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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 469 records · Page 26
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

Techno-Economic Analysis of a Nuclear Reactor System coupled with a Liquid Metal Battery

There is a need for nuclear reactor systems to become more dynamic as defossilization and renewable energy sources continue to reshape the energy grid. One option to meet these changing demands is to pair the reactor with an energy storage system. This work details a technoeconomic analysis and sensitivity analysis of a high temperature gas cooled microreactor, supercritical carbon dioxide power cycle, and liquid metal battery. Dynamic modeling has shown that these three systems compliment each other to provide load following and black-start capabilities to the grid. Current cost estimates for installing the systems yield a competitive levelized cost of electricity and levelized cost of storage, indicating that such a combined system may be economically viable as technological advances lead to them being technically feasible.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Techno-Economic Performance of Nuclear Reactors to Power Direct Air Capture Technologies

This research contributes to the expanding body of work by academia and industry on the synergy between nuclear energy and DAC systems. It provides an independent and transparent assessment of the cost associated with capturing CO2 from the atmosphere when powering DAC with various nuclear technologies, and by comparing these findings with non-nuclear alternatives. This study utilizes the latest models and cost estimates for both nuclear and DAC technologies.

direct air capture (DAC)↗
DOE OSTI2024

Techno-economic assessment of emissions mitigation technologies for post-combustion CO2 capture using AMP/PZ

Minimizing the environmental impacts of amine-based post-combustion carbon capture technologies is essential for meeting environmental permitting regulations and ensuring public acceptance. Experimental test campaigns at the CO₂ capture pilot plant in Niederaussem using CESAR1 demonstrated that integrating available emission abatement technologies can significantly reduce the concentration of amines and degradation products in CO₂-depleted flue gas to below the detection limit of an infrared spectrometer. The study confirmed that proprietary dry bed technology (OEASE Aerozone™) or a second water wash can lower AMP and PZ emissions to below 1 mg/Nm³. However, to achieve very low NH₃ emissions below 2 mg/Nm³, an acid or other chemically active wash downstream of the water wash is required. A configuration with a dry bed or a double water wash results in a carbon capture cost (CCC) of 44 €/tCO₂, and a CO₂ avoided cost (CAC) of 86 €/tCO₂. A configuration with an acid wash increases the CCC to 47 €/tCO₂ and the CAC to 90 €/tCO₂ due to the amine losses in the acid waste and its treatment.

CO2 capture↗
DOE OSTI2015

Techno‐economics of microalgae production and conversion to refinery‐ready oil with co‐product credits

Abstract The economics of the production of hydrotreated algal oil ( HTAO ) along with co‐production of animal feed and nutraceuticals (omega‐3 oils) was explored. Base case calculations were for commercial scale production of 10 000 barrels per day of HTAO with nutraceuticals claiming only 0.05% of the raw algae oil ( AO ). The sensitivity of economics to critical parameters was studied. The greatest sensitivity of sales price was to the algae doubling time. Doubling time might be reduced by increasing pond velocity or other mixing‐inducing means. Other important parameters were oil content, CAPEX , and moisture content of post‐extracted algal residue. Algal area weight productivity (g/m 2 /day) was calculated from four parameters: initial algal concentration, pond depth, residence time in pond, and algae doubling time. Using presently accepted operating parameter values and with co‐product credits, the estimated plant gate price was ~ $10/gal. However, it was shown that there is significant potential for enhanced economics through moderate improvements in many areas. Credits for co‐production of animal feed and nutraceuticals were $3.24/gal and $0.14/gal, respectively. At constant oil area productivity (gal/acre/yr), the trade‐off between oil content and area weight productivity favors oil content. In the limit of 100% oil content (no solid co‐product) a sale price of $7.90/gal was estimated. Hydrotreatment of AO was discussed. Municipal waste‐water tertiary treatment was briefly discussed but not deemed viable on a large scale. An easy‐to‐use Excel spreadsheet for material and energy balances and economics was developed as a flexible scouting tool. The symbol ‘$’ denotes US dollars. © 2015 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Manganaro, James L.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Techno‐economic assessment of single‐stream feedstock logistics supply chain for corn stover and grain

Abstract The state‐of‐technology for corn stover harvest is a multi‐pass system that collects the stover after grain harvest. An alternative is a single‐stream system where the grain and stover are harvested as a bulk material co‐stored and preserved by anerobic fermentation, and finally, co‐transported to a biorefinery. In the present work, four single‐pass whole‐plant bulk systems were compared with a conventional multi‐pass bale system. The single‐stream systems consisted of the harvest of corn grain and a portion of the stover fraction. Four machine configurations were simulated. This work predicted that a multi‐pass bale system would result in a material cost of 111.80 $2021 Mg –1 stover DM delivered to the biorefinery gate. Alternatively, the lowest cost single‐stream system was the self‐propelled forage harvester (SPFH) configured with the whole‐plant header, which delivered feedstock for 74.76 $2021 Mg stover DM –1 . In addition to machine configuration, a sensitivity analysis was performed to understand important drivers of feedstock cost. These analyses revealed that feedstock cost increased with moisture content, fertilizer price, and biorefinery size, and decreased with harvest season length, crop yield, and grower participation. This work demonstrated that single‐stream systems could reduce corn stover feedstock costs in comparison with state‐of‐technology systems. © 2022 The Authors. Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining published by Society of Industrial Chemistry and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Techno-Economic Analysis of Methane Pyrolysis in Molten Metals: Decarbonizing Natural Gas

In this work, methane pyrolysis using a molten metal process to produce hydrogen is compared to steam methane reforming (SMR) for the industrial production of hydrogen. Capital and operating cost models for pyrolysis and SMR were used to generate cash-flow and production costs for several different molten pyrolysis systems. The economics were most sensitive to the methane conversion and the value obtained for the solid carbon by-product. The pyrolysis system at 1500 °C is competitive with a carbon tax of $\$78 t^{-1}$; however, if a catalytic process at 1000 °C were developed using a conventional fired heater, it would be competitive with SMR without a carbon dioxide cost penalty. Several pyrolysis alternatives become competitive with increasing carbon dioxide taxes.

03 NATURAL GAS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Techno-Economic Analysis of Magnesium Extraction from Seawater via a Catalyzed Organo-Metathetical Process

Magnesium (Mg) has many useful applications especially in various Mg alloys which can decrease weight while increasing strength. To increase the affordability and minimize environment consequence, a novel catalyzed organo-metathetical (COMET) process was proposed to extract Mg from seawater aiming to achieve significant reduction in total energy and production cost comparing with the melting salt electrolysis method currently adopted by US Mg LLC. A process flowsheet for a reference COMET process was set-up using Aspen Plus which included five key steps, anhydrous MgCl2 production, transmetallation, dibutyl Mg decomposition, n-BuLi regeneration, and LiCL electrolysis. The energy and production cost and CO2 emission were estimated based on the Aspen modeling using Aspen economic analyzer. Our results showed that it is possible to produce Mg from seawater with a production cost of $2.0/kg-Mg while consuming about 35.3 kWh/kg-Mg and releasing 7.0 kg CO2/kg-Mg. A simplified US Mg manufacturing process was also generated using Aspen and the cost and emission results were estimated for comparison purpose. Under our simulation conditions, the reference COMET process maintain a comparable CO2 emission rate and can save about 40% in production cost and save about 15% energy compared to the simplified US Mg process.

Liu, Jian (ORCID:0000000153297408)↗
DOE OSTI2019

Techno-Economic Analysis of Alternative Aqueous Phase Treatment Methods for Microalgae Hydrothermal Liquefaction and Biocrude Upgrading System

An economic analysis was conducted for an algae hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) and biocrude upgrading system with alternative aqueous phase treatment methods. Using experimental data, three different methods were modeled and compared: 1) direct recycle HTL aqueous phase to the algae farm, 2) catalytic hydrothermal gasification (CHG), and 3) anaerobic digestion (AD). Direct recycle consumes the most natural gas because unlike AD and CHG, no methane is generated from the aqueous phase organics. However, direct recycle has the lowest cost compared to other two cases because it only requires the addition of pumps and buffer tankage related to aqueous phase recycle. The CHG and AD cases require significant capital and operating costs, which increase the minimum fuel selling price (MFSP) over the direct recycle case by 11% and 2.9%, respectively. CHG and AD respectively increase the conversion cost (excludes the cost to grow, harvest, and dewater algae) by 75% and 21%. Sensitivity analysis suggests that the key factors affecting the total cost of fuel production are the feedstock cost, biocrude yields, the plant scale, and the method of aqueous phase treatment.

Zhu, Yunhua↗
DOE OSTI2020

Techno-economic analysis of the impact of dynamic electricity prices on solar penetration in a smart grid environment with distributed energy storage

This study investigates the technical and economic feasibility of using high levels of solar energy penetration up to 400 MW into a smart grid system of 60,000 smart houses. A novel non-cooperative Stackelberg game is introduced that incorporates the profitability of the supply-side and helps in solving problems related to overgeneration and photovoltaic curtailment. The non-cooperative game is intended to find the optimal dynamic prices that would leverage distributed storage through the demand-side to stabilize the power grid operation. Ten cases are studied with five photovoltaic plant sizes and two battery designs. Here, a novel quantitative analysis of high levels of solar penetration as a percentage of the total electricity demand is introduced to evaluate the technical feasibility of the studied cases. To evaluate the economic viability of the proposed smart grid system, four metrics were used: the levelized cost of energy, the levelized cost of storage, the payback period, and the net present value. Two out of ten studied cases were concluded to be the most promising cases, one with a solar photovoltaic plant size of 200 MW and the other with 300 MW. The case with 300 MW solar plant is preferred as it paves the way for more solar energy deployment with a solar penetration percentage up to 67.78%. This case had a payback period of 10.72 years and a net present value of $\$51.44$ M for the solar plant and a payback period of 12.06 years and a net present value of $\$40.75$ M for the demand-side.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗