Matthew Nelson
Savannah River National Laboratory secured contracts worth $8.6 million from the Department of Energy to conduct research and development efforts for chemical processing and drying.
SRNL said Feb. 9 it will lead a team composed of Rapid Manufacturing Institute, Bechtel, Induction Food Systems, Electric Power Research Institute and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to explore the usage of targeted radio frequency induction heating to potentially enhance thermocatalytic ethylene production under a $5.4 million project.
Scott McWhorter, program manager for DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at SRNL, said the team aims to lower the waste and energy needed in high-temperature processes through the project.
SRNL also received a $3.2 million award to build an integrated ultrasonic and RF drying technology for biomaterial applications.
The laboratory teamed up with EPRI and Rapid Manufacturing Institute to scale and implement the technologies and study the application of ultrasonic and RF energies on drying processes.
McWhorter said the project will potentially speed up drying processes for paper sheets and minimize required equipment footprint.
