Search Results for energy production

The continually increasing demand for new energy will likely be met through a combination of traditional and emerging energy platforms. While technology needs for traditional oil and gas production differ greatly from the needs of emerging power generation platforms, such as solar, wind, fuel cells, and batteries, a common need among all these sources or energy is advanced materials. Tantalum surface alloys enable advancements in traditional and new energy production methods.

Thermal spray plays an important but latent role in many energy generation applications. Strong R&D commitment is required to further expand its technological envelope. This article addresses future directions in the use of thermal spray coating technologies in the energy sector.

Manufacturing data together with heat treating knowledge can be synthesized with physics and data-based modeling approaches in a closed loop to provide insight for improving process efficiency and product quality for overall reduction in operating and energy costs. This article provides case studies of data analytics for coil batch annealing and batch carburizing.

Production techniques based on net shape forming from the liquid or semisolid state offer advantages in terms of manufacturing simplicity, cost, and energy consumption compared with current complex solid state forming processes. Engineering molten alloys to change their solidification process improves part integrity and alloy microstructure, leading to better component performance.

Aluminum components with refined microstructures produced by high pressure die casting enable manufacturers to gain energy savings via shorter production cycles—if casting and tempering parameters are optimized. This article reports on research results indicating it is possible to increase hardness of hypereutectic Al-Si alloys by optimizing the water quenching rate and duration of room temperature hold, and producing castings with finer microstructures.

Even with the recent downturn in coal production, the amount of coal being mined and utilized in the U.S. contains more than four times the current domestic consumption of rare earth elements. The challenge is developing economical separation technologies for producing REEs from coal and coal-based resources.

Hot section components of next-generation energy systems call for superalloys that can handle the heat. This article describes some recent advances in superalloy research and development, including characterization and modeling tools that are key to developing and understanding the formation of new superalloys capable of withstanding extreme environments.

Radio frequency inductively coupled plasma (RF-ICP) spraying is shown to be a promising method for producing oxidation-resistant W and W-Cr coatings on plasma-facing surfaces in fission and fusion reactors.

The manufacture of electric motors using additive methods offers potential advantages of increased efficiency, weight reduction, and customizability over traditional processes. This article describes some key developments and challenges related to additively manufactured electric motors in terms of manufacturing, materials development, and design.

John J. Croat and Masato Sagawa simultaneously and independently invented the world’s most powerful permanent magnet, the neodymium (NdFeB) magnet, and established two different manufacturing methods to produce it. Their achievement is recognized by the 2023 Honda Prize, awarded by the Honda Foundation. This article highlights each inventor’s research contributions.

The circular economy and sustainability are multifaceted concepts and thus should be pursued through collective advancements across various scientific fields.

Structural intermetallics offer a number of attractive choices to address an urgent need for materials that can endure harsh environments for extended periods. This article describes current commercial applications for intermetallic materials and work to develop new alloys and applications.

Concentrating solar-thermal power with thermal energy storage can provide renewable energy for electricity or industrial processes at any time of day. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has made significant research investments to increase the operating temperature of solar-thermal systems, which increases overall efficiency, but materials science challenges remain to affordably manufacture and commercialize key components.

News about ASM members, chapters, events, awards, conferences, affiliates, and other society activities. Topics include: ASM announces 2021 award recipients; ASM student board members announced for 2021-2022; professional profile for Caitlin Walde; remembrance of ASM Librarian Eleanor Baldwin.

Highlights from a member survey and panel discussion outlining the challenges and benefits of advanced manufacturing for the materials community. The article covers research being conducted in academia and industry to develop and integrate advanced manufacturing techniques; methods for in-process monitoring and machine learning; and challenges in adopting new digital manufacturing technologies.

The rapid ability of next-generation EDS detectors to characterize beam sensitive materials is leading to breakthroughs in nanoparticle research.

Uddeholm devoted a week to study sustainable development opportunities, reducing their carbon emissions and analyzing ways to produce tool steels more sustainably.

This article describes Shear-Assisted Processing and Extrusion (ShAPE), an emerging extrusion technology being developed at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. One application of the ShAPE process is recycling post-consumer scrap without adding primary aluminum, which reduces embodied energy and carbon output. Scientists at PNNL won an R&D 100 Award in 2020 for their work in developing the ShAPE process.

A surge in electric vehicle production is ushering in a new era of research on the best methods to recycle used lithium-ion batteries. This article describes existing recycling methods and the work needed to establish a more fully circular economy for lithium-ion batteries.

A recently discovered nanocarbon phase, first imaged to atomic resolution in 2012, is being exploited to increase the electrical and thermal conductivity of metals and alloys. These unique materials, known as carbon covetic nanomaterials or covetics for short, represent an opportunity to improve energy efficiency over a wide range of applications using low-cost raw materials and scalable processes. This article briefly describes the structure, properties, and potential applications for covetics.