Reliability and efficiency are hot issues for manufacturers of microturbines, and companies like United Technologies, Ingersoll-Rand and General Electric look to ORNL for answers to some of their problems. Microturbines, which typically burn natural gas and can supply from 30 kilowatts to 500 kilowa...
Arrays of nanofibers able to deliver genetic material to cells quickly and efficiently have researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory excited about potential applications for drug delivery, gene therapy, crop engineering and environmental monitoring.Tim McKnight of ORNL's Engineering Science and...
ORNL researchers and partners around the nation hope to determine which poplar genes are responsible for below-ground carbon sequestration. Soil accounts for the greatest proportion of carbon stored in terrestrial systems, totaling more than plant sources and annual average atmospheric inputs combin...
Utilizing state-of-the-art equipment, ORNL researchers have developed several sophisticated airborne sensor systems that can detect, characterize and digitally map unexploded material - including items buried as deeply as 30 feet into the ground. These systems have applications for the military as e...
Loss of energy and efficiency due to friction costs the economy billions of dollars annually. Controlling friction in large-scale systems has traditionally been done with lubricants. However, lubricant behavior changes drastically and for the worse when the size of the lubricant film is of the order...
An experimental natural-gas-powered fuel cell about to be tested by ORNL researchers at an 83,000-square-foot federal user center near Knoxville may serve as a model for more efficient production of electricity to supply large office buildings. Project managers believe the fuel cell will meet at lea...
A facility to test a conductor that may lead to the more efficient and reliable transmission of electricity is in operation at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory will celebrate its 60th anniversary with a series of events and activities planned to help preserve the lab's history, thank the community and honor ORNL's past and present staff.
A new machine at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory's National Transportation Center user facility could help the auto industry make cars that are safer and sustain less damage in collisions. The one-of-a-kind Intermediate Strain Rate Machine enables engineers working with the automotive industry to ...
Ecological models and other tools available to decision makers can vastly reduce the environmental impacts of new roads, according to Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Virginia Dale, one of the authors of two recently released books. In the past, environmental impacts of new roads were often considere...