The Critical Materials Institute (CMI), an Energy Innovation Hub of the U.S. Department of Energy that is led by the Ames National Laboratory, won five awards issued across three categories of the R&D World awards program. These include the inaugural Professional Awards: R&D Technician of the Year, a Special Award for Green Technology, and three R&D 100 Awards.
Olena Palasyuk, Ames National Laboratory, won R&D Technician of the Year LINK. She is a key member for research groups at Ames Lab, including CMI, where she has been the Safety Coordinator, serving as a liaison between the research group and the laboratory Environmental, Health and Safety division.
This year, three CMI technologies won the R&D 100 Award LINK, plus one won a special award for green technology LINK. Each of the three CMI technologies recognized emerged from projects that spanned multiple Team members, including industry, academic and national laboratory partners.
- R&D 100 Award: Critical Rare Earth Free Cerium Gap Magnets, Critical Materials Institute, Ames National Laboratory, and BUNTING-DuBois. This was developed through the CMI project led by Andriy Palasyuk, Ames National Laboratory. He describes collaboration and research in permanent magnets in this video from Ames National Laboratory LINK. For more information, contact Andriy Palasyuk at palasyuk@ameslab.gov.
- R&D 100 Award: EASE: Ether-based Aqueous Separations and Extractions, Idaho National Laboratory and Ames National Laboratory. This was developed through the CMI project led by Aaron Wilson, Idaho National Laboratory. See more details in this publication: C. Stetson, D. Prodius, H. Lee, C. Orme, B. White, H. Rollins, D. Ginosar, I.C. Nlebedim and A.D. Wilson, “Solvent-driven fractional crystallization for atom-efficient separation of metal salts from permanent magnet leachates,” Nature Communications (July 1 2022) LINK. For more information, contact Aaron Wilson at aaron.wilson@inl.gov.
- R&D 100 Award and Special Recognition: Green Technology, Bronze Award: A continuous hot-roll process to manufacture nanograin Neo magnet, Critical Materials Institute, Ames National Laboratory. This was developed through the CMI project led by Jun Cui, Ames National Laboratory. For more information, contact Jun Cui at cuijun@iastate.edu.
With these new awards, CMI now has won a total of 12 awards in R&D 100 Awards programs. The earlier awards are:
2022 Electrochemical Leach (EC-Leach),
2021 Tough SmCo,
2021 RE-Metal,
2018 Acid-free Dissolution Recycling of Rare Earth Elements and Cobalt won both an R&D 100 Award and the 2018 Gold Award R&D 100 Special Recognition, Green Tech,
2017 ACE: The Ageless Aluminum Revolution, and
2017 Additively Printed High Performance Magnets.
In 10 years of work, CMI has published more than 585 refereed publications in leading scientific journals. Cumulatively, CMI has developed six open-source software packages LINK. CMI technologies have received 42 U.S. patents. Twenty CMI technologies have been licensed, and some CMI inventions are in commercial use. For information on partnering with CMI or licensing CMI technologies, contact Stacy Joiner, CMI Partner Relations, sjoiner@ameslab.gov or 515-296-4508.
The Critical Materials Institute is a Department of Energy Innovation Hub led by the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames National Laboratory and supported by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Advanced Materials & Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO) LINK. CMI seeks ways to eliminate and reduce reliance on rare-earth metals and other materials critical to the success of clean energy technologies.
Ames National Laboratory is a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science National Laboratory operated by Iowa State University. Ames Laboratory creates innovative materials, technologies and energy solutions. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit https://energy.gov/science.
Contacts:
Thomas Lograsso, Critical Materials Institute Director, 515-296-4500
Laura Millsaps, Ames Laboratory Communications Manager, 515-294-3474