West Virginia
West Virginia
West Virginia’s natural resources have long played a complex and critical role in America’s energy economy. ORNL’s partners in West Virginia include the National Energy Technology Laboratory, West Virginia University, and Ramaco Carbon, among others.
ORNL’s user facilities offer a diverse set of tools for experiments across a range of fields, including biology, materials and energy sciences, physics, engineering, and chemistry. Learn more about ORNL’s user facilities. Data reflects fiscal year 2020 except for scientific publications, which covers 2016–2020. Partner stories reflect work conducted from 2016 to present.
DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory in Morgantown is a full-service applied energy innovation center investigating energy technologies related to geological and environmental sciences, energy conversion, computational science, and more—all with the common goal of advancing energy and environmental technologies into the marketplace.
NETL and ORNL have collaborated to optimize coal gasifier operation through neutron imaging—an effort that could lead to more efficient energy production than that of conventional methods. The collaboration brings together NETL’s expertise in fossil energy and computational modeling with ORNL’s capabilities in neutron imaging.
NETL operates three sites in Albany, Oregon; Morgantown, West Virginia; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The lab delivers integrated solutions to enable the transformation to a sustainable energy future. NETL implements strategies and technologies to enable a decarbonized future and meet net-zero emission goals, including carbon management, advanced hydrogen technologies, integrated energy systems, artificial intelligence and machine learning, and sustainable fuels and chemicals.
West Virginia University is a partner on long-term research projects through the Department of Energy’s Center for Bioenergy Innovation at ORNL. Research from CBI and its partners has resulted in multiple commercial licensing agreements for the development of more efficient biofuels through a better understanding of plant genetics.
ORNL and Ramaco Carbon are innovating ways to transform coal to advanced carbon products and materials. This collaboration aims for coal to be used as a feedstock for manufacturing carbon fibers, building products, and composites, as well as electrodes for energy storage devices and new materials for additive manufacturing. Ramaco, which has facilities in West Virginia, has a longstanding interest in the development of coal into other products. This interest aligns with areas in which ORNL has extensive expertise and background. For example, ORNL is home to the Carbon Fiber Technology Facility, DOE’s only designated user facility dedicated to carbon fiber innovation offering a customizable platform that validates new conversion technologies at semi-production scale.
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