2021 R&D 100 Award for Domestic supply chain of filter media and face masks

  • Love, Lonnie (Recipient), Blue, Craig (Recipient), Theodore, Merlin (Recipient), Larsen, Gregory (Recipient), Paranthaman, Parans (Recipient), Tsai, Peter (Recipient), Franc, Alan (Recipient), Arguello Jr., Luis (Recipient) & Holm , Christopher (Recipient)

Prize: Honorary award

Description

ORNL researchers adapted melt-blowing capabilities at DOE’s Carbon Fiber Technology Facility to enable the production of filter material for N95 masks in the fight against COVID-19. The team used polypropylene supplemented with an additive from polymer material manufacturer Techmer PM. Peter Tsai, N95 mask material inventor, assisted ORNL in building a novel electrostatic charging device to charge the melt-blown material in production.

The resulting process had the capability to produce filter media for 9,000 masks per hour at greater than 95% filtration efficiency. DemeTECH, a medical supply company, also used ORNL’s technology – co-developed with air, fuel and lube filtration product supplier Cummins – to manufacture filtration material and masks and expanded their Miami-based operations to include 15 production lines capable of yielding three million surgical masks and half a million N95 masks per day.

ORNL’s COVID manufacturing efforts were conducted in coordination with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and funded in part by the DOE Office of Science through the National Virtual Biotechnology Laboratory, a consortium of DOE national laboratories focused on response to COVID-19, with funding provided by the Coronavirus CARES Act.

DOE’s Carbon Fiber Technology Facility at ORNL is supported by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Advanced Manufacturing Office and the Vehicle Technologies Office.

Researchers on the project included ORNL’s Lonnie Love, Craig Blue, Merlin Theodore, Greg Larsen and Parans Paranthaman; Peter Tsai, formerly of the University of Tennessee; Alan Franc of Techmer PM; Luis Arguello Jr. of DemeTECH; and Christopher Holm of Cummins.

    Fingerprint