Argonne will soon complete a major upgrade of the Advanced Photon Source (APS), a DOE national user facility that is one of the most productive X-ray light sources in the world. APS’s already ultrabright X-ray beams are anticipated to increase by up to 500 times after the upgrade, thus enabling greater capability to explore materials performance. Upstream Energy Analysis scientists and colleagues have used and will continue to use the APS to study controls, reliability, novel materials and fundamental processes. 

Upstream Energy Analysis used Argonne’s Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM), a DOE Office of Science user facility, to conduct exceptionally detailed metallurgical studies and evaluations of materials critical to maintaining safe function and successful operation of equipment in harsh conditions. Additionally, scientists have access to the Intermediate Voltage Electron Microscopy-Tandem (IVEM-Tandem) facility, a DOE Office of Nuclear Energy national user facility. With these unique resources, Argonne has the ability to close the gap of understanding between anticipated and actual performance on a very fine, fundamental level that is essential for an industry consistently facing new frontiers and shrinking differentials between success and failure. 

Argonne is also home to the Advanced Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF) and Aurora, one of the nation’s first exascale computers capable of performing one million trillion floating point operations per second. As opportunities for artificial intelligence and machine learning become more relevant and prevalent in all fields of science, Upstream Energy Analysis is prepared to draw upon this on-site laboratory resource to directly confront challenges of onshore and offshore energy systems.