R&D World magazine yesterday presented the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR) with four of its annual R&D 100 Awards for research innovations. Including this year’s winners, NLR has received 80 R&D 100 Awards since 1982. Given annually, the R&D 100 Awards honor the 100 most innovative technologies of the past year and are chosen by an independent panel of judges. “This recognition is a testament to the exceptional talent and ingenuity of our researchers. Their breakthroughs are providing the innovative, scalable solutions our nation needs for the energy systems and infrastructure of tomorrow,” said Adam Bratis, NLR’s deputy laboratory director for Science and Technology and chief research officer. “These R&D 100 Awards support what we have always believed: NLR is not just envisioning the future of American energy—our people are actively building it.” Arrowfly, the Cleveland-based publisher that oversees the awards, announced the winning NLR technologies: ALTRIOS: Advanced Locomotive Technology and Rail Infrastructure Optimization System ALTRIOS is the first validated, open-source digital twin for the freight rail system. It represents a paradigm shift away from stovepiped legacy tools by creating unified, integrated simulations of train components, locomotives, fleets, rail networks, and freight terminals—plus energy use and costs over decades—to de-risk long-term, capital-intensive deployments. Economic Long-Duration Energy Storage by Using Low-Cost Particle-Based Thermal Energy Storage (ENDURING) NLR’s patented ENDURING system can decrease energy costs by storing energy generated during off-peak hours to use during times of high demand. It takes advantage of inexpensive, stable, and abundant sand as a storage medium and has a heat exchanger that maintains performance with a minimal footprint and reduced material costs. ENDURING has the potential to provide large-scale energy storage for a capital cost of less than $10 per kilowatt-hour of heat stored, and it can safely store the equivalent of up to hundreds of megawatts of electricity for up to 100 hours. The Pele Suite of Exascale Reacting Flow Codes The Pele suite of codes simulates turbulent reacting flows, which are critical to transportation, electricity generation, manufacturing, and national security, with unprecedented accuracy. Pele combines the software engineering needed to take advantage of exascale computing with a modular open-source architecture that allows integration with artificial intelligence. National laboratory researchers, universities, and industry partners are using this capability to accelerate the development of new technologies and explore new scientific frontiers. Perforated Membranes for the Efficient Conversion of Carbon Dioxide and Carbon Monoxide to Organic Compounds The first commercially viable electrochemical carbon dioxide conversion system, the perforated bipolar membrane (pBPM) transforms waste gases into high-value chemicals using electricity, creating a profitable pathway for manufacturers to repurpose waste, strengthen domestic supply chains, and significantly lower energy consumption and operating costs. By integrating conversion, separation, and concentration into a single system, the pBPM can produce chemicals at purities exceeding 99.5%, increase carbon utilization by up to 75%, and cut production costs by as much as 62%. In addition, three of these award-winning technologies also received special recognition in the “Corporate Social Responsibility” and “Market Disruptor” categories of the 2026 R&D 100 Awards. Corporate Social Responsibility Gold: Perforated Membranes for the Efficient Conversion of Carbon Dioxide and Carbon Monoxide to Organic Compounds Silver: ALTRIOS: Advanced Locomotive Technology and Rail Infrastructure Optimization System Market Disruptor Silver: Economic Long-Duration Energy Storage by Using Low-Cost Particle-Based Thermal Energy Storage (ENDURING) NLR was also recognized as a contributor to an award-winning technology led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, “Thermophilic One-Pot Bioconversion of PET Waste into Value-Added Aromatics.” Learn more about all of NLR’s R&D 100 Award-winning research. The National Laboratory of the Rockies is a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation, operated under Contract No. DE-AC36-08GO28308. Article from NLR.
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