PNNL

CARBON

Where to find your renewable carbon?

Closing the carbon cycle: Keeping Carbon in Play

Monday, March 27 at 10:15 a.m. ET

PNNL Authors: Corrine Drennan (presenter)

Summary: We aspire to have all segments of the economy reach net-zero carbon intensity. Certain segments will be challenging to electrify and yet we will continue to need the carbon to help us in our everyday lives. We will discuss the sources of renewable carbon and how we can move from a linear economy to a spiral-like economy with more than one use of carbon. READ MORE.

An integrated capture and utilization approach to produce CO₂-derived chemicals in a post-combustion capture solvent

Closing the Carbon Cycle: Reactive Separations symposium

Monday, March 27 at 4:15 p.m. ET

PNNL Authors: Jothi Kothandaraman (presenter), Johnny Saavedra, Yuan Jiang, Robert Dagle, David Heldebrandt

Summary: Immediate deployment of carbon capture, utilization, and storage technologies is required to meet our climate change mitigation goals; however, significant improvements in cost and performance are needed. We will discuss the emerging integrated capture and conversion to materials approach—a key platform technology to produce value-added chemicals from CO₂ captured from industrial flue gas. READ MORE.

Kinetics of Columbia River basalt dissolution with application to geological CO₂ sequestration

Geochemistry for CO₂ Capture, Conversion, and Sequestration

Tuesday, March 28 at 4:25 p.m. ET

PNNL Authors: Emily Nienhuis-Marcial (presenter), Quin Miller, Todd Schaef

Summary: Basalt has been identified as an important host material for geological sequestration of CO₂ through mineralization. This work reports a quantitative understanding of the composition of Columbia River basalt to determine abundances of major carbonate-forming cations, critical materials, and release rates under mildly acidic conditions. READ MORE.

CATALYSIS

From understanding mixed oxide surface structures to new oxidation catalysts

FUNDAMENTALS OF BULK OXIDE CATALYSIS

Tuesday, March 28 at 8:00 a.m. ET

PNNL Author: Johannes Lercher (presenter)

Summary: Mixed oxides and supported vanadate catalysts can be characterized and understood at an atomic scale. We are combining high-resolution electron microscopy with theory to understand the importance of specific surface structures. In this lecture, we will compare two cases, the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane and the selective oxidation of xylenes. READ MORE.

Elementary steps in catalytic reactions of acetic acids on anatase TiO₂(101) single crystals and faceted nanoparticles

Bridging Surface Science to Catalysis: Oxygenates and Machine Learning

Tuesday, March 28 at 3:00 p.m. ET

PNNL Author: Zdenek Dohnalek (presenter)

Summary: Understanding the interactions of simple carboxylic acids with oxide surfaces is important for many catalytic reactions. We employed a combination of scanning tunneling microscopy, infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy, temperature-programmed desorption, and density functional calculations to obtain detailed mechanistic insight into the elementary steps of model catalytic reactions. READ MORE.

MATERIALS

Uptake of Pb and growth of PbSO₄ on barite: Understanding the molecular-scale mechanisms of lead-acid battery additives 

Materials, Mechanisms and Methods in Battery Technology: Aqueous Batteries

Tuesday, March 28 at 8:00 a.m. ET

PNNL Authors: Ben Legg (presenter), Vijay Murugesan

Summary: Barite (BaSO₄) is a common additive to lead-acid batteries, facilitating the reversible nucleation, growth, and dissolution of PbSO₄ during battery cycling. In this study, we use a combination of in-situ atomic force microscopy, in-situ X-ray reflectivity, and density functional theory computations to investigate the molecular-scale interactions of Pb-containing sulfuric acid solutions with the barite surface. READ MORE.

Crystallization pathways and interfacial drivers for the formation of hierarchical architectures 

Interfacial Reactivity of Nanoconfined Surfaces

Wednesday, March 29 at 2:40 p.m. ET

PNNL Authors: Maria Sushko (presenter), Lili Liu, Duo Song

Summary: The development of structural hierarchy on various length scales during crystallization is ubiquitous in biological systems and also observed in synthetic nanomaterials. We discuss the mechanism of the development of structural hierarchy through heterogeneous nucleation, coupled interfacial nucleation and assembly, and oriented attachment of independently nucleated particles. READ MORE.

BATTERIES/ENERGY STORAGE

In-situ electroanalytical technique to characterize reaction kinetics in aqueous redox flow batteries

Flow Cells for Long Duration Energy Storage and Electrochemical Conversion: Chemistry, Materials, and Technologies

Monday, March 27 at 12:00 p.m. ET

PNNL Authors: Chao Zeng (presenter), Soowhan Kim, Yunxiang Chen, Yucheng Fu, Jie Bao, Zhijie Jay Xu, Wei Wang

Summary: Engineering the electrochemical reactor of an aqueous redox flow battery is critical to deliver sufficiently high-power densities with reasonable cost. This study presents a novel in-situ electroanalytical technique that provides an invaluable approach to characterize the performance of electrolytes and electrodes in redox flow batteries. READ MORE.

Metastable components of solid electrolyte interphase in Li-ion batteries using cryogenic X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

Materials, Mechanisms and Methods in Battery Technology: Liquid Electrolytes, Interface, and Anode

Monday, March 27 at 2:15 p.m. ET

PNNL Authors: Dan Thien Nguyen (presenter), Venky Prabhakaran, Shuttha Shutthanandan, Karl Mueller, Vijay Murugesan

Summary: The solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) is essential to Li-ion batteries. However, establishing a complete chemical picture of it is challenging. A cryogenic X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) technique provides new insight into the realistic composition of SEI in Li-ion batteries and represents an improved XPS measurement procedure. READ MORE.

Silicon based Li ion batteries with extended calendar life

Next-Generation Conversion/Alloying Chemistries for High-Capacity Batteries

Monday, March 27 at 2:35 p.m. ET

PNNL Authors: Ji-Guang (Jason) Zhang (presenter), Ran Yi, Xia Cao, Wu Xu

Summary: The calendar life of silicon-based Li-ion batteries (Si-LIBs) is less than two years—far less than the 10-year lifetime required for electric vehicle applications. We used two approaches to improve Si-LIB performance, extend calendar life, and accelerate the application for large-scale electric vehicles and consumer electronics applications. READ MORE.

Single crystal Ni-rich cathodes for advanced Li-ion batteries

Next-Generation Conversion/Alloying Chemistries for High-Capacity Batteries

Wednesday, March 29 at 8:00 a.m. ET 

PNNL Author: Jie Xiao (presenter)

Summary: Ni-rich cathodes are a promising class for next-generation lithium-ion batteries. This talk will explore cost-effective synthesis approaches for industry manufacturing and propose validation strategies for scaled Ni-rich single crystals, ranging from deep structural studies to large-scale electrode processing of moisture-sensitive cathodes. READ MORE.

BIOENERGY

Continuous co-processing of pyrolytic lignin and yellow grease

Catalytic and Non-Catalytic Upgrading of Heavy Oil and Bio-Crude Oils: Catalytic Upgrading Processes for Bio-Crude Oils and Aviation Fuels

Sunday, March 26 at 2:00 p.m. ET

PNNL Authors: Mariefel Olarte (presenter)

Summary: Production of sustainable aviation fuel from renewable resources is imperative in a society that aims to reduce its carbon footprint. We will share our efforts to overcome the challenges of co-processing two dissimilar feedstock streams—pyrolytic lignin fraction with 10% butanol and commercially procured yellow greases—and our analyses of the hydrotreated hydrocarbon fractions. READ MORE.

Demonstration of low-level biogenic fuel content using quench curve and direct liquid scintillation counting (LSC) methods 

Differentiating and Quantifying Biogenic and Fossil Carbon in Transportation-Related Fuels

Sunday, March 26 at 3:15 p.m. ET

PNNL Authors: Charles Doll (presenter), Andrew Plymale, Matthew O'Hara, Christopher Thompson, Alan Cooper, Huamin Wang, Mariefel Olarte

Summary: The colors biofuels retain from their various biological sources can interfere with direct LSC measurements when they extinguish or “quench” light detected by LSC. Using color quench curves, chemical quench curves, and an internal carbon-14 spike, we explore three methods of LSC analyses on samples containing low-level amounts of biogenic gasoline, jet fuel, and diesel blended with fossil fuel. READ MORE.

ENVIRONMENT

Chemical composition of micro- and nanoplastic particles emitted from sewer pipe repairs 

Approaching Atmospheric Chemistry from a Single Particle Perspective

Tuesday, March 28 at 11:20 a.m. ET

PNNL Authors: Alla Zelenyuk-Imre, Patrick El-Khoury, Brian O'Callahan

Summary: Cured-in-place pipe installation of plastic pipes is a common method to repair sewers and water supply pipes, resulting in an uncontrolled discharge of organic waste into the environment.  This talk will focus on the detailed chemical composition of the micro- and nanoplastic particles from the discharged waste. READ MORE.

Vertical distribution of physicochemical properties of atmospheric particles

Approaching Atmospheric Chemistry from a Single Particle Perspective

Wednesday, March 29 at 10:10 a.m. ET 

PNNL Author: Swarup China (presenter)

Summary: Atmospheric aerosol affects the climate both directly by scattering and absorbing sunlight, and indirectly by participating in warm and cold cloud formation. In this study, we performed a detailed physicochemical characterization of aerosol particles sampled during atmospheric radiation measurement deployment of a tethered balloon system during different field campaigns. READ MORE.

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