Newswise — Scientists Guang Yang and Andrew Westover of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have been selected to join the first cohort of DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or ARPA-E. Inspiring a generation of new innovators to impact technologies in energy 2024, or IGNIITE 2024, programme. IGNIITE supports early career scientists and engineers in their work to transform innovative ideas into impactful energy technologies.
“We need unconventional ideas from the next generation of researchers, entrepreneurs, and technologists to tackle today’s energy challenges,” said ARPA-E Director Evelyn Wang. “As an engineer who benefited from support early in my career, I know how important resources and expert guidance are to successful innovation. By supporting this group of early career innovators, I am confident we are one step closer to a sustainable clean energy future.
Westover and Yang both work in the Energy Storage and Conversion Group of ORNL’s Chemistry Division. They are among 23 researchers from industry, academia and government sharing $11.5 million through IGNIITE 2024. Because early-career researchers often generate groundbreaking ideas, IGNIITE 2024 aims to help them achieve independent success through research support, events, meetings, and guidance from senior principal investigators. , Award winners attend a two-week summer session in Washington, DC, where they receive training on proposal writing, project management, public speaking, technology transfer, and negotiations with federal funding agencies and private investors.
Westover was awarded a total of $500,000 over two years for her project, Ductile Bulk Ionic Glasses for Electric Vehicle Batteries, or BIGBAT. At ORNL, Westover leads projects on lithium metal, mechanics of solid-state batteries, and ionic glass electrolytes for solid-state batteries. Their IGNIITE project will develop bulk ionic glass using traditional glass processing that captures the desirable ductility of a solid electrolyte LiPON glass. Invented at ORNL About 30 years ago. Their goal is to show that these bulk ionic glasses can enable batteries that have twice the energy density than commercial lithium-ion batteries and can charge in 10 minutes.
Westover earned his doctorate in materials science and engineering from Vanderbilt University. Before becoming a staff member, he worked as a postdoctoral research associate at ORNL.
“My research goal is to help decarbonize transportation by developing solid-state batteries that deliver double the energy and charging rates of current state-of-the-art lithium-ion batteries,” Westover said.
Yang was awarded a total of $500,000 over two years for his project, Supercritical Carbon Dioxide-Leveraged Redox Flow Batteries, or SuperCool-RFB. He is working on creating a new battery that uses low-cost materials like sodium and carbon dioxide. The battery could be up to 40 times more powerful and 90% cheaper than existing redox flow batteries.
Yang received his doctorate in chemical engineering from Florida State University. At ORNL, he leads projects focused on next-generation batteries and sustainable energy-conversion technologies, such as advanced redox flow batteries, high-energy solid-state batteries, and electrochemical carbon dioxide conversion. His work addresses critical knowledge gaps in energy storage technology, aiming to improve energy density, efficiency and sustainability using low-cost, non-critical materials. Yang wants to develop a cutting-edge redox flow battery that uses carbon dioxide as a renewable fuel, turning environmental problems into an energy solution. Redox flow batteries differ from conventional lithium-ion batteries in their ability to measure energy capacity independently of power output, making them ideal for large-scale energy storage applications.
“Imagine a world where our fight against climate change is driven by transforming its root cause – carbon dioxide – a harmful greenhouse gas into a source of clean, sustainable energy,” Yang said.
IGNIITE supports the 2024 Biden-Harris Administration investment plan in usa By promoting research and development that underpins U.S. leadership in energy innovation and global decarbonization. The awards support research across a spectrum of energy applications, including advanced energy storage, fusion reactor technology, carbon-negative concrete, power electronics for grid reliability, critical materials recovery, energy-efficient water desalination and plastics recycling.
“ARPA-E’s program seeks to accelerate urgently needed solutions,” said Cynthia Jenks, ORNL’s associate laboratory director for physics. “We are proud of Guang and Andrew to receive support for their innovative projects, which can help the United States solve major energy challenges.”
Yang and Westover will be honored along with other award winners at a reception at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC, on July 9.
UT-Battelle manages ORNL for DOE’s Office of Science. The largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, the Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science, , don levy
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