ORNL receives three 2021 FLC Awards for technology transfer

Three applied sciences developed by researchers on the Division of Vitality’s Oak Ridge Nationwide Laboratory have received Nationwide Expertise Switch Awards from the Federal Laboratory Consortium. The annual FLC Awards acknowledge important accomplishments in transferring federal laboratory applied sciences to {the marketplace}.

ORNL is amongst 12 DOE nationwide labs to be honored out of 33 winners from FLC’s community of greater than 300 federal laboratories, services, and analysis facilities. Because the consortium’s founding in 1986, ORNL has received a complete of 68 awards.

“One in every of our most necessary contributions as a nationwide laboratory comes when our researchers’ breakthroughs are put to work within the personal sector,” ORNL Director Thomas Zacharia mentioned. “It’s an honor for our collaborative groups to be acknowledged for translating scientific discovery to societal profit.”

The lab was acknowledged in two classes:

• Excellence in Expertise Switch
• Impactful Expertise Switch of Revolutionary Giant-Scale, Vitality-Environment friendly 3D-Printer, co-developed by ORNL and Magnum Venus Merchandise.

ORNL and MVP collaborated on the event of a one-of-a-kind Reactive Additive Manufacturing, or RAM, system able to producing giant, light-weight components. RAM makes use of thermoset supplies reasonably than the thermoplastics sometimes used with polymer 3D printers and incorporates an modern design that provides high-volume components manufacturing.

RAM allows the manufacturing of high-quality merchandise at a quicker fee, makes use of much less materials and consumes a fraction of the vitality in comparison with different 3D printers. MVP has signed two licenses with ORNL and provides the large-scale, energy-efficient RAM 3D printer as a product to producers. The printer is anticipated for use in a variety of purposes for the protection, marine and aerospace industries.

ORNL’s analysis staff included Vlastimil Kunc Christopher Hershey and John Lindahl. Eugene Cochran of ORNL and Mike Kastura of MVP led the commercialization.

This venture was supported by the DOE Workplace of Vitality Effectivity and Renewable Vitality, Superior Manufacturing Workplace and used assets on the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility, a DOE-EERE person facility at ORNL. Further assist was supplied by MVP via a Cooperative Analysis and Growth Settlement.

Constructing Sustainability with Cobalt-Free Battery Applied sciences, developed by ORNL and licensed to SPARKZ.

ORNL researchers developed a collection of applied sciences designed to eradicate the uncommon and dear cobalt metallic discovered within the cathodes of lithium-ion batteries which are used to energy moveable digital gadgets and electrical autos. ORNL’s applied sciences present cobalt-free alternate options with out sacrificing battery efficiency.

The applied sciences licensed by vitality storage startup SPARKZ embrace high-energy density secondary lithium batteries; cobalt-free layered oxide cathodes; nonaqueous electrolyte formulation for quicker charging; early transition metals to be used in cathodes; and battery supplies scaled up using novel chemical processes. Every know-how is designed to beat present limitations on vitality density and assist electrical autos cost extra effectively. Reaching this aim may additionally help vitality storage in grid purposes.

ORNL’s Ilias Belharouak and Jagjit Nanda led the analysis improvement. Mike Paulus and Jen Caldwell of ORNL, and Sanjiv Malhotra, CEO of SPARKZ, collaborated on the commercialization.

DOE’s Workplace of Vitality Effectivity and Renewable Vitality, Car Applied sciences Workplace chosen the ORNL-SPARKZ partnership for the DOE Lab Investment Incubator Activity, which focuses on maturing lab-scale applied sciences for commercialization. DOE-EERE’s Car Applied sciences Workplace supported the preliminary analysis that enabled this know-how improvement.

Influence

Securing Home Manufacturing of N95 Masks Throughout Coronavirus Pandemic, developed by ORNL and commercialized by Cummins and DemeTECH.

ORNL researchers tailored melt-blowing capabilities at DOE’s Carbon Fiber Expertise Facility to allow the manufacturing of filter materials for N95 masks within the combat in opposition to COVID-19. Polypropylene was used and supplemented with an additive from Techmer PM, a polymer materials producer. N95 masks materials inventor Dr. Peter Tsai assisted ORNL in constructing a novel electrostatic charging system to cost the melt-blown materials in manufacturing. ORNL produced larger than 95% filtration-efficiency materials equal to 9,000 masks per hour.

The know-how was transferred via a person settlement to Cummins, an air, gasoline and lube filtration product provider, for scale-up and manufacturing. ORNL labored with Cummins to adapt the manufacturing line, create the mandatory materials, set up electrostatic charging gadgets and take a look at the effectivity. Cummins produced sufficient materials to produce greater than one million masks per day. DemeTECH, a medical provide firm, additionally used ORNL’s know-how to fabricate filtration materials and masks. They deliberate to broaden their Miami-based operations to incorporate 15 manufacturing traces able to yielding three million surgical masks and half one million N95 masks per day.

ORNL’s Merlin Theodore led the filter media analysis and collaborated with ORNL’s COVID manufacturing analysis lead Lonnie Love together with Scott Smith and Craig Blue, and Peter Tsai, previously of the College of Tennessee. Susan Ochs of ORNL and Christopher Holm from Cummins and Luis Arguello, Jr. from DemeTECH led the commercialization. Alan Franc supplied Techmer PM materials assist.

Funding for this venture was carried out in coordination with the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Companies and funded partly by the DOE Workplace of Science via the Nationwide Digital Biotechnology Laboratory (NVBL), a consortium of DOE nationwide laboratories targeted on response to COVID-19, with funding supplied by the Coronavirus CARES Act. DOE’s Carbon Fiber Expertise Facility COVID-19 efforts at ORNL had been additionally supported by the Workplace Vitality Effectivity and Renewable Vitality’s Superior Manufacturing Workplace.

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