Feature Stories

Helping hundreds of manufacturing industries across the United States increase energy efficiency requires a balance of teaching and training, blended with scientific guidance and technical expertise. It’s a formula for success that researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have been providing to the Department of Energy’s Better Plants program for more than a decade.

Scientists at the Critical Materials Innovation (CMI) Hub, led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames National Laboratory have developed a new process, mechanochemical extraction of lithium at low temperatures, or MELLT, to increase and diversify the supply of lithium in the United States.

Improving the manufacturing of green hydrogen technologies is key to wide-spread industry adoption. Argonne is part of a consortium dedicated to scaling up, accelerating production and reducing the cost of producing hydrogen fuel cells and electrolyzers.

Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a method that demonstrates how fiber-reinforced polymer composite materials used in the automotive, aerospace and renewable energy industries can be made stronger and tougher to better withstand mechanical or structural stresses over time.