Release Date: August 23, 2007

MORGANTOWN, WV — The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) has been recognized for publication excellence with the awarding of three 2007 APEX Awards. The award-winning publications outline the challenges affecting our Nation’s energy supply and highlight innovative technologies the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is developing to meet current and future energy demands.

Sponsored by Communications Concepts Inc., the APEX Awards are presented in recognition of superior quality in graphic design, editorial content, and the ability to achieve overall communications excellence. The competition in 2007 was exceptionally intense and displayed an extraordinary level of quality. From a field of approximately 5,000 entries, a total of 114 Grand Awards were selected to honor outstanding work in 11 main categories; 1,521 Awards of Excellence were presented from 105 individual categories.

The NETL DVD Forrestal Display won a Grand Award in the category of Nonprofit Small Office (Electronic & Video Publication) from a group of 223 entries. The DVD provides a brief history of the past uses of coal and demonstrates coal’s vital role in power generation today. It also explains what steps the DOE, through its Office of Fossil Energy and NETL, are taking to improve the efficiency of coal utilization and to lower coal emissions through breakthrough technologies.

Originally part of a two-month rotating display at DOE Headquarters in the Forrestal Building in Washington, Forrestal Display was the result of a successful group effort by federal and contractor staff at NETL. Federal and contract writers developed the scripts; a multimedia team created the videography, animation, and special effects; and NETL’s Office of Public Affairs Coordination oversaw and coordinated the entire project. An APEX judge commented that the DVD provides “an excellent overview with an interesting narrative and varied, involving visuals. The video clearly covers an important topic in an easily understood manner.”

Carbon Sequestration Technology Roadmap and Program Plan 2006 won an Award for Excellence in the Government Agency Communications sub-category. The roadmap is an annual publication developed by NETL’s Carbon Sequestration Program and Office of Public Affairs Coordination. The roadmap represents a general consensus on the major scientific and technological developments that show the most potential for achieving the goals of carbon sequestration. Carbon sequestration involves the capture and storage of carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas emitted by power plants and other industries.

The 2006 roadmap defined the existing status of CO2 capture and sequestration technology, identified research pathways, and described DOE efforts to pursue priority pathways. Numerous maps, charts, and graphs indicated the diligent research being carried out at national energy laboratories. As more research is conducted and more information becomes available, the roadmap continues to evolve. The 2007 roadmap and program plan is now available and offers an ongoing glimpse into NETL efforts to successfully achieve a 90 percent CO2 capture with a 99 percent storage permanence at less than 10 percent rise in costs of services by 2012.

A brochure entitled Water and Energy: Addressing the Critical Link Between the Nation’s Water Resources and Reliable and Secure Energy, which addresses integrated water and energy-related activities, won an Award of Excellence in the subcategory of Marketing & Public Relations Brochures, Manuals & Reports. The brochure contains a concise summary of the water-related research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) and systems analyses projects currently sponsored by the DOE Office of Fossil Energy and managed by NETL.

The water and energy brochure focuses on fossil-fuel-based power generation, coal mining, and natural gas and oil production. Large quantities of abundant, predictable, and reliable water are a critical requirement in each of these areas, yet each area has concerns regarding its effect on the availability and quality of the Nation’s water resources. The brochure uses complementary maps and images to help explain how NETL researchers are developing breakthrough technologies that address issues such as water-handling problems, complex energy systems and interactions among those systems, approaches to using non-traditional water sources to supplement or replace freshwater for power plant needs, and improved understanding of hydrological and geological systems affected by the removal and use of fossil fuels.