Maximizing the impact of our research
It’s always exciting to connect with LLNL scientists and hear about their new research projects. And when those projects have the potential to go beyond serving our national security mission—and also address challenges facing our communities—the potential dual impact of their research is especially noteworthy.
I wanted to share a few examples of these efforts, where we partner with industry experts to test and scale up innovative technology. These examples highlight how our collaborative problem-solving maximizes the impact of our discoveries.
Strengthening local power grids
My first example involves a multidisciplinary research team at LLNL that’s exploring ways to optimize power grids to make them more reliable and resilient—with solutions that are tailored to regional needs.
The team includes experts from across LLNL’s directorates, as well as collaborators from three local universities, with an initial focus on studying how California’s existing power generation and delivery systems serve communities with diverse weather patterns and geophysical features. To provide the necessary data, they developed a regionally refined version of the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM), a Department of Energy tool that runs on supercomputers, which they used to generate high-resolution weather data for California.
By combining this weather data with regional data provided by federal and state agencies regarding energy consumption patterns and energy delivery resources, they identified the infrastructure that’s needed to meet each region’s projected future energy demands—data that helps stakeholders identify high-impact grid enhancements that will improve the reliability and resilience of regional power grids.
Optimizing subsurface reservoirs
Another way we are helping stakeholders explore community-based solutions is through our research regarding subsurface geologic storage options—including long-term carbon dioxide (CO2) storage, as well as strategies for storing surplus energy generated by renewable energy sources.
When renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, generate more supply than needed, the surplus can be stored as chemical energy in hydrogen. However, it can be challenging to store large quantities of hydrogen for months or years. Research teams at LLNL are collaborating with California natural gas storage operators to explore options for using existing underground caverns, reservoirs, and other subsurface structures to reliably store hydrogen. This research will provide insight regarding the feasibility of these approaches for community and industry leaders who may want to invest in these solutions.
They use GEOS, an open-source reservoir simulator developed at LLNL, to understand how hydrogen might behave in this environment and how the fluid might stress the reservoir infrastructure. In addition, they developed fiber-optic sensors that can monitor underground conditions—data that can help scientists study storage options, while also helping to ensure safe operations in the future, should commercial entities decide to invest in this energy storage solution.
In a similar effort, Lab scientists are exploring where geologic CO2 sequestration might be a viable long-term solution. For example, they collaborated with Pelican Renewables, a California-based organization, to study options for one of the state’s first commercial-scale geologic carbon storage projects, using the GEOS simulator to provide data that local decision makers use to determine how to best optimize the underground system’s safety and performance.
Converting carbon dioxide into valuable products
My final example highlights a collaboration with academic, national lab, and industry experts to develop low-cost, efficient pathways to produce valuable chemicals from recycled CO2. The centerpiece of these efforts is our next-generation electrochemical reactor that converts CO2 into commodity chemicals, such as ethylene.
Our research teams leveraged LLNL’s multiscale modeling capabilities and additive manufacturing knowledge to develop, test, and fine-tune reactor design. Predictive modeling helped researchers understand how the device will function once scaled up, and 3D-printed prototypes of reactors—fabricated at LLNL’s Advanced Manufacturing Lab—enabled scientists to demonstrate the technology’s scale-up potential.
Industry partners TotalEnergies, Siemens Energy, and Twelve provided a valuable user perspective regarding the technology’s potential applications, as well as features that would make it commercially viable. In addition, these industry experts are partnering with us to explore ways they can adapt the design of existing commercial components for use with future reactors. In addition, they help us identify other potential industry partners that might want to be part of our follow-on research in this area.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this brief look at some examples of our collaborative problem solving and the creativity of our research teams. I invite you to learn more about how we collaborate with other research institutions, as well as industry and academic partners, to drive innovation.
– Glenn Fox, PLS Principal Associate Director
