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At least 199 records · Page 11

Gasification of Coal and Biomass: The Route to Net-Negative-Carbon Power and Hydrogen

One promising process that is a candidate for meeting the goals of the US Department of Energy’s 21st Century Power Plant initiative is to gasify a mixture of coal and biomass to yield a syngas, which can have CO2 removed and then be used to produce hydrogen as well as an off-gas that can be used to flexibly produce power. This concept would overall be carbon net-negative and readily meet the 21st Century Power Plant initiative targets of smaller scale MW generation, high ramp rates and turndown, feedstock flexibility, and high efficiency—at a reasonable cost. Moreover, adding the large-scale production of “ultra-green” hydrogen yields a system tailored for the coming hydrogen economy, providing long-term energy storage and an attractive co-product for sale. The objective of the work being led by the Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. (EPRI), with support by Bechtel Corporation (Bechtel), Gas Technology Institute (GTI), Hamilton Mauer International, Inc. (HMI), Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD), NexantECA, Inc. (Nexant), and Wärtsilä, is to perform a front-end design and engineering (FEED) study on an oxygen-blown gasification system coupled with water-gas shift, pre-combustion CO2 capture, and pressure-swing adsorption working off a coal/biomass mix to yield high-purity hydrogen and a fuel off-gas that can generate power. Several designs are being considered that will be capable of producing 50 MW net from a flexible generator, over 8500 kg/hr of hydrogen, and net-negative CO2 emissions, at an efficiency of 50% net HHV. The plant would be hosted at an NPPD site, where opportunities for enhanced oil recovery and sequestration have been investigated and the need for low-carbon power and hydrogen is imminent. The principal biomass to be used is corn stover—prevalent in Nebraska where the plant will be located—mixed with Powder River Basin (PRB) coal, necessitating a gasifier that can use this feedstock and be flexible to allow other types. Waste plastics will also be reviewed for use. Two oxygen-blown gasifiers have been identified as candidates that have done testing with biomass including corn stover: the GTI gasifier—a high-pressure, fluidized-bed type—and HMI’s, a lower pressure moving-bed type. Both have relative advantages that are being investigated in the Phase I design study, with a resultant down select of one system for which the FEED will be performed in Phase II. The technical tasks for the proposed project are: • Design Development: Completion of design activities necessary to provide inputs for the FEED study. Multiple design cases will be assessed with the selection of the optimal one for the FEED. • Investment Case Preparation: Development of the draft investment case for the proposed process with business cases performed for the proposed host site and two other locations. • Host Site Selection: Evaluation of the two potential host sites within NPPD’s portfolio to select the preferred candidate based on technical, economic, and environmental considerations. • Environmental Information Volume (EIV) Development: Completion of the EIV for the host site. • FEED Study: Completion of a FEED study based on the design selected in Phase I. A Greenhouse Gas Life Cycle Analysis will also be performed for the process. • Update Investment Case: Finalization of the investment case based on findings from the FEED. The advantages of the proposed project are significant. Having an engaged U.S. power utility willing to provide a host site that will produce energy from coal plus a deep and experienced team is critical; the process meets all the goals of DOE’s 21st Century Power Plant initiative at an estimated total plant cost of ~$880M and a production cost of hydrogen of ~$2/kg-H2 while producing net-negative carbon power. If developed, this process has real commercial potential in the United States—supported by EPRI’s initial review of the considerable interest from selected U.S. utilities—and elsewhere around the globe. The process has fewer environmental hurdles compared to other concepts, lowering regulatory and protest risks—providing a pathway to preserving the viability of a critical indigenous energy source by transforming its use to match a changing world. This presentation will outline the motivation for the effort, summarize project plans, work completed to date, results of the Design Development task, and detailed work scope for the remainder of the project.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗

Gasification of Coal and Biomass: The Route to Net-Negative-Carbon Power and Hydrogen

One promising process that is a candidate for meeting the goals of the US Department of Energy’s 21st Century Power Plant initiative is to gasify a mixture of coal and biomass to yield a syngas, which can have CO2 removed and then be used to produce hydrogen as well as an off-gas that can be used to flexibly produce power. This concept would overall be carbon net-negative and readily meet the 21st Century Power Plant initiative targets of smaller scale MW generation, high ramp rates and turndown, feedstock flexibility, and high efficiency—at a reasonable cost. Moreover, adding the large-scale production of “ultra-green” hydrogen yields a system tailored for the coming hydrogen economy, providing long-term energy storage and an attractive co-product for sale. The objective of the work being led by the Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. (EPRI), with support by Bechtel Corporation (Bechtel), Gas Technology Institute (GTI), Hamilton Mauer International, Inc. (HMI), Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD), NexantECA, Inc. (Nexant), and Wärtsilä, is to perform a front-end design and engineering (FEED) study on an oxygen-blown gasification system coupled with water-gas shift, pre-combustion CO2 capture, and pressure-swing adsorption working off a coal/biomass mix to yield high-purity hydrogen and a fuel off-gas that can generate power. Several designs are being considered that will be capable of producing 50 MW net from a flexible generator, over 8500 kg/hr of hydrogen, and net-negative CO2 emissions, at an efficiency of 50% net HHV. The plant would be hosted at an NPPD site, where opportunities for enhanced oil recovery and sequestration have been investigated and the need for low-carbon power and hydrogen is imminent. The principal biomass to be used is corn stover—prevalent in Nebraska where the plant will be located—mixed with Powder River Basin (PRB) coal, necessitating a gasifier that can use this feedstock and be flexible to allow other types. Waste plastics will also be reviewed for use. Two oxygen-blown gasifiers have been identified as candidates that have done testing with biomass including corn stover: the GTI gasifier—a high-pressure, fluidized-bed type—and HMI’s, a lower pressure moving-bed type. Both have relative advantages that were investigated in the Phase I design study, with a resultant down select of one system for which the FEED will be performed in Phase II. The technical tasks for the project are: • Design Development: Completion of design activities necessary to provide inputs for the FEED study. Multiple design cases will be assessed with the selection of the optimal one for the FEED. • Investment Case Preparation: Development of the draft investment case for the proposed process with business cases performed for the proposed host site and two other locations. • Host Site Selection: Evaluation of the two potential host sites within NPPD’s portfolio to select the preferred candidate based on technical, economic, and environmental considerations. • Environmental Information Volume (EIV) Development: Completion of the EIV for the host site. • FEED Study: Completion of a FEED study based on the design selected in Phase I. A Greenhouse Gas Life Cycle Analysis will also be performed for the process. • Update Investment Case: Finalization of the investment case based on findings from the FEED. The advantages of the proposed project are significant. Having an engaged U.S. power utility willing to provide a host site that will produce energy from coal plus a deep and experienced team is critical; the process meets all the goals of DOE’s 21st Century Power Plant initiative at an estimated total plant cost of ~$880M and a production cost of hydrogen of ~$2/kg-H2 while producing net-negative carbon power. If developed, this process has real commercial potential in the United States—supported by EPRI’s initial review of the considerable interest from selected U.S. utilities—and elsewhere around the globe. The process has fewer environmental hurdles compared to other concepts, lowering regulatory and protest risks—providing a pathway to preserving the viability of a critical indigenous energy source by transforming its use to match a changing world. This presentation outlines the motivation for the effort, summarizes project plans, work completed to date, results of the Phase I effort and, and detailed work scope for the remainder of the project in the Phase II FEED effort.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗

Manufacturing and Scale-Up of Natural Fiber Composite eVTOL Propeller Skin and C-Channel

This report presents the manufacturing and scale-up of natural fiber composites for aerospace applications, conducted within NASA’s Convergent Aeronautics Solutions portfolio to advance aircraft capabilities and efficiency. The effort focused on the development and demonstration of two proof-of-concept articles, an Electric Vertical Take-off and Landing (eVTOL) propeller skin and a C-channel, produced through an iterative design and process optimization approach. Best practices and guidance on addressing key challenges with bio-based composite materials and manufacturing is provided. Ideally suited for non-load-bearing structural components, these emerging materials offer potential for weight reduction, vibration damping, noise mitigation, interference-free communication, and cost savings, without compromising the performance of safety-critical primary structures.

Natural fibers↗

A Benchmark Suite for Evaluating Scientific AI Workloads on GPUs

AI applications have been steadily increasing in the allocation portfolio among leadership computing facilities. These applications depend on deep learning frameworks with hardware acceleration and underlying software systems. With the rapid development of applications, software stacks, and hardware devices, it is essential to evaluate the performance of core operations in AI workloads for direction of optimizations and procurement of next-generation high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructures. Currently, most benchmarks lack scientific AI workloads. So, we present DeepKernelBench and the experimental results of evaluating the benchmark suite for early observations and performance comparisons on datacenter GPUs using representative workloads for scientific AI, including Attentions, General matrix multiplications, Geometrics and Fourier neural operations.

Jin, Zheming [Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)]↗

CAASCADE: A System for Static Analysis of HPC Software Application Portfolios

With the increasing complexity of upcoming HPC systems, so-called “co-design” efforts to develop the hardware and applications in concert for these systems also become more challenging. It is currently difficult to gather information about the usage of programming model features, libraries, and data structure considerations in a quantitative way across a variety of applications, and this information is needed to prioritize development efforts in systems software and hardware optimizations. In this paper we propose CAASCADE, a system that can harvest this information in an automatic way in production HPC environments, and we show some early results from a prototype of the system based on GNU compilers and a MySQL database.

Lopez, Graham↗

Editorial: Multi-Omics Technologies for Optimizing Synthetic Biomanufacturing

Industrial manufacturing endures as an essential human activity yielding a variety of useful products; it plays a significant role in the global economy with huge impacts in everyday life. However, the manufacturing process requires consumption of various raw materials (especially petroleum derivatives), generates a variety of harmful waste products, causes pollution, and is energetically inefficient. Biological manufacturing from sustainable, affordable, and scalable feedstocks potentially enables the displacement of the entire portfolio of currently available products produced by industrial processes, enabling the manufacturing of renewable and eco-friendly products (Clomburg et al., 2017). Thus, successful development of a robust biomanufacturing strategy and technology platform, based on the latest advances in synthetic biology and chemical catalysis, will decrease both the cost and production time compared with previous manufacturing processes. Development of biomanufacturing processes using a synthetic biology platform requires the multidisciplinary efforts of science and engineering fields including molecular biology, microbiology, genetic engineering, informatics, metabolic modeling and chemical or process engineering (El Karoui et al., 2019).

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Environmentally Friendly Coating Technology for Autonomous Corrosion Control

This work concerns the development of environmentally friendly encapsulation technology, specifically designed to incorporate corrosion indicators, inhibitors, and self-healing agents into a coating, in such a way that the delivery of the indicators and inhibitors is triggered by the corrosion process, and the delivery of self-healing agents is triggered by mechanical damage to the coating. Encapsulation of the active corrosion control ingredients allows the incorporation of desired autonomous corrosion control functions such as: early corrosion detection, hidden corrosion detection, corrosion inhibition, and self-healing of mechanical damage into a coating. The technology offers the versatility needed to include one or several corrosion control functions into the same coating.The development of the encapsulation technology has progressed from the initial proof-of-concept work, in which a corrosion indicator was encapsulated into an oil-core (hydrophobic) microcapsule and shown to be delivered autonomously, under simulated corrosion conditions, to a sophisticated portfolio of micro carriers (organic, inorganic, and hybrid) that can be used to deliver a wide range of active corrosion ingredients at a rate that can be adjusted to offer immediate as well as long-term corrosion control. The micro carriers have been incorporated into different coating formulas to test and optimize the autonomous corrosion detection, inhibition, and self-healing functions of the coatings. This paper provides an overview of progress made to date and highlights recent technical developments, such as improved corrosion detection sensitivity, inhibitor test results in various types of coatings, and highly effective self-healing coatings based on green chemistry.

Coatings↗

Corrosion-Activated Micro-Containers for Environmentally Friendly Corrosion Protective Coatings

This work concerns the development of environmentally friendly encapsulation technology, specifically designed to incorporate corrosion indicators, inhibitors, and self-healing agents into a coating, in such a way that the delivery of the indicators and inhibitors is triggered by the corrosion process, and the delivery of self-healing agents is triggered by mechanical damage to the coating. Encapsulation of the active corrosion control ingredients allows the incorporation of desired autonomous corrosion control functions such as: early corrosion detection, hidden corrosion detection, corrosion inhibition, and self-healing of mechanical damage into a coating. The technology offers the versatility needed to include one or several corrosion control functions into the same coating.The development of the encapsulation technology has progressed from the initial proof-of-concept work, in which a corrosion indicator was encapsulated into an oil-core (hydrophobic) microcapsule and shown to be delivered autonomously, under simulated corrosion conditions, to a sophisticated portfolio of micro carriers (organic, inorganic, and hybrid) that can be used to deliver a wide range of active corrosion ingredients at a rate that can be adjusted to offer immediate as well as long-term corrosion control. The micro carriers have been incorporated into different coating formulas to test and optimize the autonomous corrosion detection, inhibition, and self-healing functions of the coatings. This paper provides an overview of progress made to date and highlights recent technical developments, such as improved corrosion detection sensitivity, inhibitor test results in various types of coatings, and highly effective self-healing coatings based on green chemistry. The NASA Kennedy Space Centers Corrosion Technology Lab at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, U.S.A. has been developing multifunctional smart coatings based on the microencapsulation of environmentally friendly corrosion indicators, inhibitors and self-healing agents. This allows the incorporation of autonomous corrosion control functionalities, such as corrosion detection and inhibition as well as the self-healing of mechanical damage, into coatings. This paper presents technical details on the characterization of inhibitor-containing particles and their corrosion inhibitive effects using electrochemical and mass loss methods.Three organic environmentally friendly corrosion inhibitors were encapsulated in organic microparticles that are compatible with desired coatings. The release of the inhibitors from the microparticles in basic solution was studied. Fast release, for immediate corrosion protection, as well as long-term release for continued protection, was observed.The inhibition efficacy of the inhibitors, incorporated directly and in microparticles, on carbon steel was evaluated. Polarization curves and mass loss measurements showed that, in the case of 2MBT, its corrosion inhibition effectiveness was greater when it was delivered from microparticles.

Corrosion Control↗

Dispatch optimization of concentrating solar power with utility-scale photovoltaics

Concentrating solar power (CSP) tower technologies capture thermal radiation from the sun utilizing a field of solar-tracking heliostats. When paired with inexpensive thermal energy storage (TES), CSP technologies can dispatch electricity during peak-market-priced hours, day or night. The cost of utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) systems has dropped significantly in the last decade, resulting in inexpensive energy production during daylight hours. The hybridization of PV and CSP with TES systems has the potential to provide continuous and stable energy production at a lower cost than a PV or CSP system alone. Hybrid systems are gaining popularity in international markets as a means to increase renewable energy portfolios across the world. Typically, CSP-PV hybrid systems have been evaluated using either monthly averages of hourly PV production or scheduling algorithms that neglect the time-of-production value of electricity in the market. To more accurately evaluate a CSP-PV-battery hybrid design, we develop a profit-maximizing mixed-integer linear program ($\mathcal{H}$) that determines a dispatch schedule for the individual sub-systems with a sub-hourly time fidelity. We introduce the mathematical formulation of such a model and show that it is computationally expensive to solve. To improve model tractability and reduce solution times, we offer techniques that: (1) reduce the problem size, (2) tighten the linear programming relaxation of ($\mathcal{H}$) via reformulation and the introduction of cuts, and (3) implement an optimization-based heuristic (that can yield initial feasible solutions for (($\mathcal{H}$) and, at any rate, yields near-optimal solutions). Applying these solution techniques results in a 79% improvement in solve time, on average, for our 48-h instances of (($\mathcal{H}$); corresponding solution times for an annual model run decrease by as much as 93%, where such a run consists of solving 365 instances of (($\mathcal{H}$), retaining only the first 24 h' worth of the solution, and sliding the time window forward 24 h. We present annual system metrics for two locations and two markets that inform design practices for hybrid systems and lay the groundwork for a more exhaustive policy analysis. A comparison of alternative hybrid systems to the CSP-only system reflects that hybrid models can almost double capacity factors while resulting in a 30% improvement related to various economic metrics.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Effect of Componential Proportion in Bimetallic Electrocatalysts on the Aprotic Lithium-Oxygen Battery Performance

Rechargeable lithium-oxygen (Li-O 2 ) batteries are one of the most promising technologies for next-generation energy storage, which is also a critical part of the future renewable energy portfolio; however, its commercialization is still hindered by several challenges. The high charge overpotential, in particular, not only causes problems by increasing the possibility of electrolyte decomposition but also induces a low round-trip efficiency and coulombic efficiency. Here, by choosing the right component proportion in Pt-Cu bimetallic electrocatalysts that optimize electrocatalytic activity of electrochemical reactions, especially of oxygen evolution reactions, a superior electrochemical behavior is demonstrated, with a low charge overpotential of 0.2 V and cycleability of 50 discharge/charge cycles before capacity fading. In conclusion, the optimized Pt-Cu bimetallic electrocatalysts significantly reduce the charge overpotential and furthermore enhance the efficiency, stability, and cycleability of an aprotic Li-O 2 battery.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Offshore Wind Farm Turbine and Energy Storage Optimization

Abstract This paper evaluates the technical and economic feasibility of repurposing decommissioned offshore oil and gas platforms as electrical substations for offshore wind projects in the U.S. Gulf of America, a region characterized by relatively low and highly variable wind speeds, extensive legacy offshore infrastructure, and exposure to merchant electricity markets. A unified techno-economic framework is developed using the Repurposing Offshore Infrastructure for Continued Energy (ROICE) Economic Model (REM) to integrate Gulfspecific wind resource assessment, commercial wind turbine performance, offshore infrastructure cost modeling, and wholesale electricity market exposure. Gulf wind speed data are vertically extrapolated to turbine hub height and combined with manufacturer power curves to compute annual energy production and capacity factors across a broad portfolio of commercial turbines, enabling identification of turbine designs best suited for low-wind offshore environments. Hourly electricity price data from the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) day-ahead market are incorporated to characterize revenue potential, price volatility, and the temporal alignment between wind generation and market conditions. In addition, a conceptual framework for offshore battery energy storage system (BESS) integration is developed to support future investigation of market-responsive energy shifting at repurposed platforms. Results from the turbine evaluation demonstrate that machines with lower cut-in wind speeds and earlier ‘rated-power’ characteristics significantly outperform larger, industry-standard offshore turbines for the same net power under Gulf wind conditions, underscoring the need for region-specific technology selection. Market analysis further reveals substantial price variability and limited intrinsic alignment between wind production and high-price periods, motivating consideration of operational flexibility mechanisms. While storage optimization is not implemented in this study, the REM framework establishes a transparent and replicable foundation for co-evaluating turbine selection, infrastructure constraints, and market exposure, providing a practical pathway for assessing the potential role of repurposed offshore platforms in enabling economically viable offshore wind development in the Gulf of America.

02 PETROLEUM↗

Implications of Model Structure and Detail for Utility Planning. Scenario Case Studies using the Resource Planning Model

We examine how model investment decisions change under different model configurations and assumptions related to renewable capacity credit, the inclusion or exclusion of operating reserves, dispatch period sampling, transmission power flow modeling, renewable spur line costs, and the ability of a planning region to import and export power. For all modeled scenarios, we find that under market conditions where new renewable deployment is predominantly driven by renewable portfolio standards, model representations of wind and solar capacity credit and interactions between balancing areas are most influential in avoiding model investments in excess thermal capacity. We also compare computation time between configurations to evaluate tradeoffs between computational burden and model accuracy. From this analysis, we find that certain advanced dispatch representations (e.g., DC optimal power flow) can have dramatic adverse effects on computation time but can be largely inconsequential to model investment outcomes, at least at the renewable penetration levels modeled. Finally, we find that certain underappreciated aspects of new capacity investment decisions and model representations thereof, such as spur lines for new renewable capacity, can influence model outcomes particularly in the renewable technology and location chosen by the model. Though this analysis is not comprehensive and results are specific to the model region, input assumptions, and optimization-modeling framework employed, the findings are intended to provide a guide for model improvement opportunities.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Field Validation of a Grid-Interactive Efficient Building Software Solution

The U.S. General Services Administration's (GSA's) Green Proving Ground (GPG) program, in partnership with the National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR), completed a field study of a Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings (GEB) software solution. The study focused on a single testbed facility to test the GEB functionality of the software solution, along with other features. The testbed facility - a courthouse - is a common building type in GSA's vast building portfolio, offering potentially impactful findings on a scalable level. The study evaluated Prescriptive Data's technology, Nantum OS, a connected building operating system ("GEB Solution") which aggregates multiple sources of previously siloed building data and combines that data with external sources, such as weather information or utility signals, into a single integrated platform. A GEB Solution is a type of Energy Management Information System (EMIS). EMIS is defined as a system of devices, data services, and software applications that communicates with any building system or third-party data source to aggregate and transform data into new capabilities to aid in the optimization of energy use at the building, campus, or agency level. This specific GEB Solution is an EMIS with ASO, automated system optimization, offering supervisory control of certain aspects of the Building Automation System (BAS). Multiple features were evaluated including, but not limited to, Continuous Demand Management to avoid setting new monthly kilowatt (kW) peaks, energy efficiency for reduction of kilowatt hours (kWh) and natural gas consumption, and automated demand response (ADR) for purposes of lowering demand during a utility called Demand Response (DR) event. The testbed facility was the Foley Federal Building and US Courthouse ("Foley Federal Building") located in Las Vegas, NV. This is a 209,496 sq. ft. building constructed in the 1960s with major renovations in 2004. The facility was a good candidate due to the large prevalence of office and courthouse spaces in the GSA portfolio of buildings. It also has many features which allow integration into and control of the building and a strong facilities team to assist with the study. Quantitative and qualitative performance objectives were developed using GSA's GPG GEB project template along with input from the vendor and building facility staff; these are outlined in Table 1. The quantitative performance objectives focused on continuous demand management, energy efficiency, and automated demand response. The qualitative performance objectives focused on the ease of installation and commissioning as well as the operability of the GEB solution. Other performance metrics that are reported on include carbon reduction, cost effectiveness, and occupant acceptance.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

ECP libraries and tools: An overview

The Exascale Computing Project (ECP) Software Technology and Co-Design teams addressed the growing complexities in high-performance computing (HPC) by developing scalable software libraries and tools that leverage exascale system capabilities. As we enter the exascale era, the need for reusable, optimized software solutions that can handle the unique challenges posed by these systems becomes increasingly important. The primary challenges the ECP teams faced were to create software libraries and tools that are performant on exascale architectures and portable and usable across diverse hardware platforms. Efforts addressed issues related to concurrent execution, memory management, and the integration of heterogeneous computing resources, such as GPUs from multiple vendors. The ECP’s strategy involved a structured development process encompassing the creation, optimization, and deployment of software in collaboration with industry, academia, and national laboratories. The project was organized into several technical areas: co-design of domain-specific suites with target applications, programming models and runtimes, development tools, mathematical libraries, data and visualization tools, and software ecosystem and delivery mechanisms. ECP has successfully developed a large portfolio of software libraries and tools that demonstrate significant improvements in performance and scalability on exascale systems. These products have been integrated into the Department of Energy’s computing facilities, supporting various scientific applications and ensuring robust performance across different hardware setups. ECP advancements in software development for exascale computing highlight the importance of a collaborative and adaptive approach to handling next-generation HPC systems complexities. The lessons learned emphasize the need for continuous engagement with end-users and vendors, and the importance of maintaining a balance between innovation and practical implementation. Future efforts will focus on ensuring scalability, keeping pace with rapid hardware advancements, and further enhancing the interoperability and usability of the software ecosystem. In conclusion, subsequent articles in this special issue provide in-depth discussions and case studies into specific library and tool efforts.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Integrated Solutions for Interim Used Fuel Management: From Pool Unloading to Safe Delivery to Recycling or Repository Facilities - 17235

Safe management of used nuclear fuel (UNF) is key to the survival of the nuclear industry. That is why it is more important than ever to have a consent-based, practical, credible, and sustainable roadmap for managing the back-end of the nuclear cycle. Worldwide UNF Light Water Reactors (LWR) inventories are currently around 200,000 tons and are estimated to grow to more than 350,000 tons by 2030, and operating nuclear reactors in the U.S. continue to discharge UNF every 18 to 24 months. International experience has demonstrated that the development of a permanent geological repository can be a multi-decade process, especially in the face of public acceptance challenges. Meanwhile, the solution for permanent disposal of UNF in the U.S. is moving at a glacial pace. As a result, industrial stakeholders have been forced to find practical interim UNF storage solutions in order to continue safely operating their reactors. Among those interim solutions are the cask- or canister-based dry storage systems that have dramatically increased in the last 10 years as they provide flexibility for expansion with a low up-front investment. With interim dry storage in place for more than 30 years, our industry is entering a new phase as we are forced to prepare for a few more decades before geological repositories begin operating. Consequently, interim dry storage has to be extended for 80 years or more. Thus, new considerations have to be taken into account to ensure the safety of this stored used fuel: - Interim storage systems are aging; - High burn-up fuel behavior overtime is uncertain; - Used fuel is losing its self-protection; - The number of shutdown sites without a fuel transfer facility, such as a pool, is increasing; - Some owners of Independent Spent Fuel Storage installation (ISFSI) at shutdown sites are not nuclear operators anymore. With increasing uncertainties, AREVA TN -- based on its long expertise with used fuel transportation and interim storage systems -- is adapting its portfolio to develop integrated and flexible solutions that will remove the burden of interim used fuel management from nuclear operators. AREVA TN is developing comprehensive solutions to reduce risks including the continued supply of proven safe high-performance dry storage systems; on-site services to safely transfer used fuel from pool to pad; the optimization of fuel heat load in the storage pool and pad; innovative aging management services including inspection, monitoring and repair; a realistic solution for consolidated interim storage with a priority to remove Used Nuclear Fuel stored in dry storage systems from shutdown sites; world-class transport and logistics services to safely move the used fuel from nuclear reactor sites to consolidated storage and repository or recycling as applicable, and turnkey management of shutdown ISFSIs. Due to the lack of an available path for transporting used fuel away from reactors, nuclear operators are faced with many challenges and growing uncertainties. Our presentation will describe the practical solutions developed and being developed in order to manage used fuel on behalf of nuclear operators and allows them to continue focusing on the important job of producing carbon-free clean energy. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

Quantifying the Value of Technology and Policy Innovation in Water Resource Portfolios

Abstract Recent water infrastructure planning models demonstrate that explicitly accounting for hydrological changes in long‐term water planning reduces costs and increases system robustness. However, current models do not consider the effects of other changes occurring in the system over long time horizons, namely technology and policy innovation. By leveraging state‐of‐the‐art dynamic control techniques, we propose a suite of tools that explicitly relate hydrologic change, technology innovation, and policy interventions to system‐level water costs. We design robust and cost‐optimal strategies for water supply expansion under hydrological variability and hundreds of plausible innovation states, for example, treatment cost and diversification improvements, deployment times, and demand reduction campaigns. Our approach circumvents the need to pre‐assign probabilities to innovation scenarios and, instead, directly calculates the effects of technology, policy, and hydrology variations on system cost and planning strategies to identify avenues of impactful innovation. These tools can support technology development hubs, urban, state, and federal water planners in anticipating cost implications of technology and policy innovation at the local level, and prioritizing high‐impact innovation goals based on quantitative targets. Results for the case study of Santa Barbara, California identify high‐value innovation attributes for the city as well as combinations of innovation attributes across technologies and policies, and quantify their potential utility cost reductions.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗

Nuclear-Renewable Hybrid Energy Systems: 2016 Technology Development Program Plan

The United States is in the midst of an energy revolution, spurred by advancement of technology to produce unprecedented supplies of oil and natural gas. Simultaneously, there is an increasing concern for climate change attributed to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that, in large part, result from burning fossil fuels. An international consensus has concluded that the U.S. and other developed nations have an imperative to reduce GHG emissions to address these climate change concerns. The global desire to reduce GHG emissions has led to the development and deployment of clean energy resources and technologies, particularly renewable energy technologies, at a rapid rate. At the same time, each of the major energy sectors—the electric grid, industrial manufacturing, transportation, and the residential/commercial consumers— is increasingly becoming linked through information and communications technologies, advanced modeling and simulation, and controls. Coordination of clean energy generation technologies through integrated hybrid energy systems, as defined below, has the potential to further revolutionize energy services at the system level by coordinating the exchange of energy currency among the energy sectors in a manner that optimizes financial efficiency (including capital investments), maximizes thermodynamic efficiency (through best use of exergy, which is the potential to use the available energy in producing energy services), reduces environmental impacts when clean energy inputs are maximized, and provides resources for grid management. Rapid buildout of renewable technologies has been largely driven by local, state, and federal policies, such as renewable portfolio standards and production tax credits that incentivize investment in these generation sources. A foundational assumption within this program plan is that renewable technologies will continue to be major contributors to the future U.S. energy infrastructure. While increased use of clean renewable technologies will aid in achieving reduced GHG emissions, it also presents new challenges to grid management that must be addressed. These challenges primarily derive from the fundamental characteristics of variable renewable generators, such as wind and solar: non-dispatchability, variable production, and reduced electromechanical inertia. This document presents a preliminary research and development (R&D) plan for detailed dynamic simulation and analysis of nuclear-renewable hybrid energy systems (N-R HES), coupled with integrated energy system design, component development, and integrated systems testing. N-R HES are cooperatively-controlled systems that dynamically apportion thermal and/or electrical energy to provide responsive generation to the power grid.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

Transforming Energy through Computational Science: Computing for Clean Energy

This fact sheet discusses the opportunity space for NREL's computational science capabilities to address national clean energy objectives. Achieving a carbon-free power sector by 2035 as a step towards a decarbonized U.S. energy economy in 2050 will require major advances in power generation, autonomous energy systems, transportation, and buildings/communities. Development of integrated modeling approaches for complex energy systems will be essential for deployment. Success requires developments in optimization and control theory, complemented by machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI), all of which in turn need targeted investments in breadth and scale of computing. This document defines an opportunity space where: embracing computing can link established research and development (R&D) to a decarbonization agenda; pursuing emerging approaches can accelerate the pace of technology advancement across the portfolio; and leading by example could reduce the carbon footprint of computing worldwide.

advanced computing↗