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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 37 records · Page 2
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1996

Final Tier 2 Environmental Impact Statement for International Space Station

The Final Tier 2 Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the International Space Station (ISS) has been prepared by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and follows NASA's Record of Decision on the Final Tier 1 EIS for the Space Station Freedom. The Tier 2 EIS provides an updated evaluation of the environmental impacts associated with the alternatives considered: the Proposed Action and the No-Action alternative. The Proposed Action is to continue U.S. participation in the assembly and operation of ISS. The No-Action alternative would cancel NASA!s participation in the Space Station Program. ISS is an international cooperative venture between NASA, the Canadian Space Agency, the European Space Agency, the Science and Technology Agency of Japan, the Russian Space Agency, and the Italian Space Agency. The purpose of the NASA action would be to further develop human presence in space; to meet scientific, technological, and commercial research needs; and to foster international cooperation.

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NASA NTRS1995

Draft Tier 2 Environmental Impact Statement for International Space Station

The Draft Tier 2 Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the International Space Station (ISS) has been prepared by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and follows NASA's Record of Decision on the Final Tier 1 EIS for the Space Station Freedom. The Tier 2 EIS provides an updated evaluation of the environmental impacts associated with the alternatives considered: the Proposed Action and the No-Action alternative. The Proposed Action is to continue U.S. participation in the assembly and operation of ISS. The No-Action alternative would cancel NASA's participation in the Space Station Program. ISS is an international cooperative venture between NASA, the Canadian Space Agency, the European Space Agency, the Science and Technology Agency of Japan, the Russian Space Agency, and the Italian Space Agency. The purpose of the NASA action would be to further develop a human presence in space; to meet scientific, technological, and commercial research needs; and to foster international cooperation.

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DOE OSTI2020

Environmental impacts of dam reservoir filling in the East Amazon

Mitigating the environmental impacts caused by hydroelectric dams is a worldwide challenge. The aquatic ecosystem is the most impacted during the reservoir filling phase, yet biogeochemical dynamics at this stage are not well-studied. Here we evaluate water quality and hydraulic parameters in the Araguari River (Amapá/Brazil) during the filling of the Ferreira Gomes Hydroelectric Power Plant reservoir (UHEFG). Five field campaigns were performed from July 2014 to August 2015 across nine sample sites within the reservoir (P1, P2, …P9) and only one downstream (P10). The following key variables were monitored: Trophic State Index (TSI), Total Coliforms (TC), E. coli (EC) and Chlorophyll-a (Chl-a), along with physical and chemical variables (Temperature, Suspended Solids, Total Dissolved Solids, Electrical Conductivity, Turbidity, Color, pH, DO, Al3+, NH4+, Cl-, Mg1+, Ca2+, total Phosphorous, NH3, NO3-, and SO42). Besides that, hydraulic-operational variables were also investigated: inflows (Qa), outflows (Qd), and variation in reservoir volume (Vol%). Multiple Regression Analyses showed that the key parameters were both significantly influenced by physio-chemical and hydraulic variables (0.46=R2adj=0.99, p<0.05). The DO showed significant spatial variation, being influenced by the turbulence from the Coaracy Nunes dam (UHECN) upstream and the UHEFG dam downstream. The Vol% influenced the TSI, which ranged from oligotrophic to hypertrophic and eventually stabilized at mesotrophic. The levels of TSI, TC, and Chl-a decreased and the level of E. coli increased (p<0.05) as a function of Vol%. A Cluster Analysis showed the formation of three spatial groups - two inside the reservoir and one downstream (P10). This suggests that in the rainy season or transition season, the hydraulic residence time in the reservoir is very low (16 = thr = 36 h) when hydrodynamic processes are dominant. In the dry season (thr ˜ 1 month), biogeochemical and hydrodynamic processes occur at similar time scales to the nutrient and microbial abundance. These results confirm the hypothesis that the filling phase has significant impacts on the key parameters of the water quality (p<0.05). We conclude that the filling phase of the UHEFG reservoir generated significant environmental impacts, which have repercussions even retrospectively.

Amazon, biogeochemistry, ecosystem, extreme event,↗
NASA NTRS1988

Final (Tier 1) environmental impact statement for the Galileo and Ulysses Missions

Presented here is a Final (Tier 1) Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) addressing the potential environmental consequences associated with continuing the modifications of the Galileo and Ulysses spacecraft for launch using a booster/upper stage combination that is different from the one planned for use prior to the Challenger accident, while conducting the detailed safety and environmental analysis in order to preserve the October 1989 launch opportunity for Galileo and an October 1990 launch opportunity for Ulysses. While detailed safety and environmental analyses associated with the missions are underway, they currently are not complete. Nevertheless, sufficient information is available to enable a choice among the reconfiguration alternatives presented. Relevant assessments of the potential for environmental impacts are presented.

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DOE OSTI2021

Life cycle energy and environmental impacts of hydroprocessed renewable jet fuel production from pennycress

There is a growing interest in making the overall aviation industry more environmentally-friendly by developing advanced biofuels. In this context, the main driver is establishing feedstocks with lower environmental loads and higher energy use efficiency. The objective of this study was to evaluate the energy requirement and environmental impacts of hydroprocessed renewable jet fuel (HRJ) production from pennycress. The system boundary included pennycress production, logistics, oil extraction and conversion to HRJ, wastewater treatment, and electricity and steam generation. Energy allocation method was used for the analysis. The functional unit was considered to be one GJ of HRJ, and the biorefinery size was considered to be 18.9 million l/yr (5 million gal/yr) HRJ. Energy use efficiency of pennycress-based HRJ production was estimated to be 3.9–5.5 (90% central range), which was higher than that of HRJ from other oilseeds, such as canola. Global warming potential of pennycress-based HRJ (35–49 kgCO 2 eq/GJ of HRJ (90% central range)) was also lower than those of HRJ from similar oilseeds and the commercial jet fuel baseline. Pennycress production was the main contributor to the total energy use and environmental impacts of HRJ production, mainly due to the use of nitrogen fertilizer for production, and fuel combustion for farm operations. Pennycress yield was identified as the most sensitive parameter affecting the energy use efficiency and environmental impacts of HRJ production. Furthermore, the outcomes of this study are useful for identifying the performance targets towards improving energy use efficiency and environmental performance of pennycress-based HRJ production at the commercial scale.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Early-Stage Evaluation of Catalyst Manufacturing Cost and Environmental Impact Using CatCost

The costs and environmental impacts of catalyst manufacture are often neglected during early-stage research because of a lack of accessible, standardized tools to assess them. Here we report the key features of CatCost, a free and public estimation tool for the evaluation of catalyst cost. We demonstrate its functionality with a case study of diverse catalysts (ZSM-5, Pt/TiO2 and Mo2C) for the catalytic fast pyrolysis of biomass. We quantified the economic and environmental improvements made by replacing circulating-bed ZSM-5 with more stable, fixed-bed Pt/TiO2 and Mo2C catalysts, while revealing the effects of synthesis methods and production scale on catalyst costs. The manufacture of ZSM-5 had a large processing cost contribution that was strongly scale dependent, whereas the costs of the other catalysts were dominated by raw materials at all scales. Furthermore, while ZSM-5 costs the least per kilogram, the more stable catalysts cost half as much per gallon of fuel.

BIOMASS FUELS,ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Evidence-based indicator approach to guide preliminary environmental impact assessments of hydropower development

Global expansion of hydropower resources has increased in recent years to meet growing energy demands and fill worldwide gaps in electricity supply. However, hydropower induces significant environmental impacts on river ecosystems - impacts that are addressed through environmental impact assessment (EIA) processes. The need for effective EIA processes is increasing as environmental regulations are either stressed in developing countries undertaking rapid expansion of hydropower capacity or time- and resource-intensive in developed countries. Part of the challenge in implementing EIAs lies in reaching a consensus among stakeholders regarding the most important environmental factors as the focus of impact studies. To help address this gap, we developed a weight-of-evidence approach (and toolkit) as a preliminary and coarse assessment of the most relevant impacts of hydropower on primary components of the river ecosystem, as identified using river function indicators. Through a science-based questionnaire and predictive model, users identify which environmental indicators may be impacted during hydropower development as well as those indicators that have the highest levels of uncertainty and require further investigation. Furthermore, an assessment tool visualizes inter-dependent indicator relationships, which help formulate hypotheses about causal relationships explored through environmental studies. We apply these tools to four existing hydropower projects and one hypothetical new hydropower project of varying sizes and environmental contexts. We observed consistencies between the output of our tools and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission licensing process (inclusive of EIAs) but also important differences arising from holistic scientific evaluations (our toolkit) versus regulatory policies. The tools presented herein are aimed at increasing the efficiency of the EIA processes that engender environmental studies without loss of rigor or transparency of rationale necessary for understanding, considering, and mitigating the environmental consequences of hydropower.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS1971

Flight Research Center, Edwards, California. Environmental Impact Statement

This is an institutional environmental impact statement relating to the overall operation of the NASA, Flight Research Center. The Center is located in Kern County, California, approximately 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles. Flight activities relate primarily to areas in the vicinity of Los Angeles, Kern, Inyo and San Bernardino counties in Southern California; and to areas in Southern Nevada (principally Nye and Clark counties. Operations of the Flight Research Center have a very neglibible impact on the environment; and they are planned and controlled to eliminate or minimize effects on water, air and noise.

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NASA NTRS1980

Laser-SPS systems analysis and environmental impact assessment

The systems feasibility and environmental impact of replacing the microwave transmitters on the Satellite Power System with laser transmitters are examined. The lasers suggested are two molecular-gas electric-discharge lasers (EDL's), namely the CO and CO2 lasers. Calculations are made on system efficiency, atmospheric transmission efficiency, and laser beam spreading. It is found that the present satellite concept using lasers is far too inefficient and massive to be economically viable. However, the safety issues associated with laser power transmission appear tractable, and no effects could be identified which present a real danger of serious injury to the environment, although certain phenomena deserve closer scrutiny.

Beverly, R. E., III↗
DOE OSTI2020

Oak Ridge Response to Versatile Test Reactor Environmental Impact Statement Data Request

The Versatile Test Reactor (VTR) is a fast-spectrum test reactor being developed in the United States under the direction of the US Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE). The VTR mission is to enable accelerated testing of advanced reactor fuels and materials required for advanced reactor technologies. The conceptual design of the 300 MWth sodium-cooled metallic-fueled pool-type fast reactor has been led by the US National Laboratories in collaboration with General Electric–Hitachi and Bechtel National, Inc. In support of the VTR project, DOE issued a Notice of Intent (NOI) in the Federal Register on August 5, 2019, announcing the intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and its implementing regulations. The EIS will evaluate alternatives for a versatile reactor–based fast-neutron source facility and associated facilities for the preparation, irradiation, and post-irradiation examination (PIE) of test/experimental fuels and materials. Specifically, the NOI identified two siting alternatives for the VTR reactor facility: Idaho National Laboratory (INL) or Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). In addition, the NOI also specified two siting alternatives for VTR fuel fabrication: INL and the Savannah River Site (SRS). This report provides information in response to data requests made to ORNL to fill in site-specific knowledge gaps to develop a high-quality EIS. The responses provided are not required to provide full details in every aspect; instead, they adequately bound possible environmental impacts or provide sufficient information to adequately assess likely environmental impacts. This work is being performed under a subcontract from INL to ORNL using DOE-NE funds and is directed by DOE-NE and DOE-ID. Leidos has been contracted by DOE-NE to write the VTR EIS, so most data requests have come from Leidos but were often routed through INL or DOE-ID. DOE-ID is overseeing the NEPA and EIS processes for the VTR project. Leidos will use the information provided in this report to inform the VTR EIS and will also cite this document to establish a clear, publicly available source of the information. Section 2 of this report briefly describes the proposed ORNL VTR Alternative and illustrates the location of the proposed site for the ORNL VTR Alternative. Sections 3 through 7 provide direct responses to data requests received by ORNL. These sections use a tabular format in which data requests are divided into separate items to be addressed; the items are numbered, the data requests are restated with more topical information included, and then the responses are provided. Initial data requests and follow-on requests for additional information (RAIs) are combined under the original data request fields. Finally, Section 8 presents summarized conclusions and describes future work.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
NASA NTRS1973

Institutional environmental impact statement (space shuttle development and operations) amendment no. 1

Data are presented to support the environmental impact statement on space shuttle actions at Kennedy Space Center. Studies indicate that land use to accommodate space shuttle operations may have the most significant impact. The impacts on air, water and noise quality are predicted to be less on the on-site environment. Considerations of operating modes indicate that long and short term land use will not affect wildlife productivity. The potential for adverse environmental impact is small and such impacts will be local, short in duration, controllable, and environmentally acceptable.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1971

Environmental impact statement for National Aeronautics and Space Administration Lewis Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio

The probable environmental impact and adverse effects of the Lewis Research Center are assessed. The Cleveland and Plum Brook facilities are briefly described. It is felt that the absence of harmful environmental impact from the Cleveland site is apparent, and the monitoring at the Plum Brook reactor facility shows the effectiveness of effluent controls. The probable adverse effects are considered for air, water, and noise pollution, and radioactive and hazardous waste storage and disposal; it is concluded that all emissions are maintained below Federal, and local standards. There are no appropriate alternatives to the operation of the Center, and no improvement in environmental quality would result from relocation. The relationship between local short-term productivity is briefly discussed. No adverse comment has been received from public agencies or private organizations or individuals.

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NASA NTRS2005

Environmental impact analysis with the airspace concept evaluation system

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Ames Research Center has developed the Airspace Concept Evaluation System (ACES), which is a fast-time simulation tool for evaluating Air Traffic Management (ATM) systems. This paper describes linking a capability to ACES which can analyze the environmental impact of proposed future ATM systems. This provides the ability to quickly evaluate metrics associated with environmental impacts of aviation for inclusion in multi-dimensional cost-benefit analysis of concepts for evolution of the National Airspace System (NAS) over the next several decades. The methodology used here may be summarized as follows: 1) Standard Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) noise and emissions-inventory models, the Noise Impact Routing System (NIRS) and the Emissions and Dispersion Modeling System (EDMS), respectively, are linked to ACES simulation outputs; 2) appropriate modifications are made to ACES outputs to incorporate all information needed by the environmental models (e.g., specific airframe and engine data); 3) noise and emissions calculations are performed for all traffic and airports in the study area for each of several scenarios, as simulated by ACES; and 4) impacts of future scenarios are compared to the current NAS baseline scenario. This paper also provides the results of initial end-to-end, proof-of-concept runs of the integrated ACES and environmental-modeling capability. These preliminary results demonstrate that if no growth is likely to be impeded by significant environmental impacts that could negatively affect communities throughout the nation.

Augustine, Stephen↗
DOE OSTI2025

The environmental impact, carbon emissions and sustainability of computing in the ATLAS experiment

ATLAS, a general-purpose experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), makes use of a large internationally-distributed computing infrastructure, including over 10 6 TB of managed data on disk and tape and almost one million simultaneously running CPU cores. Upgrades for the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) will increase the required computing resources by a factor of 3–4 by the beginning of the 2030s, and by an order of magnitude before the conclusion of data taking at the beginning of the 2040s. These resources are spread over around 100 computing sites worldwide. Efforts are underway within the experiment to evaluate and mitigate various aspects of the environmental impact of the sites, with the additional long-term goal of making recommendations to the sites that will significantly reduce the total expected environmental impact in the HL-LHC era. These efforts take several forms: building awareness in the experiment community, adjusting aspects of the computing policy, and modifications of data center configurations, either in ways that take advantage of particular features of ATLAS workloads or in generic ways that reduce the environmental impact of the computing resources. This paper describes the ongoing investigations and approaches that have already provided useful and actionable outcomes.

Aad, G. [CNRS/IN2P3] (ORCID:0000000266654934)↗
DOE OSTI2021

A probabilistic economic and environmental impact assessment of a cyanobacteria-based biorefinery

Microbial based biofuels represent a potential promising solution as an environmentally favorable transportation fuel. Cyanobacteria have many of the same advantages as microalgae: ability for rapid growth in otherwise non-arable regions, suitability for genetic engineering, and simple nutritional needs. Additionally, cyanobacteria can be engineered to secrete valuable co-products that can be harvested independent from the produced biomass. However, little work has been done to identify the processes and the economic and environmental impacts associated with a large-scale cyanobacteria-to-fuels facility. The present study is a concurrent techno-economic and life cycle assessment of a facility that generates fuels and methyl laurate, an oleochemical, from the cyanobacterial species Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. Here, the biorefinery model includes all aspects of cultivation, separation of the secreted methyl laurate, biomass harvesting and fuel processing via hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) of the dewatered biomass. The assessments leverage Monte Carlo analysis (MCA) to address uncertainty and variability inherent in the most significant input parameters, replacing them with probabilistic functions. For the facility configuration producing both fuels and the oleochemical co-product, the MCA average minimum fuel selling price (MFSP) is $\$2.47$ per decimeter (dm 3 ) or $\$9.34$ per gallon of gasoline equivalent (gge) with the corresponding average global warming potential determined to be 118 g CO 2 -eq-MJ -1 . The case producing only fuels results in an MCA average MFSP of $\$2.01$-(dm 3 ) -1 ($\$7.60$-gge -1 ) and an average environmental impact of 100 g CO 2 -eq-MJ -1 . These results are compared to static optimistic and conservative scenario analysis estimates, illustrating the over- and under-estimation of outcomes associated with non-stochastic methods. Suggested facility improvements include increases in pond productivity of both the biomass and methyl laurate oil production, as well as improvements to carbon utilization and bio-crude yield from HTL processing.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
NASA NTRS1980

Appendix E: Research papers. Use of remote sensing in landscape stratification for environmental impact assessment

A refinement to the matrix approach to environmental impact assessment is to use landscape units in place of separate environmental elements in the analysis. Landscape units can be delineated by integrating remotely sensed data and available single-factor data. A remote sensing approach to landscape stratification is described and the conditions under which it is superior to other approaches that require single-factor maps are indicated. Flowcharts show the steps necessary to develop classification criteria, delineate units and a map legend, and use the landscape units in impact assessment. Application of the approach to assessing impacts of a transmission line in Montana is presented to illustrate the method.

Stanturf, J. A.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Environmental Impact of Capture Technology A Review of DOE-Sponsored FEED Studies

The slides were presented at the USEA and FECM organized “Workshop on Measurement, Monitoring and Controlling Potential Environmental Impacts from the Installation of Point Source Capture”. The slides discuss insight regarding the environmental impact of capture system implementation gained from reviewing public FEED reports completed under FOA 2058. The slides were edited to add language requested by DOE and will published on the workshop website.

Homsy, Sally↗
DOE OSTI2021

Assessment of small mechanical wastewater treatment plants: Relative life cycle environmental impacts of construction and operations

Many slow growing and shrinking rural communities struggle with aging or inadequate wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), and face challenges in constructing and operating such facilities. Although existing literature has provided insight into the environmental sustainability of large facilities, including both the construction and operational phases, these studies have not examined small, rural facilities treating less than 7,000 m 3 /d (1.8 MGD) of wastewater in adequate depth and breadth. In this study, a detailed inventory of the construction and operational data for 16 case studies of small WWTPs was developed to elucidate their environmental life cycle impacts. Conventional LCA framework was followed. The results show that the environmental impacts of both the construction and operational phases are considerable. Operational impacts are highly related to energy usage. Improving energy efficiency of a plant may reduce the environmental impacts related to operations. Construction impacts can vary considerably between facilities. Process-related factors (e.g., concrete and reinforcing steel used in basins) are typically sized using the design flow; thus much of the variability in construction impacts among plants stems from the non-process related infrastructure. Multiple regression analysis was used as an exploratory tool to identify which non-process related plant aspects contribute to the variable environmental impact of small WWTPs. These factors include aluminum, cast iron, and the capacity utilization ratio (defined as the ratio of average flow to design flow). Furthermore, industry practitioners should consider these factors when aiming to reduce the environmental impacts of a small WWTP related to construction. Scenario sensitivity analyses found that the environmental impact of construction became smaller with longer design life, and the end-of-life consideration does not heavily influence the environmental sustainability of a WWTP.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗