Prof. Sanjoy Banerjee of City College of New York and City University of New York Energy Institute, Sandia National Laboratories, Urban Electric Power, Inc., Brookhaven National Laboratory, and the Department of Energy Office of Electricity, Energy Storage Research Program won the 2019 US Environmental Protection Agency Green Chemistry Challenge Award in the Academic category. The team was recognized for creating large-scale zinc-manganese oxide batteries that can be recharged thousands of times without the typical decrease in the length of the battery’s life-time. These batteries do not have some of the limitations of lithium-ion and lead-acid batteries, and they use materials that are abundant and common in existing supply chains. Sandians Tim Lambert, Mathew Lim, Igor Kolesnichenko, and Babu Chalamala, along with Prof. Igor Vasiliev from New Mexico State University were also involved in this research project.

Dr. Stan Atcitty, who leads the DOE Energy Storage Power Electronics subprogram at Sandia National Laboratories, was honored as a distinguished SNL technical staff member and as a serial innovator and multiple R&D 100 recipient. New Mexico House Representative Abbas Akhil asked Dr. Atcitty to join him at the New Mexico Legislature on the floor of the State House of Representative on March 6, 2019 and present him with a certificate from the NM Legislature. Dr. Atcitty has distinguished himself as a serial innovator by receiving five R&D 100 Awards, dubbed the “Oscars of Invention” by former Chicago Tribune science writer Jon Van.

Dr. Jon Ihlefeld, a Distinguished Member of Sandia National Laboratories’ Technical Staff, was unanimously selected to receive The American Ceramics Society’s 2017 Richard M. Fulrath Award for his contributions to electronic ceramics research and development. The award will be presented Oct. 9, 2017, at The American Ceramics Society’s 119th annual meeting in Pittsburg, PA.

The award recognizes individuals younger than 45 who have demonstrated excellence in research and development in the ceramics sciences. Presented to two American researchers and three Japanese researchers annually since 1978, the award promotes technical collaboration among the diverse cultures surrounding the Pacific Rim.

Dr. Ihlefeld is internationally recognized for his work on ferroelectrics, funded in-part by Sandia’s Laboratory Directed Research Development Office; dielectric integration, funded in-part by the Office of Electricity’s Energy Storage Program managed by Dr. Imre Gyuk; and fast ion conductors, funded in-part by the Office of Nuclear Energy.

On June 12, 2017 UniEnergy Technology (UET) and Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNNL) jointly received the prestigious EPA / American Chemical Society Green Chemistry Challenge Award. The achievement being recognized is the development and commercialization of an advanced Vanadium flow battery. Using an ingenious mixed acid electrolyte, research at PNNL, funded by DOE’s Office of Electricity, over a five year period succeeded in cutting the cost of the storage system in half, doubling the temperature window, and roughly doubling the energy density. UET licensed the technology, perfected the manufacturing process, found financial partners and has started to commercialize the system. As a flow battery the UniEnergy battery separates power and energy. Power is produced in a reversible fuel cell and the energy resides in the vanadium electrolyte stored in large tanks. As a result the company was able to produce a long duration, four hour battery with long life time and little degradation. More than 100 megawatt hours of UET systems are deployed, ordered, or awarded.

The ceremony took place at Washington’s National Academy. The Green Awards Program recognizes individuals and organizations on a national level for successfully researching, developing, and implementing outstanding green chemical technologies. Five awards were presented at the event. Dr. Imre Gyuk, director of OE’s Energy Storage Program, joined the UET/PNNL team on stage during the award presentation.

The Sandia National Laboratories storage program is involved in several field validation projects using the technology. A blog providing further details on the award is available on the DOE-OE web site: https://energy.gov/oe/articles/unienergy-technologies-and-pnnl-recognized-advancing-energy-storage-national-level.

The NAATBatt International Board of Directors presented the 2016 NAATBatt Lifetime Achievement Award for Public Service to Dr. Imre Gyuk, Energy Storage Program Manager of the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, at the NAATBatt 2016 Annual Meeting & Conference’s Gala Dinner March 2, 2016, at the Hyatt Regency Indian Wells at Palm Springs, California.

According to the NAATBatt’s announcement of the awards, Dr. Gyuk has been central to the advancing energy storage during the past 13 years. Under Dr. Gyuk’s leadership, the Electrical Energy Storage research program within the DOE’s Office of Electricity identified and funded dozens of new stationary energy storage technologies, several of which are used today in unsubsidized, commercial projects, producing significant benefits for the electricity grid and for electricity consumers. “Without Dr. Gyuk’s leadership and the seed funding of new technologies that he oversaw and directed, it is difficult to imagine that the energy storage market we know today would look anything like it does or, perhaps, would exist at all. Dr. Gyuk and his programs epitomize the essential role of government in supporting the transition of important, new technologies from the laboratory to commercial viability in the marketplace. Dr. Imre Gyuk is the winner of the NAATBatt 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award-Public Service.”

Prof. Detchko Pavlov of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Electrochemistry and Energy Systems also received NAATBatt’s Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions in lead-acid battery manufacture and operation, and the oxygen cycle reactions in valve-regulated lead-acid batteries.

Read more about NAATBatt’s Industry Awards here.

Dr. Stanley Atcitty, an energy storage systems researcher at Sandia National Laboratories, was among 13 U.S. Dept. of Energy-funded researchers to be named a winner of the 2012 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor granted by the U.S. government on outstanding scientists and engineers, who are early in their independent research careers.

Dr. Atcitty was nominated by the Energy Department’s Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability for advances in power electronics for the electric grid including the development of a high-temperature silicon-carbide power module and an ultra-high-voltage silicon-carbide thyristor, for research on grid integration of energy storage, and for mentorship in the Native American community.

For more information, see the Sandia news release and the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) Awards Ceremony program.

Dr. Imre Gyuk, Energy Storage Program Manager, Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, was named winner of the 2009 Energy Storage Association’s Philip Symons Award. Also, John Boyes of Sandia National Laboratories was awarded the ESA’s 2010 Philip Symons Award.

The award is in memory of ESA founding member, Dr. Philip Symons, and is presented annually to a deserving recipient for contributions to the advancement of electricity storage. For more information, see the ESA Philip Symons Award announcement.