants generate more than 20% of the electricity, and half of the carbon-free electricity, in the United States. The nation’s pressing demand for even more electricity — specifically carbon-free electricity that does not contribute to climate change — is spurring interest in advanced nuclear technologies.