Projects

Overall warm syngas cleanup

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Liyu Li

Project type

Exploratory Research

Gasification of biomass to syngas followed by catalytic synthesis of hydrocarbons or oxygenates provides a feasible strategy to meet the increasing demand for transportation fuels. This syngas has…

Using high resolution TEM to aquire uranium speciation information of environmental relevance

Lead Institution

Montana State University

Principal Investigator

Brent Peyton

Project type

Exploratory Research

The proposed research will utilize high resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to acquire uranium (U) speciation data. Previous work has demonstrated the ability of an environmental…

TEM and MDS study of NPSS

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Xin Sun

Project type

Exploratory Research

Nano-Precipitates Strengthening Steels (NPSS) are currently under consideration for use as various vehicle components in the automotive industry for their excellent combination of mechanical…

Formulating the CD-MUSIC surface complexation model from first principles calculations for phosphate adsorption on goethite.

Lead Institution

Virginia Polytechnic Institute

Principal Investigator

Christopher Tadanier

Project type

Exploratory Research

Density functional theory molecular orbital calculations will be used to compute charge density distributions for various hypothetical adsorbed phosphate structures on the surface of the mineral…

Analyses of electron density distributions in earth materials with implications for reactivity.

Lead Institution

Virginia Polytechnic Institute

Principal Investigator

Gerald Gibbs

Project type

Exploratory Research

Density functional theory molecular orbital calculations will be used to compute the electron density distributions and their critical point properties of a variety of important silicate minerals and…

Computational Simulations of Antimicrobial Polymeric Surfaces and Biological Membranes

Lead Institution

Universidade Federal de Pernambuco

Principal Investigator

Thereza Soares Da Silva

Project type

Exploratory Research

Medical devices can give rise to treatment-resistant infections upon colonization by pathogenous bacteria. A detailed understanding of the interactions between biological cells and the device surface…

Seattle Structural Genomics Center for Infectious Diseases - Year VI

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Garry Buchko

Project type

Exploratory Research

The Seattle Structural Genomics Center for Infectious Disease (SSGCID) is funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to apply genome-scale approaches in solving…

Understanding DNA surface interactions for systems design and engineering

Lead Institution

University of Texas Medical Branch

Principal Investigator

Bernard Pettitt

Project type

Exploratory Research

DNA replication, DNA modification, and single organism engineering are being used in many fields of relevance to the DOE mission. Extensive knowledge of the fundamental reactions involved in these…

Integrating genome-scale metabolic modeling of a microbial community into simulations of subsurface flow and biogeochemical reactive transport.

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Steven Yabusaki

Project type

Exploratory Research

The goal of this project is to develop a mechanistic, quantitative, and predictive simulation capability for coupled flow and biogeochemical reactive transport that accounts for • genome-specific…

In-situ TEM study of electrochemically-driven phase transformations in battery storage compounds

Lead Institution

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Principal Investigator

Yet-Ming Chiang

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Many battery electrode materials, such as lithium transition metal olivines ( LiMPO4, M=Fe, Mn, etc) and oxide spinels (LiMn2O4, LiNi0.5Mn1.5O4, Li4Ti5O12, etc), exhibit phase transformation…

Computational Studies of Catalyzed Chemical Transformations of Biomass

Lead Institution

University of Alabama

Principal Investigator

David Dixon

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

There is a critical need to develop new, renewable sources of energy as well as feedstocks for the chemical industry. Biomass is a carbon neutral source of energy and can also address issues related…

Epigenetic engineering to increase expression of novel feedstocks and lignocellulolytic enzymes

Lead Institution

Oregon State University

Principal Investigator

Michael Freitag

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Responses to environmental stimuli, e.g. changes in nutritional status, require space- and time-dependent transcription of genes in the context of chromatin, the assembly of DNA and proteins that…

Investigating the mechanisms for negative priming of soil organic carbon by pyrogenic carbon using NanoSIMS and LA-AMS

Lead Institution

Cornell University

Principal Investigator

Johannes Lehmann

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Reduced turnover rate (often referred to as "negative priming") of soil organic carbon (SOC) by pyrogenic black carbon (pyC) has the potential to have dramatic long-term effects on soil…

Investigations of Metal-organic Frameworks Using High-field Solid State NMR

Lead Institution

University of California, Berkeley

Principal Investigator

Jeffrey Reimer

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are emerging materials for the applications of CO2 capture from post-combustion flue gases. The knowledge of gas binding mechanisms and the in-depth understanding of…

Early Career: Reducing Scale Dependence of Physics Parameterizations for Global Cloud Resolving Climate Models

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

William Gustafson

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

New climate models with variable resolution grids combined with the anticipated two-order reduction in climate model grid spacing, from roughly 100's to 1's km grid spacing, in the next…

Using Oxygen Isotope Fractionation (delta-18O) in Otoliths to Characterize the Temperature History of Fall Chinook Salmon

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Timothy Linley

Project type

Exploratory Research

Fall Chinook salmon in the Snake River are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. A potential factor limiting their recovery is the impact from hydropower generation on river…

Ab Initio Calculations of Charge Carrier Properties and Excited-State Processes in Scintillator Materials: Advanced Materials and Scintillation Mechanisms

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Renee Van Ginhoven

Project type

Exploratory Research

The development of new and improved materials for radiation detection is driven by unmet detector requirements for nuclear non-proliferation, homeland security, imaging for medical diagnosis and…

Fundamental Studies of Water Splitting on Model TiO2, RuO2 and Mixed TiO2-RuO2 Catalysts

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Michael Henderson

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

The objective of this project is to provide fundamental insights into the roles of co-catalysts in heterogeneous photocatalytic water splitting over model TiO2 and related semiconducting oxide…

Computational Catalyst Design: Controlling Chemical Transformations to Minimize Environmental Impact

Lead Institution

University of Alabama

Principal Investigator

David Dixon

Project type

Large-Scale EMSL Research

There is a critical need to develop new, renewable sources of energy as well as chemical feedstocks. Biomass is a carbon neutral source of energy and can also address issues related to the…

Nanocomposite magnets for energy applications: exploring hard phase/soft phase interfacial properties

Lead Institution

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Principal Investigator

Jun Cui

Project type

Exploratory Research

Exchange-spring magnets are nanocomposites that are composed of magnetically hard and soft phases that interact by magnetic exchange coupling. By theory, a composite magnet with ideal nanostructure,…