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“We were able to isolate some material that looked a lot like mineral graphite, and that’s just led to a whole range of new applications and ideas,” said Mark Nimlos, a group research manager at NREL. “Basically, looking at every place that fossil carbon is used in industry and thinking well, we could replace that with biocarbon. The range of applications is really broad.
“It’s excellent that NREL has a tech transfer office that supports our technology development, that will help us through the patenting process,” said Kim Trenbath, the innovation lead for systems technology R&D in the laboratory’s Building Technologies and Science Center. “Because if we were not working at NREL, and we were kind of working on our own, it would be a lot more challenging for us. They made it very streamlined.
“The moment they told me that I thought, ‘Oh, wow, that’s clever. Why didn’t I think of that?’” said Livingood, group manager of commercial buildings research.
National Renewable Energy Laboratory mechanical engineering researcher Zhiwen Ma, displays his device that recently received a patent for solid particle storage. The key component in this fluidized bed heat exchanger, named ENDURING , is that is uses stored thermal energy in silica sand to heat air. The technology is gaining industry attention as an abundant and safe stand-in for natural gas as it moves toward a scaled-up demonstration.
Ma said using heated sand as an energy storage medium has advantages over batteries. While portable, batteries are most effective for short-term storage. DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy , which invests in high-risk technologies that have the potential to reduce the cost of energy, has financed the research.Senu Sirnivas took what he learned during 20 years spent in the offshore oil and gas industry in a different direction.
“Offshore systems in general cost more than land-based systems, and it does not come cheap,” Sirnivas said. “What you must do in order to convince the offshore windfarm developers is to de-risk the technology, which is ongoing, but we’re not there yet. Once the technology is de-risked, shown structurally reliable, and economically viable, we can engage with the windfarm developers.
Brilliant