Having established the largest non-industrial catalysis research and development effort in the U.S., a group of scientists at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is making changes to better focus on key scientific problems that they believe will help the nation secure a strong, clean energy future. This renewed focus will be aimed at developing catalysts that can efficiently make fuels from alternate feedstocks such as biomass and carbon dioxide, can store electrical energy in chemical bonds, and can increase fuel efficiency and cut emissions at the same time. The shift comes at a time when the country is looking for alternatives to burning fossil fuels, which release greenhouse gases responsible for warming the earth. The renewed focus is marked by a new name for the institute — established in 2005 — and by the arrival of a new director, chemist Johannes Lercher of the Technische Universitaet Muenchen.
