NETL Wins National Technology Transfer Award

	NETL researchers Terry Jordan, left, and Dr. Stephen Zitney with the VE-PSI.
	This is an illustration of using VE-PSI to display 3-D simulation results for a heat recovery steam generator in a virtual power plant software environment.

The Federal Laboratory Consortium will award a 2010 Excellence in Technology Transfer Award to NETL for its success in making its new, innovative software technology, the Virtual Engineering - Process Simulator Interface (VE-PSI), available to the private sector and other government laboratories.

The award will be presented to NETL researchers Dr. Stephen Zitney, director of NETL’s Collaboratory for Process and Dynamic Systems Research, and Terry Jordan at the Consortium’s annual national meeting April 29 in Albuquerque, N.M.

VE-PSI was developed by NETL in collaboration with Ames National Laboratory, Ames, Iowa,   and Reaction Engineering International of Salt Lake City, Utah.

The software provides engineers with a tool to design and optimize power plants within a virtual engineering environment. Engineering data from process simulation, computational fluid dynamics, and computer-aided design can be seamlessly integrated and easily analyzed within an immersive, interactive, three-dimensional, plant walk-through virtual environment. 

The capability enables quick, efficient, and inexpensive creation of virtual prototypes for new plant designs, thereby reducing the time and materials expended on pilot- and demonstration-scale plants.

The technology won a prestigious 2009 R&D 100 award for being one of the 100 most technologically significant products to enter the marketplace in 2009. The technology also received a 2009 Federal Laboratory Consortium Mid-Atlantic Region Award.

Hydraulic Compression Technology Evaluated for CO₂ Sequestration Applications

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	Hydraulic air compression power block closed loop water cycle.

Scientists in NETL’s Energy System Dynamics Division are conducting simulation studies on the possible advantages of using hydraulic compression to compress CO₂ prior to geologic sequestration. Hydraulic compression is a highly efficient way to compress gas, and it is currently used to compress air in deep mines.

In hydraulic compression, a circulating column of water is used to compress bubbles of gas introduced near the top of the column. The entrained bubbles are compressed as the gas/water mixture descends, and then separated from the water in a large chamber at the bottom of the column. At this point, the compressed gas is collected and the circulating water is returned to the top of the column.

NETL scientists previously evaluated this technology for use in turbine engines, but found its very low compressor discharge temperature was a major disadvantage for that application. They will apply Aspen-Plus simulation studies to define, optimize, and quantify the benefits of using hydraulic compression technology for geologic sequestration.

Anticipated compression efficiencies would approach that of isothermal compression, the most efficient way to compress gas. Scientists anticipate a potential energy savings of up to one-third relative to conventional intercooled turbo-compressors, with a corresponding cost reduction. 

NETL’s New Polymer Synthesis Laboratory Becomes Operational

	The Polymer Synthesis Laboratory (PSL) provides the synergy between modeling and device fabrication capabilities. PSL material scientists give NETL researchers access to tailored and functional materials.

Scientists at NETL will be using the new Polymer Synthesis Laboratory (PSL) to make advanced materials for CO₂ capture and conversion. The new laboratory began operation in January 2010 at NETL’s site in Pittsburgh, Pa.

 The PSL allows researchers to develop synthetic methods and to explore the physical and chemical attributes of functionalized materials and their interactions with CO₂.

 Scientists in the laboratory will collaborate closely with molecular modelers to develop CO₂ capture devices in an “atoms up” approach to create materials tailored specifically for the application.

 In one example of this type of collaboration, synthetic polymer chemists are working closely with membrane fabrication experts to improve support materials for the preparation of supported ionic liquid membranes.

Work conducted in the PSL will also be a fundamental component of the planned collaboration between NETL and the Berkeley Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC). The Berkeley EFRC is one of 46 DOE-supported EFRCs partially funded through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act to address the full range of energy research challenges in renewable and carbon-neutral energy, energy efficiency, energy storage, and crosscutting science.