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Carbon capture made easy

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Gasification plants may be one of the keys to a hydrogen economy, if capture and sequestration of carbon dioxide (CO2) becomes technically and economically feasible. These plants would transform fossil fuel feedstock, including coal, biomass and municipal wastes, into clean-burning hydrogen gas where the only byproduct is water.

Biomarkers -- Transforming human health and the environment

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

You've seen it in the news headlines: Anthrax discovered in the mail… SARs outbreak… Norovirus outbreak… Potential for an avian flu pandemic looms… Obesity and diabetes threaten Americans' health… Demand for water on the rise, while water quality falls. What do they have in common?

Digging into dirt -- Subsurface science at PNNL

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Imagine drinking water that has dripped through the sponge you've just used to clean the breakfast dishes. This is happening around the world. Rain and snow pass through soil polluted with pesticides, poisonous metals and radionuclides into the underground streams that supply rivers, lakes and drinking water.

Balancing oil and environment... responsibly

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

As the price of oil continues to fluctuate unpredictably and nears the brink of depletion, pursuing unconventional oil supplies, such as oil shale, oil sands, heavy oils, and oils from biomass and coal, has become increasingly attractive. Of particular significance to the American way is that our continent has significant quantities of these resources.

Newly discovered plague proteins could help fight bioterrorism and disease

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

The Black Death, the great pestilence, bubonic plague -- familiar names for a disease documented since antiquity that has at times caused epidemics throughout the world, most notably during the Middle Ages when it wiped out roughly one-third of Europe’s population.

From Russia with love

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Ensuring that hydrogen-burning engines are explosion-proof is one of the barriers to establishing a hydrogen economy. A tiny Russian-designed hydrogen sensor that can quickly detect and warn of a gas leak may be one of the technologies to help catapult the world into the hydrogen age.

PNNL becomes DOE flagship for incentive-based waste management practices

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Business Announcement

In recognition of its exemplary environmental compliance record, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory announced adoption of a new incentive-based waste management program for high performing facilities under the US.\ Environmental Protection Agency's National Environmental Performance Track program. The program, made up of an elite nationwide membership, establishes a set of waste management procedures designed to create more flexible waste requirements and maximize overall cost savings, which benefits taxpayers.

New sensor detects gaseous chemical weapon surrogates in 45 seconds

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Using lasers and tuning forks, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory scientists have developed a chemical weapon agent sensing technique that promises to meet or exceed current and emerging defense and homeland security chemical detection requirements. The technique, called Quartz Laser Photo-Acoustic Sensing, or "QPAS," is now ready for prototyping and field testing. PNNL has demonstrated QPAS's ability to detect gaseous nerve agent surrogates. The instrument is based on Laser Photo-Acoustic Sensing and infrared Quantum Cascade Lasers.

Funder: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

Forecasting future water supplies leaves stakeholders soaked in uncertainties

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Apple orchards, vineyards, hydroelectric power, municipal water supplies, and salmon runs all depend on the same oversubscribed resource -- water. Even in the snowy Northwest, water is a finite resource with an infinite number of competing demands.

Need for nuclear reactor permits powering up

DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Business Announcement

Today the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission held a signing ceremony, which formally awarded the first-ever early site permit allowing construction of the first new nuclear power reactor in more than 30 years. Researchers at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are assisting NRC with environmental and safety reviews, and document preparation required in evaluating and licensing new nuclear power generation stations in the United States.

Funder: Nuclear Regulator Commission

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