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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 487 records · Page 27
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

TCF High Efficiency Anaerobic Electroporation (CRADA Final Report)

The Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) researchers were co-inventors of the technology that will be used on this project and have developed a more current version of the chip and controller. JBEI will also assist with the design of the pathways and implementation of pathways on the chip. LanzaTech has developed novel gas fermentation technology that captures and utilizes greenhouse gases for production of fuels and chemicals. In contrast to traditional fermentation that uses sugars as substrate (and releases CO2 as a byproduct), gas fermentation utilizes C1 substrates carbon monoxide (CO) or CO2. This enables a diverse range of feedstock options including waste gases from industrial sources (e.g., steel mills and processing plants) or syngas generated from any biomass resource (e.g., agricultural waste, municipal solid waste, or organic industrial waste). Biomass is then gasified, allowing for maximum yields and complete carbon utilization including the recalcitrant lignocellulosic fraction that cannot be utilized in traditional sugar fermentation. To maximize the value that can be added to the array of gas resources that the LanzaTech process can use as an input, LanzaTech has pioneered genetic modification of acetogens and developed a comprehensive set of genetic tools to perform routine strain modification, including genome editing tools as CRISPR/Cas9 and libraries of validated genetic parts as promoters and terminators. Using this platform, production of over 50 new molecules have been demonstrated directly from gas. For a few selected molecules production rates and yields have been optimized and surpass production of native producers and engineered E. coli or yeast strains, but a higher throughput approach for combinatorial optimization of pathways is required to further advance synthesis of additional products in parallel.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2023

High Efficiency PEM Water Electrolysis Enabled by Advanced Catalysts, Membranes and Processes

In this project, advanced membranes and catalysts were integrated into membrane electrode assembles (porous transport electrodes (PTE) or catalyst coated membranes (CCM)) leveraging precision coating methods to enable control of electrode structures and demonstration of the best component performance possible with these materials. Partner collaborations allowed for advanced characterization of the formed interfaces and degradation mechanisms. New methods of forming hydrogen recombination layers were also developed, to move away from wet chemistry processes that would have limited realization and implementation of the optimized electrode configurations in a commercial environment.

08 HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2023

Economic Long-Duration Electricity Storage by Using Low-Cost Thermal Energy Storage and High-Efficiency Power Cycle (ENDURING)

The project involved considerable industry participation including General Electric (GE, power cycle analysis), Babcock & Wilcox (B&W), Allied Mineral Products (insulation materials), and Worley-Advisian (system integration). They provided insights on their products or services for component and system designs. The project successfully achieved the project goals of demonstrating technology feasibility for long duration energy storage with a technology path towards 5c/kWh levelized cost of storage. The project has generated four patent applications (one awarded patent and three under review), three published journal papers, a draft book chapter, and five manuscripts under preparation, with several conference papers and numerous presentations including invited talks. An intellectual properties (IP) option agreement has been signed with an U.S. manufacturer, with interests from energy developers. Four related projects with $5.5 million DOE funding support more developments for long duration energy storage and broad industry decarbonization.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2023

HIGHLY-EFFICIENT 20-MW L-BAND MULTI-BEAM KLYSTRON

The overall goal of this project was to develop and demonstrate a novel two-stage multi-beam klystron (TS-MBK) for use in accelerator, medical, national security, medical, and environmental cleanup applications. The novelties embodied in the TS-MBK design include use of hollow beams to obtain strong coupling to cavities, and post acceleration after bunching to reduce the beam’s energy spread to allow an exceptional electronic efficiency that we predict can reach 90%. During Phase I of this project, Omega-P R&D refined its conceptual design of the 1.0 GHz TS-MBK, and collector design and cooling requirements for several levels of average power output. If, as was the case, it turned out that estimated costs for fabrication and testing of a full 12-beam TS-MBK prototype would exceed available Phase II funding, our Plan-B would have be adopted. In it, a single-beam version would have been designed and built, with all specifications identical to the 12-beam version, except that the average power level would be reduced by a factor of about 12. This one-beam version would still allow evaluation of the efficacy of our design concept for implementing two stages, including prevention of radiation loss at the HV gap, and for demonstrating the predicted 90% electronic efficiency and the absence of reflected electrons from the collector reaching the cathodes. But the absence of the expected industrial partner in further development of this novel RF source made it impractical for advancing the project into Phase II.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2023

High-Efficiency Electrochemical Conversion of CO 2 to Ethylene

During the past century, our civilization’s technological advances have been driven by the conversion of carbon-rich fossil fuels into electricity, heat, polymers, fertilizers, and other carbon-based products that are the foundation of modern society. It is now clear, however, that this carbon economy is no longer sustainable for humanity or our ecosystem. A study by the National Academies showed that to avoid catastrophic climate change, we not only need to dramatically and rapidly reduce global emissions of CO 2 , but we will need to remove billions of tons of CO 2 from the earth’s atmosphere and oceans by mid-century. This presents a massive, unprecedented challenge to our species, but if managed well it also represents a historic opportunity: capture and utilization of CO 2 is arguably the largest economic opportunity of the next hundred years, also known as “industry of the future”.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2023

Bringing high-efficiency silicon solar cells with heterojunction contacts to market with a new, versatile deposition technique

Silicon heterojunction (SHJ) and tunnel-oxide-passivated-contacts (TOPCon) solar cells are the future for silicon technology after passivated-emitter-and-rear-contact (PERC) cells. However, the tool costs (CapEx) for SHJ (TOPCon) make the cell lines more than 2 (1.5) times of the cost of the PERC, which hinders the wide adoption these new technologies despite higher efficiencies. A common challenge for both cell types is that the passivation layers are sensitive to sputter damage. Furthermore, for TOPCon cells, it is desirable to have an inline (instead of batch) process for tunnel oxide and polysilicon to maximize the throughput and thus reduce the operation cost.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Highly-Efficient Microemulsion-Based Absorption Chillers for HVAC Application

Air conditioning is a necessity to achieve a comfortable, habitable home or office for many places in US. However, vapor compression air conditioners are largely made with chlorofluorocarbon refrigerants, or CFCs, which create problems for a world grappling with climate change. In addition, vapor compression air conditioners are driven by electricity. Cooling and heating represent one-third of building electrical energy consumption in US. An absorption chiller is different to vapor compression chillers or air conditioners because it doesn’t use conventional refrigerants, like CFC. Instead, they may use water as the refrigerant which is mixed with safe and nontoxic absorbents. The research performed in this project advanced the understanding of absorption cooling technology and its application in HVAC. Various technologies were explored to improve the performance of the desorber and absorber components in the absorption chillers.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2024

Automated Luminaire Design and Local Manufacturing for Highly Efficient, Customized Lighting Solutions

In response to the growing demand for tailorable and energy-efficient lighting solutions, Eaton and partners Synopsys and Rensselaer Polytechnical Institute were funded to develop an automated luminaire design method that was capable of achieving best in class efficiency while being locally manufactured at an affordable cost. This program was broken into four key technology areas, automated optics design, additively manufactured optical material characterization, printed electronics, and additively manufactured mechanical components.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2024

High-Efficiency Thermoelectric Clothes Dryer (CRADA Final Report)

A typical clothes dryer in the US accounts for 7% of the average residential customer’s electric bill. Nationwide, consumers pay about $\$$9 billion annually for clothes drying. While energy efficiency for most household appliances has improved by a factor of 2 or more in recent decades, today’s clothes dryers perform similarly to units from the 1970s. Dryer efficiency is measured by the combined energy factor (CEF), with today’s units typically drying 3.73 lb of cloth per kWh consumed. An ENERGY STAR qualified unit must achieve 3.93 lb/kWh (for standard size electric units) and dry in less than 80 minutes. ORNL and CRADA partner Samsung Electronics America have developed an efficient prototype clothes dryer that uses thermoelectric heat pumps instead of electric resistance to dry the clothes. The prototype fabricated at ORNL successfully demonstrated in the laboratory a CEF of 6.89 lb/kWh at standard conditions of 75°F and 50% Relative Humidity (RH), exceeding the original project target of 6.0 lb/kWh. Additional trials on the same prototype achieved faster dry time with slightly lower CEF, meeting all requirements for ENERGY STAR product qualification. Deploying dryers with energy factor of 6 nationwide represents a technical potential of 234 TBtu/yr primary energy savings. The modeling and prototype development activities for the thermoelectric clothes dryer under this CRADA are summarized in this final report.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2024

Ultra-High Efficiency and Stable All-Perovskite Tandem Solar Cells

In the project period, the research team has fabricated more than 6,000 single-junction wide-bandgap (wide-E g ) and low-bandgap (low-E g ) perovskite solar cells (PSCs) and more than 2,000 all-perovskite tandem solar cells (APTSCs). The best-performing wide-E g and low-E g PSCs and APTSCs showed PCEs greater than 19%, 23%, and 30%, respectively. The average PCEs for wide-E g and low-E g PSCs and APTSCs fabricated by the benchmark processes are (18.5 ± 0.4)%, (21.9 ± 0.8)%, and (26.8 ± 2.1)%, respectively. We have demonstrated APTSCs with T 80 lifetime of more than 1,000 h, which were measured by maximum power point tracking (MPPT) under one sun operation in the air. The team has also utilized various advanced characterization techniques to study the optical and electrical properties of wide-E g and low-E g perovskite materials and devices, developing a better understanding of the unique working principle and degradation mechanism of APTSCs. The team has met most GNG decision criteria except for the stability goal of APTSCs under 85 °C/85 RH accelerated lifetime test (ALT). The shortfall of the device ALT stability is mainly limited by the intrinsic instability of Sn-Pb perovskites under illumination at elevated temperatures. The team discussed with stakeholders in the PV academic and industry about these durability concerns and concluded that this is the major technical barrier preventing the market entry of APTSCs. Future fundamental study and R&D work are needed to advance this promising technology.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

High Efficiency Reversible Solid Oxide System (Final Technical Report)

This report was generated based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) under the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office, H2@Scale Initiative, Award Number DE-EE0008847. In this project, FuelCell Energy studied the design and performance of a system rated for 15kWe Charge/3 kWe Discharge energy storage system based on reversible solid-oxide technology.

08 HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2025

High Efficiency and Transient Air Systems for Affordable Load-Following Heavy Duty Truck Fuel Cells

Hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicles are one of the potential paths to reducing vehicle emissions. An important subsystem of the hydrogen fuel cell system is an air handling system that provides the needed oxygen (in air) to react with hydrogen in the fuel cell stack for electric power generation. Today’s systems use an electric motor to power an air compressor that supplies oxygen to the fuel cell stack. This process requires significant electrical power and is the largest parasitic power loss in hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. In addition to parasitic power loss, hydrogen fuel cell systems often have reliability issues associated with the air handling system. Reliability is of significant concern for heavy duty applications (especially long-haul applications). This project aims to improve both the electrical power consumption and reliability of hydrogen fuel cell air handling systems to meet the needs of heavy duty on-highway vehicle applications.

08 HYDROGEN↗