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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 505 records · Page 28
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2018

Training and Certification Programs on Industrial Energy Systems in the United States

The major industrial energy systems commonly found in manufacturing facilities are compressed air, ammonia refrigeration, chilled water, steam, process heating, combined heat and power, pumps, and fans. The efficiency of these systems contributes significantly to the whole-facility energy performance. On the national and even the international level, well-structured training and highly recognized certification programs help develop a highly skilled and qualified workforce to maintain and improve facilities' energy performance, particularly as technologies within these systems become more and more advanced. The purpose of this paper is to review currently available vendor-agnostic training and certification programs focusing on these systems and to identify the gap between market needs and currently available programs. Its three major conclusions are (1) most training programs focus on operations, maintenance, safety, and design although some briefly touch on energy performance aspects. (2) The Certified Refrigeration Energy Specialist certification by RETA the and Pump System Assessment Professional certification by HI were the only certifications found to be tool-agnostics and emphasize knowledge and skills for improving and maintaining systems energy performance. (3) Developing energy efficiency focused training and ANSI accredited certification programs for industrial energy systems will fill the gap between market needs and currently available programs.

96 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION↗
DOE OSTI2013

Development of a Training Program for Commercial Building Technicians

This project focused on developing and deploying a comprehensive program of 22 training modules, including certification requirements, and accreditation standards for commercial building technicians, to help achieve the full savings potential of energy efficient buildings, equipment, and systems. This curriculum extended the currently available commercial building technician programs -- training a labor force in a growing market area focused on energy efficiency. The program helps to remove a major market impediment to low energy/zero energy commercial building system acceptance, namely a lack of operating personnel capable of handling more complex high efficiency systems. The project developed a training curriculum for commercial building technicians, with particular focus on high-efficiency building technology, and systems. In Phase 1, the project team worked collaboratively in developing a draft training syllabus to address project objectives. The team identified energy efficiency knowledge gaps in existing programs and plans and plans to address the gaps with either modified or new curricula. In Phase 2, appropriate training materials were developed to meet project objectives. This material was developed for alternative modes of delivery, including classroom lecture materials, e-learning elements, video segments, exercises, and hands-on training elements. A Certification and Accreditation Plan and a Commercialization and Sustainability Plan were also investigated and developed. The Project Management Plan was updated quarterly and provided direction on the management approaches used to accomplish the expected project objectives. GTI project management practices tightly coordinate project activities using management controls to deliver optimal customer value. The project management practices include clear scope definition, schedule/budget tracking, risk/issue resolution and team coordination.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2012

Dry Kraft Pulping at Ambient Pressure for Cost Effective Energy Saving and Pollution Deduction

Sponsored by the DOE Industrial Energy Efficiency Grand Challenge program, our research team at the Georgia Institute of Technology conducted laboratory studies and confirmed the concept of making wood pulp using a dry pulping technology. This technology is a new process different from any prior pulping technology used in Kraft and CTMP pulping. Three different kinds of dry pulping methods were investigated. (a) Dry Pulping at Atmospheric Pressure: The first one is to dry and bake the pretreated woodchips in a conventional oven at atmospheric pressure without the use of a catalyst.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
NASA NTRS1980

Energy Efficient High-Pressure Turbine Leakage Technology Report

The leakage test program was one of such supporting technology programs structured to provide guidance to the Energy Efficient Engine High Pressure Turbine Component Design Effort. Leakage reduction techniques were identified and evaluated. Test models were used to simulate component leak paths and to evaluate leakage reduction techniques. These models simulated the blade/disk attachment, the vane inner platform attachment, and the vane outer platform attachment combined with the blade outer airseal. Disk blade attachment testing indicated that leakage in this area could be reduced to very low levels by paying careful attention to the tolerances along the contact surface between the blade vibration damper and the blade platform contact surface. The aim of feather seal testing was to achieve a goal for an effective leakage gap of one mil (.001 inch) per inch of feather seal length. Results indicated that effective gaps even below the goal level were achievable by (1) maintaining close tolerances between feather seals and their slots to minimize end gaps and limit seal rotation, (2) avoiding feather seal overlap, and (3) minimizing feather seal intersections. W seals were shown to be effective leakage control devices. Wire rope, in its present state of development, was shown not to be an effective sealing concept for application to the component design.

Gardner, W. B.↗
DOE OSTI2021

Increasing Diversity in Energy Efficiency Professions: JUMP into STEM

A long-term approach to achieving equity in the energy efficiency industry is to increase the overall diversity of the professionals who work in the field. Building science professionals have a direct impact on energy efficiency policy and programs, as many become leaders within the industry. Buildings are used every day by almost all members of U.S. society, so diversity in building science professionals is critical to better understanding the behaviors and needs of the full spectrum of building occupants. Many groups of people, including minorities and women, are underrepresented in the industry. The industry needs to attract a wide range of current college and university students to careers in building science, so that many perspectives are included in the clean energy transition. The JUMP into STEM student competition addresses this need by inspiring students from diverse backgrounds to use creative ideation to solve real-world building science problems. Student teams - comprising an interdisciplinary mix of majors and underrepresented groups in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) - respond to one of three buildings-related challenges. Diversity is encouraged through challenge design, competition guidelines, and evaluation criteria for the submission. Winners of the competition are awarded paid building science internships, a gateway to a career in this field. The competition has an advisory panel of diversity experts and a professor team that includes representation from minority-serving institutions. This paper presents the JUMP into STEM approach to fostering diversity and creative ideation on technical challenges and discusses outcomes from the 2019 and 2020 competitions.

buildings↗
DOE OSTI2026

Reducing Deferrals by Integrating Health Homes with Weatherization

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) improves energy efficiency and household health for low-income families, yet a substantial number of otherwise eligible homes are deferred from due to health and safety concerns in their homes, including mold, moisture damage, or structural deficiencies. These deferred homes are often occupied by marginalized or otherwise vulnerable residents who may be exposed to elevated indoor air pollutant concentration. Integrating Healthy Homes (HH) interventions with weatherization has been proposed as a strategy to reduce deferrals, address environmental justice concerns, and improve health outcomes. However, limited data on the health and economic implications of such integration exist. This study aimed to assess the potential health benefits and savings-to-investment ratio (SIR) associated with integrating Healthy Homes interventions into weatherization programs for homes typically deferred from WAP services. We collected indoor air pollutant data from homes undergoing health home renovations, including fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ), nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ), carbon monoxide (CO), and formaldehyde, with sampling times up to one month. Except for fomaldehyde, which was measured using passive UMEx badges, the other metrics were measured using the airQ Pro indoor air quality monitor.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2013

emPower 3.0 (Santa Barbara Final Technical Report)

This report serves as the Final Report for Santa Barbara County’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) BetterBuildings Neighborhood Program (BBNP) award from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). This report explains how DOE BBNP funding was invested to develop robust program infrastructure designed to help property owners complete energy improvements, thereby generating substantial outcomes for the local environment and economy. It provides an overview of program development and design within the grant period, program accomplishments and challenges to date, and a plan for the future sustainability of emPower, the County’s innovative clean energy and building efficiency program.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2012

Training and Certification Program for Certified Energy Auditors (CEA) and Certified Building Commissioning Professionals (CBCP)

The Association of Energy Engineers (AEE) has offered energy efficiency training and certification programs for over 30 years. During that time AEE has certified more than 22,000 professionals. All of our certification programs are the result of extensive industry research and program development and oversight by certification boards. For this project award, AEE proposed to work with the Department of Energy to utilize and extend existing industry recognized Certified Energy Auditor (CEA) and Certified Building Commissioning Professional (CBCP) programs under this Training Program Development Announcement. These expanded training programs will have significant impact in training professionals for building commissioning and energy auditing to achieve the goal of bringing existing buildings up to their optimal energy performance potential and ensuring that new buildings maintain their expected optimal level of performance. The goals and objectives of the training development project were achieved with the development of new training programs that are now being offered as self-sustaining commercial training and certification programs. These new programs are training and certifying professionals who are accomplishing the goal of increasing building energy performance in both existing and new buildings.

Kent, Bill↗
DOE OSTI2019

The Livewire Data Platform

The Livewire Data Platform makes it easy to search and share transportation and mobility-related data. The Livewire Data Platform supports the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Energy Efficient Mobility Systems (EEMS) Program goal of providing an affordable, efficient, safe, and accessible transportation future where mobility is decoupled from energy consumption. The Livewire Data Platform will function as a repository for all EEMS data and will support the following objectives: (1) EEMS partners with relevant data can catalog, document, and share project datasets via file-based sharing or Application Programming Interface (API) and can provides access management and usage auditing for those resources. (2) EEMS partners can securely search, discover and access shared datasets, their metadata, and available API’s. (3) External partners and researchers can discover EEMS capabilities and collaborate with EEMS partners.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Preliminary Process and Market Evaluation: Better Buildings Neighborhood Program

This document presents the preliminary process and market evaluation of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Better Buildings Neighborhood Program (BBNP). The document was prepared in partial fulfillment of a contract with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to conduct a comprehensive program assessment of BBNP. BBNP is one of many programs funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The funding initially targeted city and state governments, local neighborhood associations, nonprofits, colleges and universities, utilities, and financial institutions through the competitive Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program Retrofit Ramp-Up Solicitation. Initially DOE made 25 awards to local governmental or nonprofit organizations in amounts ranging from $1.2 to $40 million. Nine similar grantees from the Formula Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program and seven from the State Energy Program solicitation resulted in 41 Better Building grantees, with award allocations of $508,302,786 in funding for Better Buildings projects.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2019

Measuring Fundamental Improvements in Sustainable Urban Mobility: The Mobility-Energy Productivity Metric

Recent technological advancements in mobility are creating many options for connecting citizens with employment, goods, and services, particularly in urban areas where modes such as bike and car shares, electric scooters, ridesourcing, and ridesharing are proliferating at a rapid pace. Analysis and tools for overall transportation planning are dominated by urban regional travel demand models whose roots in highway operations poorly reflect the system dynamics in denser areas where parking costs, convenience, and availability - not to mention sustainability concerns and quality of life - are driving people to an ever-greater spectrum of mobility services. In this paper, we present a new paradigm for evaluating mobility options within an urban area. First developed for the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Efficient Mobility System research program, this metric is termed the mobility-energy productivity (MEP) metric. At its heart, the MEP metric measures accessibility and appropriately weights it with travel time, cost, and energy of modes that provide access to opportunities in any given location. The proposed metric is versatile in that it can be computed from readily available data sources or derived from outputs of regional travel demand models. End times associated with parking, curb access, cost, and reliability and frequency of service need to be carefully considered to obtain an appropriate and accurate perspective when computing the metric. Ultimately, the MEP metric can be used to reflect the impacts of new mobility technologies (transportation network companies, electric scooters), business models (car shares and bike shares), and land-use practices (such as transit-oriented development) on sustainable urban mobility. This paper lays out the need, requirements, and framework for this new metric, and offers it, in collaboration with the American Society for Civil Engineers (ASCE), as a foundational metric for smart city assessment.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗
DOE OSTI2019

Measuring Fundamental Improvements in Sustainable Urban Mobility: The Mobility-Energy Productivity Metric: Preprint

Recent technological advancements in mobility are creating many options for connecting citizens with employment, goods, and services, particularly in urban areas where modes such as bike and car shares, electric scooters, ridesourcing, and ridesharing are proliferating at a rapid pace. Analysis and tools for overall transportation planning are dominated by urban regional travel demand models whose roots in highway operations poorly reflect the system dynamics in denser areas where parking costs, convenience, and availability - not to mention sustainability concerns and quality of life - are driving people to an ever-greater spectrum of mobility services. In this paper, we present a new paradigm for evaluating mobility options within an urban area. First developed for the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Efficient Mobility System research program, this metric is termed the Mobility-Energy Productivity (MEP) metric. At its heart, the MEP metric measures accessibility and appropriately weights it with travel time, cost, and energy of modes that provide access to opportunities in any given location. The proposed metric is versatile in that it can be computed from readily available data sources or derived from outputs of regional travel demand models. End times associated with parking, curb access, cost, and reliability and frequency of service need to be carefully considered to obtain an appropriate and accurate perspective when computing the metric. Ultimately, the MEP metric can be used to reflect the impacts of new mobility technologies (transportation network companies, electric scooters), business models (car shares and bike shares), and land-use practices (such as transit-oriented development) on sustainable urban mobility. This paper lays out the need, requirements, and framework for this new metric, and offers it, in collaboration with the American Society for Civil Engineers (ASCE), as a foundational metric for Smart City assessment.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗
DOE OSTI2018

Final Scientific Findings Report- Hydro Research Foundation- Research Awards Program

The Research Awards Program was established in 2014 by the Hydro Research Foundation (Foundation) to support research efforts for the hydropower industry. Using the previously funded Fellowship Program that ran from 2010-2015, the Research Awards Program (RAP or program) captured the lessons learned from the Fellowship program and fine-tuned a nation-wide graduate level research program to support innovation, research and workforce development. The RAP was funded through a $2 million-dollar grant through the Department of Energy’s Water Power Program within the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy office (DOE). This award made possible, 33 research projects by 32 students from 21 universities in 11 states. The grant widely engaged the industry by providing the opportunity to work with 25 organizations as well as 63 students and advisors. The funded research focused on a topic list selected by industry and worked to cover a breadth of research needs across many disciplines, basins and types of hydropower issues. The funded work, answered pressing research needs in the fields of the following disciplines; civil engineering, mechanical engineering, environmental engineering, electrical engineering, geography, fisheries, wildlife, water resources, geology, energy science and materials innovation. The Foundation estimates that 116 individuals benefited from this research through either direct mentorship (42), research (32), overseeing the research (31), partnerships (7) and the day-to-day management of the program (4). This investment by DOE showcases how private-public partnerships can leverage limited funds to create a wide range of research products. The project objective was to build on the successful Fellowship Program to develop and execute the RAP on a national level. The program sought to provide competitively awarded hydropower-related graduate-level research awards. The intent of the RAP was to support beneficial, innovative research related to conventional or pumped-storage hydropower. It also sought to stimulate interest among students and universities in this research arena and provide students with a foundation for productive careers within the hydropower industry. The outcome was 33 research findings with 100% of proposed research completed. In addition, 87% of students chose to either join the hydropower industry or continue their hydropower related research at their universities. These research findings advanced the understanding of pressing research topics within the hydropower industry and met the objective of the funding. An ancillary benefit the program identified through this funding was, not only did 63 students and advisors work on hydropower within the academia space, but now there are more professors and students teaching hydropower at the university level. The program saw an addition of 12 new professors, teaching assistants, and graduate researchers continuing to simulate interest in hydropower. Another interesting outcome is that during this grant funding, the program saw alumni of the predecessor program, who are now professors, applying for the RAP with their students. A unique element of this funding is there was significant cost-share provided by host universities, who did not charge facilities and administration overhead to the student’s research awards. In addition, each university provided laboratories, computing capacity and research facilities to support the research which is extraordinarily unique to grant funding at the university level. The total cost share exceeded 30% of the total grant cost. The funding clearly reached many sectors of the industry to provide helpful work and continue building hydropower’s next generation of innovation and workforce. The Foundation has established a broad network of universities interested and engaged in hydropower. The work was supported by the hydropower industry through donations of meeting space, conference registrations, in-kind contributions, mentorship and support of students. The Foundation would recommend finding a vehicle to further advance programs like the graduate level research through competitions, competitively funded awards and student research. It will take many universities to advance hydropower’s most pressing challenges. To let a program like the RAP dwindle away would incapacitate research at universities.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Comparison of Real-Time Pressure Rail Selection Algorithms for the Hybrid Hydraulic Electric Architecture: Case Study on a Track Loader

Abstract The hybrid hydraulic electric architecture (HHEA) seeks to combine the high power/torque/force density of hydraulics with the efficiency of electric machines. A set of common pressure rails is used to provide a majority of the power and this power is modulated by small electric machines to provide precise control for the operator. The HHEA has been studied in previous work using off-line dynamic programming optimization to determine energy efficient pressure rail selections, but this approach requires drive cycle information apriori. A Lagrange multiplier method has also been investigated where a set of gains (Lagrange multipliers) are optimized off-line with the idea the these gains, once determined, could be used for real-time operation. In this work, three new real-time pressure rail selection algorithms that do not require future drive cycle information are investigated; greedy, torque minimizing, and thresholding. The greedy control is found to only use 1% more energy than the globally optimal dynamic programming solution; but a model of energy loss is required.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2010

Optimization of Rhodium-Based Catalysts for Mixed Alcohol Synthesis -- 2009 Progress Report

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has been conducting research for the United States Department of Energy, Energy Efficiency Renewable Energy, Biomass Program to investigate the feasibility of producing mixed alcohols from biomass-derived synthesis gas (syngas). This research has involved the screening of potential catalysts, and optimization of the more promising ones, using laboratory scale reactors. During 2009, the main goal of the testing program focused on optimizing selected supported catalysts containing rhodium (Rh) and manganese (Mn). Optimization involved examining different total concentrations and atomic ratios of Rh and Mn as well as that of the more promising promoters (Ir and Li) identified in the earlier screening studies. Evaluation of catalyst performance focused on attaining improvements with respect to the space-time-yield and converted carbon selectivity to C2+ oxygenates, with additional consideration given to the fraction of the oxygenates that were C2+ alcohols.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Smart Labs Accelerator: I2SL China

Presentation offers an overview of energy-efficient Smart Labs, including the benefits, the program, and what it takes to develop one.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
NASA NTRS1985

Use of low energy hydrogen ion implants in high efficiency crystalline silicon solar cells

This program is a study of the use of low energy hydrogen ion implantation for high efficiency crystalline silicon solar cells. The first quarterly report focuses on two tasks of this program: (1) an examination of the effects of low energy hydrogen implants on surface recombination speed; and (2) an examination of the effects of hydrogen on silicon regrowth and diffusion in silicon. The first part of the project focussed on the measurement of surface properties of hydrogen implanted silicon. Low energy hydrogen ions when bombarded on the silicon surface will create structural damage at the surface, deactivate dopants and introduce recombination centers. At the same time the electrically active centers such as dangling bonds will be passivated by these hydrogen ions. Thus hydrogen is expected to alter properties such as the surface recombination velocity, dopant profiles on the emitter, etc. In this report the surface recombination velocity of a hydrogen emplanted emitter was measured.

Fonash, S. J.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Laboratory Efficiency Strategies and the Smart Labs Program

Focusing on critical spaces, such as labs, will enable agencies to prioritize federal energy efficiency and decarbonization goals. FEMP's Smart Labs program is an example of emerging efficient laboratory building strategies. The benefits of this program include improved safety and health, reduced energy consumption and carbon emissions, lower operating costs, reduced degradation, and increased retention and recruitment of top talent researchers and sciences. In this session, with the help of our national lab partners, Sandia National Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, you will learn about the steps to implement a Smart Labs program of your own and the methods behind the high-performance laboratory building. The partners will share best practices in implementation, practical advice for building a team, and how to address these critical facilities.

decarbonization↗