News By Location

The pipes that rise from oil fields, topped with burning flames of natural gas, waste fossil fuels and dump carbon dioxide into the air. In new work, researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and China's Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics have identified the structure of a catalytic material that can turn methane into a safe and easy-to-transport liquid. The insight lays the foundation for converting excess methane into a variety of useful fuels and chemicals.

Sunlight bouncing off clouds blinds satellites trying to determine how much the blue sky between is actually reflecting. Researchers have found a way to reduce cloud-induced glare when satellites measure blue skies on cloudy days, by as much as ten-fold in some cases, by using an indirect measurement of that reflected light. The result might lead to more accurate estimates of the amount of sunlight penetrating the atmosphere, improving climate models.

Washington State University and the US Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory today dedicated a new building for the advancement of biomass research. At the Bioproducts, Sciences, and Engineering Laboratory, WSU and PNNL will work together to develop new solutions to some of the nation’s largest energy problems, strengthen opportunities to move technology into industry and provide students with a hands-on educational experience. The new $24.8 million facility is located on the WSU Tri-Cities campus.

PNNL has enlisted more than 1,000 employees who have pledged to replace at least one incandescent bulb or fixture in their homes with one that has earned the government's Energy Star label. By meeting this goal, PNNL will collectively conserve more than two million kilowatt-hours of energy per year and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by nearly three million pounds.

Washington State's Life Sciences Discovery Fund Board of Trustees announced today that the collaboration between scientists at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the University of Washington Liver Transplantation Program in Seattle will receive $4.8 million over the next three years to develop a new proteomics technology and apply it in search of biomarkers for liver disease.

A $2 million, two-year research project hopes to find proteins in blood that could alert doctors to patients harboring not just breast cancer, but the nastiest versions of the disease. The project takes advantage of a comprehensive collection of 30,000 breast cancer clinical samples, located at the Walter Reed-Windber Clinical Breast Care Project in Washington, D.C., and Windber, Penn., and advanced proteomics technology at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash.

The Northwest can have a sizeable biofuels industry based primarily on local resources -- if non-traditional feedstocks, such as municipal waste, and new conversion technologies are used, according to a report issued today by the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Chemical reactions on one side of a hematite crystal can send electrons through the bulk of the mineral to another side, new research shows. The activity, which occurs only under certain chemical conditions, results in iron building up pyramids on one side and dissolving from the other. This finding might help us to understand how elements move through sediments, to maintain good water quality, and to clean up pollution.