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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 307 records · Page 17
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Energy, Exergy, Entropy Generation Minimization, and Exergoenvironmental Analyses of Energy Systems-A Mini-Review

Meeting the growing energy demands has become a crucial challenge, which should employ energy integration and benefit from the extraction of the maximum thermodynamic potential of the resources consumed. This brief review presents an overview of the essential elements of the methods of energy, exergy, entropy generation minimization, and exergoenvironmental analyses. In combination, these methodologies constitute a powerful toolbox for the design, analysis, and optimization of energy systems. The quantification of energy and environmental impacts provided by them is essential in guiding toward system designs that are consistent with current energy and environmental needs.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2021

Visual Modeling for Complex System Valuation: Implementation Guidance

Within the Transactive Systems Program (TSP) at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) the need to incorporate a valuation analysis design early within the research process of transactive energy systems led to development of a valuation methodology. This methodology allows the modeling of economic exchanges within a complex system and supports the evaluation of individual stakeholder economic outcomes in addition to systemwide costs and benefits. The use of visual modeling practices enables the research team to reach common understanding and agreement on the analysis design within the complex system. While this methodology was developed for the valuation of transactive energy systems, it can be applied to any complex system where a granular economic analysis is desired. It allows for the inclusion of equity analyses and ties individual activities and microeconomic outcomes with the systemwide macroeconomic impacts. This document serves as implementation guidance for analysts planning to deploy the methodology within a research study. The appendixes provide specific guidance on how this methodology is deployed within the TSP at PNNL for analysts seeking guidance for deployment within that context.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Summary: Techno-Economic Analysis of Solar Photovoltaics and Battery Energy Storage at a Vietnam Industrial Park

The Clean Energy Investment Accelerator conducted a case study analysis of battery energy storage system (BESS) feasibility for an industrial park in Vietnam using the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL's) REopt platform (a distributed energy modeling and optimization tool) to evaluate how BESS may reduce electricity costs, increase utilization of onsite renewable energy generation, and improve resilience to utility grid outages. This presentation summarizes the analysis and key takeaways.

batteries↗
DOE OSTI2020

Plasma Facing Component Characterization and Correlation With Plasma Conditions in Lithium Tokamak Experiment-β

Lithium coatings in the Lithium Tokamak eXperiment (LTX) led to flat temperature profiles. The flat temperature profiles were observed along with a hot, low density edge, implying a broad, collisionless scrape-off layer (SOL). Additionally, in vacuo X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) measurements established that lithium coatings evaporatively deposited onto high-Z plasma facing components (PFCs) became oxidized while retaining the ability to achieve good plasma performance long after lithium was applied to the PFCs. Longstanding theory predicted flat temperature profiles with low recycling walls, which was presumed to be due to hydrogen binding with elemental lithium to form lithium hydride. The presence of oxidized lithium, however, raised questions regarding the exact mechanism of hydrogen retention in LTX. To investigate these questions, the upgraded facility LTX- β includes a new sample exposure probe (SEP) for more detailed in vacuo analysis of PFC samples. The SEP is equipped with a vacuum suitcase capable of transporting samples representative of the LTX- β outer midplane PFCs to a stand-alone XPS system while maintaining pressures lower than the LTX- β base vacuum to limit the contamination between sample exposure and analysis. The low-energy resolution XPS system used in past experiments could only enable the determination of elemental percentages on the PFC sample surfaces. Because the new XPS system has higher energy resolution, it is more direct to assign chemical compounds to the measured binding energies. This capability has been confirmed by comparing XPS data from PFC test samples with measurements using a commercial high-resolution XPS system. Quartz crystal microbalances (QCMs) were used to quantify the thickness of the deposited lithium on the LTX- β PFCs. This article describes the application of the SEP to characterize the PFC surfaces using XPS and their relationship to plasma conditions.

Maan, Anurag↗
NASA NTRS2015

Cost Scaling of a Real-World Exhaust Waste Heat Recovery Thermoelectric Generator: A Deeper Dive

Cost is equally important to power density or efficiency for the adoption of waste heat recovery thermoelectric generators (TEG) in many transportation and industrial energy recovery applications. In many cases the system design that minimizes cost (e.g., the $/W value) can be very different than the design that maximizes the system's efficiency or power density, and it is important to understand the relationship between those designs to optimize TEG performance-cost compromises. Expanding on recent cost analysis work and using more detailed system modeling, an enhanced cost scaling analysis of a waste heat recovery thermoelectric generator with more detailed, coupled treatment of the heat exchangers has been performed. In this analysis, the effect of the heat lost to the environment and updated relationships between the hot-side and cold-side conductances that maximize power output are considered. This coupled thermal and thermoelectric treatment of the exhaust waste heat recovery thermoelectric generator yields modified cost scaling and design optimization equations, which are now strongly dependent on the heat leakage fraction, exhaust mass flow rate, and heat exchanger effectiveness. This work shows that heat exchanger costs most often dominate the overall TE system costs, that it is extremely difficult to escape this regime, and in order to achieve TE system costs of $1/W it is necessary to achieve heat exchanger costs of $1/(W/K). Minimum TE system costs per watt generally coincide with maximum power points, but Preferred TE Design Regimes are identified where there is little cost penalty for moving into regions of higher efficiency and slightly lower power outputs. These regimes are closely tied to previously-identified low cost design regimes. This work shows that the optimum fill factor Fopt minimizing system costs decreases as heat losses increase, and increases as exhaust mass flow rate and heat exchanger effectiveness increase. These findings have profound implications on the design and operation of various thermoelectric (TE) waste heat 3 recovery systems. This work highlights the importance of heat exchanger costs on the overall TEG system costs, quantifies the possible TEG performance-cost domain space based on heat exchanger effects, and provides a focus for future system research and development efforts.

cost analysis↗
DOE OSTI2023

NETL's Cost of Capturing CO2 from Industrial Sources and Industrial Carbon Capture Retrofit Database

This presentation was given on behalf of NETL's Strategic Systems Analysis and Engineering Directorate, Energy Process Analysis Team at a United States Energy Association webinar on January 24, 2023. The presentation summarizes techno economic analysis results of nine industrial CO2 capture cases, and also gave an overview and brief demonstration of the industrial sources Carbon Capture Retrofit Database, which is a publicly available tool that estimates capture costs for a subset of the industrial sources appearing in the companion systems analysis report.

Hughes, Sydney↗
DOE OSTI2025

Simulation insights into wetting properties of hydrogen-brine-clay for hydrogen geo-storage

Hydrogen geo-storage is attracting substantial interdisciplinary interest as a cost-effective and sustainable option for medium- and long-term storage. Hydrogen can be stored underground in diverse formations, including aquifers, salt caverns, and depleted oil and gas reservoirs. The wetting dynamics of the hydrogen-brine-rock system are critical for assessing both structural and residual storage capacities, and ensuring containment safety. Through molecular dynamics simulations, we explore how varying concentrations of cushion gases (CO 2 or CH 4 ) influence the wetting properties of hydrogen-brine-clay systems under geological conditions (15 MPa and 333 K). We employed models of talc and the hydroxylated basal face of kaolinite (kaoOH) as clay substrates. Our findings reveal that the effect of cushion gases on hydrogen-brine-clay wettability is strongly dependent on the clay-brine interactions. Notably, CO 2 and CH 4 reduce the water wettability of talc in hydrogen-brine-talc systems, while exerting no influence on the wettability of hydrogen-brine-kaoOH systems. Detailed analysis of free energy of cavity formation near clay surfaces, clay-brine interfacial tensions, and the Willard-Chandler surface for gas-brine interfaces elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying wettability changes. Our simulations identify empirical correlations between wetting properties and the average free energy required to perturb a flat interface when clay-brine interactions are less dominant. Here, our thorough thermodynamic analysis of rock-fluid and fluid-fluid interactions, aligning with key experimental observations, underscores the utility of simulated interfacial properties in refining contact angle measurements and predicting experimentally relevant properties. These insights significantly enhance the assessment of gas geo-storage potential. Prospectively, the approaches and findings obtained from this study could form a basis for more advanced multiscale simulations that consider a range of geological and operational variables, potentially guiding the development and improvement of geo-storage systems in general, with a particular focus on hydrogen storage.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2025

pbd-industrial-limit-of-performance (PBD limit of performance) v1.0.0

Software repository that contains models used for a paper about Platform-Based Design with limit of performance analysis for an industrial pilot study. This repository contains process and control models in Modelica and IDAES and scripts to develop an ML based controller that computes the control function that maximizes the techno-economic performance of cost and energy computed by the model. This software is meant to be released to reproduce the work described in a Journal publication that is now drafted with the working title "Energy System Limit of Performance Analysis using an Online Machine Learning Multi-Resolution Optimization Framework".

Amusat, Oluwamayowa [Lawrence Berkeley National La↗
DOE OSTI2022

A nuclear-hydrogen hybrid energy system with large-scale storage: A study in optimal dispatch and economic performance in a real-world market

Here a study in optimal dispatch and economic analysis of a novel nuclear hybrid energy system (NHES) with large-scale hydrogen storage and a novel control scheme is conducted. The control scheme makes charge and discharge decisions by using the real-time electricity price relative to the historical price distribution. The pricing data is taken from the ERCOT Houston and West load zones with different price oscillations. Six case control studies with different levels of aggressiveness were chosen for each load zone for a total of 12 case studies. It is found that in a high price volatility load zone, a more aggressive control strategy maximizes revenue, while in a less oscillatory load zone, a moderate control strategy performs better. The NHES can store energy when the price is low and sell additional electricity when the price is high, as well as participate in the ancillary services market. Due to these advantages, the NHES can generate 10–40 million USD more revenue annually than a stand-alone nuclear plant. Due to higher costs, the NHES has a higher LCOE (81.36 USD/MWh) than a stand-alone plant (68.66 USD/MWh); however, the LCOE of the NHES is still comparable to other new forms of electricity generation. It is found that both the NHES and the stand-alone plant are not economical in the existing electricity market. Due to the extra revenue generated, the hybrid system has a positive annual cashflow whereas the stand-alone plant does not. It is found that the hybrid plant needs less cost subsidy than a stand-alone plant to become economical.

08 HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2025

Integrated Multi-Fidelity Model and Co-Simulation Platform for Distribution System Transient and Dynamic Analysis—DistribuDyn

As inverter-based, distributed energy resources (DERs) and variable loads continue to proliferate across distribution systems, it is increasingly important to understand their impacts on system stability and reliability. However, most commercially available simulation tools for distribution planning primarily focus on steady-state and quasi-steady state analysis, offering limited capabilities to study transient and dynamic behaviors.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2020

Techno-Economic Assessment of Destabilized Li Hydride Systems for High Temperature Thermal Energy Storage

A comprehensive techno-economic analysis of destabilized Li hydrides, used as thermal energy storage systems in concentrating solar power plants, is presented and discussed. Two systems, operating at temperatures on the order of 550–650 °C, are selected as thermal energy storage units for steam power plants, namely the Si-destabilized Li hydride (LiSi) and the Al-destabilized Li hydride (LiAl). Two thermal energy storage systems, operating at temperatures on the order of 700–750 °C, are selected for integration in supercritical CO2 power plants, namely the Si-destabilized Li hydride (LiSi) and the Sn-destabilized Li hydride (LiSn). Each storage system demonstrates excellent volumetric capacity, achieving values between 100 and 250 kWhth/m3. The LiSi-based thermal energy storage systems can be integrated with steam and supercritical CO2 plants at a specific cost between 107 US$/kWhth and 109 US$/kWhth, with potential to achieve costs on the order of 74 US$/kWhth under enhanced configurations and scenarios. The LiAl-based storage system has the highest potential for large scale applications. The specific cost of the LiAl system, integrated in solar steam power plants, is equal to approximately 74 US$/kWhth, with potential to reach values on the order of 51 US$/kWhth under enhanced performance configurations and scenarios.

Corgnale, Claudio↗
DOE OSTI2023

Optimal Dispatch for the US Virgin Islands to Increase Renewable Rates in Saint Croix

The US Virgin Islands, like many other small island nations, face significant challenges related to its energy supply. Their dependency on imported fossil fuels not only drives up energy costs, but also contributes to different environmental problems. Nevertheless, their generally sunny and windy climate makes this archipelago an ideal location for renewable energy development. Increasing the use of sources such as wind, and solar can help reduce their energy dependency, lower their levelized cost of electricity, and improve the health and wellbeing of local communities. In this paper, an optimal dispatcher is employed to analyze the implications on energy security of employing different technology options according to the plans of the local system operator. In this context, short term stability is ensured by inserting operational constraints in the energy management system based on stability analysis developed in PSCAD. The results highlight the usefulness of integrating PV and battery system, while further analysis are required to justify integrating wind power.

energy islands↗
DOE OSTI2026

High-Resolution South American Wind Resource Data Downscaled with Generative Machine Learning Conditioned on Near-Surface Observations

High-resolution historical wind data was developed for the entirety of South America using the innovative Super-Resolution for Renewable Resource Data (sup3r) machine learning framework. The publicly available Sup3rWind South America dataset represents a significant advancement in wind resource data generation, leveraging generative machine learning conditioned on near-surface observations from the Meteorological Assimilation Data Ingest System (MADIS) to efficiently and accurately downscale coarse reanalysis data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ERA5). This approach produces fine-scale, spatially and temporally coherent wind and meteorological fields hundreds of times more computationally efficient than traditional numerical weather modeling methods, enabling access to high-fidelity wind information across both continental and offshore regions. Sup3rWind South America builds on the earlier Sup3rWind Ukraine dataset through improvements in model architecture and outputs conditioned on near-surface observation inputs. As with the Ukraine data release, this dataset includes wind speed, wind direction, temperature, relative humidity, and pressure at a horizontal resolution of ~2 km, representing a 15x spatial enhancement relative to the 31 km ERA5 grid. Wind speed and direction are provided at 5-minute resolution, a 12x temporal refinement compared to the hourly ERA5 data, while temperature, relative humidity, and pressure remain at hourly resolution. The data covers all years from 2005 to 2024. Before downscaling, ERA5 inputs were bias-corrected using long-term monthly means and a limited number of quality-controlled observations to align large-scale statistics with regional conditions. The resulting dataset is the first publicly available high-resolution timeseries wind record that provides full spatial coverage of South America. Model validation demonstrates strong agreement with observations across several statistical metrics, consistent with other state-of-the-art high-resolution wind resource datasets. The potential applications of Sup3rWind South America span renewable energy resource assessment, energy system modeling, and grid resilience analysis. The 20-year record and high spatial and temporal resolution support accurate estimation of long-term energy yield and the economic feasibility of potential wind development sites. Continuous coverage across both continental and offshore regions enables comprehensive site prospecting within exclusive economic zones. The 2 km, 5-minute resolution data provide the spatial and temporal variability required for power system simulation, operational planning, and regional risk assessments.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Dataset of Generative AI Workload Power Profiles

This dataset provides a collection of high-resolution (5/10 Hz or every 0.2/0.1 seconds) power consumption profiles for generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) workloads executed on NLR's High Performance Computing (HPC) platform Kestrel. The dataset also includes examples of representative whole-facility power profiles generated using a bottom-up, event-driven, data center energy model . This dataset is designed to support research in energy modeling, infrastructure planning, energy system integration, and sustainability analysis for AI-driven computing systems. The dataset captures time-resolved electrical power measurements across a diverse set of configurations, including variations in job type (inference vs. training), workload (LLM vs. image generation), datasets, and number of compute nodes. Power traces are provided in a standardized format and include both raw/instantaneous and aggregated files. Each profile is accompanied by metadata describing workload parameters, enabling reproducibility and cross-study comparison. The dataset is intended for use in applications such as data center infrastructure planning, energy modeling, demand response and grid impact studies, and development and validation of system-level simulation tools. By making these workload-specific power profiles publicly available, this dataset aims to address the current lack of open, empirical energy data for generative AI systems and to facilitate transparent, reproducible research on the energy and environmental impacts of large-scale AI deployment. If you use this dataset, please cite the associated publication: Vercellino et al., “Measurement of Generative AI Workload Power Profiles for Whole-Facility Data Center Infrastructure Planning,” arXiv:2604.07345 (2026).

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2023

Quantifying agricultural productive use of energy load in Sub-Saharan Africa and its impact on microgrid configurations and costs

The use of advanced energy technologies for agricultural purposes—such as irrigation, refrigeration, crop processing, and egg incubation—has the potential to increase crop yield, reduce vulnerability to changing precipitation patterns, increase shelf life, strengthen income and employment opportunities in rural areas, and reduce emissions by displacing fossil fuel-based technologies. These productive uses of energy (PUE) in remote areas could potentially be powered by microgrids that additionally serve otherwise unelectrified communities, most of which are located in rural Sub-Saharan Africa. Here, in this paper, we use high-resolution geospatial data to estimate the end-use electricity demand for a range of agricultural PUE across Sub-Saharan Africa, and we share these data in an open-access mapping tool. Next, we use REopt®, a techno-economic optimization model of energy systems, to determine the cost and system sizing implications of incorporating agricultural PUE into microgrid designs in Kenya and Zambia. We estimate the upper bound of agricultural PUE demand for irrigation, milling, shelling, refrigeration, and egg incubation across Sub-Saharan to be 16.8 TWh/yr. We find that incorporating local agricultural PUE into microgrid system designs increases the required system sizing while having minimal impact on the levelized cost of energy of these systems. Our analysis is the first to demonstrate the PUE potential in the agricultural sector at a 10x10-kilometer resolution across Sub-Saharan Africa and to show, at scale, how site-specific PUE can impact the cost and sizing of microgrids that are otherwise deployed to serve local household and community load.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2023

Drones, Delivery Robots, Driverless Cars, and Intelligent Curbs for Increasing Energy Productivity of First/Last Mile Goods Movement

The objective of the project is to use empirical testing, life cycle assessment, and systems analysis to research and demonstrate energy improvement when using goods delivery drones, eVTOL, ground delivery robots and automated vehicles compared to a baseline network. The research will also develop proof-of-concept testing, a model, and simulation for a smart curb space as an intelligently-managed urban delivery zone demonstrating additional improvement in energy productivity.

Scherer, Sebastian↗
DOE OSTI2021

One of These Things IS Like the Other: Pursuing a New Taxonomy of Industry for Improved Energy System Modeling

Industrial processes drive the exchange of materials, energy, and currency throughout the economy. These processes are powered by electricity and direct combustion, with variation in their operation even within the same industry. This heterogeneity makes it difficult for large models, including the National Energy Modeling System (US), to project their energy use while remaining tractable. Decarbonization and ensuing changes to the energy system require changes to industrial processes while offering opportunities for process innovation, but the extent and nature of changes are difficult to model with current classification schemes and corresponding data. The North American Industrial Classification (NAICS) is an economic taxonomy of industries, but its categories are less meaningful from an energy and material flow perspective. For example, a facility that makes steel from iron ore in a blast furnace/basic oxygen furnace is categorized under the same NAICS code as a facility that makes steel from scrap in an electric arc furnace despite the scale, use of recycled scrap versus iron ore, and energy use differences in the two facility types. Exploratory analysis is performed on a large dataset used for plant-level energy assessment in order to detect clusters that can aid in better modeling of industry for energy analysis in an evolving system with breakthrough technologies.

28 EE - Advanced Manufacturing Office (EE-5A)↗
NASA NTRS2019

Structural Analysis of Test Flight Vehicles for Application of Multifunctional Energy Storage System

Under the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) Convergent Aeronautical Solutions (CAS) project, NASA Glenn Research Center has been leading Multifunctional Structures for High Energy Lightweight Load-bearing Storage (M-SHELLS) research efforts. The technology of integrating load-carrying structures with electrical energy storage capacity has the potential to reduce the overall weight of future electric aircraft. The proposed project goals were to develop M-SHELLS in the form of honeycomb coupons and subcomponents, integrate them into the structure, and conduct low-risk flight-tests onboard a remotely piloted small aircraft. Experimental M-SHELLS energy-storing coupons were fabricated and tested in the laboratory for their electrical and mechanical properties. In this report, finite element model development and structural analyses of two small test aircraft candidates are presented. The finite element analysis of the initial two-spar wing is described for strain, deflection, and weight estimation. After a test aircraft Tempest was acquired, a load-deflection test of the wing was conducted. A finite element model of the Tempest was then developed based on the test aircraft dimensions and construction detail. The component weight analyses from the finite element model and test measurements were correlated. Structural analysis results with multifunctional energy storage panels in the fuselage of the test vehicle are presented. Although the flight test was cancelled because of programmatic reasons and time constraints, the structural analysis results indicate that the mid-fuselage floor composite panel could provide structural integrity with minimal weight penalty while supplying electrical energy. To explore potential future applications of the multifunctional structure, analyses of the NASA X-57 Maxwell electric aircraft and a NASA N+3 Technology Conventional Configuration (N3CC) fuselage are presented. Secondary aluminum structures in the fuselage sub-floor and cargo area were partially replaced with reinforced five-layer composite panels with M-SHELLS honeycomb core. The N3CC fuselage weight reduction associated with each design without risking structural integrity are described. The structural analysis and weight estimation with the application of composite M-SHELLS panels to the N3CC fuselage indicate a 3.2% reduction in the fuselage structural weight, prior to accounting for the additional weight of core material required to complete the energy storage functionality.

Mukhopadhyay, Vivek↗