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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 325 records · Page 18
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Impact of burning on soil properties and respiration; Wood Buffalo National Park, Canada; June 2019

In this study, we used burn simulations on boreal forest soil under high and low moisture conditions to investigate the effect of burning on soil temperature, soil properties such as pH, total C and total C, and soil respiration. Location and site characteristic data of 19 sampling locations within Wood Buffalo National Park, Canada are included in "sampling-site-characteristics.csv". File "Temp-all-burns.csv" contains temperature data collected 2 to 9 cm below the soil surface during 2 min. heat treatment (i.e. burn simulation) and the following 5-24 hrs. Following the burn simulations, total respiration from burned and unburned soil was collected via KOH base traps for up to 6 months ("raw-conductivity-readings.csv"). The metadata file ("all-sample-metadata.csv") contains measurements of soil pH, total C, and total N of O horizon and underlying mineral soil as well as model fits for respiration data.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Growth, mortality, wood density, biomass data from BIONTE inventories in Manaus, Brazil

BIONTE (BIOmass and NuTrient Experiment) is a selective logging experiment established at the Experimental Station of Tropical Forestry (EEST, aka “ZF2”) field research station in the mid 1980s in the central Amazon (Higuchi et al. 1997, Amaral et al. 2019). Led by the National Institute for Amazon Research (INPA) in Brazil, the project aimed at assessing the effects of logging intensity on forest dynamics and enabling the creation of a model of forest management for the Central Amazon. The experiment included three levels of increasing selective logging intensity and controls, with 1 hectare sample plots (12 total) located at the center of 4 hectare treatment plots. The site’s Köppen classification is tropical rainforest (Af), characterized by high temperatures and humidity, with mean annual temperatures around 27 ℃ and mean annual precipitation around 2200 mm of rain. The vegetation has a high floristic diversity, the soils of the region are poor in nutrients, and the topography is characterized by plateaus (where BIONTE is located), and also valley bottoms and slopes. The inventory (growth and mortality) and biomass data included here covers the 1990 to 2019 period, with wood density being averaged from existing datasets. This dataset includes a data file in .csv file format and a .txt file, BIONTE_mortality-rates_headers.txt, that provides descriptions for the data file headers.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Survival and Age at Maturity in Head-Started Wood Turtles ( Glyptemys insculpta ) with Implications for Population Recovery

A small relict population of Glyptemys insculpta (Wood Turtle) was discovered on a protected area in New Jersey in 2006. Marking and radio-tracking of the old founder individuals helped to determine movement patterns and habitat use. Monitoring of nesting females revealed that nesting habitat and nest success was limited due to invasive plants, human landscape alteration, and Procyon lotor (Raccoon) depredation. We initiated habitat restoration including creation of protected nesting areas, mowing in winter, invasive plant removal, and adjacent landowner education. Here, we direct-released hatchlings from protected nests from 2006 to 2015, yet only a few were detected in subsequent years. Between 2011 and 2023, some or all of each hatchling cohort were head-started indoors at a high school for 9 months. We have continuously radio-tracked all head-starts from the 2011 cohort and portions of the 2012–2014 cohorts. Head-started turtles found their own food, established home ranges, and hibernated communally with founder adults. Subsidized Raccoons, mowers, automobiles, and flooding events—all human-instigated—were the causes of mortality. The first males and first females from the 2011 head-start cohort reached maturity in 2017 and 2019, respectively, at ages 6–8, younger than expected by 4–5 years. Successful reproduction by head-starts was confirmed by viable hatchlings produced in 2019, 2020, and 2023. Head-starting can pull a relict population out of the nose-dive to extirpation when used in conjunction with habitat-restoration practices, but it must be conducted with persistence and continuity over at least the number of years it takes for the earliest cohorts to reach maturity and begin producing offspring of their own.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2015

Ecological objectives can be achieved with wood-derived bioenergy

Renewable, biomass-based energy options can reduce the climate impacts of fossil fuels. However, calculating the effects of wood-derived bioenergy on greenhouse gases (GHGs), and thus on climate, is complicated (Miner et al. 2015). To clarify concerns and options about bioenergy, in November 2014, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) produced a second draft of its Framework for Assessing Biogenic CO 2 Emissions fromStationary Sources (http://1.usa.gov/1dikgHq), which considers the latest scientific information and input from stakeholders. Furthermore, the EPA is expected to make decisions soon about the use of woody biomass under the Clean Power Plan, which sets targets for carbon pollution from power plants.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Green Gasoline from Wood using Carbona Gasification and Topsoe TIGAS Process

This final report presents the results of a four-year technology demonstration project carried out by a consortium of companies sponsored in part by a $25 million funding by the Department of Energy (DOE) under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The purpose of the project was to demonstrate a new, economical technology for the thermochemical conversion of woody biomass into gasoline and to demonstrate that the gasoline produced in this way is suitable for direct inclusion in the already existing gasoline pool. The process that was demonstrated uses the Andritz-Carbona fluidized-bed steam-oxygen gasification technology and advanced tar reforming catalytic systems to produce a clean syngas from waste wood, integrated conventional gas cleanup steps, and finally utilizes Haldor Topsoe’s (Topsoe) innovative Topsoe Improved Gasoline Synthesis (TIGASTM) syngas-to-gasoline process. Gas Technology Institute (GTI) carried out the bulk of the testing work at their Flex Fuel development facility in Des Plaines, Illinois; UPM in Minnesota supplied and prepared the feedstocks, and characterization of liquid products was conducted in Phillips 66 labs in Oklahoma. The produced gasoline was used for a single-engine emission test at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI®) in San Antonio, TX, as well as in a fleet test at Transportation Research Center, Inc. (TRC Inc.) in East Liberty, Ohio. The project benefited from the use of existing pilot plant equipment at GTI, including a 21.6 bone dry short ton/day gasifier, tar reformer, Morphysorb® acid gas removal, associated syngas cleanup and gasifier feeding and oxygen systems.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Performance and Costs of Ductless Heat Pumps in Marine-Climate High-Performance Homes -- Habitat for Humanity The Woods

The Woods is a Habitat for Humanity (HFH) community of ENERGY STAR Homes Northwest (ESHNW)-certified homes located in the marine climate of Tacoma/Pierce County, Washington. This research report builds on an earlier preliminary draft 2014 BA report, and includes significant billing analysis and cost effectiveness research from a collaborative, ongoing Ductless Heat Pump (DHP)research effort for Tacoma Public Utilities (TPU) and Bonneville Power Administration (BPA). This report focuses on the results of field testing, modeling, and monitoring of ductless mini-split heat pump hybrid heating systems in seven homes built and first occupied at various times between September 2013 and October 2014. The report also provides WSU documentation of high-performance home observations, lessons learned, and stakeholder recommendations for builders of affordable high-performance housing such as HFH. Tacoma Public Utilities (TPU) and Bonneville Power Administration (BPA). This report focuses on the results of field testing, modeling, and monitoring of ductless mini-split heat pump hybrid heating systems in seven homes built and first occupied at various times between September 2013 and October 2014. The report also provides WSU documentation of high-performance home observations, lessons learned, and stakeholder recommendations for builders of affordable high-performance housing such as HFH.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2017

Functional Gene Discovery and Characterization of Genes and Alleles Affecting Wood Biomass Yield and Quality in Populus

Adoption of biofuels as economically and environmentally viable alternative to fossil fuels would require development of specialized bioenergy varieties. A major goal in the breeding of such varieties is the improvement of lignocellulosic biomass yield and quality. These are complex traits and understanding the underpinning molecular mechanism can assist and accelerate their improvement. This is particularly important for tree bioenergy crops like poplars (species and hybrids from the genus Populus), for which breeding progress is extremely slow due to long generation cycles. A variety of approaches have been already undertaken to better understand the molecular bases of biomass yield and quality in poplar. An obvious void in these undertakings has been the application of mutagenesis. Mutagenesis has been instrumental in the discovery and characterization of many plant traits including such that affect biomass yield and quality. In this proposal we use activation tagging to discover genes that can significantly affect biomass associated traits directly in poplar, a premier bioenergy crop. We screened a population of 5,000 independent poplar activation tagging lines under greenhouse conditions for a battery of biomass yield traits. These same plants were then analyzed for changes in wood chemistry using pyMBMS. As a result of these screens we have identified nearly 800 mutants, which are significantly (P<0.05) different when compared to wild type. Of these majority (~700) are affected in one of ten different biomass yield traits and 100 in biomass quality traits (e.g., lignin, S/G ration and C6/C5 sugars). We successfully recovered the position of the tag in approximately 130 lines, showed activation in nearly half of them and performed recapitulation experiments with 20 genes prioritized by the significance of the phenotype. Recapitulation experiments are still ongoing for many of the genes but the results are encouraging. For example, we have shown successful recapitulation for a fascilin-like gene that when overexpressed increase many biomass-yield associated traits. Genes discovered through activation tagging showed polymorphisms in P. trichocarpa association mapping population linked to the traits modified by the activation tagging. This suggests that putative alleles that are associated with improvement of the trait o interest can be discovered and used in marker associated selection. This will significantly simplify and accelerate the breeding efforts.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Effect of Thermal Storage on the Performance of a Wood Pellet-fired Residential Boiler

Interest in the direct use of biomass for thermal applications as a renewable technology is increasing as is also focus on air pollutant emissions from these sources and methods to minimize the impact. This work has focused on wood pellet-fired residential boilers, which are the cleanest fuel in this category. In the residential application the load varies strongly over the course of a year and a high fraction of the load is typically under 15% of the maximum boiler capacity. Thermal storage can be used even with boilers which have modulation capacity typically to 30% of the boiler maximum. One common pellet boiler was tested at full load and also at the minimum load used in the U.S. certification testing (15%). In these tests the load was steady over the test period. Testing was also done with an emulated load profile for a home in Albany, N.Y. on a typical January, March, and April day. In this case the load imposed on the boiler varied hourly under computer control, based on the modeled load for the example case used. The boiler used has a nominal output of 25 kW and a common mixed hardwood/softwood commercial pellet was used. Moisture content was 3.77%. A dilution tunnel approach was used for the measurement of particulate emissions, in accordance with U.S. certification testing requirements. The test results showed that the use of storage strongly reduces cycling rates under part load conditions. The transients which occur as these boilers cycle contribute to increased particulate emissions and reduced efficiency. The time period of a full cycle at a given load condition can be increased by increasing the storage tank volume and/or increasing the control differential range. It was shown that increasing the period strongly increased the measured efficiency and reduced the particulate emission (relative to the no storage case). The impact was most significant at the low load levels. Storage tank heat loss is shown to be a significant factor in thermal efficiency, particularly at low load. Different methods to measure this heat loss were explored. For one of the tanks evaluated the efficiency loss at the 15% load point was found to be as high as 7.9%. Where storage is used good insulation on the tank, insulation on the piping, and attention to fittings are recommended.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Wood-to-Fuel for California's Transportation Sector using Autothermal Pyrolysis August 2019 (Progress Report for FRD-17-002)

What we planned to accomplish this period: In the month of August we planned to get any comments or edits on the Site License Agreement from SPI for review, make further progress on the market assessment for the Wood-to-Bio-oil Market Report, and continue moving towards getting the subcontracts in place with Iowa State University and Frontline BioEnergy, LLC. What we actually accomplished this period: We finally received the updated Site License Agreement from SPI on August 21st. The only comments and edits on it are minor and should not take more than a couple of weeks of review internally (the only reason this is weeks instead of days is due to the Laboratory’s fiscal year end approaching on September 30, making for heavily increased workloads on our folks that review these documents, and making a few weeks, instead of days, more realistic) before we can pass it along to Iowa State University and Frontline BioEnergy, LLC.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Wood-to-Fuel for California's Transportation Sector using Autothermal Pyrolysis (FRD-17-002 Progress Report)

In the month of December, we planned to have the Site License Agreement with SPI from them for final signatures, make further progress on the market assessment for the Wood-to-Bio-oil Market Report, and continue moving towards getting the subcontracts in place with Iowa State University and Frontline BioEnergy, LLC. The hope was to be able to get the finalized Site License Agreement back from SPI/Gary Blanc this month. Unfortunately, since we were in the immediate aftermath of fire season in California, and Gary was still unavailable as a result, we did not. Thankfully, it does not appear that there will be any major difficulties with getting the agreement finalized and signed, once Gary is available again, as SPI is constant in their support and eagerness for this effort to go forward, so we are not concerned that this is a risk to the project at this time. During the month of December, further research was completed on understand and evaluating the availability and potential availability of fire clearing, and other, forestry residue in California. Further investigations into the negative emissions of biomass pyrolysis products and their upgrading for use in other products (such as fuels) by incorporating carbon capture, drying and compression, and sequestration systems were conducted. The cost to achieve the maximum amount of negative emissions from these biomass-pyrolysis products with carbon capture and sequestration techniques was calculated. Sensitivity analysis was employed to understand how feedstock collection cost and product selling price affects this cost. We continued with the process towards subcontracting with Iowa State University and Frontline BioEnergy. Increased emphasis was placed on getting an updated budget from Frontline BioEnergy, LLC., so it can be submitted for approval of replacing a subcontractor, as we understand this is of utmost importance to the CAM. Frontline reported being very close to an updated budget, waiting on contracted labor costs remaining.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Wood-to-Fuel for California's Transportation Sector using Autothermal Pyrolysis (FRD-17-002 Progress Report)

In the month of November, we planned to have the Site License Agreement with SPI back from them for final review and signatures, make further progress on the market assessment for the Wood-to-Bio-oil Market Report, and continue moving towards getting the subcontracts in place with Iowa State University and Frontline BioEnergy, LLC. The hope was to be able to get the finalized Site License Agreement back from SPI/Gary Blanc this month. Unfortunately, since we are still in the midst of fire season in California, and Gary is unavailable as a result, we did not. Thankfully, it does not appear that there will be any major difficulties with getting the agreement finalized and signed, once Gary is available again, as SPI is constant in their support and eagerness for this effort to go forward, so we are not concerned that this is a risk to the project at this time.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Wood-to-Fuel for California's Transportation Sector using Autothermal Pyrolysis, March 2020 (Progress Report for FRD-17-002)

In the month of March, we planned to have the Site License Agreement with SPI signed and fully executed, make further progress on the market assessment for the Wood-to-Bio-oil Market Report, and hoped to have the subcontracts in place with Iowa State University and Frontline BioEnergy, LLC. We also hoped to have the updated budget from Iowa State in order to send both updated sub-recipient budget sheets to the CAM for approval.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Wood-to-Fuel for California's Transportation Sector using Autothermal Pyrolysis (Progress Report for FRD-17-002)

In the month of April, we planned to have the Site License Agreement with SPI signed and fully executed, make further progress on the market assessment for the Wood-to-Bio-oil Market Report, and hoped to have the subcontracts in place with Iowa State University and Frontline BioEnergy, LLC once we have approval from the CAM. We also plan to have the updated budget from Iowa State in order to send both updated sub-recipient budget sheets to the CAM for approval.We continue to make more progress towards getting our subcontracts in place and received the requested adjustments to ISU’s budget sheets. These were sent to the CAM on 4/30/2020. As the COVID-19 situation is country-wide, we anticipate slower responses from our partners due to similar delays in their organizations to what we are experiencing internally. Although their response times will be slower, both ISU and Frontline are continuing to make good progress on their work for the demonstration in Iowa for this summer, which is assisting with keeping us on schedule for the overall effort. We are continuing to work on the required documents for our subcontracts – though neither will be placed before we receive official approval from our CAM – so that once we have approval, we can place them very quickly.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Wood-to-Fuel for California's Transportation Sector using Autothermal Pyrolysis (Progress Report)

In the month of May, we planned to have the Site License Agreement with SPI signed and fully executed, make further progress on the market assessment for the Wood-to-Bio-oil Market Report, and hoped to have the subcontracts in place with Iowa State University and Frontline BioEnergy, LLC once we ha approval from the CAM. We also planned to have the updated Advanced Reconciliation to the CAM for approval as requested.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Experimental investigation on the binary/ternary fluidization behavior of Geldart D type spherical LDPE, Geldart D type cylindrical wood and Geldart B type sand particles

The series of experiments have been performed on a 2.5-inch cylindrical bed made of acrylic with full optical access and multiple pressure ports at various heights of the bed. The material of interest includes in the investigation include Geldart type D cylindrical hardwood pellets, Geldart type D spherical LDPE, and Geldart type B sand particles. The wood particles have a diameter of around 6.6 mm and a length of 13.2 mm, corresponding to an aspect ratio of 1:2. The spherical LDPE particles and the sand particles have a Sauter Mean Diameter of 3.75 mm, and 0.5 mm, respectively. The experiment series involved the fluidization of the above-mentioned single particle type, as well as the fluidization of binary and ternary mixtures with varying superficial velocities.

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Wood-to-Fuel for California's Transportation Sector using Autothermal Pyrolysis (Progress Report for FRD-17-002)

Accomplishments this period: Subcontract with Frontline BioEnergy, LLC has been executed and is in place (Task 1). List of TAC members is awaiting input from the CEC including any additional members of their own choosing before we finalize confirmation with the listed individuals. This is also holding off on the documented TAC Member commitment, and the DRAFT TAC Meeting Schedule, as we need to know who is approved to be on the TAC before we get commitments and start setting meetings. We are awaiting input from the CEC as to a requested date for the CPR#1. It was originally set for the beginning of July (July 7th), but as the CEC needs to conduct this, we need their input on the revised date. The additional wood feed stock was sent to ISU for analysis of autothermal pyrolysis products on July 15. The Kern refinery continues to express interest in using the bio-oil produced from the demonstration in one or more of their plants. We believe this analysis information will be a critical component of what we share at our first Workshop later this summer

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Single-Cell Genomics of Novel Actinobacteria With the Wood–Ljungdahl Pathway Discovered in a Serpentinizing System

Serpentinite-hosted systems represent modern-day analogs of early Earth environments. In these systems, water-rock interactions generate highly alkaline and reducing fluids that can contain hydrogen, methane, and low-molecular-weight hydrocarbons-potent reductants capable of fueling microbial metabolism. In this study, we investigated the microbiota of Hakuba Happo hot springs (~50°C; pH~10.5–11), located in Nagano (Japan), which are impacted by the serpentinization process. Analysis of the 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequences revealed that the bacterial community comprises Nitrospirae (47%), “Parcubacteria” (19%), Deinococcus-Thermus (16%), and Actinobacteria (9%), among others. Notably, only 57 amplicon sequence variants (ASV) were detected, and fifteen of these accounted for 90% of the amplicons. Among the abundant ASVs, an early-branching, uncultivated actinobacterial clade identified as RBG-16-55-12 in the SILVA database was detected. Ten single-cell genomes (average pairwise nucleotide identity: 0.98–1.00; estimated completeness: 33–93%; estimated genome size: ~2.3 Mb) that affiliated with this clade were obtained. Taxonomic classification using single copy genes indicates that the genomes belong to the actinobacterial class-level clade UBA1414 in the Genome Taxonomy Database. Based on metabolic pathway predictions, these actinobacteria are anaerobes, capable of glycolysis, dissimilatory nitrate reduction and CO 2 fixation via the Wood–Ljungdahl (WL) pathway. Several other genomes within UBA1414 and two related class-level clades also encode the WL pathway, which has not yet been reported for the Actinobacteria phylum. For the Hakuba actinobacterium, the energy metabolism related to the WL pathway is likely supported by a combination of the Rnf complex, group 3b and 3d [NiFe]-hydrogenases, [FeFe]-hydrogenases, and V-type (H + /Na + pump) ATPase. The genomes also harbor a form IV ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RubisCO) complex, also known as a RubisCO-like protein, and contain signatures of interactions with viruses, including clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR) regions and several phage integrases. This is the first report and detailed genome analysis of a bacterium within the Actinobacteria phylum capable of utilizing the WL pathway. The Hakuba actinobacterium is a member of the clade UBA1414/RBG-16-55-12, formerly within the group “OPB41.” We propose to name this bacterium ‘Candidatus Hakubanella thermoalkaliphilus.'

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Experimental Studies on Wood Pellets Combustion in a Fixed Bed Combustor Using Taguchi Method

The combustion of wood pellets in a fixed bed combustor of a 20 kW capacity domestic pellet boiler was tested according to several factors including Power, Excess Air (EA), Primary/Secondary air Split Ratio (SR) and Grate Area (GA). The Taguchi method was applied to program the experimental design. Several parameters were measured, including gas emissions (CO), fuel bed temperature (measured at 4 different heights), and efficiency. The experimental results show that the lower CO emission and the higher efficiency were obtained at medium thermal loads and the highest temperature on the fuel bed was obtained at about ¼ of its height (15 mm). The results obtained from the analysis of variance (ANOVA) show that the SR and the Power are the most important factors contributing to the CO reduction and also increase the fuel bed temperature.

Castro, Carlos↗