News

When aging vehicle batteries lack the juice to power your car anymore, they may still hold energy. Yet it’s tough to find new uses for lithium-ion batteries with different makers, ages and sizes. A solution is urgently needed because battery recycling options are scarce.

Researchers at ORNL zoomed in on molecules designed to recover critical materials via liquid-liquid extraction — a method used by industry to separate chemically similar elements.

Critical Materials Institute researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Arizona State University studied the mineral monazite, an important source of rare-earth elements, to enhance methods of recovering critical materials for energy, defense and manufacturing applications.

The presence of minerals called ash in plants makes little difference to the fitness of new naturally derived compound materials designed for additive manufacturing, an Oak Ridge National Laboratory-led team found.

Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have designed architecture, software and control strategies for a futuristic EV truck stop that can draw megawatts of power and reduce carbon emissions.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists recently demonstrated a low-temperature, safe route to purifying molten chloride salts that minimizes their ability to corrode metals. This method could make the salts useful for storing energy generated from the sun’s heat.

Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are using ultrasounds — usually associated with medical imaging — to check the health of an operating battery. The technique uses sensors as small as a thumbnail, which could be attached to a lithium-ion battery inside a car.

A multi-lab research team led by ORNL's Paul Kent is developing a computer application called QMCPACK to enable precise and reliable predictions of the fundamental properties of materials critical in energy research.

Mechanical engineer Marm Dixit’s work is all about getting electricity to flow efficiently from one end of a solid-state battery to the other. It’s a high-stakes problem

What’s getting Jim Szybist fired up these days? It’s the opportunity to apply his years of alternative fuel combustion and thermodynamics research to the challenge of cleaning up the hard-to-decarbonize, heavy-duty mobility sector — from airplanes to locomotives to ships and massive farm combines.