Global energy production, storage and transport are both essential and environmentally impactful. New energy sources, managing and capturing the biproducts of energy expenditure, and repurposing of carbon dioxide are issues of national and global importance. Researchers at LLNL continue to broadly invent novel technologies that intersect at materials, mechanical, electrical, biological and chemical interfaces. Inventions in this portfolio range from bioreactors, to materials, to batteries, motors and new systems.
Portfolio News and Multimedia
LLNL researchers have partnered with Los Angeles-based SoCalGas and Munich, Germany-based Electrochaea to develop an electrobioreactor to allow excess renewable electricity from wind and solar sources to be stored in chemical bonds as renewable natural gas. Check out Electrochaea's press release: Electrochaea signs CRADA.
The work is funded with $1 million from the Technology Commercialization Fund of the DOE Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office, a division of the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. Partners will provide $1 million in in-kind contributions or research funds.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Verne, a San Francisco-based startup, have demonstrated a cryo-compressed hydrogen storage system of suitable scale for heavy-duty vehicles. This is the first time cryo-compressed hydrogen storage has been demonstrated at a scale large enough to be useful for semi trucks, a milestone in high-density hydrogen storage.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded a four-year, $16 million project to a multi-institutional team led by LLNL to accelerate inertial fusion energy (IFE) science and technology. The Science and Technology Accelerated Research for Fusion Innovation and Reactor Engineering (STARFIRE) Hub consists of members from seven universities, four U.S. national labs, one international lab, three commercial entities, one philanthropic organization and three private IFE companies.
In addition to researchers from LLNL, other participants include General Atomics; UC San Diego; UC Berkeley; UCLA; University of Rochester; MIT; University of Oklahoma; Texas A&M University; Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology; TRUMPF Inc.; Leonardo Electronics US Inc.; the Livermore Lab Foundation; SLAC; ORNL; SRNL; Xcimer Energy; Focused Energy Inc.; and Longview Fusion Energy Systems.
LLNL researchers have developed a method to enhance the performance of polyelectrolyte membranes by using a humidity-controlled crosslinking process which can be applied to precisely adjust the water channels of the membrane.
CMI—a DOE Energy Innovation Hub—is a public/private partnership led by the Ames Laboratory that brings together the best and brightest research minds from universities, national laboratories (including LLNL), and the private sector to find innovative technology solutions to make better use of materials critical to the success of clean energy technologies as well as develop resilient and secure…
LLNL researchers have developed a new 3D printable lithium-air battery that uses a novel thin solid state ceramic electrolyte. LLNL’s invention overcomes the combined challenges of low power density and low cycle life in previously designed lithium-air batteries by using solid state electrolytes to achieve stability and multiscale structuring of the electrolyte to achieve low interfacial…
Nanomaterials that are emerging out of cutting edge nanotechnology research are a key component for an energy revolution. Carbon-based nanomaterials are ushering in the "new carbon age" with carbon nanotubes, nanoporous carbons, and graphene nanosheets that will prove necessary to provide sustainable energy applications that lessen our dependence on fossil fuels.
Carbon aerogels (CAs)…