Highlights in the Energy Technology Division

Nondestructive evaluation technologies

In modern healthcare, doctors use imaging tools – such as X-ray computed tomography, magnetic resonance, and ultrasound – to see beneath the patient's skin without making an incision. Researchers in ET are adapting these and other technologies to evaluate critical components of modern energy systems that push the limits to achieve maximum efficiency. More…

ET researchers honored by UofC

Michael Billone and Stephen Choi have received 2005 Distinguished Performance Awards from the University of Chicago. Billone was recognized for his many contributions in fusion and fission reactor development, and Choi, for his achievements and leadership in nanofluid research. More...

ET researchers win R&D100 Award

Researchers at ET (Jules Routbort and Dileep Singh) in collaboration with Ohio State have developed a compact sensor to monitor combustion processes in coal-fire power plants, petrochemical plants, blast furnaces, glass processing equipment, and even inside internal combustion engines. The high-temperature potentiometer oxygen sensor can withstand the heat inside combustion chambers, allowing monitoring at the source in real time. More...

ET helps prepare shuttle for return flight

When the space shuttle Discovery rockets into orbit late this spring, ET engineers will have done their part to ensure a safe return to flight. A team led by Bill Ellingson used a locally designed and built high-resolution CAT scanner to characterize the damage caused when chunks of insulating foam impact space shuttle wing surfaces in test situations. More…

Hwang wins ANS award for resonance theory

ET’s Richard Hwang has been honored by his selection as the 2004 Eugene P. Wigner Award winner. The award is the American Nuclear Society's highest honor for a reactor physicist. The award recognizes Hwang's work on neutron resonance theory, a body of theory that helps nuclear engineers build computer models to predict the complicated behavior of neutron-induced reactions inside a nuclear reactor. More…

ET researcher writes the book on chemically bonded ceramics

ET’s Arun Wagh has written the book on chemically bonded ceramics — literally. Wagh, an award-winning inventor, is the author of Chemically Bonded Phosphate Ceramics: Twenty-First Century Materials with Diverse Applications (Elsevier 2004), which summarizes the extensive body of research on these materials with many practical applications. More...

NASA honors ET's Ellingson

Bill Ellingson was honored in 2004 by NASA for his work on ceramic composite components. Ellingson and colleagues from the Department of Energy and Oak Ridge National Laboratory were the recipients of NASA's Turning Goals Into Reality Award. The award celebrates the year's most significant accomplishments that add to the NASA legacy and honors recipients for their contributions to the advancement of aviation and space technology. More...

Membrane brings "hydrogen economy" one step closer

Scientists at ET have taken an important step toward the “hydrogen economy” — the basic infrastructure required to make hydrogen an important source of fuel — with the development of a ceramic membrane that can isolate pure hydrogen gas. More…

New material may be key to quality, low-cost housing

The United Nations estimates there are almost a billion poor people in the world, 750 million of whom live in urban areas without adequate shelter and basic services. But scientists at ET and Casa Grande LLC are developing a promising new technology that may lead to affordable housing for the world’s poorest. A tough new ceramic material that is almost twice as strong as concrete may be the key to providing high-quality, low-cost housing throughout developing nations. Video and more…

Fighting Friction

Joint effort between ET tribologists and materials scientists at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Drexel University has resulted in the development of a carbon-based coating that can reduce mechanical friction by up to 75 percent. This coating, known as Nanostructured Carbide Derived Carbon (CDC), was named one of the top 100 inventions last year by R&D Magazine. More… and also…

ET Researchers Honored in 2004

Division staff recently received two R&D 100 awards, which annually recognize one-hundred top technologies newly available for commercial use from around the world. One award concerns a hydrogen transport membrane for the separation of pure hydrogen from gas mixtures generated by fossil-based processes. The other concerns Grancrete construction material, which can be sprayed onto polystyrene foam sheets and rapidly sets into a cement, forming a rigid, durable structural wall or ceiling for low-cost housing. More...

A “Most Popular” Physics Paper

The Institute of Physics Publishing has identified an ET-authored paper as “most popular.” The paper describes a method for depositing high-temperature superconducting films on metal tapes buffered by an MgO layer. More...

Stabilizing the Electric Grid

ET staff have been training and testing an intelligent software program that is designed to monitor and control the local electrical grid at Argonne. Similar software could one day be used to detect and correct problems on the U.S. power grid. More…

Space Shuttle Safety

ET is collaborating with NASA to develop a nondestructive analysis method for inspecting the leading edge thermal protection system on the space shuttle wings. This work is part of NASA’s effort to examine the cause of the Columbia accident. More…

"Ice Slurry" Heart Treatment

A promising new approach to saving cardiac arrest victims – injecting them with an ice slurry – is being expanded under a new grant from the National Institutes of Health. In collaboration with the University of Chicago's Emergency Resuscitation Research Center, we will develop ways to use the high-fluidity ice particle mixture for rapid cooling of the blood to sustain the heart and brain cells after cardiac arrests. More...

New ceramic sealant for drilling and completion of boreholes

There is an urgent need for an effective sealant to be used in drilling and completion of boreholes under difficult downhole conditions of interest to the petroleum industry. The chemically bonded phosphate ceramic developed in ET may meet this need because of its ability to bond tightly to earth materials and casing in the presence of drilling fluids or hydrocarbons. More...

Award-winning coatings that yield near-frictionless components

Carbon coatings with extremely low coefficients of friction are nearing commercialization. These coatings have diverse engineering applications, including use in diesel fuel systems, bearings, manufacturing equipment, and compressors. More…

Advanced ceramic makes superior pothole patch

Ceramicrete shows superior road-patching capabilities, holding up through two winters while conventional paving erodes around it. Ceramicrete is lighter and more durable than cement, binds to all types of road material, and sets up in subzero weather. See Chicago Sun-Times, January 28, 2002. More…

More efficient heat transfer through use of nanofluid

Starting with particles as small as 30-billionths of a meter in diameter may be the key to efficient heat transfer. Research ranges from applying a nanoparticle fluid to heating and air conditioning to possible medical applications. More… See also Newslink, April/May 2002, p. 6.

Carbon coatings that are near frictionless and wear resistant

Ultra-tough carbon coatings are finding many under-the-hood uses. More…

Reaching New HEIGHTS

HEIGHTS software simulates phenomena like shock and ignition physics, heat and radiation propagation through the atmosphere, and photon transport through different media. More …

Extending reactor licenses more efficiently

Documents prepared by ET scientists, together with staff of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Brookhaven National Laboratory, will help streamline the process for renewal of nuclear reactor licenses beyond the present 40 years. More…

Nondestructive evaluation tool for improved gas turbines

ET scientists have developed sophisticated, nondestructive evaluation techniques based on thermal imaging. These techniques have application in assuring the reliable operation of natural-gas-fired turbines—the nation’s fasting growing producer of electric power. More…