Dana Christensen is the Associate Laboratory Director of the Energy & Engineering Sciences Directorate of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The Directorate is the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) largest energy research and technology organization, annually executing over $350M of programs for a variety of government and industrial sponsors in all aspects of energy science and technology. Dr. Christensen came to ORNL from the University of California where he was the principal Associate Laboratory Director of Threat Reduction at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Prior to this he was the Deputy Associate at the Laboratory for Energy and Environment at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, also operated by the University of California. He has twenty nine years of management experience in material science, nuclear energy, fossil and renewable energy, nuclear materials management and scientific research in support of DOE and other Government agencies and industries.
The need for carbon dioxide stabilization and energy security means a fundamental change to our energy systems. In the near and mid term biofuels along with improved vehicle fuel economy are the only options that can address these two concerns for the transportation sector. It is useful to think of bioenergy as analogous to other existing energy networks like the electric power grid. We know from past experience and analysis that a successful energy network fulfills five key requirements. It must be agile, available, secure, reliable and sustainable. The Department of Energy is tackling these challenges with a multi-pronged approach that covers the nation. It is partnering with National Laboratories, private companies and Universities. At Oak Ridge National Laboratory, we are tackling the basic science needed to understand and ultimately mitigate the recalcitrance of cell walls that hinders the accessibility of cell wall sugars. On the analysis side we are the leading US institution for analyzing the potential cost and supply of bioenergy feedstocks bringing together spatially explicit information on feedstock yields and production costs. The research needed to enable biofuels to become a successful and nationally significant energy network is challenging but we are making good progress.
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Thanks to Sarah Ashton, Rachel Cook, Lindsey Hannum, James Jeuck, Liwei Lin, James McCarter, Susan McIntyre, and Mark Megalos for providing notes and summaries for presentations.