Chemistry of
Energy/Advanced
Materials for New
Opportunities
Dallas, TX
Spring 2014
Michelle Buchanan
Nitash P Balsara
Catalysis
for fuel refinement, synthesis and utilization
Currently, catalysis touches many
aspects of our economy and will
continue to play an important role in
the development of our future
energy portfolio.
Need new materials and
chemistries for these energy
reaction schemes
Some challenges:
• Cost
• Scalability
• Selectivity
• Energy efficiency
Theme Committee Contact: Daniel Lutterman (luttermanda@ornl.gov)
Harnessing Solar Energy
Sunlight
Fluid
Sunlight
p-type
n-type
Electricity
Heat
Fuel
Technological
advances required in:
H2O
CO2
Sunlight
H2O
• Cost
• Scalability
• Delivery upon
demand
CO2
Sunlight
Challenges:
Biofuel
• Photovoltaics
• Bioconversion
• Catalysis
• Overall system
and process design
Theme Committee Contacts: Tanja Cuk and Danielle Tullman-Ercek
Materials and Chemistry at Extremes
• Effects of chemical extremes on materials performance and
lifetimes limit efficiency and environmental benefits of
advanced energy schemes (turbines, geothermal, fuel cells,
batteries, advanced steam, heat exchangers and transfer
systems, etc.)
• Extreme chemical reactivity provides possible new
pathways for materials synthesis and discovery
• Reactivity extremes challenge our scientific understanding
of materials behavior
o How do reaction pathways/mechanisms change when
materials are subjected to extremes, including being far
from equilibrium?
o How do bulk and interfacial structures evolve under extreme
reactant conditions?
o What new phenomena emerge under extremes in reactants?
• State-of-the-art theory, modeling, spectroscopies,
microscopy, and scattering techniques needed to further
our mechanistic understanding of materials and interfacial
behavior in extreme environments
Theme Committee Contact: Peter F. Tortorelli (tortorellipf@ornl.gov)
Materials in Nuclear Systems
• Nuclear power currently provides a
significant fraction of the United States’ noncarbon emitting power generation.
• Modern materials science plays a pivotal role
in both the extension of the life of the
existing fleet and in the deployment of new
modern light water reactors, advanced
reactors with non-water coolants, small
modular reactors, and fusion energy.
• Materials degradation in a nuclear power
plant is extremely complex due to the various
materials and environmental conditions
• Research involving mechanistic
understanding of degradation, use of
modeling and simulation tools, modern
microscopy, and innovative ideas will be
required to solve these issues and advance
nuclear materials science.
Theme Committee Contact: Jeremy Busby (busbyjt@ornl.gov)
Electrical Energy Storage
• New materials, chemistries,
architectures, and separators for
improving energy and power
densities, charging rate, lifetime
and safety of batteries and
capacitors for transportation and
stationary storage.
• New computational tools for
developing new materials and
chemistries and for predicting
device performance and
lifetimes.
• Development of analytical tools
for studying underpinnings of
redox reactions and charge
transport under both
thermodynamic and kinetic
conditions.
Dreamliner 787 Li battery
Nissan Leaf battery
Theme Committee Contact: Jordi Cabana (jcabana@lbl.gov)
New Materials and Systems for
the Grid
1.5 MW wind turbine
•
Generation
– Wind (Improved performance and reliabiltiy of
components)
– Solar (Next generation photovoltaics (low cost, efficient,
reliable))
•
Storage
– Flow batteries (low-cost membranes, flow fields, high
voltage electrolytes and couples, air electrodes)
– Container batteries, capacitors (Low-cycling strain materials
capable of 10,000 cycles to 80 % DOD)
•
7-hour, 250 kWh
Na/S battery
Transmission and Distribution - High Temperature
Superconductors (HTS)
– Low-cost 2nd generation wire of long lengths
– Low-cost, superconducting fault current limiters (sFCL)
•
A spool of HTS tape
Power Electronics - Wide Bandgap Semiconductors
(WBG)
– Low cost processing of GaN, SiC, and Diamond
– New materials that can operate at > 20 kV and 50 A
GaN on Si wafer
Theme Committee Contact: Vince Battaglia (vsbattaglia@lbl.gov)
Materials for Energy Efficiency
Materials and chemical processes designed to reduce energy
consumption are an important aspect of realizing a sustainable
energy future.
– Building materials, including “smart” materials that
change with environmental conditions
– Recovery of waste heat via conversion to electricity or
storage for later use
– Improved solid state lighting and electronic displays
– Efficient production of chemicals and materials used in
agriculture, pharmaceuticals, bulk chemicals, consumer
products and other applications.
– Low energy separation process for use in water
purification, carbon capture, or other industrial processes.
– Computational and analytical tools, including sensors
Theme Committee Contact: Phill Britt brittpf@ornl.gov
Enhanced Oil Recovery and
Unconventional Oil and Gas
• New methods to improve oil
extraction efficiency from existing
deposits such as chemical flooding,
or combining enhanced oil recovery
with CO2 capture and storage.
• New techniques to economically
extract oil and gas from
unconventional deposits and reduce
the environmental impact of
production.
Oil and gas deposits.
Figure 1: Conventional and Unconventional Oil and Gas Reservoirs
Unconventional reservoirs are located throughout the continental United
States on both private lands and federal lands that are administered by
BLM, Forest Service, Park Service, and FWS (see fig. 2). 8
• Finding tracers to gauge the
effects/impact of production and
developing new sensors to detect
subsurface conditions.
Theme Committee Contact:
Andrew G. Stack (stackag@ornl.gov)
Large volumes of oil are not recovered.
8
CO2 Capture, Utilization, and Storage
• New materials and chemistries
for carbon capture from flue
gases or from air
• New experimental and
computational tools for
understanding meso-scale
feedbacks between CO2-brine
geochemistry and multiphase
flow
• Characterization of CO2-brinerock interactions at high T, P,
salinity for improving the
efficiency of CO2 sequestration
and CO2 utilization (enhanced
hydrocarbon recovery,
hydrothermal energy)
BSE-SEM image of minerals and pores in
sandstone from a CO2 sequestration
pilot site (6 × 2.4 mm region)
Zeolite structure for CO2 capture
Theme Committee Contact: Ian Bourg (icbourg@lbl.gov)
Division Matrix of Possible Interests