Ames Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy, Ames, Iowa
Ames Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy, Ames, Iowa
AMES, Iowa -- Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory have garnered two DOE Environmental Technology Partnership grants to support research projects aimed at creating more environmentally sound and energy efficient industrial processes.
The grants total over $1.5 million worth of research support for the next three years. One project will help develop a safer, less costly alternative to current industrial chemical processing and oil refining technology. The other project will focus on ceramic gelcasting with agricultural biopolymers, a process that would use renewable resources, such as from corn and soybeans, to make manufacturing ceramic components more environmentally safe and energy efficient.
"By boosting technology for vital industries, the country will reap powerful, long-term rewards of environmental protection and job creation for the American people," said Secretary of Energy Hazel R. O'Leary. Designing cleaner, more efficient technologies and processes is at the heart of DOE's research and development efforts, which are assisting industry to shift from waste management and remediation to pollution prevention over the next five to 10 years.
Through industry/government partnerships, DOE facilitates a process whereby industry creates a "technology roadmap" which charts the research needed to achieve industry goals. Through this "industries of the future" strategy, government-funded research is brought to a sharp focus to benefit U.S. industry.
A grant for $794,000 over the next three years will support research to find a more environmentally safe and less energy-intensive method of forming non-clay ceramic materials into complex shapes. Such ceramics parts are found in a variety of applications, including cutting tools, aircraft and automobile engine components, and magnetic heads for audio, video and computer memory tapes. Current methods require mixing ceramic powders with petroleum-based polymers, or plasticizers, to make ceramic compounds that are easy to mold into complex shapes. However, separating these materials from the ceramic compounds after the molding process requires much energy and produces large amounts of harmful byproducts. A very unique group of researchers -- materials scientists Chris Schilling and Robert Bellman teamed up with soil chemist Ljerka Ukrainczyk -- will look for ways to use renewable agricultural resources, such as those from corn and soybeans, to produce effective water-based plasticizers that are easier to remove and burn out of the mold cleanly.
A grant totaling $780,000 over the next three years will support research to develop novel magnetic alloys with an enhanced magnetocaloric property, the remarkable ability of a magnetic material to absorb and transfer heat when exposed to a changing magnetic field. The new alloys, based on rare earth elements, will be used in new industrial magnetic refrigerators meant to replace conventional freon-based refrigeration systems now used in the petroleum refining and chemical processing industries. Ames Lab researchers, led by Senior Metallurgist and ISU Distinguished Professor Karl Gschneidner, Jr., hope that such a development would not only help save energy, but also help reduce the emission of greenhouse gases and ozone depleting gas compounds from these processes. The project will build off Gschneidner's recent discovery of a new class of highly efficient magnetocaloric alloys.
Last revision: 4/17/98 mab
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