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Explosives vapor detection technology: The new 'sniff test'

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A quick, accurate and highly sensitive process to reliably detect minute traces of explosives on luggage, cargo or traveling passengers has been demonstrated by scientists at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The vapor detection technology accurately detects and identifies the vapors of even very low-volatility explosives in real time at ambient temperature and without sample pre-concentration.

Journal: Analytical Chemistry

Synthetic molecule first electricity-making catalyst to use iron to split hydrogen gas

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

To make fuel cells more economical, engineers want a fast and efficient iron-based molecule that splits hydrogen gas to make electricity. Online Feb. 17 at Nature Chemistry, researchers report such a catalyst. It is the first iron-based catalyst that converts hydrogen directly to electricity. The result moves chemists and engineers one step closer to widely affordable fuel cells.

Journal: Nature Chemistry
Funder: Department of Energy

Data challenges the APB on BPA

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A controversial component of plastic bottles and canned food linings that have helped make a safer food supply has recently come under attack: bisphenol A. BPA has the potential to mimic estrogen if blood and tissue levels are high enough. Now, an analysis of almost 150 BPA exposure studies shows that in the general population, people's exposure may be many times too low for BPA to effectively mimic estrogen in the human body.

Funder: Environmental Protection Agency
Meeting: 2013 AAAS Annual Meeting

New supercomputer coming to EMSL this summer, supplied by Atipa Technologies

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Business Announcement

A new supercomputer expected to rank among the world's fastest machines will be ready to run computationally intense climate and biological simulations along with other scientific programs this summer. Atipa Technologies in Lawrence, Kan., will provide the machine to EMSL. The new supercomputer's capacity and speed are expected to rank it among the world's top 20 fastest machines when it comes online.

Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy

PNNL awarded $2.8 million to keep troops cool while using less fuel

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Grant and Award Announcement

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has been awarded $2.8 million to adapt its energy-efficient adsorption chilling system for field military bases. The system could use up to half as much diesel as today's technology, which could also save soldiers' lives by reducing attacks on troops who transport fuel in the battlefield.

Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy, Navy, Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, US Department of Defense

A new point of reference for offshore energy development

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

PNNL's Will Shaw will describe plans for Reference Facility for Offshore Renewable Energy, a Department of Energy Facility where offshore wind and ocean power technologies will be tested, at the 93rd American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting.

Funder: DOE/US Department of Energy
Meeting: 93rd American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting

PNNL recognized for transferring innovations to the marketplace

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Grant and Award Announcement

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has been recognized for commercializing technologies or processes that can store large amounts of renewable energy until it's needed, fight cancer and detect explosives.

Funder: Department of Energy

Sunshine, biofuel and the tides, oh my!

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

PNNL scientists will discuss solar power forecasting, the resources needed to grow algae for biofuel and the environmental impacts of ocean energy at the 2012 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting.

Meeting: 2012 AGU Fall Meeting

4 PNNL scientists elected AAAS fellows

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Grant and Award Announcement

Four Pacific Northwest National Laboratory scientists have been elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for their efforts to advance science or its applications. The PNNL honorees and the AAAS sections that elected them are: Nigel Browning, physics; Allison Campbell, chemistry; Anthony Peurrung, physics; and Douglas Ray, chemistry.

Meeting: 2013 AAAS Annual Meeting

Airborne particles smuggle pollutants to far reaches of globe

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Pollution from fossil fuel burning and forest fires reaches all the way to the Arctic, even though it should decay long before it travels that far. Now, lab research can explain how pollution makes its lofty journey: rather than ride on the surface of airborne particles, pollutants snuggle inside, protected from the elements on the way. The results will help scientists improve atmospheric air-quality and pollution transport models.

Funder: Department of Energy

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