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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 523 records · Page 29
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2017

Wireless microwave acoustic sensor system for condition monitoring in power plant environments

This project successfully demonstrated novel wireless microwave acoustic temperature and pressure sensors that can be embedded into equipment and structures located in fossil fuel power plant environments to monitor the condition of components such as steam headers, re-heat lines, water walls, burner tubes, and power turbines. The wireless microwave acoustic sensor technology researched and developed through a collaborative partnership between the University of Maine and Environetix Technologies Corporation can provide a revolutionary impact in the power industry since it is anticipated that the wireless sensors will deliver reliable real-time sensing information in harsh power plant conditions that involve temperatures up to 1100oC and pressures up to 750 psi. The work involved the research and development of novel high temperature harsh environment thin film electrodes, piezoelectric smart microwave acoustic sensing elements, sensor encapsulation materials that were engineered to function over long times up to 1100oC, and a radio-frequency (RF) wireless interrogation electronics unit that are located both inside and outside the high temperature harsh environment. The UMaine / Environetix team have interacted with diverse power plant facilities, and identified as a testbed a local power generation facility, which burns municipal solid waste (MSW), the Penobscot Energy Recovery Company (PERC), Orrington, Maine. In this facility Environetix / UMaine successfully implemented and tested multiple wireless temperature sensor systems within the harsh-environment of the economizer chamber and at the boiler tubes, transferring the developed technology to the power plant environment to perform real-time sensor monitoring experiments under typical operating conditions, as initially targeted in the project. The wireless microwave acoustic sensor technology developed under this project for power plant applications offers several significant advantages including wireless, battery-free, maintenance-free operation, and operation in the harsh-environment of power plant equipment up to about 1100 oC. Their small size and configuration allows flexible sensor placement and embedding of multiple sensor arrays into a variety of components within power systems that can be interrogated by a single RF unit. The outcomes of this project and technological transfer respond to a DOE analysis need, which indicated that if one percent efficiency in coal burning is achieved, an additional 2 gigawatt-hours of energy per year is generated and the resulting coal cost savings is $300 million per year, also accompanied by a reduction of more than 10 million metric tons of CO2 per year emitted into the atmosphere. Therefore, the developed harsh environment wireless microwave acoustic sensor technology and the technological transfer achievements that resulted from the execution of this project have significant impact for power plant equipment and systems and are well-positioned to contribute to the cost reduction in power generation, the increase in power plant efficiency, the improvement in maintenance, the reduction in down-time, and the decrease in environmental pollution. The technology is also in a position to be extended to address other types of high-temperature harsh-environment power plant and energy sector sensing needs.

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Robust Ceramic Coaxial Cable Down-Hole Sensors for Long-Term In Situ Monitoring of Geologic CO 2 Injection and Storage

Energy generation by use of fossil fuels produces large volumes of CO 2 and other greenhouse gases, whose accumulation in the atmosphere is widely seen as undesirable. CO 2 Capture followed by sequestration has been identified as the solution. Subsurface geologic formations offer a potential location for long-term storage of CO 2 because of their requisite size. Unfortunately, the inaccessibility and complexity of the subsurface, the wide range of scales of variability, and the coupled nonlinear processes, impose tremendous challenges to determine the transport and predict the fate of the stored CO 2 . Among the various monitoring approaches, in situ down-hole monitoring of the various state parameters provides critical and direct data points that can be used to validate the models, optimize the injection, detect leakage and track the CO 2 plume. However, down-hole sensors that can withstand the harsh conditions and operate over decades of the project lifecycle remain unavailable. Given that the widespread of carbon capture and storage will be the necessity and reality in the future, fundamental and applied research is required to address the significant challenges and technological gaps in lack of long-term reliable down-hole sensors This project focused on the development and demonstration of a novel, low-cost, distributed, robust ceramic coaxial cable sensor platform for in situ down-hole monitoring of geologic CO 2 injection and storage with high spatial and temporal resolutions. The coaxial cable Fabry-Perot interferometer (CCFPI) has been studied as a general sensor platform for in situ, long-term, measurement of temperature, pressure and strain, which are critical to CO 2 injection and storage. A novel signal processing scheme has been developed and demonstrated for dense multiplexing of the sensors for low-cost distributed sensing with high spatial resolution. The developed temperature, pressure and strain sensors have been extensively tested under laboratory conditions that are similar to the downhole CO 2 storage environment, showing excellent capability for in situ monitoring the various parameters that are important to model, optimize the injection, detect leakage and track the CO 2 plume. In addition, the interactions between the sensor datum and the geological models have been investigated in details for the purposes of model validation, guiding sensor installation/placement, enhancement of model prediction capability and optimization of the injection processes. This project has resulted in the successful development of new ceramic coaxial cable based sensor systems that can monitor directly the changes in pressure, temperature, and strain caused by increased reservoir pressure and reduced reservoir temperature due to the supercritical CO 2 injection. Integrated with geological models, the sensors and measurement data can improve the possibility to identify plume movement and leakage in the cap rock and wells with higher precision and more accuracy. The low cost, ease of deployment, small size and dense multiplexing features of the new sensing technology will allow a large number of sensors to be deployed to address the objective to demonstrate that 99% of the CO 2 remains in the injection zone.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
DOE OSTI2015

Decentralized control of units in smart grids for the support of renewable energy supply

Due to the significant environmental impact of power production from fossil fuels and nuclear fission, future energy systems will increasingly rely on distributed and renewable energy sources (RES). The electrical feed-in from photovoltaic (PV) systems and wind energy converters (WEC) varies greatly both over short and long time periods (from minutes to seasons), and (not only) by this effect the supply of electrical power from RES and the demand for electrical power are not per se matching. In addition, with a growing share of generation capacity especially in distribution grids, the top-down paradigm of electricity distribution is gradually replaced by a bottom-up power supply. This altogether leads to new problems regarding the safe and reliable operation of power grids. In order to address these challenges, the notion of Smart Grids has been introduced. The inherent flexibilities, i.e. the set of feasible power schedules, of distributed power units have to be controlled in order to support demand–supply matching as well as stable grid operation. Controllable power units are e.g. combined heat and power plants, power storage systems such as batteries, and flexible power consumers such as heat pumps. By controlling the flexibilities of these units we are particularly able to optimize the local utilization of RES feed-in in a given power grid by integrating both supply and demand management measures with special respect to the electrical infrastructure. In this context, decentralized systems, autonomous agents and the concept of self-organizing systems will become key elements of the ICT based control of power units. In this contribution, we first show how a decentralized load management system for battery charging/discharging of electrical vehicles (EVs) can increase the locally used share of supply from PV systems in a low voltage grid. For a reliable demand side management of large sets of appliances, dynamic clustering of these appliances into uniformly controlled appliance sets is necessary. We introduce a method for self-organized clustering for this purpose and show how control of such clusters can affect load peaks in distribution grids. Subsequently, we give a short overview on how we are going to expand the idea of self-organized clusters of units into creating a virtual control center for dynamic virtual power plants (DVPP) offering products at a power market. For an efficient organization of DVPPs, the flexibilities of units have to be represented in a compact and easy to use manner. We give an introduction how the problem of representing a set of possibly 10{sup 100} feasible schedules can be solved by a machine-learning approach. In summary, this article provides an overall impression how we use agent based control techniques and methods of self-organization to support the further integration of distributed and renewable energy sources into power grids and energy markets. - Highlights: • Distributed load management for electrical vehicles supports local supply from PV. • Appliances can self-organize into so called virtual appliances for load control. • Dynamic VPPs can be controlled by extensively decentralized control centers. • Flexibilities of units can efficiently be represented by support-vector descriptions.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2016

Final report of “A Detailed Study of the Physical Mechanisms Controlling CO2-Brine Capillary Trapping in the Subsurface” (University of Arizona, DE-SC0006696)

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) of carbon dioxide emissions generated by production or combustion of fossil fuels is a technologically viable means to reduce the build-up of CO2 in the atmosphere and oceans. Using advantages of scale and location, CCS is particularly suitable for large point sources near ubiquitous deep saline aquifers, depleted gas reservoirs, or at production reservoirs for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). In the BES-funded research project, Oregon State University (OSU) carried out capillary trapping experiments with proxy fluids that mimic the properties of the scCO2/brine system under ambient temperatures and pressures, and successfully developed a unique and novel x-ray compatible, high-pressure, elevated temperature setup to study the scCO2/brine system under challenging reservoir conditions. Both methodologies were applied to a variety of porous media, including synthetic (glass bead) and geologic (Bentheimer sandstone) materials. The University of Arizona (UA) developed pore-scale lattice Boltzmann (LB) models which are able to handle the experimental conditions for proxy fluids, as well as the scCO2/brine system, that are capable of simulating permeability in volumes of tens of millions of fluid elements. We reached the following summary findings (main institute indicated): 1. (OSU/UA) To understand capillary trapping in a multiphase fluid-porous medium system, the system must be analyzed from a pore-scale force balance perspective; trapping can be enhanced by manipulating wetting and nonwetting phase fluid properties. 2. (OSU) Pore-scale fluid connectivity and topology has a clear and direct effect on nonwetting phase capillary trapping efficiency. 3. (OSU) Rock type and flow regime also have a pronounced effects on capillary trapping. 4. (OSU/UA) There is a predictable relationship between NWP connectivity and NWP saturation, which allows for development of injection strategies that optimize trapping. The commonly used Land model (Land, 1968) does not predict amount of trapped NWP accurately. 5. (UA) There are ambiguities regarding the segmentation of large-volume gray-scale CT data into pore-volumes suitable for pore-scale modeling. Simulated permeabilities vary by three orders of magnitude and do not resemble observed values very well. Small-volume synchrotron-based CT data (such as produced by OSU) does not suffer significantly from segmentation ambiguities. 6. (UA) A standard properly parameterized Shan-Chen model LB model is useful for simulating porous media with proxy fluids as well as the scCO2/brine system and produces results that are consistent with tomographic observations. 7. (UA) A LB model with fluid-interactions defined by a (modified) Peng-Robinson Equation of State is able to handle the scCO2/brine system with variable solid phase wettability. This model is numerically stable at temperatures between 0 and 250 °C and pressures between 3 and 50 MPa, and produces appropriate densities above the critical point of CO2 and exhibits three-phase separation below. Based on above findings OSU and UA have proposed continued experimentation and pore-scale modeling of the scCO2/brine system. The reported research has extensively covered capillary trapping using proxy fluids, but due to limited beam-time availability we were unable to apply our high-pressure CO2 setup to sufficient variation in fluid properties, and initial scCO2 connectivity. New data will also allow us to test, calibrate and apply our LB models to reservoir conditions beyond those that are currently feasible experimentally. Such experiments and simulations will also allow us to provide information how suitable proxy fluids are for the scCO2/brine system. We believe it would be worthwhile to pursue the following new research questions: 1. What are the fundamental differences in the physics underlying capillary trapping at ambient vs. supercritical conditions? 2. Do newly developed pore-scale trapping interactions and relationships translate to continuum scales? A motivation for these questions was elaborated in “Capillary Trapping of Super-Critical CO2: Linking Pore and Continuum Scales to Verify new Relationships” that was submitted to DOE-BES in 2015.

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Oxygenated commodity chemicals from chemo-catalytic conversion of biomass derived heterocycles

Biomass is an abundant source of renewable carbon, which could form the basis for sustainable fuels and chemicals to replace those derived from fossil fuel resources. During the past decade there have been multiple large projects focused on producing renewable fuels from biomass. These pioneer processes have often struggled to reach commercialization due to operational challenges, scale up challenges, and the low margins and high product volumes required for economic viability. The production of oxygenated chemicals from biomass offers several advantages compared to production of biofuels including: (1) chemicals are higher value, allowing for profitability at moderate scale (10–30 kton/yr) and sometimes even small scale (<1 kton/yr); (2) oxygenated chemicals require less deoxygenation, and therefore less hydrogen input and higher product mass yields compared to completely deoxygenated fuels; and, (3) target chemicals use the inherent functionalities (e.g., alcohols, cyclic ethers, C = C and C = O bonds, chiral centers) present in biomass. Furthermore bio-based chemicals can also be coproduced with biofuels thereby improving the economics of bio-refineries. Synergies between bio-refineries and conventional refineries (e.g., utilizing hydrogen surplus for hydrogenation; integrating refinery waste heat) could further improve economic viability.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2021

Overview and technology opportunities for thermochemically-produced bio-blendstocks

Global demand for transportation fuels is projected to increase 40% by 2040, and biomass-derived fuels (biofuels) play a crucial role in substituting fossil fuels and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. Currently, biofuels are mainly consumed as blendstocks combined with petroleum-based fuels, and effective conversion technologies can address the quality challenges for offering standalone biofuels. Thermochemical conversion process is one of the most promising pathways among existing technologies for biofuel production. However, the major barriers are unwanted characteristics (e.g., thermal instability) of intermediate products, such as bio-oil, and required upgrading treatments for producing compatible fuels. Here, this study highlights the merits and critical challenges of thermochemical conversion and physicochemical upgrading technologies for bio-blendstock production from lignocellulosic biomass. The novelty of this study lies in potential directions for future research through both critical and systematic literature reviews, and the proposed intensified process for lignocellulosic-based fuel blendstocks production. It is concluded that recovery and fractionation strategies (e.g., quenching and stripping) can maximize process yields and add values in the efficient conversion pathways. Effective quenching can stop secondary free radical reactions and improve liquid yields over gas and solid yields. Stripping process can improve process yield, catalyst lifespan, and thermal stability. It is further concluded that physicochemical treatments are not as effective as thermochemical treatments, but have advantages of mild operating conditions and potential for integrated solutions in conjunction with other treatments.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Optimizing tradeoffs implicit during bioenergy crop improvement: Understanding the effect of altered cell wall and sugar content on sorghum-associated pathogenic bacteria

Plant-derived production of renewable fuels and chemicals has the potential to reduce fossil fuel dependency, increase domestic energy security, enhance US farming and agricultural economic opportunities, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Realizing the potential of these alternate energy sources necessitates the development of high biomass-yielding crops. To limit competition with the production of food and feed, these specialized crop varieties, many of which will harbor modifications to cell wall structures and display altered carbon partitioning, will be cultivated on marginal land that does not provide ideal growing conditions. Consequently, the plants are anticipated to be more vulnerable to diseases.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Optimization and purification of magnesium borides fabricated by combustion synthesis and by high-temperature sintering

Hydrogen as a fuel provides several benefits over the use of fossil fuels; however, one challenge in utilizing hydrogen as an energy carrier revolves around its storage. Achieving sufficient volumetric hydrogen density in a storage solution will facilitate hydrogen’s adoption for use in both stationary and mobile applications. Solid-state hydrogen storage provides a promising pathway to solving this problem. However, the hydrogenation of these materials is characterized by slow kinetics and extreme thermodynamic conditions. Magnesium borohydride (Mg(BH4)2) is a promising material in hydrogen storage due to its reversible properties and a theoretical hydrogen capacity of 14.9 wt.%. To synthesize this material, combustion synthesis of magnesium borides (MgBx) has been implemented with the aim to further lower thermodynamic requirements for direct hydrogenation. A drawback of this process is the potential formation of oxide contaminants, which decrease hydrogenation/dehydrogenation and recyclability performance. The present work focuses on identifying parameters useful for reducing contamination and evaluating potential pathways to the purification of magnesium borides with the goal of improving their quality.

Camarena, Miguel Joaquin↗
DOE OSTI2017

Design and modeling for hydrogen fuel cell conversion of parcel delivery trucks

With an emphasis on reducing fossil fuel consumption and emissions, major delivery service corporations have begun deploying and operating Class 6 zero emissions delivery vans. Battery electric delivery vans are currently available, but their range is a limitation and doesn’t offer flexibility in assigning vehicles to delivery routes. Fuel cell hybrid delivery vans offer a zero emissions solution with extended range and route planning flexibility. In a competitive market, a delivery van design that trades the fuel cell and battery size, performance, and cost is critical to the success and adoption of these zero emissions trucks. This paper outlines a systematic approach using real world operational data and duty cycles to properly size the fuel cell and battery for a zero emissions hybrid delivery van. The approach uses real world GPS data to define routes and duty cycles, along with vehicle powertrain models to assess performance capabilities. Furthermore, the study suggests that a 32 kW fuel cell power system paired with a 49 kWh battery energy storage system and 15 kg of hydrogen storage is a desired option to complete the most demanding parcel and delivery duty cycles.

08 HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2014

Ethylene-Forming Enzyme and Bioethylene Production

Worldwide, ethylene is the most produced organic compound. It serves as a building block for a wide variety of plastics, textiles, and chemicals, and a process has been developed for its conversion into liquid transportation fuels. Currently, commercial ethylene production involves steam cracking of fossil fuels, and is the highest CO2-emitting process in the chemical industry. Therefore, there is great interest in developing technology for ethylene production from renewable resources including CO2 and biomass. Ethylene is produced naturally by plants and some microbes that live with plants. One of the metabolic pathways used by microbes is via an ethylene-forming enzyme (EFE), which uses a-ketoglutarate and arginine as substrates. EFE is a promising biotechnology target because the expression of a single gene is sufficient for ethylene production in the absence of toxic intermediates. Here we present the first comprehensive review and analysis of EFE, including its discovery, sequence diversity, reaction mechanism, predicted involvement in diverse metabolic modes, heterologous expression, and requirements for harvesting of bioethylene. A number of knowledge gaps and factors that limit ethylene productivity are identified, as well as strategies that could guide future research directions.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Laminar burning speed measurements for hydrogen enhanced natural gas in a spherical chamber

This work presents laminar burning speed measurements for natural gas and hydrogen enhanced natural gas in gas-turbine conditions using a spherical combustion chamber at an initial temperature and pressure of 296 K and 10 atm, respectively. Natural gas and hydrogen fuels were prepared and mixed with a synthetic air mixture comprised of oxygen, nitrogen, and helium. The experimental data collected during 10 atm ignition was used to predict the LBS at elevated pressures (30 bar) to approach gas-turbine operating conditions. A significant enhancing effect of combustion pressure on LBS was observed, as well as H2 dilution. This work provides fundamental combustion data relevant to sustainable fuels to reduce economic dependence on carbon-based fossil fuels and reduce anthropogenic climate effects through 2050.

Yovino, Louis↗
NASA NTRS1988

Evidence for a single impact at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary from trace elements

Not only meteoritic elements (Ir, Ni, Au, Pt metals), but also some patently non-meteoritic elements (As, Sb) are enriched at the K-T boundary. Eight enriched elements at 7 K-T sites were compared and it was found that: All have fairly constant proportions to Ir and Kilauea (invoked as an example of a volcanic source of Ir by opponents of the impact theory) has too little of 7 of these 8 elements to account for the boundary enrichments. The distribution of trace elements at the K-T boundary was reexamined using data from 11 sites for which comprehensive are available. The meteoritic component can be assessed by first normalizing the data to Ir, the most obviously extraterrestrial element, and then to Cl chondrites. The double normalization reduces the concentration range from 11 decades to 5 and also facilitates the identification of meteoritic elements. At sites where trace elements were analyzed in sub-divided samples of boundary clay, namely, Caravaca (SP), Stevns Klint (DK), Flaxbourne River (NZ) and Woodside Creek (NZ), Sb, As and Zn are well correlated with Ir across the boundary implying a common deposition mechanism. Elemental carbon is also enriched by up to 10,000 x in boundary clay from 5 K-T sides and is correlated with Ir across the boundary at Woodside Creek. While biomass would appear to be the primary fuel source for this carbon a contribution from a fossil fuel source may be necessary in order to account for the observed C abundance.

Gilmour, Iain↗
DOE OSTI2017

Biorefinery for combined production of jet fuel and ethanol from lipid‐producing sugarcane: a techno‐economic evaluation

Abstract Replacing fossil fuels with an economically viable green alternative at scale has proved most challenging in the aviation sector. Recently sugarcane, the most productive crop on the planet, has been engineered to accumulate lipids. This opens the way for production of far more industrial vegetable oil per acre than previously possible. This study performs techno‐economic feasibility analysis of jet fuel production from this new cost efficient and high yield feedstock. A comprehensive process model for biorefinery producing hydrotreated jet fuel (from lipids) and ethanol (from sugars), with 1 600 000 MT yr −1 lipid‐cane processing capacity, was developed in SuperPro Designer. Considering lipid‐cane development is continuing for higher oil concentrations, analysis was performed with lipid‐cane containing 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% lipids. Capital investments for the biorefinery ranged from 238.1 to 351.2 million USD , with jet fuel capacities of 12.6–50.5 million liters (correspondingly ethanol production of nil to 102.6 million liters). The production cost of jet fuel for different scenarios was estimated $0.73 to $1.79 per liter ($2.74 to $6.76 per gal) of jet fuel. In all cases, the cost of raw materials accounted for more than 70% of total operational cost. Biorefinery was observed self‐sustainable for steam and electricity requirement, because of in‐house steam and electricity generation from burning of bagasse. Minimum fuel selling prices with a 10% discount rate for 20% lipid case was estimated $1.40/L ($5.31/gal), which was lower than most of the reported prices of renewable jet fuel produced from other oil crops and algae. Along with lower production costs, lipid‐cane could produce as high as 16 times the jet fuel (6307 L ha −1 ) per unit land than that of other oil crops and do so using low‐value land unsuited to most other crops, while being highly water and nitrogen use efficient.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
NASA NTRS1978

Performance and economics of advanced energy conversion systems for coal and coal-derived fuels

The desire to establish an efficient Energy Conversion System to utilize the fossil fuel of the future - coal - has produced many candidate systems. A comparative technical/economic evaluation was performed on the seven most attractive advanced energy conversion systems. The evaluation maintains a cycle-to-cycle consistency in both performance and economic projections. The technical information base can be employed to make program decisions regarding the most attractive concept. A reference steam power plant was analyzed to the same detail and, under the same ground rules, was used as a comparison base. The power plants were all designed to utilize coal or coal-derived fuels and were targeted to meet an environmental standard. The systems evaluated were two advanced steam systems, a potassium topping cycle, a closed cycle helium system, two open cycle gas turbine combined cycles, and an open cycle MHD system.

Corman, J. C.↗
NASA NTRS2019

Fuel Sensitivity of Lean Blowout in a RQL Gas Turbine Combustor

Transition from fossil fuels to synthetic drop-in fuels without the need to change existing combustors is the current research topic. The combustor performances such as cold-day ignition limits, lean blow-out (LBO) limits and altitude relight limits are the main focus points. The objective of this work is to evaluate the effect of different fuel candidates on the operability of gas turbines by comparing a conventional petroleum-based fuel with one other alternative fuel candidate. Time filtered Navier-Stokes simulations (TFNS) and K-LES are performed to examine the performance of these fuels at the stable conditions close to blow-out in a referee combustor rig.

Fuel sensitivity↗
NASA NTRS2019

Fuel Sensitivity of Lean Blowout in a RQL Gas Turbine Combustor

Transition from fossil fuels to synthetic drop-in fuels without the need to change existing combustors is the current research topic. The combustor performances such as cold-day ignition limits, lean blow-out (LBO) limits and altitude relight limits are the main focus points. The objective of this work is to evaluate the effect of different fuel candidates on the operability of gas turbines by comparing a conventional petroleum-based fuel with one other alternative fuel candidate. Time filtered Navier-Stokes simulations (TFNS) and K-LES are performed to examine the performance of these fuels at the stable conditions close to blow-out in a referee combustor rig.

referee rig↗
DOE OSTI2018

An Integrated Sustainability Evaluation of Indirect Liquefaction of Biomass to Liquid Fuels

Developing a more sustainable biofuel production process holds the key for displacing fossil fuels with biofuels for sustainable greenhouse gas emissions and natural resource consumption mitigation. A holistic sustainability analysis for the production of biofuel plays a critical role on the improvement of the overall life cycle sustainability. Once a conceptual conversion process is developed, the next step is to evaluate its overall sustainability, preferably based on a process sustainability evaluation methodology using various indicators. The EPA's GREENSCOPE methodology evaluates processes in four areas: environment, energy, economics, and efficiency. The method develops relative scores for indicators that allow comparisons across various technologies. In this study, we have implemented GREENSCOPE methodology for a sustainability performance assessment of NREL's indirect liquefaction of biomass to high-octane gasoline blendstock by evaluating a range of metrics beyond the typical minimum fuel selling price and greenhouse gas considerations. We applied this methodology to evaluate the sustainability performance of this gate-to-gate conceptual design. One outcome of the sustainability evaluation is to allow researchers to identify process areas in need of sustainability improvement, as well as the challenges and opportunities for achieving the best possible sustainability target.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗