Research and development activities at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy have helped increase domestic energy supplies and security, lowered costs, improved efficiencies, and enhanced environmental protection over the past 30 years.
Fossil Energy Research Benefits - A Legacy of Benefit
Included among the innovative technologies developed by FE and its National Energy Technology Laboratory since 1977, and resulting significant national benefit, are:
- Pioneering Enhanced Oil Recovery technologies that today are contributing 13 percent of total U.S. oil production as well as a means for injecting and permanently storing carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas, in geologic formations.
- Producing some 20 innovative technologies – such as low nitrogen oxide (NOx) burners, flue gas desulfurization (scrubbers) and fluidized bed combustion – through the Clean Coal Technology Development Program (CCTDP, 1986-93), many of which are now in the marketplace and benefitting energy production and air quality improvements.
- Advancing drilling, fracturing and environmental technologies that have helped oil and natural gas production from abundant shale resources increase significantly over the past decade.
- Developing methane hydrate (molecules of natural gas trapped in ice crystals) research to the point where U.S resources have been identified, exploration models tested and confirmed, and production concepts refined and ready for initial field testing.
- Amassing extensive expertise and advisory capability in ultra-deepwater resource location, production, safety and environmental protection, helping these energy sources to now account for 32 percent of domestic crude oil production and 13 percent of total dry gas production.
- Achieving advances in numerous other areas critical to U.S. energy production and environmental protection, including coal bed methane; the recycling and reuse of solid waste materials from coal combustion; proving the readiness of activated carbon injection to meet expected air quality regulatory standards for coal-based mercury emissions; and pioneering advanced turbine technologies.
Our Successes in...
Coal combustion products (CCPs) are solid materials produced when coal is burned to generate electricity. Since coal provides the largest segment...
Coalbed methane is natural gas found in coal deposits. It was once considered a nuisance and mine safety hazard, but today has become a valuable...
The United States has significant natural gas and oil reserves. But many of these resources are increasingly harder to locate and bring into...
The Office of Fossil Energy’s Clean Coal Technology Demonstration Program (1986-1993) laid the foundation for effective technologies now in use...
Through Office of Fossil Energy R&D the United States has become a world leader in carbon capture and storage science and technology.
Over more than three decades, FE research and development has established a legacy of significant achievement and return of value and benefits for...
Since its creation in 1977, the DOE's Office of Fossil Energy has established a legacy of achievement, return-of-value, and tangible benefits for...
Office of Fossil Energy research helped refine cost-effective horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing technologies, protective environmental...
Coal is a vital energy resource, not only for the United States, but also for many developed and developing economies around the world. Finding...
Natural gas is an important energy resource for the United States, providing nearly one-quarter of total energy use. The Department of Energy’s...