The right mix of materials, manufacturing
“When we combine our computational, materials science and manufacturing expertise and nanoscience tools at ORNL with the knowledge of forestry products at the University of Maine, we can take some of the guessing game out of science and develop more targeted solutions for experimentation,” said Soydan Ozcan, lead for the Sustainable Manufacturing Technologies group at ORNL.
The project is supported by both the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office, or AMMTO, and by the partnership of ORNL and U-Maine known as the Hub & Spoke Sustainable Materials & Manufacturing Alliance for Renewable Technologies Program, or SM2ART.
The SM2ART program focuses on developing an infrastructure-scale factory of the future, where sustainable, carbon-storing biomaterials are used to build everything from houses, ships and automobiles to clean energy infrastructure such as wind turbine components, Ozcan said.
“Creating strong, affordable, carbon-neutral materials for 3D printers gives us an edge to solve issues like the housing shortage,” Smith said.
It typically takes about six months to build a house using conventional methods. But with the right mix of materials and additive manufacturing, producing and assembling sustainable, modular housing components could take just a day or two, the scientists added.
The team continues to pursue additional pathways for more cost-effective nanocellulose production, including new drying processes. Follow-on research is expected to use simulations to also predict the best combination of nanocellulose and other polymers to create fiber-reinforced composites for advanced manufacturing systems such as the ones being developed and refined at DOE’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility, or MDF, at ORNL. The MDF, supported by AMMTO, is a nationwide consortium of collaborators working with ORNL to innovate, inspire and catalyze the transformation of U.S. manufacturing.
Other scientists on the solvents project include Shih-Hsien Liu, Shalini Rukmani, Mohan Mood, Yan Yu and Derya Vural with the UT-ORNL Center for Molecular Biophysics; Katie Copenhaver, Meghan Lamm, Kai Li and Jihua Chen of ORNL; Donna Johnson of the University of Maine, Micholas Smith of the University of Tennessee, Loukas Petridis, currently at Schrödinger and Samarthya Bhagia, currently at PlantSwitch.
UT-Battelle manages ORNL for DOE’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.
This Oak Ridge National Laboratory news article "Molecular simulations, supercomputing lead to energy-saving biomaterials breakthrough" was originally found on https://www.ornl.gov/news