INL’s Advanced Manufacturing and Harsh Environment Materials Researcher Areas

Jorgen Rufner, Ph.D.

Idaho National Laboratory

Idaho National Laboratory (INL), a multi-disciplinary national laboratory with the mission of changing the world’s energy future, is the home to the Center of Excellence for Field Assisted Sintering Sciences and dedicated to the advancement of clean energy technology. An important part of enabling clean energy deployment requires creating material solutions specific to each of their operating environments, which are quite harsh. INL has been at the forefront of researching and developing such materials capable of withstanding harsh environments and extreme conditions, including high temperatures, radiation, mechanical stress, and corrosive environments. Advanced manufacturing, specifically with advanced sintering technologies such as electric field assisted sintering (EFAS), is a powerful pathway that is poised to open access to many materials for harsh environments that were previously out of reach. INL is driving the scientific research, development, and deployment (RD&D) of field assisted sintering at both small and large length scales. Methodology, benefits, and recent project results using EFAS to enable technologies such as fusion and fission energy, near net shape part processing, embedded sensors for material health surveillance, materials for aerospace utilization, corrosion resistant alloy fabrication, molten salt and concentrated solar power/thermal systems, and critical material manufacturing will be presented.

Speaker Bio: Jorgen Rufner leads the Advanced Manufacturing Group within the Energy Environment Science & Technology Directorate at Idaho National Laboratory (INL). Jorgen’s expertise is centered around electric field effects on the sintering and thermochemistry of nanocrystalline materials, generalized powder processing, sintering technologies, process implementation and integration, and industrial scale up. His PhD was completed at University of California, Davis in 2014. Jorgen joined INL in 2020 and has 8 years of private sector experience in semiconductor process technology and high-volume manufacturing as an Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography Development Engineer and Vice President of Technology at Intel Corp. and IMAT Inc., respectively. Prior to that he researched thin film oxygen barrier coatings for use on intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cell interconnects and was staff at Lotusworks CM performing project management and start-up activities on power plant construction projects throughout Washington and Oregon states.