Polyphase wireless power transfer system achieves 270-kilowatt charge, s...
Rare earth elements are metals used in technologies from wind turbines and magnetic resonance imaging agents to industrial catalysts and high-definition televisions. Most are lanthanides, elements with atomic number from 57 to 71, lanthanum to lutetium, in the periodic table. The la...
Your car’s bumper is probably made of a moldable thermoplastic polymer called ABS, shorthand for its acrylonitrile, butadiene and styrene components. Light, strong and tough, it is also the stuff of ventilation pipes, protective headgear, kitchen appliances, Lego bri...
When lots of energy hits an atom, it can knock off electrons, making the atom extremely chemically reactive and initiating further destruction. That’s why radiation is so dangerous. It’s also why high-resolution imaging techniques that use energetic electron beams ...
Two-dimensional electronic devices could inch closer to their ultimate promise of low power, high efficiency and mechanical flexibility with a processing technique developed at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Nearly 100 commercial nuclear reactors supply one-fifth of America’s energy. For each fuel rod in a reactor assembly, only 5 percent of its energy is consumed before fission can no longer be sustained efficiently for power production and the fuel assembly must be replaced. Power plan...
The global marketplace demands constant improvements in performance and efficiency of aircraft engines, power turbines and other modern mainstays of energy technology. This progress requires advanced structural materials, such as ceramic composites and metal alloys with higher-t...
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...
The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory will support four new industry projects announced today as part of DOE’s High Performance Computing for Manufacturing (HPC4Mfg) Program. The program pairs selected companies with national labs, including ORNL...
Ask a biofuel researcher to name the single greatest technical barrier to cost-effective ethanol, and you’re likely to receive a one-word response: lignin.
Cellulosic ethanol—fuel derived from woody plants and waste biomass—has the potential to become an affordable, renew...
When the Ford Motor Company’s first automobile, the Model T, debuted in 1908, it ran on a corn-derived biofuel called ethanol, a substance Henry Ford dubbed “the fuel of the future.”