Feature Articles

American drivers have long been accustomed to quickly filling up at a gas station with plenty of fuel available, and electric vehicle drivers want their pit stops to mimic this experience. Driver uncertainty about access to charging during long trips remains a barrier to broader EV adoption, even as the U.S. strives to combat climate change by converting more drivers.

Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are working to make EV charging more resilient. After identifying the major challenges, ORNL researchers found solutions to address two key causes of charger failure — the first triggered by voltage shifts in the electric grid, and the other originating within the charger itself. 

The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory hosted the second annual Appalachian Carbon Forum in Lexington March 7-8, 2024, where ORNL and University of Kentucky’s Center for Applied Energy Research scientists led discussions with representatives from industry, government and academia to discuss ways to transition to clean energy.

Anna Douglas’ grand vision, strategic moves and laser focus have helped propel her through seven years of building her company, SkyNano, and land $16 million in government and commercial research and development contracts. Earlier this week, SkyNano hosted a ribbon-cutting event to open a new production facility in Louisville, Tennessee, just outside of Knoxville. The celebration drew friends and colleagues from across Tennessee and Washington, D.C., including representatives from the Department of Energy, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the University of Tennessee, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, peer Innovation Crossroads companies and LaunchTN.

Curiosity and enthusiasm for the beauty in every molecule inspire ORNL’s Canan Karakaya, who uses computational modeling to design, improve and scale up chemical reactors that make high-value chemicals and energy-dense fuels.

For kids in underserved communities, access to STEM experiences does not come as a given. Candice Halbert, YO-STEM founder and chemist at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is working to change this. Halbert devotes her time outside the lab to building STEM opportunities for youth in nearby communities.

YO-STEM, or Youth Outreach in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, has served the local community for seven years, and this marks year three for its competitive co-ed robotics teams. Currently, YO-STEM robotics teams, Radium and Gr8ness, rank 16 and 17 out of 145 teams in Tennessee registered for the middle-school robotics competition hosted by VEX on March 8 and 9 in Hendersonville, Tenn. The two teams are also the only Knox County teams in the state’s top 20 for this robotics competition. 

Fengqui "Frank" Li is a computational developer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory who uses his background in architecture and interest in crosscutting research to pursue a landscape of ideas related to building energy usage and urban systems.

Since 2019, a team of NASA scientists and their partners have been using NASA’s FUN3D software on supercomputers located at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility, or OLCF, to conduct computational fluid dynamics, or CFD, simulations of a human-scale Mars lander. The team’s ongoing research project is a first step in determining how to safely land a vehicle with humans onboard onto the surface of Mars.

Some of the ORNL AGU23 attendees share their thoughts on this year’s meeting and how they’re looking at the future of geophysical sciences in their areas.

Chelsea Chen, a polymer physicist at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is studying ion transport in solid electrolytes that could help electric vehicle battery charges last longer. “The challenge with current EVs is to further increase driving range, and that means higher energy density,” said Chen. “This requires revolutionary design of the battery chemistry.”

A modeling analysis led by the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory gives the first detailed look at how geothermal energy can relieve the electric power system and reduce carbon emissions if widely implemented across the United States within the next few decades.