By Susan BauerAdvances in smart sensors, digital process controls and information technology could radically reduce energy use in manufacturing and improve manufacturing productivity in the Northwest.The Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory will lead the Northwest Regional Manufacturing Center, a public-private partnership that is part of a national Smart Manufacturing Innovation...

By Frances WhiteElectric cars with significantly smaller, lighter and less expensive batteries could be on the horizon if a new national research effort achieves its ambitious goal of significantly improving upon the batteries that power today’s electric vehicles.Led by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, the Battery500 consortium will receive up...

By Frances WhiteA dozen clean energy technologies that enable everything from lightweight, fuel-sipping cars to the expansion of renewable energy and cleaner fossil fuel use are getting a boost at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.DOE is awarding PNNL about $4.4 million to bring the 12 technologies closer...

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has awarded Fowler General Construction Inc. of Richland and TVA Architects Inc. of Portland a $9.8 million contract to design, build and furnish its new 24,000-sq.-ft. Collaboration Center in north Richland.The new facility will be at the intersection of Horn Rapids Road and Innovation Boulevard on...

By Frances White for TCAJOBSigning a two-page agreement and paying just $1,000 can get U.S. companies an opportunity to test drive promising technologies through a new, user-friendly commercialization option being offered at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.PNNL is the only DOE lab to offer this option, called...

By PNNL staff for TCAJOBAn improved titanium alloy — stronger than any commercial titanium alloy currently on the market — gets its strength from the novel way atoms are arranged to form a special nanostructure. For the first time, researchers have been able to see this alignment and then manipulate...

As part of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s plan to modernize its campus, it start construction on a new 20,000-sq.-ft. collaboration center this year.PNNL went out to bid on the project in late January and will name the general contractor in mid-April.Greg Koller, PNNL’s manager of external communications, said they also...

By Francis WhiteThree technologies — a computational tool to improve power grid planning, a process to create biofuel from kelp and a hybrid device that makes hydrogen and stores energy — are being developed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and its partners under new projects just announced by the Department...