National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL)

The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) will develop lightweight, cost-effective, precipitation-strengthened refractory high entropy alloys (RHEAs) for additive manufacturing. The advantage is an alloy with all phases in thermodynamic equilibrium, promoting high microstructural stability. The alloys will be comprised of a ductile high entropy solid solution matrix strengthened by fine precipitates of the high entropy carbides. NETL will use high throughput, multi-scale computer modeling, and machine learning to identify novel alloys within the large compositional space. The team will integrate computational and experimental additive manufacturing (AM) research into the alloy design effort with the aim of producing sound articles with stable and desirable microstructures and providing feedback to the alloy design. Electron beam melting and/or laser beam powder bed AM will be used to manufacture materials. At completion, the project will demonstrate a disruptive alloy and technology for potentially manufacturing turbine blades for service at temperatures greater than 1300 °C.

Combining development of new ultrahigh temperature materials with compatible coatings and manufacturing technologies has the potential to increase gas turbine efficiency up to 7%, which will significantly reduce wasted energy and carbon emissions.