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| New Fuel Cell Membranes |
About SRNL - Directorates
Secure Energy Manufacturing
Bond Calloway
Associate Laboratory Director
Renewable Energy Programs
Hydrogen
SRNL’s Center for Hydrogen Research provides a state of the art facility for the development of innovative hydrogen technology and research. Today, SRNL’s 80-plus hydrogen researchers (the largest assembly of hydrogen talent in the country) are involved in work related to the most important challenges that must be addressed to make the hydrogen economy a reality: safe, clean production of hydrogen without the use of fossil fuels; light-weight, cost-effective storage of hydrogen; hydrogen separation.
SRNL leads the US Department of Energy’s Hydrogen Storage Engineering Center of Excellence, a virtual center with partners that include universities, industrial corporations, and federal laboratories. The Center addresses the significant engineering challenges associated with developing lower-pressure, materials-based, hydrogen storage systems for hydrogen fuel cell light-duty vehicles.
Natural Gas
SRNL is partnering with Ford Motor Company, the University of California-Berkeley and BASF. The project was funded by a $5.5 million grant by the U.S. Department of Energy.
Researchers say they are looking at ways to develop high performance fuel systems that use next-generation metal-organic frameworks that can absorb natural gas at high densities.
This research at SRNL is one of 13 research projects splitting $30 million to find ways to harness America's abundant natural gas supplies for cars and trucks, and expand the use of natural gas as a vehicle fuel.
Fusion Energy
SRNL is a partner laboratory for the international thermonuclear experimental reactor (ITER) project; this will be the world's largest experimental fusion facility and is designed to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion power for energy purposes. Fusion research is aimed at developing a prototype fusion power plant that is safe and reliable, environmentally responsible and economically viable, with abundant and widespread fuel resources.
SRNL leads the Tokamak Exhaust system design, construction and testing. SRNL has also provided additional programmatic support for hydrogen processing and accountability.
Offshore Wind/Wind Drive Train Testing
SRNL has partnered with the Clemson University Restoration Institute (CURI) to build and operate a facility capable of full-scale, highly accelerated testing of next-generation wind turbine technology. The U.S. DOE Energy Efficiency Renewable Energy (EERE) objective for this project is to accelerate the development and deployment of next-generation wind turbine technology to reduce the cost of delivered energy. This facility is forging public-private partnerships in a unique industrial coastal environment and support the nation’s emerging offshore wind industry and educate the workforce of the future.
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| An SRNL-led team will investigate corrosion in heat transfer systems at temperatures needed to drive high efficiency power cycles. |
Concentrated Solar Power
As the demand for renewable energy sources rise, scientists at the SRNL have explored ways to improve solar energy technology, specifically a method known as concentrating solar power (CSP). For CSP systems to be effective they not only need to collect and covert energy from the sun during the day but they must also store some of the collected day-time energy for use at night to make steam for additional electricity generation. Finding a thermal energy storage system with high volumetric heat capacity as well as favorable physical properties has the potential to substantially improve the efficiency of CSP systems.
Grid Simulation
SRNL and Clemson University joins forces in the design and construction of an electrical grid simulator for testing multi-megawatt power systems. The 15MW grid simulator will be the highest power experimental utility-scale facility in the world. This system will be capable of testing, certifying, and simulating the full-scale effects of new large-scale effects of new large scale power system technology under stressed or hypothetical operating conditions. In order to accomplish this project, Clemson University, SRNL, and DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy are leveraging the large electrical infrastructure at the Clemson University Restoration Institute (CURI) Wind Drivetrain Test Facility at the former US Navy Base in North Charleston, South Carolina.
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