2025 Innovation Report live: explore highlights from the year
Key Points
- The report details the work of the Technology Transfer Office, Strategic Partnerships Group, Innovation Crossroads, Economic Development, and Research Security teams.
- It celebrates the nearly 300 inventions disclosed, more than 200 elected to patent, 27 licensed technologies, and 73 patents granted.
- These efforts garnered 20 R&D 100 Awards, extending ORNL’s record as the all-time leader, and a lab-leading six Federal Laboratory Consortium Awards, including recognition for the Bull Run fusion partnership with TVA and Type One Energy.
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How big-area 3D printing evolved from ORNL research into new industry
Large-scale 3D printing is entering a new era thanks to a collaboration between Additive Engineering Solutions and Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility. This partnership shows how ORNL helps industry partners solve challenging technical problems, accelerate process development, and create new pathways for advanced manufacturing.
Read more.
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New ORNL Inventions
Novel Candidate Genes for Lignin Structure Revealed by NMR Analysis of Switchgrass GWAS Panel
202405553 // Healthcare and Biology // Energy and Utilities
A novel multiplex network approach was used to identify candidate genes associated with lignin structure in switchgrass. The analysis revealed that many lignin-related traits are influenced not by the core biosynthetic pathway, but by broader regulatory networks. These insights offer a new framework for modifying lignin composition and cell wall characteristics to enhance stress tolerance and improve traits relevant to biofuel and bioproduct production.
Highly Robust, Durable, Resilient and High-Temperature Adhesive
202405558 // Materials // Energy and Utilities
This invention presents a highly durable, heat-resistant adhesive designed for demanding environments including HVAC&R heat exchangers. It addresses the need for an adhesive that has low viscosity (to remain pourable or castable) prior to curing, yet once cured has exceptional stability, strength, and leak resistance under elevated temperatures (up to 90 °C) and pressures. The material demonstrates strong bonding performance on metal surfaces and offers improved reliability where traditional commercial adhesives may degrade.
Fabrication of Multifunctional Metal-Organic Framework-Coated Antimicrobial Filter
202405567 // Materials // Manufacturing
This invention introduces a multifunctional air-filtration platform that integrates a specialized metal-organic-framework coating to provide both antimicrobial activity and volatile organic compound removal. Designed to address persistent challenges in indoor air quality, the technology enables simultaneous capture and controlled decomposition of harmful airborne contaminants while inhibiting microbial growth on filter surfaces. This combined approach supports healthier indoor environments, reduces secondary pollution risks, and enhances overall air-cleaning performance.
Tailoring Interface by Dynamic Chemistry Enables Though Recyclable Mechanoresponsive Smart Materials
202405571 // Materials
This invention introduces a new class of mechanically robust, adaptive hybrid polymeric materials that use dynamic bonding to produce intelligent, reversible visual responses—most notably, strain-induced transparency changes. The design overcomes delamination challenges common in conventional multilayer mechanoresponsive systems by leveraging an upcycled commodity elastomer. The resulting material enables durable, tunable optical behavior suitable for smart windows, sensing, and visual communication technologies.
Method, System and Design for Automated Plant Transformation
202405597 // Healthcare and Biology // Analytical Instrumentation
Plant transformation is essential for genetic engineering but typically depends on labor-intensive, multi-step manual procedures that limit consistency, throughput, and efficiency. This invention introduces an automated approach that replaces key manual operations in plant transformation with an integrated system. By combining robotic handling, sensing, and computational intelligence with a more flexible biological workflow, the technology reduces labor demands, increases reproducibility, and accelerates the production of transgenic plants for research and commercial use.
Magneto-Synthesis of CeCo-Based Magnets
202405676 // Energy and Utilities
Industrial demand for critical rare-earth-element-free permanent magnets is rising as manufacturers seek materials that deliver mid-range energy products without supply-chain vulnerabilities. This invention introduces a castable Ce–Co magnetic material engineered to achieve performance levels traditionally filled by neodymium magnets, but without critical rare-earth content. By guiding microstructural development during processing, this approach enables improved coercivity and remanence, offering a promising pathway to secure, sustainable magnet production.
Hydrogen Analysis by Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry
202505964 // Analytical Instrumentation // Manufacturing
Reliable hydrogen detection within complex gas mixtures is essential for applications ranging from hydrogen production optimization to exploration and forensic analysis. This technology enhances conventional gas chromatography–mass spectrometry systems to enable more sensitive and precise hydrogen quantification, even in the presence of volatile and semi-volatile compounds. By improving low-mass detection performance, the approach supports the development of advanced analytical methods that strengthen decision-making across hydrogen-related industries.
Upcycling of Low-Grade Automotive Aluminum Scrap using Additive Manufacturing
202506041 // Transportation // Manufacturing
Automotive aluminum scrap often contains elevated impurity levels that reduce ductility and limit reuse in structural components. With rising demand for lightweight materials and the growing volume of secondary aluminum, a method to convert low-grade scrap into higher-performance products is needed. ORNL has demonstrated that a unique additive manufacturing–based process can upcycle low-grade automotive aluminum scrap into structural components with improved mechanical performance, enabling a more energy-efficient and cost-effective materials supply chain.
Extending Microgrid Boundaries Dynamically Considering Different Microgrid Business and Ownership Models
202506065 // Energy and Utilities
This technology introduces a method for managing dynamic operational scenarios where multiple microgrids may dynamically extend their operational boundaries to supply unserved customer loads. Unlike today’s fixed-boundary systems, competing microgrids must coordinate coverage without revealing sensitive operational details. The invention provides a controlled decision-making framework that enables microgrid-to-microgrid interaction, supporting fair load coverage allocation while protecting proprietary data.
Tunable Structure and Reinforcement of Polymer Hydrogels Using Fungal Chitinous Particles
202506089 // Materials // Healthcare and Biology
This invention offers a sustainable solution to the longstanding challenge of weak mechanical strength in hydrogels, which limits their performance in biomedical, environmental, and engineering settings. By converting fungal-derived chitinous biomass into reinforcing microparticles, the technology enables hydrogels with enhanced stability, durability, and tunability without relying on synthetic fillers or complex chemistries. This approach reduces costs, promotes circular use of industrial byproducts, and expands the utility of hydrogels for applications ranging from consuming products, to biomedical materials and membranes for separation.
Wireless Power Transfer Systems
202506110 // Transportation // Energy and Utilities
This invention presents a wireless power transfer (WPT) system that uses a four-phase coil architecture to improve energy transfer efficiency while supporting flexible installation constraints. By leveraging a square layout rather than the traditional circular three-phase arrangement, the system enhances coupling, reduces current demands, and minimizes material usage. It also operates effectively with existing single-phase and double-D WPT systems. The design reduces ripple currents and stray fields, lowering requirements for filtering and shielding while improving operational safety and system reliability.
Real-Time Homodyne Detection Server
202506125 // Energy and Utilities
This technology provides a homodyne detector and read-out server system capable of delivering real-time quadrature samples to clients on demand. By reliably capturing, buffering, and time-tagging measurement data, the platform supports precise quadrature sampling needed for advanced quantum optical experiments. The system enables clients to request specific sample times, improving the accessibility and scalability of homodyne-based characterization techniques essential for quantum networking and state tomography.
Real-time Photon-Subtraction System Orchestrator
202506126 // Energy and Utilities
This technology provides a real-time system for orchestrating photon-subtracted resource states used in advanced quantum networking and computing protocols. By generating synchronized, low-latency heralding signals from multi-mode detection events, the system supports applications that require rapid access to non-Gaussian quantum states. This capability addresses a key bottleneck in deploying high-fidelity quantum communication and sensing architectures.
To learn more about these technologies, email partnerships@ornl.gov or call
865-574-1051.
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