Transportation Research News
Explore our archive of transportation and mobility research news stories.
Dec. 22, 2020
NREL researchers and staff reached countless goals and achieved numerous successes in science, partnerships, and technology commercialization in 2020, from breaking world records to launching new initiatives. Here are just a few of the highlights.
Dec. 4, 2020
For the first time, researchers with DOE's Co-Optimization of Fuels & Engines (Co-Optima) initiative have shared scientific details that will help the research community and industry identify viable candidates for bio-based fuels that can maximize performance and efficiency when used in turbocharged spark-ignition (SI) engines.
Dec. 1, 2020
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Transportation Secure Data Center (TSDC), a national resource providing free online access to a veritable treasure trove of detailed travel behavior data applicable for a host of research applications.
Nov. 24, 2020
New feature of NREL's electric vehicle infrastructure projection tool helps utilities, agencies, and researchers predict hour-by-hour impact of charging on the grid.
Nov. 18, 2020
NREL will lead a new collaborative research and development project known as HyBlend to address the technical barriers to blending hydrogen in natural gas pipelines.
Nov. 16, 2020
NREL stands at the forefront of the groundbreaking work to improve battery performance, combining extreme fast charging initiatives with grid integration opportunities to meet energy demands.
Nov. 13, 2020
An NREL-led project is developing tomorrow's tough electronic devices capable of withstanding temps of 600°C and other harsh conditions.
Nov. 10, 2020
To predict the future, it helps to know a thing or two about the past. If you want to track down where the next viral hotspot might be, it is useful to know how those spreading the disease are moving.
Nov. 10, 2020
As electric vehicles (EVs) have increased in popularity over the past few years, the infrastructure to charge them has similarly expanded along interstate highways, at workplaces, and at public parking lots across the country.
Oct. 29, 2020
When it comes to cybersecurity for the electric grid, researchers at NREL are looking ahead.
Oct. 12, 2020
On Sept. 23-24, 2020, NREL joined forces with the Charging Interface Initiative (CharIN) to host a high-power electric vehicle charging connector test event.
Oct. 8, 2020
The H2NEW consortium will conduct R&D to enable large-scale manufacturing of affordable electrolyzers that use electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.
Oct. 8, 2020
October 8—10/08—is National Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Day, a date chosen to represent the atomic weight of hydrogen (1.008). The U.S. Senate officially designated Oct. 8, 2020, as National Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Day with the passage of Senate Resolution 720, and Colorado's governor issued a proclamation to proclaim the date as Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Day in Colorado.
Sept. 15, 2020
The Automated Mobility District (AMD) modeling and simulation toolkit makes it easier for researchers and city planners to quantify the advantages and disadvantages of similar transportation evolutions.
Sept. 15, 2020
Electric vehicles (EVs) typically produce fewer emissions than conventional vehicles, but when measuring emissions, the source of electricity matters. The emissions benefit varies from one state to the next depending on how the electricity to charge the battery was generated.
Aug. 27, 2020
The first-ever Transportation Annual Technology Baseline consolidates U.S. vehicle and fuel technologies data for current and future markets through 2050.
Aug. 19, 2020
Shared automated electric vehicles (SAEVs) may bring lower costs, reduced emissions, and a better travel experience, but their uncoordinated charging at scale could stress the electric grid and increase costs. So, an NREL research team explored the potential charging flexibility of future SAEV fleets.
Aug. 18, 2020
A year into their unique collaboration, NREL and ExxonMobil are navigating a multi-pronged effort toward a future where clean-burning biofuels replace some petroleum-based fuels.
Aug. 13, 2020
Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette introduced two new acronyms to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL's) lexicon on Aug. 12: RAIL and ARIES. RAIL stands for Research and Innovation Laboratory, while ARIES is short for Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems.
Aug. 3, 2020
As electric vehicle sales continue to rev up in the United States, the power grid is in parallel contending with the greatest transformation in its 100-year history: the large-scale integration of renewable energy and power electronic devices. The changes will test the limits of grid integration, but NREL sees opportunity at the intersection of energy systems and transportation.
July 29, 2020
In a phenomenon called lithium plating, lithium attaches to graphite particles within the cell instead of inserting itself into the graphite for stable storage. Researchers used high-speed synchrotron X-ray diffraction to gain insight into the conditions that lead to lithium plating.
July 16, 2020
A new single-phase catalyst that enables the conversion of renewable and waste carbon into sustainable diesel fuels has been developed through a unique collaboration between NREL and two DOE consortia, Chemical Catalysis for Bioenergy and the Co-Optimization of Fuels & Engines initiative.
July 16, 2020
Trends such as the rise in e-commerce, increased vehicle electrification, connected mobility, automation, and new forms of delivery are poised to bring a paradigm shift in freight movement. In addition to modeling and forecasting emerging freight trends, having a way to quantify their impacts on freight mobility is critical. The new Freight Mobility Energy Productivity (F-MEP) metric does just that.
June 26, 2020
This year, DOE funded 21 NREL submissions--worth more than a total $6.8 million--through its Technology Commercialization Fund, accounting for 25% of all funded projects, more than any other DOE national laboratory and improving upon NREL's 2018 total of 16.
June 25, 2020
According to NREL researchers, seasonal energy storage can facilitate the deployment of high and ultra-high shares of wind and solar energy sources.
June 24, 2020
As hydrogen fuel cell electric cars and trucks grow in popularity, a new publicly available Hydrogen Filling Simulation (H2FillS) tool is laying the groundwork for the safe design of hydrogen fueling systems.
June 22, 2020
Motorists can save as much as $14,500 on fuel costs over 15 years by driving an electric vehicle instead of a similar one fueled by gasoline, according to a new analysis conducted by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's NREL and Idaho National Laboratory.
June 8, 2020
Passenger cars and light-duty trucks typically account for 55% of U.S. transportation energy use. Recently, sharp increases in demand for deliveries have pressed some commercial trucks—which usually account for more than 25% of transportation-related fuel consumption—into overtime.
June 1, 2020
Sandra Loi, project leader with the Technology Integration section in NREL's Center for Integrated Mobility Sciences, has been awarded the 2020 U.S. Department of Energy Vehicle Technologies Office Distinguished Achievement Award for her outstanding service to technology integration partners.
June 1, 2020
A new National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) technical report details a milestone capability at NREL to develop, emulate, and visualize interconnected power and communications systems for the study of cybersecurity and distributed energy.
May 18, 2020
Since taking the helm of NREL's vehicle technologies research in 2013, John Farrell has been instrumental in directing R&D initiatives for the U.S. DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy's Vehicle Technologies Office, ranging from high-density energy storage to vehicle automation, as well as co-optimization of fuel and engine technologies to vehicle-to-grid interactions.
May 12, 2020
A new machine-learning tool developed at NREL has significantly speeded up calculating the thermodynamics of chemical reactions. Developed as part of the DOE Co-Optimization of Fuels & Engines initiative, the new tool—called ALFABET—makes it possible for researchers to identify the most promising fuels for lower emissions and greater engine efficiency in seconds rather than days.
May 1, 2020
Hydrogen-fueled cars are increasingly popular in California, but moving beyond the state's borders may require 18-wheelers crisscrossing America's highways leading the way. Research at NREL suggests a shift in long-haul trucking toward hydrogen that could drive a coast-to-coast network of fueling stations.
March 30, 2020
A new report summarizes findings from the first phase of the Co-Optimization of Fuels & Engines initiative, which focused on turbocharged spark-ignition engines for light-duty vehicles, identifying the fuel properties and engine parameters that mitigate knock and emissions, while maximizing efficiency and performance.
March 17, 2020
Sreekant Narumanchi was recently selected as an American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) fellow. This recognition honors his extensive involvement with ASME and his excellence in mechanical engineering research at NREL.
March 6, 2020
Science fiction authors and graphic artists from the Denver area joined NREL researchers as they unharnessed their imaginations during a unique workshop that used science fiction as a lens to explore the technological, social, and cultural aspects of a transition to a clean energy future powered by renewables.
Feb. 18, 2020
Across the country, teams of entrepreneurs are competing to build an innovative supply chain that addresses the collection, separating and sorting, safe storage and transportation, and reverse logistics of recycling lithium-ion batteries.
Feb. 18, 2020
New edition also shows continued growth in U.S. installed wind and solar photovoltaic capacity, energy storage, and electric vehicle sales.
Feb. 17, 2020
NREL Senior Scientist Gina Fioroni displays the same tenacity in her research on fuel as in her pursuit of ultrarunning events.
Feb. 4, 2020
Energy storage researcher Donal Finegan, a staff scientist at NREL, recently received the 2020 Young Scientist Award for his groundbreaking work at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF).
Jan. 31, 2020
NREL researchers developed a framework for estimating the energy equivalence of transportation safety at intersections. The new framework evaluates the full economic costs of safety and their gross domestic product-weighted energy equivalences. Initial study results underscore the value of collision-avoidance technologies for benefits beyond safety.
