Release Date: May 5, 2008

MORGANTOWN, WV — Two teams of researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) will receive national technology transfer awards this week for their role in commercializing new and innovative technologies.

Members of the teams will receive the 2008 Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC) Excellence in Technology Award during the FLC National Meeting being held May 5–8 in Portland, Ore. The award is presented annually to federal employees who have accomplished outstanding work in transferring to industry a technology developed within their laboratory.

NETL research group leader Henry Pennline and research chemical engineer Evan Granite will receive the award for the transfer of a palladium-based sorbent for the capture of pollutants from fuel gas in a high-temperature environment. Their technology transfer effort resulted in the licensing of the technology to the company Johnson Matthey for commercial development and application.

“It is a great pleasure to work with our colleagues at Johnson Matthey on the development of sorbents for removal of mercury, arsenic, and selenium from fuel gas,” Granite said when he received notice about the award.

The second award will be presented to Chris Guenther, a research group leader, and Madhava Syamlal, a focus area leader, for their efforts in transferring a model called the Coal Chemistry Module to FLUENT, a leading computational fluid dynamic company, and its application at KBR and Southern for commercial-scale coal gasification. The module, in conjunction with other models, can be applied to a variety of coal gasification processes that are keys to the continued use of domestic coal reserves.

“We are both honored to receive such a prestigious award and are very pleased to be part of a successful transfer of technology from NETL to the commercial marketplace.” Guenther said. “In addition, we are extremely proud that the coal-chemistry module is being embraced by industry to help them meet economic and environmental challenges of providing energy on a national level.”

The FLC, organized in 1974, is a nationwide network created to facilitate the transfer of technologies from federal laboratories to the marketplace.