News

July 17, 2009

Friday, 11 AM - 12 PM
EMB 105

Cosponsored by the BU Clean Energy Initiative

Dr. Zhenguo (Gary) Yang
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Title: Advanced Electrochemical Energy Storage for Renewable Integration and Smart Grid Applications

Abstract:

The environmental concerns and constrains of the fossil fuels, combined with energy security worries, have spurred ever increasing interests in efficient and renewable economy. The transition from fossil to the sustainable future however cannot be realized without effective energy storage. While being abundant and potentially readily available, renewable power from solar and wind is uncontrolled and variable. An effective approach to smooth out the intermittency of renewable energy and make it dispatchable is to utilize energy storage. The same technology is considered as a critical enabler to the future grid, a smart, intelligent one that allows for two-way communication and multi-user interactions. Among the most promising storage technologies for the stationary and transportation applications are electrochemical storage technologies or batteries that convert electrical energy into chemical energy or vice versa. Nevertheless most of the battery technologies are not yet technically and economically feasible for the applications. The performance improvement of the electrochemical devices and reduction in cost rely on progress in advanced materials development. As thus PNNL has carried out wide research and development of electrochemically active materials and components for varied battery technologies. This presentation will discuss the need of electrochemical storage for stationary and transportation applications, status and challenges of potential technologies, and progress of related research activities at PNNL.

Biography:

Dr. Yang is a Chief Research Scientist at the US Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA. He joined PNNL as a Senior Research Scientist in February, 2001, from the Carnegie Mellon University. At PNNL, Dr. Yang conducts fundamental and applied research into advanced materials, and energy storage and conversion technologies. He is currently leading efforts in developing advanced electrical energy storage technologies for integration of renewable energy and electrical grid applications. In addition he has been a technical lead in developing interconnection and interfaces in solid oxide fuel cells, and understanding hydrogen storage mechanisms in nano-light metal hydrides. Overall Dr. Yang has over 15 years of experience in energy and materials science and engineering. He is an author of more than 130 archival research papers, an editor or author of 18 book chapters, conference proceedings or special issues of journals, and an inventor of eight US patents. Dr. Yang has received a number of awards, including a recent Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC) award for technology transfer in solid oxide fuel cells. He has elected as a Fellow of the ASM International and chaired the Energy Conversion and Storage Committee of TMS.