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At least 235 records · Page 13

Towards a Stronger Foundation: Digitizing Commercial Buildings with Brick to Enable Portable Advanced Applications

Most large commercial buildings have digital controls for their heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) and lighting systems with the potential to implement advanced control strategies and data analytics. However, advanced control strategies and data analytics are rarely deployed at scale due to non-standard naming conventions and heterogenous building configurations. Semantic metadata standards, like Brick, show promise to proliferate these applications across many buildings, but they have not been widely adopted by industry due to barriers such as perceived risk and unfamiliarity with the technology. This paper describes the workflow we established and evaluated while using it to develop over ten Brick models of existing buildings. Through this process, we observed that digitizing existing commercial buildings is a cost and labor-intensive effort in which understanding the buildings’ data streams is the major bottleneck. Yet, we conclude this investment is worthwhile since various use case applications such as fault detection and diagnostics, thermal comfort analysis, and HVAC control optimization can utilize the same Brick model. The paper also explores the challenges and lessons learned we encountered while creating these data models, such as: 1) difficulties in finding metadata descriptions and relationships for existing buildings; 2) handling missing concepts in the schema needed to model a building; 3) lack of guidance on how to structure the data model or how much detail to include; 4) unfamiliarity with technologies, which makes the learning curve steep for applications developers. Finally, we also describe future directions for semantic metadata research and development to make such transformative technologies more accessible to practitioners.

Roa, Carlos Duarte↗

Development of Low Cost, Robust and Durable Cathode Materials to Support Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Commercialization (Final Technical Report)

The project is aimed at addressing critical issues related to chromia-poisoning in the cathode of solid oxide fuel cells. A technical hurdle to the commercialization of solid oxide fuel cells is that chromia sources from the metallic interconnect and the balance of plant (BoP) components will cause chromia-poisoning to the cathode performance. This presents a significant challenge since it is very difficult to eliminate chromia sources in the cathode environment. One aspect of the current project is to evaluate whether SFM (Sr 2 Fe 1.5 Mo 0.5 O 6-δ ) that we have recently developed as redox-stable mixed conducting oxide possesses tolerance to chromia-poisoning. The second focus of this project is to evaluate coating on the cathode materials to mitigate chromia poisoning effect. Both thermodynamic evaluation and experimental approaches have been applied to enhance the knowledge base and fundamental understanding of chromia-tolerance of cathode for solid oxide fuel cells. low cost, robust and durable cathode material to support SOFC commercialization.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗

ION Engineering Commercial Carbon Capture Design & Costing (C3DC) (Final Report)

ION Engineering LLC (ION) has coupled its proven, solvent-based CO 2 capture technology with an exceptionally qualified design and engineering team to complete a pre FEED for a 300-megawatt equivalent commercial-scale CO 2 capture plant for Gerald Gentleman Station’s (GGS) Generation Unit 2 (GGS2). The remarkable team was comprised of ION, Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD), Sargent & Lundy (S&L) with continued support from Koch Modular Process Systems (KMPS), and Siemens. The overall objective of the project was to provide the engineering design and cost estimate at an American Association of Cost Engineers (AACE) Class 3 estimate, resulting in accuracy ranges of -20 to +30% for the capital cost estimate. The project team was successful in completing this objective and was able to overcome the challenges that were presented during the process. A conservative interest rate of 7.0% with a financing term of 20 years was used based on interest rates utilized by S&L for this level of study. The resulting annualization factor is multiplied by the total EPC cost to calculate an annualized capital expenditure. It is estimated that the carbon capture facility treating a 300 MWe slipstream will capture 1.9 million tonnes per year of CO 2 at a capacity factor of 85%. The resulting cost of capture for the CO 2 island was determined to be $\$$36.55/tonne. Utilizing an interest rate of 4.5%, supported by historical rates for previous large capital projects in the power industry, reduces the cost of capture to $32.52/tonne. These cost of capture numbers continue to further ION’s case for commercial deployment of ION’s solvent technology.

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗

Commercialization of the Sandia Cooler (Final Report)

This Technology Commercialization Fund (TCF) project was a complete success. As described in our original TCF proposal, TRL1 through TRL5 development of Sandia Cooler technology was carried out under EERE BTO and Sandia LDRD funding. The objective of this TCF project was for Sandia National Labs and commercial partner Wakefield-Vette to convert this TRL5 DOE technology to a market-ready, cost-competitive, electronics thermal management product (TRL 8). A further objective was to target an energy sector application with high-visibility that can effectively serve as an advertisement for DOE's Sandia Cooler technology.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Sensitivity of Infrastructure Sectors to the Disruption of Commercial Electric Power

Electric power is crucial to the function of other infrastructures, as well as to the stability of the economy and the social order. Disruption of commercial electric power service, even for brief periods of time, can create significant consequences to the function of other sectors, and make living in some environments untenable. This analysis, conducted in 2017 for the United States Department of Energy (DOE) as part of the Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium (GMLC) Initiative, focuses on describing the function of each of the other infrastructure sectors and subsectors, with an eye towards those elements of these sectors that depend on primary electric power service through the commercial electric power grid. It leverages the experience of Sandia analysts in analyzing historical disruptive events, and from the development of capabilities designed to identify the physical, logical, and geographic connectivity between infrastructures. The analysis goes on to identify alternatives for the provision of primary electric power service, and the redundancy of said alternatives, to provide a picture of the sector’s ability to withstand an extended disruption.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Update on the Simulation of Commercial Drying of Spent Nuclear Fuel

The purpose of this report is to document improvements in the simulation of commercial vacuum drying procedures at the Nuclear Energy Work Complex at Sandia National Laboratories. Validation of the extent of water removal in a dry spent nuclear fuel storage system based on drying procedures used at nuclear power plants is needed to close existing technical gaps. Operational conditions leading to incomplete drying may have potential impacts on the fuel, cladding, and other components in the system. A general lack of data suitable for model validation of commercial nuclear canister drying processes necessitates additional, well-designed investigations of drying process efficacy and water retention. Scaled tests that incorporate relevant physics and well-controlled boundary conditions are essential to provide insight and guidance to the simulation of prototypic systems undergoing drying processes.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Industry-Average Performance for Components and Initiating Events at U.S. Commercial Nuclear Power Plants: 2020 Update

This report documents the quantitative results of the current industry-average performance for components and initiating events (IEs) at U.S. commercial nuclear power plants (NPPs). It represents the third update of the original analysis in NUREG/CR-6928 with data through 2020. Continuous characterization and updating of current industry-average performance with the latest industry data available are important steps in maintaining up-to-date risk models. Typically, data from 1998–2002 were used in NUREG/CR-6928, data from 1998–2010 in the first update, data from 1998–2015 in the second update, and data from 2006–2020 in this update, although many IEs required longer periods for adequate characterization of frequencies in all these analyses. As with NUREG/CR-6928 and previous updates, four types of events are covered in this report: component unreliability (e.g., a pump that fails to start or fails to run), component or train unavailability resulting from test or maintenance outages, special event probabilities covering operational issues (e.g., pump restarts and injection valve re-openings during unplanned demands), and IE frequencies. Results (in the form of beta distributions for failure probabilities upon demand and gamma distributions for rates) are used as inputs to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission standardized plant analysis risk models covering U.S. commercial NPPs.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

Cost Update: Commercial and Advanced Heliostat Collectors

The research team performed a detailed bottom-up manufacturing cost estimate for 2 heliostat designs: i) a commercially available design, the Stellio; and ii) an advanced heliostat design, the Drop-C. The Drop-C is designed and developed by Solar Dynamics (SD) of the United States, whilst the Stellio has been developed primarily by Schlaich Bergermann Und Partner, Sonne Gmbh (sbp) of Germany. The Stellio heliostat has been deployed at commercial scale and is being used at the Hami CSP 50-megawatt electric (MW e ) power tower plant in China. For each design, this includes all components for manufacturing and assembly in a manufacturing facility (e.g., struts and frame) using Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFMA), and the purchased parts (e.g., mirrors, control systems, and drives). The field-assembly and construction activities are also considered to determine the installed cost of the modelled solar fields.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Technology Integration to Gain Commercial Efficiency for the Urban Goods Delivery System, Meet Future Demand for City Passenger and Delivery Load/Unload Spaces, and Reduce Energy Consumption

This three-year project supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Vehicle Technologies Office has the potential to radically improve the urban freight system in ways that help both the public and private sectors. Working from 2018-2021, project researchers at the University of Washington’s Urban Freight Lab and collaborators at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have produced key data, tested technologies in complex urban settings, developed a prototype parking availability app, and helped close major knowledge gaps. All the fruits of this project can be harnessed to help cities better understand, support and actively manage truck load/unload operations and their urban freight transport infrastructure. Project learnings and tools can be used to help make goods delivery firms more efficient by reducing miles traveled and the time it takes to complete deliveries, benefitting businesses and residents who rely on the urban freight system for supplies of goods. And, ultimately, these project learnings and tools can be used to make cities more livable by minimizing wasted travel, which, in turn, contributes to reductions in fuel consumption and emissions. Cities today are challenged to effectively and efficiently manage their infrastructure to absorb the impacts of ever-increasing e-commerce-fueled delivery demand. All delivery trucks need to park somewhere to unload and load. Yet today’s delivery drivers have no visibility on available parking until they arrive at a site, which may be full. That means they can wind up cruising for parking, which wastes time and fuel and contributes to congestion. Once drivers do find parking, the faster they can unload at the spot, the faster they free up space for other drivers, helping others avoid circling for parking. This makes the parking space—and thus the greater load/unload network—more productive. To this end, the research team successfully met the project’s three goals, developing and piloting strategies and technologies to: 1. Reduce parking-seeking behavior in the study area by 20%; 2. Reduce parcel truck dwell time (the time a truck spends in a spot to load/unload) in the study area by 30%; 3. Increase curb space, alley space and private loading bay occupancy rates in the study area. The research team met these goals by creating and piloting on Seattle streets OpenPark, a first-of-its-kind real-time and forecasting curb parking app customized for commercial delivery drivers—giving drivers the “missing link” in their commonly used routing tools that tell them how best to get to delivery locations, but not what parking is available to use when they get there. Installing in-ground sensors on commercial vehicle load zones (CVLZs) and passenger load zones (PLZs) in the 10-block study area in Seattle’s downtown neighbourhood of Belltown let researchers glean real-time curb parking data. The research team also met project goals by piloting three parcel lockers in public and private spaces open to any delivery carrier, creating a consolidated delivery hub that lets drivers complete deliveries faster and spend less time parked. Researchers collected and analysed data to produce the first empirical, robust, statistically significant results as to the impact of the lockers, and app, on on-the-ground operations. In addition to collecting and analyzing sensor and other real-time and historical data, researchers rode along with delivery drivers to confirm real-world routing and parking behavior. Researchers also surveyed building managers on their private loading bay operations to understand how to boost usage.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Comparison of Commercial, State-of-the-Art, Fossil-Based Hydrogen Production Technologies

This report presents an independent assessment of the cost and performance of select hydrogen production plants utilizing fossil fuel resources as the primary feedstocks – specifically, natural gas (NG), steam methane reforming (SMR), NG autothermal reforming (ATR), coal gasification, and coal/biomass co-gasification – using a systematic, transparent technical and economic approach. Study cases were selected to reflect the capabilities of current, commercial technologies within plant configurations, and at scales, representative of next commercial offerings facing no fundamental research and development (R&D) obstacles. Additionally, several areas of R&D are identified as potential pathways for performance improvements and cost reductions.

08 HYDROGEN↗

Response of a Pressurized Water Reactor Dashpot Region to Commercial Drying Cycles

The purpose of this report is to document updates to the simulation of commercial vacuum drying procedures at the Nuclear Energy Work Complex at Sandia National Laboratories. Validation of the extent of water removal in a dry spent nuclear fuel storage system based on drying procedures used at nuclear power plants is needed to close existing technical gaps. Operational conditions leading to incomplete drying may have potential impacts on the fuel, cladding, and other components in the system. A general lack of data suitable for model validation of commercial nuclear canister drying processes necessitates additional, well-designed investigations of drying process efficacy and water retention. Scaled tests that incorporate relevant physics and well-controlled boundary conditions are essential to provide insight and guidance to the simulation of prototypic systems undergoing drying processes. This report documents testing updates for the Dashpot Drying Apparatus (DDA), an apparatus constructed at a reduced scale with multiple Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) fuel rod surrogates and a single guide tube dashpot. This apparatus is fashioned from a truncated 5×5 section of a prototypic 17×17 PWR fuel skeleton and includes the lowest segment of a single guide tube, often referred to as the dashpot region. The guide tube in this assembly is open and allows for insertion of a poison rod (neutron absorber) surrogate.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

CTAP REPORT. Commercialization of Power Spectrum Analysis (PSA) Technology

Power Spectrum Analysis (PSA) is a Sandia-developed, non-intrusive, electrical technique that captures distinct frequency-domain signatures of microelectronics devices using an innovative, unconventional biasing scheme (off-normal biasing). PSA can identify subtle differences in devices and is applicable in various areas such as device screening, counterfeit identification, reliability assurance, and trust authentication. From October 2020 to April 2021, Sandia worked with entrepreneurs from a new start-up company, Chiplytics, to commercialize PSA technology through NNSA-sponsored FedTech Program. In September 2021, Sandia received funding through Covid-19 Technical Assistance Program (CTAP) to provide technical assistance to Chiplytics for commercialization. Under the CTAP Statement of Work, Sandia was tasked with providing technical assistance to Chiplytics in PSA pilot testing for Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) at Crane and other pilot participants. Sandia was also tasked with assisting Chiplytics in hardware development and evaluation of Chiplytics prototype system.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

Autonomous Energy Management Software System for Small Commercial Buildings in Support of Decarbonization (Abstract)

The primary goal for the project is to develop and validate an autonomous energy management software (AEMS) system that will continuously optimize small commercial building operations by minimizing energy consumption and cost, providing a solution for maximizing decarbonization benefits from electrification of buildings. The work will leverage vast experience of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) research and development staff who have over two decades of experience in developing and successfully transferring software technologies to the private sector. This solution will be jointly developed with Intellimation LLC who plans to use it to scale their building energy efficiency offering. The project plan will include collaboratively working with Intellimation to package a set of solutions into the AEMS system, validate and demonstrate their capability, and value proposition through field demonstrations. If the deployment of the AEMS system optimizes RTUs’ set points, schedules, setbacks and optimal start and results in energy consumption reduction of 20%, the technical potential savings is approximately 675 trillion Btus of site energy savings and 2,000 trillion Btus of source energy. It will also result in carbon reductions of approximately 2.4 MMTCO2 and contribute to the climate change mitigation plans of many cities and states across the United States. Additional cost savings and emissions reduction are possible from management of peak electricity demand. The primary outcome will be an AEMS system that can be deployed at scale on small commercial buildings to improve operating efficiency.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

LLNS Request for Permanent Variance from 10 CFR 851 for the Construction of Commercial Type Structures and Systems

Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC (LLNS) requests variance from10 CFR 851 (the Rule) for the construction of commercial type structures and systems. The request is based upon successful application of similar variances granted to LLNS in continued support of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) initiative to streamline the delivery of commercial type line-item construction projects under $50 million. This request is aligned with the approved NA-50 safety approach.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

Development and Commercialization of Heavy-Duty Battery Electric Trucks Under Diverse Climate Conditions (DTNA EMG Innovation eCascadia 2.0 Final Technical Report)

During this project DTNA advanced heavy-duty transportation technologies to produce the eCascadia 2.0, a fully commercialized Class 7/8 electric tractor with the range and durability to meet the needs of 70% of freight movement in the United States. The eCascadia2.0 provides flexibility, operational performance, efficiency, and maintenance cost savings to the end user. The most direct outcome of this project is a commercially viable zero-emission heavy duty option with a 250-mile daily range and sufficient payload for regional haul duty cycles. The larger outcome is an acceleration of the market transformation away from petroleum-based fuels. DTNA’s comprehensive sales team, dealer network, customer network and maintenance and support teams will ensure that this is not a standalone zero-emission truck, but rather one that can be produced, marketed, and operated at scale to realize vast greenhouse gas and criteria pollutant emissions reductions, while also bringing zero emission vehicles closer to cost parity.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

SPUTTERED THIN FILMS FOR VERY HIGH POWER, EFFICIENT, AND LOW-COST COMMERCIAL SOFCS

The aim of this project was to leverage the low area specific resistance (ASR) of Redox’s GDC electrolyte-based cell architecture and increase solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) efficiency (i.e., open circuit voltage, or OCV) without significantly increasing cell resistance. The key to achieving the increased SOFC efficiency is the introduction of a thin sputtered yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) electron-blocking layer and a thin sputtered gadolinia doped ceria (GDC) barrier layer on top of the half-cell substrate (i.e., anode and GDC electrolyte). A key initial effort of the project was to improve the quality of the half-cell substrate surface so that any remaining defects were significantly smaller than the desired film thickness. During lab-scale trials, we had to overcome challenges with film cracking during post-sputtering treatments (e.g., thermal anneals) as well as damage to the sputtering targets. After the initial lab-scale trials, the focus shifted toward the use of commercial scale sputtering equipment with a sputtering equipment manufacturer in the microelectronics industry. Using the commercial sputtering equipment, we deposited films with different variations of power, PO2, sputtering time, platen speed, etc. We then determined the combinations of sputtering conditions and post-sputtering treatments that yielded high-quality films without cracks or other significant defects. While thin films were deposited on cells as large as 10 cm by 10 cm, the processing was optimized using 4 cm by 4 cm cells. Cell performance was evaluated in stainless-steel test fixtures between 500 °C and 700 °C with hydrogen fuel fed to the anode and air fed to the cathode. Extensive studies allowed us to determine that modified cathode and cathode contact firing processes were required to achieve theoretical OCV. Moreover, use of the new firing processes resulted in the need for a modified cathode contact to achieve a low ASR. In summary, the project demonstrated the performance of high OCV (1.13 V at 650 °C) from sputtered layers and a low ASR (~0.25 Ohms-cm2 at 650 °C) resulting from a modification of cathode/contact processing and the introduction of alternative contact layers that are sufficient to yield a Gen-1 cell with a maximum power density of approximately 1.2 W/cm2. At an operating voltage of 0.74 V, this would yield a cell power density of ~1.1 W/cm2. While not utilized in this project, a Redox Gen-2 cell has a catalyst-infiltrated porous anode that reduces the ASR by more than 50% from that of the Gen-1 cells used in this project. Therefore, if the sputtered YSZ electron-blocking layer and GDC barrier layer are added to a Gen-2 half cell with a similar increase in OCV to the theoretical value of ~1.13 V at 650 °C, and if the same improvement in ASR (from that demonstrated in this project) is achieved when using the Gen-2 half-cell architecture as a sputtered cell substrate, then the power density at 0.74 Vop could be as high as ~2.6 W/cm2. The impact of such power density gains, while still maintaining high cell efficiency, and thus high system efficiency, is a dramatic decrease in system cost because the stack represents ~30-40% of the SOFC system cost.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗

Laboratory Evaluation of Tunable White LEDs for Circadian Lighting in Commercial Offices

Tunable white Light-Emitting Diode (LED) systems that allow users to control Correlated Color Temperature (CCT) are often marketed for circadian health, which is an emerging priority in commercial office lighting. However, the energy impacts of meeting circadian criteria with standard non-tunable LEDs and with tunable white LEDs are not well understood. The goals of this project were to implement select commercial lighting systems, including tunable white LEDs, to meet visual and circadian criteria in an office environment, and to quantify lighting performance and energy usage. Most recent studies on tunable white LEDs, circadian lighting strategies, and energy impacts have relied on computer simulations and models. While little research has directly measured tunable LED energy usage for circadian criteria, EPRI has recently published results from a lab-based evaluation of illuminance, spectral output, and energy consumption for several LED products marketed for circadian performance. The research presented here contributes to the field by quantifying the performance of market-available technologies through detailed monitoring of performance parameters (such as illuminance, spectral output, glare, and energy consumption) in a physical space (an office environment).

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Performance Demonstration of an Occupancy Sensor-enabled Integrated Solution for Commercial Buildings

Traditionally, a single-loop fixed-gain controller is applied to supply fan (SF) and cooling coil (CC) valve controls while a fixed-damper position control is applied to outdoor air (OA) damper control at air handling units (AHUs) in commercial buildings. With the increasing application of occupancy sensors, the information generated by occupancy sensors is applied to not only reduce the electricity loads from lighting and controllable plug loads, but also reset OA intake and minimum supply airflow setpoints. Meanwhile, these intermittent operation actions greatly elevate the dynamics of AHU systems, which may introduce unstable SF and CC valve operations and inaccurate OA flow control at AHUs and consequently degrade maximum energy efficiency gains. With virtual fan and valve flow meter technologies, two advanced controls, including cascade control and gain scheduling control, can be implemented on both the SF and CC valve, and an advanced control using a virtual OA flow meter can be implemented on OA damper integrated with occupancy sensors. The goal of this project is to demonstrate the savings, cost, and performance of an integrated solution that integrates the three advanced HVAC controls with occupancy sensors to allow accurate and stable AHU operations in real buildings. The project objectives are to: 1) develop and validate an advance SF control algorithm; 2) develop and validate an advanced CC valve control algorithm; 3) validate an algorithm to implement a virtual OA flow meter; and 4) demonstrate the savings, cost, and performance of the integrated solution in real buildings. The technical approaches are to: 1) select a test system at the University of Oklahoma; 2) develop and implement the algorithms of advanced SF and CC valve controls and validate the performance; 3) develop and implement the advanced OA control using a virtual OA flow meter and validate the performance; 4) demonstrate the savings, cost, and performance of the proposed integrated solution with and without three advanced HVAC controls; and 5) disseminate the project results through publications and presentations. For the SF control, both the gain scheduling and cascade controls can improve the fan energy performance by reducing the fan power during the transient period and the fan control performance at lower speeds by reducing fan speed variation. Moreover, the gain scheduling control provides a simple and low-cost solution and is recommended. The fan power savings can reach 30% in a transient period. For the CC valve control, the gain scheduling control can considerably reduce the supply air temperature oscillation range and frequency under both higher and lower load conditions and the control valve response is much more stable. As a result, the gain scheduling control is recommended. The projected pump energy consumption can be reduced by 68.5%. With the developed virtual OA flow meter, the OA can be accurately controlled at its setpoint, which is determined based on the actual number of occupants in the building provided by occupancy sensors. The RMSE of the proposed OA control is 15.9 L/s. The energy data shows that the fan power and CC cooling energy were significantly reduced. On the other hand, the energy savings majorly results from the occupancy sensors and the energy savings by the advanced HVAC controls is minimal because that the controllers in the test AHU were tuned with very slow response. An annual technical savings potential is estimated as 0.5 quads in the commercial sector.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗