Pumped-storage hydropower offers the most cost-effective storage option for shifting large volumes of energy. A PNNL-led team wrote a report comparing cost and performance factors for 10 storage technologies.
Scientists have uncovered a root cause of the growth of needle-like structures—known as dendrites and whiskers—that plague lithium batteries, sometimes causing a short circuit, failure, or even a fire.
A new Co-Optima report describes an assessment of 400 biofuel-derived samples and identifies the top ten candidates for blending with petroleum fuel to improve boosted spark ignition engine efficiency.
PNNL researchers have created a chemical cocktail that could help electric cars power their way through extreme temperatures where current lithium-ion batteries don’t operate as efficiently as needed.
Energy storage is slowly shifting utility planning practices from the current paradigm, which ensures grid reliability by building reserve generation resources, to ensuring grid reliability by optimizing grid services.
Nitrogen oxides, also known as NOx, form when fossil fuels burn at high temperatures. When emitted from industrial sources such as coal power plants, these pollutants react with other compounds to produce harmful smog.
PNNL researchers demonstrate how the excitation of oxygen atoms that contributes to better performance of a lithium-ion battery also triggers a process that leads to damage, explaining a phenomenon that has been a mystery to scientists.
Researchers at PNNL have developed a model that predicts outcomes from the algae hydrothermal liquefaction process in a way that mirrors commercial reality much more closely than previous analyses.
PNNL researchers are developing and evaluating bat tagging and tracking tools that will help design solutions to protect the bat population from wind turbines.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and PNNL partnered to complete—in record time—an environmental impact statement for the nation’s first small modular nuclear reactor, to be sited at Clinch River, Tenn.
Researchers at PNNL and their collaborators have made a significant improvement to a catalyst that is more rugged and can reduce tailpipe pollution at lower temperatures than existing methods.
Several years ago, a relatively new catalyst for vehicle emission control began showing failure. A team at PNNL found that this seemingly suicidal catalyst wasn’t actually self-destructing but was the victim of an external assailant.
Researchers used novel methods to safely create and analyze plutonium samples. The approaches could prove influential in future studies of the radioactive material, benefitting research in legacy, national security and nuclear fuels.