MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Upgrades are coming to the National Energy Technology Laboratory research site in Morgantown.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) will receive $150 million for infrastructure and laboratory modernization upgrades at all three of NETL’s research sites including Morgantown, Pittsburgh, and Albany, Oregon. The money comes from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
The IRA of 2022 makes investments to keep the United States on pace to achieve the current administration’s climate goals, including a net-zero economy by 2050.
NETL Director Dr. Brian Anderson said all three facilities are aging and infrastructure upgrades and maintenance projects are already underway or will start in the coming weeks.
“We’re kicking off right now in real time some of those projects, so they’ll be starting as soon as this year,” Anderson said. “And we aim to compete with them over the next seven years.”
About $40 million and another $35 million of previously budgeted funds will be directed to the Morgantown facility for maintenance, an expanded supercomputer lab, and expanded research and development facilities for carbon conversion and critical materials programs.
“When we have that increased capability, we will be able to better serve the department and better serve the taxpayer,” Anderson said. “So, it might result in increased research onsite and more permanent jobs.”
For Morgantown, a Geological, Environmental, and Materials Computational and Visualization Laboratory to apply artificial intelligence and machine learning to visualize and monitor the movement of carbon dioxide stored underground to address potential challenges was added. A portion of the IRA investment and previously budgeted funds will expand supercomputing capacity with the construction of a new Computational Science and Engineering Center.
“Everything from modeling the subsurface for CO2 sequestration for hydrogen storage all the way to molecular-level simulation to understand chemical reactions of turning methane into hydrogen or carbon dioxide into some valuable, sustainable fuel,” Anderson said.
Anderson said the labs are designed to support industry at the center of rapid changes in the economy and government focus. He said the need for advanced materials will only grow as new technology companies come online and begin to provide jobs statewide.
“There’s a lot of interest in battery manufacturing in the state of West Virginia as well as a burgeoning new resurgence of the nuclear industry, and that will result in the need of a lot of advanced carbon materials like graphene and graphite,” Anderson said.
NETL has been a leader in developing fracking technology and other technologies that affect the everyday lives of Americans. Currently, advancements are being made in carbon capture and developing a lower-cost fertilizer for the agriculture industry.
“We are right at the cutting edge of developing those brand new technologies to produce everything from the next generation of ammonia, which we use in fertilizer to help us grow our crops in an efficient way, all the way through the way we power our cars and airplanes,” Anderson said.