October 17, 2007—R&D magazine has announced the winners of the 45th Annual R&D 100 Awards, which honor the 100 best innovations globally for 2007. The categories include: Analytical Instruments, Beam/X-Ray Devices, Communications, Electronic Equipment, Energy, Environmental, Exclusives, Lab Equipment, Lasers, Life Science, Materials & Metals, Mechanical Devices, Microscopy/Imaging, Process Technology, Safety, Semiconductor/Vacuum Technology, Software, and Thermal.
This year’s awards include 18 that are related to energy efficiency and renewable energy, according the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). Researchers at DOE national laboratories and facilities reportedly contributed to 31 out of the 100 technology advancements that are being honored this year.
Among renewable energy technologies, DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Spectrolab, a Boeing subsidiary, earned an award for building the first solar cell to surpass 40% conversion efficiency. Other solar cell technologies include an improved transparent conductor (the top layer of thin-film solar cells and related devices, such as flat panel displays) made out of carbon nanotubes. A German company also won for inventing a small high-vacuum pump used in solar cell manufacturing that consumes one-third less power than earlier pumps.
Phenotype Screening Corporation, supported in part by DOE, won an award for a non-invasive system to image and characterize plant roots, a technology that could be important for biomass crop development. In addition, DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) helped to develop a gas turbine that can run on biogas, hydrogen, and other fuels; UTC Power worked with a hot springs resort in Alaska to develop a device that generates power from low-temperature geothermal resources; and Battelle Memorial Institute invented a biobased polyol, a chemical generated from glycerine, a byproduct of the biodiesel industry, that could replace up to 3 billion pounds of petroleum-based polyols that are used each year in the US to produce foams, coatings, and adhesives.
Among this year’s awards related to energy efficiency, two were directly related to fuel cells: inexpensive, lightweight fuel cell plates from GrafTech International, and a device developed with the help of DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) that removes water and sulfur from diesel fuel, allowing it to provide energy to a fuel cell. Another winning purification technology recovers hydrogen from petroleum waste streams for reuse, allowing refineries to operate more efficiently.
In addition, DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) helped develop a new metal alloy designed for the rollers that feed pipe into annealing furnaces for the steel industry. The alloy is designed to withstand the harsh environment better, increasing productivity, and has reportedly already saved 124 billion Btu of natural gas during four years of testing at a steel plant. A related winning invention is the Corrosion Analyzer, a software tool that helps select the optimal alloy for specific corrosive environments in order to avoid downtime due to material failures.
Other efficiency innovations include an air conditioning system that regulates both temperature and humidity; a continuously variable planetary transmission for bicycles and light electric vehicles, from Fallbrook Technologies; a lighter and stronger Alcoa aluminum alloy that can reduce structural weight in vehicles by 10%; an energy-absorbing foam that can also reduce the weight of vehicles; and a self-heating carton for meals, which saves on fuel for delivering food to troops.
In addition, Advanced Cerametrics has won an award for an unusual device based on the piezoelectric effect, in which a flexed piece of material will generate a voltage. The company’s “Harvestor” can draw energy from vibrating equipment, using that wasted energy to power small devices such as wireless sensors, says EERE.
For a complete list of this year’s winners, visit the R&D 100 Web site.
