Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

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2022

Longer Lasting Sodium-Ion Batteries on the Horizon

Cheap and abundant, sodium is a prime promising candidate for new battery technology. But limited performance of sodium-ion batteries has hindered their large-scale applications. Now, a research team has developed a sodium-ion battery with greatly extended longevity in laboratory tests. An ingenious shift in the ingredients that make up the liquid core of the battery prevents the performance issues that have bedeviled sodium-based batteries.

Molten-Salt Battery: Towards Seasonal Storage of Grid-Scale Energy

Scientists have created a battery designed for the electric grid that locks in energy for months without losing much storage capacity. The development of the "freeze-thaw battery," which freezes its energy for use later, is a step toward batteries that can be used for seasonal storage: saving energy in one season, such as the spring, and spending it in another, like autumn.

Polaris Program Aims to Advance Human Spaceflight

The Polaris Program is a first-of-its-kind effort to rapidly advance human spaceflight capabilities, while continuing to raise funds and awareness for important causes here on Earth. The program will consist of up to three human spaceflight missions that will demonstrate new technologies, conduct extensive research, and ultimately culminate in the first flight of SpaceX's Starship with humans on board.

Partnership to Build an Integrated Sustainable Fuels Plant

This partnership will utilize carbon capture and sequestration, renewable energy, and other innovative practices to bring lower-cost, low carbon-intensity sustainable aviation fuel, renewable diesel, and other sustainable hydrocarbons to the global market and help accelerate the decarbonization of various industries, including the tough to decarbonize aviation sector.

2021

Silicon Anodes Muscle in on Battery Technology

Silicon is a staple of the digital revolution, shunting loads of signals on a device that's likely just inches from your eyes at this very moment. Now, that same plentiful, cheap material is becoming a serious candidate for a big role in the burgeoning battery business. It's especially attractive because it's able to hold 10 times as much energy in an important part of a battery, the anode, than widely used graphite.

NREL's Thermoplastic Blade Research Dives Deep

National Renewable Energy Laboratory researchers have been exploring the use of thermoplastic composite materials for wind turbines for several years, but they have only just begun to scrape the surface of how these materials perform underwater. For the first time in history, thermoplastic composite blades, which have the potential to revolutionize the marine energy industry, are being tested on a large-scale tidal power turbine.

'Founding Father' of Lithium Ion Batteries Helps Solve 40 Year Problem

In the late 1970s, M. Stanley Whittingham was the first to describe the concept of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, an achievement for which he would share the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Yet even he couldn't have anticipated the complex materials science challenges that would arise as these batteries came to power the world's portable electronics.

Longer-Lived Lithium-Metal Battery Marks Step Forward for EVs

Researchers have increased the lifetime of a promising electric vehicle battery to a record level, an important step toward the goal of lighter, less expensive and long-lasting batteries for future electric vehicles.

2020

New Machine Learning Tool Tracks Urban Traffic Congestion

A new machine learning algorithm is poised to help urban transportation analysts relieve bottlenecks and chokepoints that routinely snarl city traffic.

Hybrid Inverter Integrates Distributed EnergySources

Researchers have developed an intelligent power electronic inverter platform that can connect locally sited energy resources such as solar panels, energy storage and electric vehicles and smoothly interact with the utility power grid.

A Viable Sodium Battery

Researchers have created a sodium-ion battery that holds as much energy and works as well as some commercial lithium-ion battery chemistries, making for a potentially viable battery technology out of abundant and cheap materials.

Finalists Announced for 2019 R&D 100 Awards

Finalists for the venerable R&D 100 Awards have been announced by R&D World magazine and its new parent company, WTWH Media, LLC.

2019

Scientists Pinpoint Cause of Dendrites, Whiskers in Lithium Batteries

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.

MGX enters next phase of high energy lithium-ion battery development

MGX and UBC are working together to develop next-generation Li-ion batteries capable of quadrupling energy density from current 100 Wh/kg up to 400 Wh/kg for use in long-range electric vehicles and grid storage.

Nanoscale drug delivery method developed

Researchers have developed a novel way to deliver drugs and therapies into cells at the nanoscale without causing toxic effects that have stymied other such efforts. The work could someday lead to more effective therapies and diagnostics for cancer and other illnesses.

2018

Research hints at double the driving range for electric vehicles

When it comes to the special sauce of batteries, researchers have discovered it's all about the salt concentration. By getting the right amount of salt, right where they want it, they've demonstrated a small lithium-metal battery can re-charge about seven times more than batteries with conventional electrolytes.

New water-splitting method could open path to hydrogen economy

Researchers have found a way to more efficiently generate hydrogen from water — an important key to making clean energy more viable.

Sodium battery could provide cheap, effective lithium alternative

Sodium-ion batteries might soon provide a less expensive, viable alternative to lithium-ion batteries. The new technology also would help solve material sustainability issues by alleviating the mining of lithium - a diminishing resource.

2017

ShAPEing the future of magnesium car parts

Magnesium — the lightest of all structural metals — has a lot going for it in the quest to make ever lighter cars and trucks that go farther on a tank of fuel or battery charge.

Coming together, falling apart, and starting over, battery style

Whether inside your laptop computer or storing energy outside wind farms, we need high-capacity, long-lasting, and safe batteries.