ORNL earns record 22 R&D 100 Awards

Key points

• Oak Ridge National Laboratory earned a record 22 R&D 100 Awards in 2026, marking the third consecutive year its annual award total has increased.
• ORNL led 18 winning technologies - the most of any organization in this year's competition - and contributed to four additional winners led by partner institutions.
• AWARE, an AI-enhanced technology designed to identify dangerous power grid conditions, also earned a Bronze Special Recognition award in the Market Disruptor category.
• ORNL's M. Parans Paranthaman was named R&D World's 2026 Researcher of the Year.

The Department of Energy's (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) earned a new lab record with 22 R&D 100 Awards in 2026 for technologies that advance energy, manufacturing, computing, biotechnology and other fields. ORNL led 18 of the winning technologies and contributed to four additional award-winning projects led by partner institutions.

The annual R&D 100 Awards recognize 100 of the year's most technologically significant products and advancements. This year's winners were selected from 149 finalists, including 28 involving ORNL, representing universities, corporations and government laboratories worldwide.

Among ORNL's winners, AWARE, or Multi-Event Grid Intelligence Platform for Wildfire Prevention and Resilience, also earned a Bronze Special Recognition award in the Market Disruptor category.

In addition, R&D World magazine named ORNL's Parans Paranthaman its 2026 Researcher of the Year, recognizing his work in materials science, energy technology and advanced manufacturing.

"ORNL continues to lead in delivering innovative technologies that move science from the laboratory into real-world impact," said ORNL Director Stephen Streiffer. "This year's R&D 100 Awards highlight our strengths across energy, manufacturing, computing and biotechnology, as well as the value of our partnerships in advancing solutions that benefit the nation."

ORNL's 2026 R&D 100 Award winners

Affordable Efficient Thermoelectric Dishwasher with Enhanced Drying - Developed with Samsung Electronics America, the dishwasher uses a solid-state heat pump and wastewater heat recovery to reduce energy consumption while improving drying performance.

AWARE: Multi-Event Grid Intelligence Platform for Wildfire Prevention and Resilience - Developed with Southern California Edison, the AI-enhanced platform detects and classifies abnormal power grid conditions that can contribute to wildfires, equipment damage and blackouts.

GeoWISE: Geothermal Heat Pump Web-Based Integrated Simulation and Economic Analysis Tool - Developed with Oklahoma State University, the web-based platform rapidly evaluates geothermal feasibility for buildings, campuses and communities by automating energy modeling, simulations and infrastructure sizing.

Microgrid Orchestrator: A Distributed Controller for Networked Microgrids - Developed with New Sun Road and Casa Pueblo, the technology coordinates electricity transfers among connected microgrids to improve reliability and resilience while reducing costs.

Multiplexing Extrusion System (MExS) - Developed with the University of Maine, the additive manufacturing system can simultaneously deposit multiple materials within a single printed bead, doubling deposition throughput while enabling new combinations of structural and functional materials.

ORNL & BMW 22kW Polyphase Wireless Power Transfer System with Rotating Magnetic Fields - Developed with BMW Group, the compact wireless vehicle charging system delivers twice the charging power of current standard wireless systems while occupying 61 percent less space and maintaining more than 95 percent charging efficiency.

PASTREE: Phosphoric Acid Sludge Treatment for Rare Earths Extraction - Developed with the Florida Industrial and Phosphate Research Institute, PASTREE streamlines the recovery of rare earth elements and other valuable materials from phosphate industry by-products, reducing capital and operating costs while providing a more economically viable recovery pathway.

Recycled Composite Oven - Developed with Whirlpool Corporation, the residential oven replaces a traditional steel cavity with fiberglass composites and thermoset polymers to reduce energy demand while maintaining cooking performance.

Terpenes Conversion to Aviation Fuel - Developed with Captis Aire, the technology converts waste terpenes from the wood industry into hydrocarbons that can be blended into sustainable aviation fuel.

Programmable Tri-Structural Isotropic (TRISO) Nuclear Fuel - Developed by ORNL with TRISO-X and Arc Impact, the technology precisely controls the placement of TRISO fuel particles rather than relying on random packing, increasing fuel density and potentially extending fuel cycles.

Electrochemical CO2 Graphitization (ECOG) - The process converts carbon dioxide directly into high-purity graphitic carbon at 550 degrees Celsius, far below the temperatures required for conventional graphite manufacturing, offering a less energy-intensive pathway to battery-grade graphite.

MS-PolyFuel Technology - ORNL researchers developed MS-PolyFuel Technology, a molten-salt system that converts waste polyethylene and other polymers into gasoline- and diesel-range hydrocarbons under mild conditions. The technology uses inexpensive, recyclable salts as both solvent and catalyst, eliminating the need for noble-metal catalysts, organic solvents or external hydrogen.

NEAREST: Neutral Extractant Advanced Rare Earth Separation Technology - The technology uses a new two-ligand approach to separate individual rare earth elements while reducing chemical use, waste and projected processing costs compared with conventional methods.

Algae Composite - Developed with the California Institute of Technology, the low-cost composite uses wastewater algae and agricultural residues to produce material for applications such as lightweight structural panels, packaging and insulation.

Thermophilic One-Pot Bioconversion of PET Waste into Value-Added Aromatics - Developed with the National Laboratory of the Rockies, the process uses an engineered heat-loving microbe to convert polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic waste into a higher-value industrial chemical in a single step.

tSAGE: Thermostable Serine Recombinase Assisted Genome Engineering - This biotechnology platform reduces the time required to add new DNA to heat-loving industrial microbes from about four weeks to about three days, enabling rapid development of biotechnologies for high-temperature manufacturing.

ATLAS-Tx - ATLAS-Tx, an AI technology developed by ORNL and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, predicts gene activity in hard-to-access tissues using data from tissues that are easier to sample.

LuGo: An Enhanced Quantum Phase Estimation Implementation - ORNL developed LuGo, a software framework that makes quantum computing faster and more efficient. LuGo improves a core quantum algorithm by generating circuits more than 50 times faster and reducing quantum gates and circuit depth by more than 30-fold without sacrificing accuracy.

ORNL also contributed to four winning technologies led by partner institutions:

Persistent DynAMICS - Led by Los Alamos National Laboratory with ORNL and other partner organizations, Persistent DynAMICS is a lightweight software platform that enables distributed sensing systems to operate as a unified, responsive network. It integrates with existing sensors, data systems and processing tools as an overlay without requiring hardware replacement or increasing user burden.

Pulsar-Based Timing System: An Alternative Time Reference for Resilient Synchronization - Led by the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, with ORNL, the system uses radio signals from rotating neutron stars, or pulsars, to provide a resilient timing reference for power grid applications when satellite-based timing is disrupted.

Pele Suite of Exascale Reacting Flow Codes - The National Laboratory of the Rockies developed Pele in collaboration with ORNL and other national laboratory partners. The open-source simulation software suite uses exascale computing to model complex turbulent reacting flows found in energy, transportation, manufacturing and other applications.

Tritium Migration Analysis Program: TMAP8 - Led by Idaho National Laboratory with ORNL, the open-source computational tool models tritium movement and fuel cycle technologies in fusion energy systems, in which effective tritium management is critical to safety, sustainability and economic viability.

More information about the winners

Affordable Efficient Thermoelectric Dishwasher with Enhanced Drying

A dishwasher invented by ORNL in collaboration with Samsung Electronics America recovers rejected thermal energy to unlock cost savings and improve drying performance to expand consumer choice for everyday household appliances.

Standard dishwashers operate in an open-loop thermal system without wastewater heat recovery. ORNL's thermoelectric dishwasher uses a solid-state heat pump and integrated wastewater heat recovery in a closed-loop system in which captured wastewater acts as a thermal battery. The system recovers heat from the wastewater and transfers it to the wash and rinse water, and by drawing on that captured energy, it delivers more heating capacity than it consumes in electric power, thereby reducing the dishwasher's overall energy consumption.

AWARE: Multi-Event Grid Intelligence Platform for Wildfire Prevention and Resilience

Also received a Bronze Special Recognition award in the Market Disruptor category

AWARE is an AI-enhanced platform for detecting, classifying and reporting abnormal power grid conditions that can lead to wildfires, equipment damage and blackouts. It incorporates AI to rapidly analyze waveforms that represent grid behavior: recognizing unusual conditions, identifying what happened and when, and clarifying the severity of the condition. The grid intelligence platform can then automatically alert a utility to dangerous grid behaviors requiring immediate response, including low-current arcing, which is a common cause of wildfires and has historically been almost impossible to detect rapidly.

Unlike conventional tools that rely on threshold-based detection or assume a single event per signal, AWARE can identify and classify multiple events within a single waveform. This capability reflects real utility conditions, in which disturbances are often overlapping, repetitive or closely spaced in time.

Southern California Edison provided real grid data to train the AI as well as insight and feedback on the evolution of the algorithm and its integration features. The collaboration ensured the technology went beyond detection to interpretation so that its insights are operationally meaningful for utilities, edge sensor companies, grid operators and critical-infrastructure organizations that require improved visibility into subtle and emerging grid disturbances.

GeoWISE: Geothermal Heat Pump Web-Based Integrated Simulation and Economic Analysis Tool

A web-based platform developed by ORNL researchers rapidly assesses geothermal feasibility for buildings, campuses or communities. GeoWISE automatically generates building energy models, performs detailed energy simulations and sizes geothermal infrastructure using integrated modeling tools.

Unlike traditional geothermal design tools that require extensive user inputs and separate software packages, GeoWISE streamlines the entire process into a single automated workflow. By leveraging a database of more than 125 million U.S. buildings, the platform can generate energy models from simple inputs such as a street address. GeoWISE also allows users to evaluate integrated solutions that reduce energy consumption, lower system costs and improve building performance.

Microgrid Orchestrator: A Distributed Controller for Networked Microgrids

The microgrid orchestrator technology, developed by ORNL and integrated into a commercial controller by New Sun Road, coordinates power transfers among neighboring, connected microgrids for improved electricity reliability, resilience and cost savings. The orchestrator preserves local control and privacy by communicating only power information at the connection point, and it provides decentralized optimization.

Among independently owned microgrids that include energy generation and storage, the orchestrator shapes behavior by establishing an artificial "energy market" for importing and exporting. The orchestrator can be used to reduce energy costs when microgrids are connected to the broader grid or to extend independent operation during a broad outage. This full suite of capabilities, combined with the versatility to control hardware from multiple vendors, has not been available in previous microgrid platforms.

In a demonstration with its controller in three connected microgrids, New Sun Road found that the integrated orchestrator reduced total operating costs by 11 percent and increased average operating time during independent microgrid operation by 20 percent. It also prevented loss of service to a microgrid that would otherwise have lost power, keeping all three microgrids operating for 24 hours.

Multiplexing Extrusion System (MExS)

MExS is the first pellet-fed extrusion-based additive manufacturing system capable of simultaneously depositing multiple materials within a single bead, enabling architected hybrid composite structures during large-scale additive manufacturing.

Conventional systems are limited to one material at a time, constraining both productivity and structural design flexibility. MExS integrates synchronized pellet-fed extruders with a proprietary multiplexing nozzle architecture that enables side-by-side, core-shell and gradient material structures during printing. The design doubles deposition throughput and enables precise control over internal material architecture.

The technology enables hybrid composite structures with tailored mechanical and functional properties, including ductile-shell and stiff-core architectures, foam-core sandwich beads and multifunctional materials with embedded conductive or thermal pathways. MExS also enables printing of long-fiber pultruded composite pellets previously incompatible with extrusion-based systems.

MExS represents a fundamental advance in manufacturing capability. By combining doubled throughput with unprecedented control over in-bead material architecture, MExS opens an entirely new design space for high-performance structural and multifunctional components across national security, defense and infrastructure sectors.

ORNL and BMW 22kW Polyphase Wireless Power Transfer System with Rotating Magnetic Fields

A next-generation wireless charging system developed by ORNL and BMW Group delivers twice the charging power of today's standard wireless charging systems while taking up 61 percent less space. The technology also uses significantly less ferrite, copper and aluminum while maintaining more than 95 percent charging efficiency, helping lower costs and reduce reliance on critical materials. The compact design supports next-generation vehicle manufacturing and expands options for convenient, high-power wireless charging.

PASTREE: Phosphoric Acid Sludge Treatment for Rare Earths Extraction

Establishing a new domestic supply chain for rare earth elements (REEs) is a national priority. The phosphate industry represents an untapped resource for the U.S. REE supply chain, as significant concentrations of REEs are found within phosphate by-product streams. For years, various technical approaches have been investigated to validate REE recovery from phosphate streams - primarily phosphogypsum - yet economic feasibility has remained elusive due to the complexity and high operating costs of conventional methods such as solvent extraction.

Applied to this high-potential source, the PASTREE process intensifies multiple conventional steps into a single, streamlined operation. This approach significantly reduces capital and operating costs while simultaneously recovering all valuable materials alongside REEs, thereby maximizing profitability and providing an economically viable path forward.

Recycled Composite Oven

A residential kitchen oven developed by ORNL researchers in collaboration with Whirlpool Corporation improves cooking time and lowers overall energy demand by using fiberglass composites and thermoset polymers to replace the traditional steel cavity.

The electric composite oven is designed with thermally insulating structural walls and a thermally optimized, reflective interior surface to enhance heat transfer within the chamber. This design results in a lighter-weight appliance that reduces external surface heat during operation and maintains consistent cooking performance for everyday household use. By lowering the oven's electrical demand without increasing costs, the design helps reduce energy bills and frees up electrical panel capacity for other appliances.

Terpenes Conversion to Aviation Fuel

Waste terpenes captured from the wood industry provide no-cost or low-cost cyclic hydrocarbons that are otherwise released as toxic gases. A catalytic approach was developed that can effectively convert waste terpene feedstocks to aromatics and cycloalkanes blended as drop-in sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

The SAF grand challenge requires a 100 percent SAF drop-in blend that can replace Jet-A in the aviation industry. This technology produces a 100 percent SAF blend with fuel properties similar to those of petroleum-derived Jet-A. This SAF blend extends the 50 percent blendstock limit on current SAF infrastructure through the converted terpenes catalytic approach.

This technology relies on hydrocarbons sourced entirely from the U.S., easing supply chain constraints. This work is poised to enhance national energy security through resilient, reliable and affordable technologies and to accelerate the U.S. transition toward energy self-sufficiency and independence.

Programmable Tri-Structural Isotropic (TRISO) Nuclear Fuel

Programmable TRISO Nuclear Fuel enables the economic deployment of inherently safe nuclear energy by transforming how TRISO fuel is designed and manufactured. Although TRISO fuel offers exceptional safety through particle-level containment, its widespread adoption has been limited by low fuel density and inefficient utilization resulting from random particle packing.

This technology replaces randomness with deterministic fuel architecture, allowing precise control over particle placement within each fuel pellet. Early demonstrations have achieved up to twofold increases in fuel density, and modeling indicates the potential to at least double fuel cycle length. These advances enable higher power output, longer operating cycles, reduced refueling outages and significantly lower operating costs.

Programmable TRISO Nuclear Fuel also improves fuel utilization by enabling more uniform burnup, reducing unused fuel and increasing overall efficiency. The result is a shift from statistically defined fuel to engineered systems optimized for performance, safety and longevity.

By addressing a central barrier to TRISO deployment, this innovation opens a scalable pathway to reliable, affordable and inherently safe nuclear energy.

Electrochemical CO2 Graphitization (ECOG)

Electrochemical CO2 Graphitization (ECOG) is an energy-efficient and cost-effective alternative to conventional graphite manufacturing. This innovative molten-salt electrochemical process directly converts carbon dioxide into high-value graphitic carbon in a single step at a record-low operating temperature of 550 degrees Celsius. The process produces high-purity crystalline graphite, a critical material for modern energy technologies, while dramatically reducing energy requirements and production costs. ECOG transforms carbon dioxide from an industrial waste product into a valuable resource, creating new economic opportunities for carbon-emitting industries.

Researchers at ORNL have successfully demonstrated the conversion of carbon dioxide into high-purity, battery-grade graphite at 550 degrees Celsius, compared with approximately 3,000 degrees Celsius for conventional thermal graphitization processes. The resulting graphite exhibits excellent electrochemical performance as a lithium-ion battery anode, highlighting its potential for advanced energy storage applications. By leveraging molten-salt electrochemistry, ECOG offers a scalable, economical and significantly less energy-intensive route to graphite production. Beyond lowering manufacturing costs, the technology provides a pathway to establish new revenue streams from waste carbon dioxide while strengthening domestic supplies of a critical energy material. ECOG directly supports global efforts to enhance supply chain resilience, reduce the environmental footprint of graphite production, and advance scalable manufacturing by converting abundant carbon dioxide into high-value materials for next-generation energy technologies.

MS-PolyFuel Technology

ORNL developed the MS-PolyFuel Technology, a molten-salt system that converts waste polyethylene and other polymers into gasoline- and diesel-range hydrocarbons under mild conditions. The technology uses inexpensive, recyclable salts as both solvent and catalyst, eliminating the need for noble-metal catalysts, organic solvents or external hydrogen.

The process provides a potential route for turning abundant plastic waste into useful fuels and chemical feedstocks compatible with existing infrastructure. Its low-cost materials, relatively low operating temperature and simple process design offer potential for scalable plastic upcycling and commercialization.

NEAREST: Neutral Extractant Advanced Rare Earth Separation Technology

NEAREST addresses one of the most difficult and costly challenges in the rare earth supply chain: producing high-purity individual rare earth elements. Conventional processes rely on acidic phosphonic extractants, complex flowsheets, and high chemical consumption, and they generate substantial wastewater. NEAREST introduces a fundamentally new two-ligand strategy using neutral lipophilic and hydrophilic ligands with contrasting selectivity to improve separation efficiency.

The process achieves comparable throughput with approximately 50 percent less organic extractant, minimizes acid-base chemistry, eliminates saponification and neutralization, and enables recycling of both organic and aqueous streams - reducing projected capital expenditures, operating expenditures and waste. Applicable to primary and secondary resources, NEAREST offers a more selective and economical alternative. With demonstrated industry interest, licensing activity and domestic chemical supply pathways, NEAREST has strong potential to redefine industrial rare earth separations.

Algae Composite

ORNL and the California Institute of Technology codeveloped a low-cost, high-performance composite building material made from wastewater algae and agricultural residues such as switchgrass. The material is manufactured using a bio-based binding mechanism and compression molding. The composite costs an estimated 63 percent less than traditional materials such as medium-density fiberboard. Production time for the composite was reduced from 14 days to just 30 seconds through successive improvements in material formulation and processing.

The algae composite achieved high mechanical performance levels, with epoxy treatment improving the material's stiffness. Development of the composite supports domestic supply chains for high-performance materials for applications such as lightweight structural panels, packaging and insulation.

Thermophilic One-Pot Bioconversion of PET Waste into Value-Added Aromatics

This biomanufacturing process uses an engineered, heat-loving microbe, Parageobacillus thermoglucosidasius, to convert PET plastic waste into a valuable industrial chemical in a single step. The process replaces conventional recycling methods that are more complicated and energy-intensive and that yield low-value products. Instead of simply breaking plastic back into its original ingredients, the process transforms it into protocatechuic acid, a compound used to make products such as antioxidants, specialty polymers, cosmetics ingredients and other industrial chemicals.

Approximately 2.97 million tons of PET bottles are consumed every year in the United States, and less than 30 percent of them are currently recycled. This approach could make recycling more economically attractive by turning discarded bottles, packaging and textiles into higher-value products using consolidated processing. With further development, the process could expand domestic production of valuable chemicals while reducing waste and reliance on more expensive raw materials. The technology was codeveloped by ORNL and the National Laboratory of the Rockies.

tSAGE: Thermostable Serine Recombinase Assisted Genome Engineering

tSAGE is a biotechnology platform that dramatically speeds the process of adding new DNA to heat-loving microbes used in industrial manufacturing. It replaces a manual process that takes about four weeks with a streamlined workflow completed in about three days, allowing scientists to build and test hundreds of microbial designs far more quickly.

By accelerating microbial design, tSAGE helps researchers develop organisms that can more efficiently convert plant materials and other low-cost feedstocks into advanced chemicals, materials and other valuable products. The technology also supports high-temperature manufacturing processes that can reduce production costs and speed innovation. The platform, developed at ORNL, can also be used to engineer microbes for new industrial applications, including converting domestic sources of plastic waste into valuable chemicals.

ATLAS-Tx

ATLAS-Tx is an AI technology developed by ORNL and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences that predicts gene activity in hard-to-access tissues using data from tissues that are easier to sample. By creating a "virtual biopsy," ATLAS-Tx could reduce invasive sampling and animal studies while advancing precision medicine, drug development and toxicology.

LuGo: An Enhanced Quantum Phase Estimation Implementation

ORNL developed LuGo, a software framework that makes quantum computing faster and more efficient. LuGo improves a core quantum algorithm by generating circuits more than 50 times faster and reducing quantum gates and circuit depth by more than 30-fold without sacrificing accuracy. The advance brings practical quantum computing closer to solving challenges in energy, engineering and scientific discovery, reinforcing ORNL's leadership in quantum computing and high-performance computing.