The Albany Research Center, now part of

National Energy Technology Laboratory The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) is a U.S national laboratory under the Department of Energy Office of Fossil Energy. NETL focuses on applied research for the clean production and use of domestic energy resources. NETL perform ...

(NETL), is a U.S. Department of Energy laboratory staffed by Federal employees and contractors located in

Albany, Oregon Albany is the county seat of Linn County, Oregon, and is the eleventh largest city in that state. Albany is located in the Willamette Valley at the confluence of the Calapooia River and the Willamette River in both Linn and Benton counties, jus ...

. Founded in 1943, the laboratory initially specialized in life cycle research starting with the formulation, characterization, and/or melting of most

metal A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...

alloy An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which at least one is a metal. Unlike chemical compounds with metallic bases, an alloy will retain all the properties of a metal in the resulting material, such as electrical conductivity, ductilit ...

s, and

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...

s; casting and fabrication, prototype development; and the

recycle Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. The recovery of energy from waste materials is often included in this concept. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the p ...

and remediation of

waste Waste (or wastes) are unwanted or unusable materials. Waste is any substance discarded after primary use, or is worthless, defective and of no use. A by-product, by contrast is a joint product of relatively minor economic value. A waste prod ...

streams associated with these processes. Researchers at the laboratory routinely solved industrial processing problems by investigating melting, casting, fabrication, physical and chemical analysis and wear, corrosion and performance testing of materials through the use of equipment and analytical techniques. Since joining NETL, the laboratory has switched its research focus mainly to materials and processes for fossil energy production and conversion. The facility rests on and occupies 38 buildings.

History

The

United States Bureau of Mines For most of the 20th century, the United States Bureau of Mines (USBM) was the primary United States government agency conducting scientific research and disseminating information on the extraction, processing, use, and conservation of mineral ...

selected a location in Albany to be home to the Northwest Electro-development Laboratory on March 17, 1943. The grounds of the center and some buildings had been the home of

Albany College Lewis & Clark College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Originally chartered in 1867 as the Albany Collegiate Institute in Albany, Oregon, the college was relocated to Portland in 1938 and in 1942 adopted the name Lewis & ...

(now Lewis & Clark College) from 1925 until 1937.Corning, Howard M. (1989) ''Dictionary of Oregon History''. Binfords & Mort Publishing. p. 6. The facility was planned to develop new metallurgical processes as well as study ways to use low-grade resources using the surplus of electricity in the region. In 1945, the name was changed to the Albany Metallurgy Research Center. Research at the facility in the early years included studying zirconium, which led to advances in producing ductile zirconium under William J. Kroll. This included work with the

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It in ...

and the Atomic Energy Commission on development of the , the first nuclear-powered submarine. In 1955, production of zirconium at the research center stopped when it was taken over by private industry. Other work at Albany included research on

titanium Titanium is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Found in nature only as an oxide, it can be reduced to produce a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength, resista ...

casting, recycling metals and alloys, creating sulfurcrete, and studying metal corrosion among other areas. The center was renamed as the Albany Research Center in 1977, and in 1985 it was listed by the

American Society for Metals ASM International, formerly known as the American Society for Metals, is an association of materials-centric engineers and scientists. ASM provides several information resources, including technical books, various digital databases, and ASM Han ...

as a historical landmark. During the mid-1990s until the mid-2000s, the center worked with the

Oregon Department of Transportation The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) is a department of the state government of the U.S. state of Oregon responsible for systems of transportation. It was first established in 1969. It had been preceded by the Oregon State Highway Depar ...

on preventing corrosion on bridges exposed to salt water. In 1996, the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

eliminated the Bureau of Mines, with the Albany facility then transferred to the U.S. Department of Energy. At first it reported directly to the department's Office of Fossil Energy, but in 2005 it was realigned under the

with the name changing to NETL-Albany. At that time the research center had a staff of 85 people and an annual budget of $10 million. Though the research center began additional upgrades in 2009 to add on two new modular office complexes to the facility and bringing to total staff up to 120 people. During that same year the center received an

R&D 100 Award Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in Europe as research and technological development (RTD), is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products, and improving existi ...

from ''R&D Magazine''.

FUSRAP cleanup

From 1945 until 1978, the Research Center was involved in working with radioactive materials, first for the Atomic Energy Commission and later for the Energy Research and Development Administration. As part of Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) cleanup operations, a radiological survey was conducted of the site in 1985. Portions of 18 buildings and 37 exterior locations were designated as needing decontamination. The cleanup was done in two phases: Phase I from July 1987 to January 1988 and Phase II from August 1990 to April 1991. The hazardous waste material was sent to the

Hanford Site The Hanford Site is a decommissioned nuclear production complex operated by the United States federal government on the Columbia River in Benton County in the U.S. state of Washington. The site has been known by many names, including SiteW a ...

for disposal. The site was certified to

Department of Energy A Ministry of Energy or Department of Energy is a government department in some countries that typically oversees the production of fuel and electricity; in the United States, however, it manages nuclear weapons development and conducts energy-re ...

standards and guidelines for cleanup of residual

radioactive contamination Radioactive contamination, also called radiological pollution, is the deposition of, or presence of radioactive substances on surfaces or within solids, liquids, or gases (including the human body), where their presence is unintended or undesirab ...

in 1993.

Operations

In conjunction with the Office of Fossil Energy, the facility investigates many of the nation's challenges in the production and use of all types of fossil energy systems to include the need to produce new materials for the energy systems of tomorrow and to develop new methods to ameliorate the releases associated with these new systems. Three directorates of NETL's Research & Innovation Center are represented at the Albany site: Geological and Environmental Systems, Materials Engineering and Manufacturing, and Energy Conversion Engineering. Specific research is conducted on geographic information systems for fossil fuels, advanced alloys and ceramics for coal and natural gas power plants, and

magnetohydrodynamic generator A magnetohydrodynamic generator (MHD generator) is a magnetohydrodynamic converter that transforms thermal energy and kinetic energy directly into electricity. An MHD generator, like a conventional generator, relies on moving a conductor through a m ...

s. Their facilities include a GIS visualization laboratory, fabrication plant, a melting and casting facility, and a MHD laboratory.

References

External links

An assessment of the minerals thermochemistry program of the Bureau of Mines
{{authority control United States Department of Energy national laboratories Laboratories in Oregon Buildings and structures in Albany, Oregon 1943 establishments in Oregon