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As part of the Bioenergy Study Tour hosted by the Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Technologies Office and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, participants will visit switchgrass fields and facilities in East Tennessee.

Researchers and others interested in establishing a sustainable bioeconomy in the U.S. are taking part in a five-day study tour led by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Approximately 70 attendees from DOE and its national laboratories, the ...

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Clothes dryers that use thermoelectric heat pump technology being developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory and industry partner Sheetak could use 40 percent less energy, potentially saving consumers $3 billion in utility costs. “Each month, electric clothes dryers typically consume more energy than any other household appliance,” said Kyle Gluesenkamp, who leads the development team for ORNL’s Building Equipment Research Group.

A barrier, or weir, near 5th Creek Road on the Oak Ridge Reservation used to measure discharge on White Oak Creek acted as a barrier (unintentional) to fish passage. Due to age and failure the structure was removed in the fall of 2015.
Fish communities recovering from environmental disturbances could potentially face obstacles presented by road culverts and equipment used to monitor water quality, according to an Oak Ridge National Laboratory study conducted over two decades. Researchers Ryan McManamay and Robert J...
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Lipid molecules have split personalities—one part loves water, whereas the other avoids it at all costs. Lipids make up cell membranes, the frontline defense in preventing cellular access to bacterial and viral invaders. Many researchers believe that the membrane is not just a scaf...
wireless power transfer

A 20-kilowatt wireless charging system demonstrated at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has achieved 90 percent efficiency at three times the rate of the plug-in systems commonly used for electric vehicles today. This ability can help acc...

Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers at the Carbon Fiber Technology Facility have demonstrated a production method that dramatically reduces the cost and energy required to produce carbon fiber.

Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have demonstrated a production method they estimate will reduce the cost of carbon fiber as much as 50 percent and the energy used in its production by more than 60 percent. After extensive ...

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Experts at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory will help nine small companies move their innovative manufacturing, buildings, fuel cell, geothermal and vehicle technologies closer to the marketplace. The businesses are among 33 selected t...

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Three U.S. Department of Energy-funded research centers – the BioEnergy Science Center (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (University of Wisconsin–Madison and Michigan State University), and the Joint BioEnergy Institute (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) – are making progress on a shared mission to develop technologies that will bring advanced biofuels to the marketplace, reporting today the disclosure of their 500th invention.

In pure water, lignin adopts a globular conformation (left) that aggregates on cellulose and blocks enzymes. In a THF-water cosolvent, lignin adopts coil conformations that are easier to remove during pretreatment. (ORNL image)
Breaking down cellulosic biomass for biofuel is a costly and complex process, requiring lots of acid, water, and heat. Experimental pretreatments, however, hold the promise of driving down these costs by making more biomass available to enzymes for fermentation. To gain a better...
A new app developed at ORNL makes fuel economy and other information more readily accessible to car buyers.

Fuel economy data, sticker price, emissions information, safety ratings and much more is available at your fingertips with the latest Find-a-Car tool, an app designed specifically for easy searches on mobile devices. FuelEconomy.gov, maintained by the Department of Energy with d...