News

January 22, 2024
For decades, the food industry has used bipolar membranes for goals ranging from isolating proteins to preserving the color of apple juice. Now these specialized materials are at the scientific forefront of advanced energy conversion and storage and carbon capture, among other uses. A newly published review led by researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) explores bipolar... Read more
October 9, 2023
Hydrogen, the smallest element in the universe, has huge potential as a clean energy source. Using hydrogen (H2) as a fuel and as a means of storing energy could reduce our dependence on petroleum and help us reduce air pollution and greenhouse emissions to meet our goals for a cleaner and better climate. However, adopting hydrogen power on a large scale requires advances in technology and the... Read more
September 29, 2023
The Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) will host two new centers dedicated to advancing clean energy technology and combating climate change. The awards are part of DOE’s Energy Earthshots Initiative that launched in 2021 with the goal of speeding up technological breakthroughs and lowering costs. DOE has so far launched seven Earthshots spanning clean... Read more
August 24, 2023
Two innovative technologies from the Energy Technologies Area (ETA) are among four at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) that have been honored with a 2023 R&D 100 Award. The award, presented by R&D Magazine and selected by an independent panel of judges, recognizes the year’s 100 most innovative and disruptive technology products from... Read more
May 30, 2023
Solid oxide electrolysis cells that operate at high temperature provide high performance and efficiency, and can make use of waste heat or steam from industrial or geothermal sources. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) researchers are working to reduce the cost and increase the durability of electrolyzers and advanced pathways. The Science in Motion series from the Berkeley Lab... Read more
February 10, 2023
Use the phrase “green hydrogen” in a room full of energy researchers, and you might spark confusion. To a scientist who uses the unofficial color spectrum that classifies hydrogen by its production method, “green hydrogen” is a very specific term – hydrogen produced via electrolysis using renewable electricity. To a scientist who does not use the color system, green hydrogen might sound... Read more
January 31, 2023
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has announced their 2022 Fellows, including six scientists from the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). This lifetime honor, which follows a nomination and review process, recognizes scientists, engineers, and innovators for their distinguished achievements toward the advancement or... Read more
July 14, 2022
Ahmet Kusoglu, a staff scientist in the Energy Conversion Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), was recently named a contributing editor for the Electrochemical Society's Interface magazine. Published quarterly, Interface is an authoritative, accessible publication for those in the field of solid-state and electrochemical science and technology, offering in-depth articles... Read more
July 8, 2022
Priyamvada Goyal, a postdoctoral researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), received the Best Poster Presentation award at a recent conference hosted by the American Chemical Society's (ACS) Division of Polymer Chemistry. Goyal's poster presentation focused on the integration of selectivity measures and property correlations for cation uptake in ionomers — a research... Read more
May 12, 2022
With the rise in renewable energy, as well as increasing uncertainty associated with outages due to power surges and extreme weather events, energy storage plays a key role in ensuring reliable power supply to critical infrastructure such as healthcare facilities, data centers, and telecommunications. Hydrogen shows promise as an energy storage solution, and researchers are developing materials... Read more
March 16, 2022
Hydrogen is a colorless gas, but when it comes to talking about it – there’s a rainbow of possibilities. Energy professionals often use a color code system to categorize hydrogen by the carbon-emission impact of its production method. This simplified naming system can help ease conversations about research and policy towards a clean hydrogen vision and decarbonized future. However, as more... Read more
November 17, 2021
Carbon dioxide (CO2), a product of burning fossil fuels and the most prevalent greenhouse gas, has the potential to be sustainably converted back into useful fuels. A promising route for turning CO2 emissions into a fuel feedstock is a process known as electrochemical reduction. But to be commercially viable, the process needs to be improved, to select for, or to yield, a higher amount of... Read more
October 8, 2021
Earlier this summer, Energy Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm launched the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Energy Earthshots Initiative, and the first Energy Earthshot is the “Hydrogen Shot,” with the goal of accelerating development and deployment of clean hydrogen across sectors. DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) plays a leading role in the research and... Read more
April 16, 2021
Interest in hydrogen fuel cells as a sustainable source of clean energy is on the rise globally, and hydrogen fuel cells are widely seen as a viable, zero-emission option to power trucks, trains, ferries, and passenger vehicles. The heavy-duty vehicle (HDV) market could prove to be ideal for fuel cell development and deployment. Hydrogen fuel cells are well-suited for this market because of their... Read more
October 12, 2020
Hydrogen fuel cells are on the rise: Germany has rolled out hydrogen-powered trains, the San Francisco Bay Area will soon see the nation’s first hydrogen fuel cell ferry, and sales of fuel-cell vehicles are up globally. It’s a technology with the potential to provide a variety of clean energy options, especially in transportation.Now the Department of Energy has announced several major... Read more
September 30, 2020
Methane is most commonly known as a ubiquitous cleaner energy source, while also being a potent greenhouse gas. It is produced from both natural sources, such as wetlands and large bodies of water, and anthropogenic sources, such as natural-gas reservoirs and livestock. At the same time, methane is a source of many important feedstock chemicals, including blue hydrogen and methanol, which is used... Read more
June 15, 2020
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Technology Commercialization Fund has awarded $1 million to four projects from Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (Berkeley Lab) to further collaborative research with industry partners on biofuels, bioproducts, energy microgrid technology, and renewable energy technology.Two of those projects are from Berkeley Lab’s Energy Technologies Area: Expand Access to... Read more
May 18, 2020
A new type of device that has the potential to efficiently store vast amounts of energy has recently been effectively reconfigured and improved by researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). This breakthrough could be a stepping-stone to helping our evolving power grid become more resilient.Renewable energy sources such as solar and wind are becoming increasingly... Read more
March 17, 2020
With its high energy-to-weight ratio, hydrogen has great potential to be an efficient and clean fuel for cars, auxiliary power, stationary power generation and also as an energy storage medium. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) researchers have been working with various methods of hydrogen production to produce cleaner and more efficient hydrogen for decades. New successful... Read more
March 10, 2020
Cheap, clean power generation is becoming more of a reality, but energy storage is still one of the biggest barriers to widespread adoption. Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) are continually working to advance technologies that generate, use, or store electricity at a large scale and for long duration (more than four hours). Electrochemical energy technologies... Read more
December 19, 2019
Two new videos highlighting ongoing collaboration and innovative research advancements promoting hydrogen as a large-scale renewable energy resource have recently been completed by a consortium of National Laboratories. Research Scientists from Berkeley Lab, along with Sandia National Laboratories, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Idaho National... Read more
December 12, 2019
Lithium ion is probably the most advanced technology available for the packs of rechargeable batteries you’ll buy this holiday season. The batteries also power the vast majority of consumer devices, electric vehicles, and grid storage systems.Despite their ubiquity, lithium-ion batteries have disadvantages. Metals used in the batteries are becoming expensive and one crucial metal, cobalt, is... Read more
October 29, 2019
Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (Berkeley Lab) have shown how chemical and structural changes improve the performance of a novel ion-conducting polymer (ionomer) membrane from 3M Company. The team included Ahmet Kusoglu, a research scientist in Berkeley Lab's Energy Conversion Group Using multiple x-ray characterization tools at the Advanced Light Source (ALS), the researchers took a... Read more
October 8, 2019
Adam Weber’s research team sits together in a cluster of offices, cubicles, and laboratories deep in the labyrinth of the Department of Energy’s (DOE's) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s (Berkeley Lab) Buildings 62 and 70.A staff scientist/engineer who won a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2014, Weber has now collected a solid and multidisciplinary group... Read more
August 28, 2019
A researcher at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has been awarded a $50,000 fellowship for innovative electrochemical research in green energy technology. Nemanja Danilovic and four other selected fellows from other institutions will each receive funding to conduct research as outlined in their proposals. Danilovic studies electrochemical technologies in the... Read more