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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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Simulation of a single polar skyrmion. Red arrows signify that this is a left-handed skyrmion. Electric Skyrmions Charge Ahead for Next-Generation Data Storage News Release: https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2019/04/18/electric-skyrmions-charge-ahead-for-next-generation-data-storage/ Credit: Xiaoxing Cheng ( Pennsylvania State University), C.T. Nelson (Oak Ridge National Laboratory), and Ramamoorthy Ramesh (Berkeley Lab)
Two graduate students at the Department of Energy’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) based at Berkeley Lab have pioneered a new way to synthesize DNA sequences through a creative use of enzymes that promises to be faster, cheaper, and more accurate. DNA synthesis is a fundamental tool in the rapidly growing field of synthetic biology, in which organisms can be engineered to do things like decompose plastic and manufacture biofuels and medicines. This discovery could dramatically accelerate the pace of scientific discovery. Joint BioEnergy Institute -- https://www.jbei.org/
Science in 360°: Say hello to HERMAN, a robot that accelerates the synthesis of nanoparticles for a wide range of cool applications such as biosensors, smart window coatings, and display technologies. HERMAN (aka High-throughput Experimentation Robot for the Multiplexed Automation of Nanochemistry) is a one-of-a-kind robot at Berkeley Lab's Molecular Foundry that brings parallel processing and an extreme level of precision to the materials discovery process.
Berkeley Lab has developed a new method to image solar cells in 3-D that could help scientists learn new ways to boost photovoltaic efficiency.
Berkeley Lab researcher Emily Tow talks about her project to treat municipal wastewater in an energy efficient way and bring it up to drinking water standard. Using the Molecular Foundry, she is looking at biofouling of membranes used to treat wastewater.
The secrets of a new alloy’s amazing toughness is seen in this transmission electron microscopy movie that shows the formation of nano-sized bridges across a growing crack. These bridges inhibit the crack’s growth, and are one of several mechanisms identified by the scientists that give the alloy incredible toughness and strength. (Credit: Berkeley Lab)
Berkeley Lab scientists have developed a way to print 3-D structures composed entirely of liquids. Using a modified 3-D printer, they injected threads of water into silicone oil — sculpting tubes made of one liquid within another liquid. They envision their all-liquid material could be used to construct liquid electronics that power flexible, stretchable devices. The scientists also foresee chemically tuning the tubes and flowing molecules through them, leading to new ways to separate molecules or precisely deliver nanoscale building blocks to under-construction compounds.
A regional climate model simulation of Hurricane Katrina at 3 km resolution, part of a study published in Nature titled, “Anthropogenic Influences on Major Tropical Cyclone Events,” by Berkeley Lab researchers Christina Patricola and Michael Wehner. The study found that climate change intensified the amount of rainfall in recent hurricanes such as Katrina, Irma, and Maria by 5 to 10 percent.
This animation depicts the nucleolus, which is the largest structure in the nucleus of a mouse’s nerve cell. The animation shows successive inner layers of the nucleolus shaded in green, blue and red. The outermost blue structure shows masses of heterochromatin, a tightly packed form of DNA, in contact with the nucleolus. (Credit: Berkeley Lab, UCSF)
Energy use associated with all aspects of window performance, including heating and cooling, costs U.S. building owners about $50 billion annually. Berkeley Lab is working with window manufacturers to bring to market a “super window” that is at least twice as insulating as 99 percent of the windows for sale today.
Berkeley Lab scientist Chinmayee Subban explains her technology to remove salt from brackish water, which could provide alternative sources for California’s agriculture needs.
California relies on the Sierra Nevada snowpack for a significant portion of its water needs, yet scientists understand very little about how future changes in snowpack volume and timing will influence surface water and groundwater. Berkeley Lab researcher Erica Woodburn is working on an advanced hydrologic model to study how climate change might affect California watersheds in the future.
This computerized animation of shows the skeletonized structure of heterochromatin, a tightly packed form of DNA, in a mouse’s mature olfactory neuron. Red denotes a small minimum distance, or thin region, of a branch of the heterochromatic structure, and white denotes a large minimum distance, or thick region, of a branch of the heterochromatin. (Credit: Berkeley Lab, UCSF)
Large particle physics projects funded by the U.S. Government require an evaluation and mitigation of each project’s potential impacts on the local communities. However, beyond meeting governmental requirements, particle physics projects stand to play an essential role in local decision-making, building relationships, and framing discussions about key projects by becoming meaningfully engaged in their local communities. In this white paper for the U.S. Particle Physics Community Planning Exercise (“Snowmass"), we examine several local community engagement efforts made by three facilities: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), and the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF). Although each facility focuses on a different endeavor in varying types of communities, each study highlights the importance and benefits of employing consistent outreach techniques, promoting diversity, establishing lasting relationships, and creating environments for open and honest communication.
Thermal energy storage in oil and gas reservoirs leverages the existing surface and subsurface infrastructure, which can pave the way for economic production of geothermal energy. Existing studies on geothermal energy storage are focused mostly on the use of aquifers with more homogeneous rock and fluid properties. Coupling of heat and fluid flow in a multiphase-multicomponent system, such as an oil reservoir, is imperative especially if existing oil field assets need to be repurposed as required for a sustainable energy transition. The objective is to model the subsurface thermo-hydrological processes associated with reservoir performance and operational sustainability. The model evaluates formation pressure and temperature within the reservoir and at the injection/production wells during multiple charge and discharge cycles. Hot water (approximately 200 degrees C) heated by Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) at high pressure is injected into the existing oil reservoir for storage and produced as thermal energy for power generation, which will be accompanied by enhanced oil recovery. To demonstrate the coupled fluid and heat flow during the injection/production cycle in the subsurface reservoir, TOUGH3 (developed by Berkeley Lab) is used to simulate the thermo-hydrological (TH) processes in a multiphase, multicomponent system. Two well geometries are considered within the reservoir grid: 1) a single-well huff-n-puff system (same well is used for injection and production), and 2) an isolated injection-production well doublet. Seasonal charge and discharge cycling are implemented based on the scheduling specified in the model input file. The model reports pressure, temperature, enthalpy, liquid fluxes, heat fluxes, pore velocities, and changes in porosity & permeability due to temperature and pressure variations during the cyclic Reservoir Thermal Energy Storage (RTES) operations. The results from the simulations can be used to optimize the operational parameters (such as well spacing and injection/production rates) and round-trip efficiency for surface power-plants coupled with thermal energy storage over time. They can also serve as important inputs for levelized cost of storage estimations. The research will help to design and integrate surface renewable energy sources, such as concentrating solar power (CSP), with RTES to help balance out power supply and demand on the grid.
California is facing three major challenges in electrical grid operation: renewable overgeneration, steep evening ramping, and growing peak demand. The state has identified dynamic retail price response as a key strategy evidenced by CPUC’s Dynamic Rates proceeding and CEC’s Load Management Standards. Furthermore, the CEC launched a $16M “California Load Flexibility Research and Deployment Hub (CalFlexHub)” administered by Berkeley Lab to accelerate price-response flexible load technologies in buildings and EV charging. There are more than 16 laboratory and field demonstration projects in CalFlexHub, each demonstrating innovative automated price-response technologies. CalFlexHub tests various pathways through which hourly price signals and triggered control commands are communicated to load-flexible devices such as smart thermostats, heat pumps, water heaters, and EVs. We identified seven unique communication and control pathways, which involve combinations of third-party cloud, device OEM’s cloud, building central gateway, and local controller in between the price server and the load-flexible devices. It is important for utilities and policy makers to understand the long-term implications of each pathway in designing future programs and creating related policies and mandates for market transformation. We propose an evaluation framework including the following aspects: ● Functionality: connectivity and uptime, resilience, and optimization; ● Customer experience: simplicity in setup, troubleshooting support, continuity, customer choice, first cost, and ongoing cost; ● Business model and scalability: advance interoperability, holistic solution, bridge unique gap, customer base, and value streams and pricing structures. In this paper, we identify emerging business models associated with each communication pathway and discuss their positive features and challenges from the above aspects.
Scientists at Berkeley Lab have teamed up with The University of Hawai‘i at Manoa (UH Manoa) through the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Project (ETIPP) to evaluate the technological and market feasibility of shallow geothermal heat exchanger (GHE) technology for building cooling, energy efficiency, and emissions reduction applications in Hawai’i. The team is assessing the data necessary to model the feasibility of deploying this technology, the actual models that will be used, and what hurdles need to be overcome to install a demonstration case. UH has an abundance of geologic and geothermal data and is looking to the national labs’ expertise to execute this analysis. UH is also interested in investigating policy, regulatory, and business conditions advantageous for implementation of a pilot project, and more broad deployment of this technology in Hawai‘i. In many locations around the world, the demands for heating and cooling are roughly balanced over the course of the year, so GHEs do not cause significant long-term changes in subsurface temperature. This is not the case in Hawai’i, where the demand for heating is very small, meaning that over time, GHEs will add heat to the subsurface. If temperatures increase significantly, GHE systems will not work as designed. Regional groundwater flow has the potential to sweep heated water away from boreholes, thereby maintaining the functionality of the GHE system. Significant regional groundwater flow requires two things: a sufficiently large driving hydraulic head gradient (usually closely related to surface topography), and sufficient porosity and permeability to enable groundwater to flow in large enough quantities to enable near-borehole temperatures to be maintained at ambient values. Hawai‘i’s volcanic terrain offers ample surface topographic variation. The lava itself shows an extremely large range of porosity and permeability, making it crucial to select sites with large enough values of these properties. Numerical modeling of coupled groundwater and heat flow can be used to determine how large is large enough. Both closed-loop and open-loop systems are being investigated. Another option being considered is using cool seawater as the source of chill. Currently work is progressing on two fronts. A hydrogeologic model for a closed-loop system is being developed for the Stan Sheriff Center at the UH Manoa campus, where a subsurface karst system immediately downgradient of the borefield may provide efficient removal of heated groundwater. The team will also develop a technoeconomic model for this site to compare the cost of cooling using a GHE system with the costs of operating the current air conditioning system. At the state scale, geographic information system (GIS) layers of various attributes relevant for GHE are being combined to develop an overall favorability map for employing GHE in Hawai‘i.
May 13, 2010 Lawrence Berkeley Lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division (EETD) Distinguished Lecture: Ajay Mathur is Director General of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, and a member of the Prime Minister's Council on Climate Change. As Director General of BEE, Dr. Mathur coordinates the national energy efficiency program, including the standards and labeling program for equipment and appliances; the energy conservation building code; the industrial energy efficiency program, and the DSM program's in the buildings, lighting, and municipal sectors.