In Colorado, researchers developing renewable plastics and exploring new processes for plastics upcycling and recycling technologies will now be able to easily baseline their efforts to current manufacturing practices to understand if their efforts will save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Benchmark data calculated and compiled at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) provide […]
In Washington, D.C., a programmable algae cultivator—designed and patented by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory with funding support by the U.S. Department of Energy Bioenergy Technologies Office—is speeding up research to improve algae growth and productivity in outdoor algae farms. The indoor cultivator lets researchers mimic the growth conditions in the warm, dry climate of […]
In Colorado, two awards totaling nearly $10 million from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science Biological and Environmental Research (BER) program will support two research projects at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and partner laboratories that aim to analyze and reduce biosecurity risks of promising bioengineered organisms. Working under BER’s Secure Biosystems […]
In Washington, D.C., the National Renewable Energy Laboratory launched the Waste-to-Energy System Simulation (WESyS) Model, a first-of-its-kind tool designed to gain insight into the waste-to-energy industry and help identify where bottlenecks are occurring in technology advancements and where to invest in research. The tool can also help examine how the waste-to-energy industry fits into the […]
In Colorado, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) researchers, with funding support from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO), developed a method to isolate organic compounds, specifically the monomers which are precursors to everyday materials like plastics, out of biorefinery aqueous waste. The NREL team addressed the thermochemical conversion strategy of catalytic fast […]
In Colorado, popular wisdom holds that tall, fast-growing trees are best for biomass, but new research by two U.S. Department of Energy National Laboratories reveals the size of trees is only part of the equation. Of equal economic importance, according to scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Oak […]
In Colorado, through a novel chemistry using nontoxic resources like linseed oil, waste grease, or even algae, scientists at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory developed a groundbreaking method for producing renewable polyurethane without toxic precursors. It is a breakthrough with the potential to green the market for products ranging from footwear, to automobiles, to mattresses, […]
In Colorado, through a research partnership with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), ExxonMobil that once urged motorists to “Put a tiger in your tank,” may one day suggest they fuel up with some algae. A year into their unique collaboration, NREL and ExxonMobil are navigating a multi-pronged effort toward a future where clean-burning biofuels […]
In Colorado, a new single-phase catalyst that enables the conversion of renewable and waste carbon into sustainable diesel fuels has been developed through a unique collaboration between the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and two U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) consortia, Chemical Catalysis for Bioenergy (ChemCatBio) and the Co-Optimization of Fuels & Engines (Co-Optima) initiative. […]
In Colorado, an analysis from NREL researchers suggests hydrogen has the greatest potential among technologies for seasonal energy storage in the future. They developed a multi-model approach that considers both the estimated cost and value of storage technologies in determining cost-competitiveness. They analyzed 80 scenarios involving hydrogen, pumped hydro, and compressed air in making their […]
