Latest Announcements

Trio Honored via Feodor Lynen Fellowship

(December 2015)

Congratulations to Dr. Jonas Warneke from the University of Bremen on receiving the Feodor Lynen Research Fellowship for his scientific contributions. The fellowship, supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, will provide for Warneke to spend 2 years at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. At the lab, he will investigate how to control the positive and negative charges on catalytically active clusters after they are softly landed onto a surface. He will work with his hosts and mentors: Dr. Sotiris Xantheas and Dr. Julia Laskin.

The Catalyst's Choice

The products created depend on the availability of highly active hydrogen atoms

(December 2015)

While they're essential to manufacturing everything from the case around your cell phone to the gas in your car, catalysts are not always well understood. Take the case of a catalyst made from palladium particles. The size of the particles seemed to determine if the catalyst drove the reaction to create methane or a different compound. Knowing why would let scientists pick the product. Recently, a team from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory determined that the key difference between small and large metal particles was their ability to provide active hydrogen atoms. It is the abundance of active hydrogen atoms on the large particles that promotes the formation of methane from carbon dioxide and hydrogen. On the smaller particles, less hydrogen is available, so the catalyst produces a different product: carbon monoxide.

Transformations: Waste as Energy and Opportunity, Inventions in Catalysis, ACS Catalysis Lectureship Winners Interview

(December 2015)

The December 2015 issue of the Institute for Integrated Catalysis' Transformations recognizes innovation in catalysis: tailored mini-refineries for converting abandoned carbon biomass, a patent-prolific inventor, and a video interview with award-winning catalysis scientists.

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Seaweed: The New Biofuel

PNNL collaborates on ARPA-E project

(December 2015)

Biofuel to run cars and generators could come from large swaths of seaweed grown in the open ocean. That's the vision of a new project just announced by the Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or ARPA-E. The effort will be led by Marine BioEnergy, Inc., in collaboration with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at University of California, San Diego.

Teaching Reactions How to Navigate

New topographical map shows the energy hills and valleys involved in turning electrons into fuel

(November 2015)

When starting out on a new adventure, it helps to have a map, allowing you to determine how to best spend your time and energy along the way. The same is true for chemical reactions. Without understanding the steps involved, reactions can end up on energy-wasting backroads or creating toxic wastes. Unfortunately, few reaction maps exist because of the expertise needed to chart all the possible paths. At Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, scientists mapped areaction that turns wind-generated electricity into fuel and the amount of energy needed for each step.