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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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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1982

Support and power plant documentation for the gas turbine powered bus demonstration program

The operational experience obtained for the GT404-4 gas turbine engines in the intercity and intracity Bus Demonstration Programs is described for the period January 1980 through September 1981. Support for the engines and automatic transmissions involved in this program provided engineering and field service, spare parts and tools, training, and factory overhauls. the Greyhound (intercity) coaches accumulated 183,054 mi (294,595 km) and 5154 hr of total operation. The Baltimore Transit (intracity) coaches accumulated 40,567 mi (65,285 km) and 1840 hr of total operation. In service, the turbine powered Greyhound and Transit coaches achieved approximately 25% and 40% lower fuel mileage, respectively, than did the production diesel powered coaches. The gas turbine engine will require the advanced ceramic development currently being sponsored by the DOE and NASA to achieve fuel economy equivalent not only to that of today's diesel engines but also to the projected fuel economy of the advanced diesel engines of the 1990s. Sufficient experience was not achieved with the coaches prior to the start of service to identify and eliminate many of the problems associated with the startup of new equipment. Because of these problems, the mean miles between incident were unacceptably low. The future gas turbine system should be developed sufficiently to establish satisfactory durability prior to evaluation in revenue service. Commercialization of the gas turbine bus engine remains a viable goal for the future.

Nigro, D. N.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Data-Informed Evaluation Framework for Integrated Energy Systems: Insights from Power, Process Heat, and Hydrogen Production Applications

The multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) framework provides a systematic evaluation of the diverse preferences and performance metrics associated with alternative solutions. This approach is advantageous over a single-criterion methodology, which are only valid under conditions that assume ceteris paribus or an "apples-to-apples" comparison. However, selecting suitable technologies for integrated energy systems (IES) can be likened to an "apples-to-oranges" comparison, given the heterogeneous factors at stake. These factors include economics and performance parameters, geological compatibility, and environmental impacts. Consequently, past research has often employed a mixture of qualitative and quantitative criteria tailored to the specific interests of each study. While the method proves effective in handling the intricate interplay of criteria, the resulting rankings and scores can vary from study to study. This inconsistency is introduced from the use of subjectively defined thresholds and weights. As a result, decision-makers frequently find it challenging to establish clear connections between specific criteria and the resulting scores, as the transformation of criteria into ordinal scores results in a substantial loss of information. To address this challenge, we introduce a data-informed IES evaluation framework that offers comprehensive, interpretable, and traceable evaluations backed by quantifiable rationale. First, we identified key IES evaluation criteria from a decade of literature, focusing on relevant IES applications in power, process heat, and hydrogen production. We leveraged state-of-the-art cost estimates from the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and technical data from 78 reactor designs from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development - Nuclear Energy Agency (OECD-NEA). Lastly, we established thresholds by analyzing the mean, variance, root mean square, and slope of values across alternatives, categorizing the preferences of decision-makers into distinct utility functions, such as linear, saturating, exponential, and stepwise. Our approach yielded two main outcomes: (1) it provided consistent assessments across different stakeholder groups and (2) it visualized uncertainties in the decision-making context via comprehensive sensitivity analysis. To demonstrate the impact of our framework, we conducted case studies on 6 reactor designs (AP1000, NuScale, BWRX-300, Xe-100, eVinci, iMSR) for the three applications. Our data-driven framework proved to be highly effective in addressing heterogenous uncertainties faced by varied decision-makers? preferences and IES applications, as well as cost and technical estimates of advanced reactors.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Data-Informed Evaluation Framework for Integrated Energy Systems: Insights from Power, Process Heat, and Hydrogen Production Applications

The multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) framework provides a systematic evaluation of the diverse preferences and performance metrics associated with alternative solutions. This approach is advantageous over a single-criterion methodology, which are only valid under conditions that assume ceteris paribus or an "apples-to-apples" comparison. However, selecting suitable technologies for integrated energy systems (IES) can be likened to an "apples-to-oranges" comparison, given the heterogeneous factors at stake. These factors include economics and performance parameters, geological compatibility, and environmental impacts. Consequently, past research has often employed a mixture of qualitative and quantitative criteria tailored to the specific interests of each study. While the method proves effective in handling the intricate interplay of criteria, the resulting rankings and scores can vary from study to study. This inconsistency is introduced from the use of subjectively defined thresholds and weights. As a result, decision-makers frequently find it challenging to establish clear connections between specific criteria and the resulting scores, as the transformation of criteria into ordinal scores results in a substantial loss of information. To address this challenge, we introduce a data-informed IES evaluation framework that offers comprehensive, interpretable, and traceable evaluations backed by quantifiable rationale. First, we identified key IES evaluation criteria from a decade of literature, focusing on relevant IES applications in power, process heat, and hydrogen production. We leveraged state-of-the-art cost estimates from the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and technical data from 78 reactor designs from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development - Nuclear Energy Agency (OECD-NEA). Lastly, we established thresholds by analyzing the mean, variance, root mean square, and slope of values across alternatives, categorizing the preferences of decision-makers into distinct utility functions, such as linear, saturating, exponential, and stepwise. Our approach yielded two main outcomes: (1) it provided consistent assessments across different stakeholder groups and (2) it visualized uncertainties in the decision-making context via comprehensive sensitivity analysis. To demonstrate the impact of our framework, we conducted case studies on 6 reactor designs (AP1000, NuScale, BWRX-300, Xe-100, eVinci, iMSR) for the three applications. Our data-driven framework proved to be highly effective in addressing heterogenous uncertainties faced by varied decision-makers? preferences and IES applications, as well as cost and technical estimates of advanced reactors.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2022

An Intensified Electro-Catalytic Process for Production of Formic Acid from Power Plant CO 2 Emissions (Final Technical Report)

The goal of this project was to develop and test a novel electro-catalytic method for the production of high-value formic acid from coal-derived CO 2 as a strategy to offset the cost of CO 2 capture. Formic acid is currently produced from the conversion of higher-order carbon products such as methane and/or methanol. This electro-catalytic CO 2 reduction process utilizes a highly selective catalyst in a flow-through reactor design to maximize the formic acid production rate. The specific objectives of this proposed study were to; 1) produce and screen highly selective engineered CO 2 reducing catalysts capable of exclusively producing formic acid; 2) immobilize the catalyst within a flow process to continually produce formic acid and increase catalyst lifetime; and 3) assess the stability of the electrocatalyst during long-term operation. The project involved the development and testing of an engineered catalyst to selectively reduce CO 2 directly and exclusively to formic acid. After the best-performing catalyst was selected, it was immobilized and tested inside a flow-through reactor at UK CAER using realistic conditions expected from CO 2 produced during coal combustion and separated by a CO 2 capture plant.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
DOE OSTI2021

Chemical looping air separation with Sr 0.8 Ca0.2Fe 0.9 Co 0.1 O 3-δ perovskite sorbent: Packed bed modeling, verification, and optimization

Chemical looping air separation (CLAS) represents a promising approach for efficient O 2 production from the air. This present study aims at optimizing the absorber/desorber operations and the separation process with extensive experimental validation. Specifically, a one-dimensional packed bed model was developed to investigate the CLAS operation with a Sr 0.8 Ca 0.2 Fe 0.9 Co 0.1 O 3-δ perovskite sorbent. The redox thermodynamics of perovskite sorbent was measured by TGA and then incorporated into a linear driving force model to describe the O 2 absorption and desorption rates. Both 4-step and 5-step air separation cycle configurations, with various cyclic structures, were performed in a subpilot-scale packed bed. The model predicted O2 purity and productivity were consistent with experimental results, supporting its accuracy and applicability. Parametric analysis and multi-objective optimization were further carried out to assess the performance of CLAS. Both O 2 purity and recovery increased monotonically with the cycle time, airflow rate, steam flow rate, and absorption pressure. Meanwhile, optimal O 2 productivity and power consumption can only be achieved by specific combinations of these parameters. The optimized results showed that CLAS can be highly competitive when compared to conventional pressure swing adsorption (PSA) or cryogenic distillation. The 5-step cycle configuration achieved a minimum power consumption of 118 kW·h for producing 1 ton O 2 with ≥ 95% purity. The maximum O 2 productivity reached 0.0932 g O2 /(g sorbent ·h) with 390 kW·h/ton O 2 of energy consumption (95% pure). The optimization results also indicate that CLAS can potentially be more efficient than cryogenic distillation even when the required O 2 purity is above 99%.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2026

Maturation of Next Generation eSAF (CRADA Final Report)

Assessment of current and potential future eSAF production pathways (Power to Liquids, eMethanol to Jet, etc.) against current incumbents (HEFA, Alcohol to Jet) evaluating the overall costs of production, scalability of process, market demand, and policy/ regulatory/ standards for flight.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
NASA NTRS1977

Evaporation of ices from Comet West

Postperihelion narrow-band filter photometry has been used to derive gas and dust production rates for Comet West. For heliocentric distances less than 1.25 AU, C2 and CN vary as the -2.8 power of distance, while C3 and OH (based on published measurements) vary as -2.1 power. C3 production closely parallels dust production. It is concluded that OH and C3 parents are produced at the nucleus, while CN and C2 parents are produced from the icy-grain halo. It is also found that Comet West is one of the dustiest and most productive of the recent comets, being exceeded only by Comet Bennett.

Ahearn, M. F.↗
NASA NTRS1980

A study of mass production and installation of small solar thermal electric power systems

Technological constraints, materials availability, production capacity, and manufacturing and installations plans and costs at different production levels are included in a study of concentrating collector industrialization. As cobalt for the engine and receiver is supply limited, alternative lower temperature alloys and higher temperature materials such as ceramics are discussed. Economics and production efficiency favor co-location of cellular and thin glass production for reflectors. Assembly and installation are expensive for small sites and few alternatives exist to apply mass production techniques to lower these costs for the selected design. Stepping motors in the size and quantities required are not commercially available today but could be in the future.

Butterfield, J. F.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Micro-Tubular Fuel Cells

Micro-tubular fuel cells that would operate at power levels on the order of hundreds of watts or less are under development as alternatives to batteries in numerous products - portable power tools, cellular telephones, laptop computers, portable television receivers, and small robotic vehicles, to name a few examples. Micro-tubular fuel cells exploit advances in the art of proton-exchange-membrane fuel cells. The main advantage of the micro-tubular fuel cells over the plate-and-frame fuel cells would be higher power densities: Whereas the mass and volume power densities of low-pressure hydrogen-and-oxygen-fuel plate-and-frame fuel cells designed to operate in the targeted power range are typically less than 0.1 W/g and 0.1 kW/L, micro-tubular fuel cells are expected to reach power densities much greater than 1 W/g and 1 kW/L. Because of their higher power densities, micro-tubular fuel cells would be better for powering portable equipment, and would be better suited to applications in which there are requirements for modularity to simplify maintenance or to facilitate scaling to higher power levels. The development of PEMFCs has conventionally focused on producing large stacks of cells that operate at typical power levels >5 kW. The usual approach taken to developing lower-power PEMFCs for applications like those listed above has been to simply shrink the basic plate-and-frame configuration to smaller dimensions. A conventional plate-and-frame fuel cell contains a membrane/electrode assembly in the form of a flat membrane with electrodes of the same active area bonded to both faces. In order to provide reactants to both electrodes, bipolar plates that contain flow passages are placed on both electrodes. The mass and volume overhead of the bipolar plates amounts to about 75 percent of the total mass and volume of a fuel-cell stack. Removing these bipolar plates in the micro-tubular fuel cell significantly increases the power density.

Kimble, Michael C.↗
DOE OSTI2020

Leveraging Existing Bioenergy Data: Workshop Summary Report

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) invests in a diverse portfolio of technologies to ensure domestic energy security, continued economic competitiveness, environmental sustainability, and the availability of cleaner fuels and power. The mission of EERE’s Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) is to develop transformative and revolutionary sustainable bioenergy technologies for a prosperous nation. BETO develops technologies that convert domestic biomass and waste resources into fuels, products, and power to enable affordable energy, economic growth, and innovation in renewable energy and chemicals production. This report summarizes the input received from attendees of the public workshop sponsored by BETO on July 21–23, 2020, as well as input received from a Request for Information (RFI) run in August and September 2019.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Critical Component/Technology Gap in 21 st Century Power Plant Gasification Based Polygeneration: Advanced Ceramic Membranes/Modules for Ultra Efficient Hydrogen (H 2 ) Production/Carbon Dioxide (CO 2 ) Capture for Coal-Based Polygeneration

The 21 st Century Power Plant Gasification Based Polygeneration power plant layout is a relatively straightforward retrofit of well-established ammonia synthesis technology to the baseline IGCC process and envisions co-production of power and chemicals from coal in the context of carbon capture. A Dual Stage Membrane Process (DSMP) for pre-combustion CO 2 capture in a coal fired IGCC power plant has been demonstrated by Media and Process Technology Inc (MPT) (DE-FE0013064) in bench-scale live gas testing at the NCCC. This work, however, highlighted the importance of permeate purge capability to deliver deep H 2 recovery at moderate pressures and high carbon capture performance. Further, in the area of warm gas processing, a permeate purgeable membrane support for a wide range of inorganic high-performance membrane materials (CMS, Pd-alloy, zeolite, ZIF, graphene, etc.) was not available and hence had been a common and significant barrier to their commercialization. Hence, the Critical Technology Gap to implementing the DSMP in the Polygeneration power plant and more broadly in advanced warm gas separation applications was the inability to permeate purge the membranes coupled with the lack of the availability of a high packing density scalable package design. To overcome this Critical Technology Gap, in this project, the primary objective was the development of a permeate purgeable full ceramic support for these high-performance inorganic membranes and the complementary high packing density housing. Our goal and approach were to extend our “candle filter” design to a “dual end open” package to enable permeate purge and scalability. Microporous ceramic membranes have been proven to be a low cost, stable material for high temperature applications under harsh environment. They are the leading support choice of researchers in advanced inorganic membrane development in applications such as pre-combustion CO 2 capture. The new 2nd Generation “dual end open” bundle developed in this project is a universal support for these existing and emerging inorganic membrane technologies that up to now have lacked a pathway out of the laboratory. The full ceramic permeate purgeable support represents a transformational technology and opens the door to commercialization of these advanced membrane materials in a wide array of mega scale commercial applications in gas (and liquid) processing under aggressive conditions not suited to conventional polymeric membranes.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
NASA NTRS1990

Autonomous power management and distribution

The goal of the Autonomous Power System program is to develop and apply intelligent problem solving and control to the Space Station Freedom's electric power testbed being developed at NASA's Lewis Research Center. Objectives are to establish artificial intelligence technology paths, craft knowledge-based tools and products for power systems, and integrate knowledge-based and conventional controllers. This program represents a joint effort between the Space Station and Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology to develop and demonstrate space electric power automation technology capable of: (1) detection and classification of system operating status, (2) diagnosis of failure causes, and (3) cooperative problem solving for power scheduling and failure recovery. Program details, status, and plans will be presented.

Dolce, Jim↗
NASA NTRS2016

Veggie: Space Vegetables for the International Space Station and Beyond

The Veggie vegetable production system was launched to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2014. Veggie was designed by ORBITEC to be a compact, low mass, low power vegetable production system for astronaut crews. Veggie consists of a light cap containing red, blue, and green LEDs, an extensible transparent bellows, and a baseplate with a root mat reservoir. Seeds are planted in plant pillows, small growing bags that interface with the reservoir. The Veggie technology validation test, VEG-01, was initiated with the first test crop of 'Outredgeous' red romaine lettuce. Prior to flight, lettuce seeds were sanitized and planted in a substrate of arcillite (baked ceramic) mixed with controlled release fertilizer. Upon initiation, astronauts open the packaged plant pillows, install them in the Veggie hardware, and prime the system with water. Operations include plant thinning, watering, and photography. Plants were grown on the ISS for 33 days, harvested, and returned frozen to Earth for analysis. Ground controls were conducted at Kennedy Space Center in controlled environment chambers reproducing ISS conditions of temperature, relative humidity, and CO2. Returned plant samples were analyzed for microbial food safety and chemistry including elements, antioxidants, anthocyanins and phenolics. In addition the entire plant microbiome was sequenced, and returned plant pillows were analyzed via x-ray tomography. Food safety analyses allowed us to gain approvals for future consumption of lettuce by the flight surgeons and the payload safety office. A second crop of lettuce was grown in 2015, and the crew consumed half the produce, with the remainder frozen for later analysis. This growth test was followed by testing of a new crop in Veggie, zinnias. Zinnias were grown to test a longer duration flowering crop in preparation for tests of tomatoes and other fruiting crops in the future. Zinnias were harvested in February. Samples from the second harvest of lettuce and the zinnia harvest are frozen on the ISS and will return with the next cargo return flight. Some challenges occurred in all tests, especially in the area of watering, with plants receiving insufficient or excess water leading to stressed growth. Zinnia plants were also challenged with fungal growth. Initial tests with Veggie have given us great insight into future crop production scenarios as we work to develop regular supplemental salad crop production on ISS and larger food production systems for our journey to Mars. Funding for this research comes from NASA's Space Biology Program.

Food Safety↗
NASA NTRS2015

Technology Advancement for Active Remote Sensing of Carbon Dioxide from Space Using the ASCENDS CarbonHawk Experiment Simulator: First Results

The ASCENDS CarbonHawk Experiment Simulator (ACES) is a newly developed lidar developed at NASA Langley Research Center and funded by NASA's Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO) Instrument Incubator Program (IIP) that seeks to advance technologies critical to measuring atmospheric column carbon dioxide (CO2) mixing ratios in support of the NASA Active Sensing of CO2 Emissions over Nights, Days, and Seasons (ASCENDS) mission. The technology advancements targeted include: (1) increasing the power-aperture product to approach ASCENDS mission requirements by implementing multi-aperture telescopes and multiple co-aligned laser transmitters; (2) incorporating high-efficiency, high-power Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifiers (EDFAs); (3) developing and incorporating a high-bandwidth, low-noise HgCdTe detector and transimpedence amplifier (TIA) subsystem capable of long-duration autonomous operation on Global Hawk aircraft, and (4) advancing algorithms for cloud and aerosol discrimination. The ACES instrument architecture is being developed for operation on high-altitude aircraft and will be directly scalable to meet the ASCENDS mission requirements. These technologies are critical towards developing not only spaceborne instruments but also their airborne simulators, with lower platform requirements for size, mass, and power, and with improved instrument performance for the ASCENDS mission. ACES transmits five laser beams: three from commercial EDFAs operating near 1.57 microns, and two from the Exelis oxygen (O2) Raman fiber laser amplifier system operating near 1.26 microns. The three EDFAs are capable of transmitting up to 10 watts average optical output power each and are seeded by compact, low noise, stable, narrow-linewidth laser sources stabilized with respect to a CO2 absorption line using a multi-pass gas absorption cell. The Integrated-Path Differential Absorption (IPDA) lidar approach is used at both wavelengths to independently measure the CO2 and O2 column number densities and retrieve the average column CO2 mixing ratio. The ACES receiver uses three fiber-coupled 17.8-cm diameter athermal telescopes. The transmitter assembly consists of five fiber-coupled laser collimators and an associated Risley prism pair for each laser to co-align the outgoing laser beams and to align them with the telescope field of view. The backscattered return signals collected by the three telescopes are combined in a fiber bundle and sent to a single low noise detector. The detector/TIA development has improved the existing detector subsystem by increasing its bandwidth to 4.7 MHz from 500 kHz and increasing the duration of autonomous, service-free operation periods from 4 hours to >24 hours. The new detector subsystem enables the utilization of higher laser modulation rates, which provides greater flexibility for implementing advanced thin-cloud discrimination algorithms as well as improving range-determination resolution and error reduction. The cloud/aerosol discrimination algorithm development by Langley and Exelis features a new suite of algorithms for the minimization/elimination of bias errors in the return signal induced by the presence of intervening thin clouds. Multiple laser modulation schemes are being tested in an effort to significantly mitigate the effects of thin clouds on the retrieved CO2 column amounts. Full instrument development concluded in the spring of 2014. After ground range tests of the instrument, ACES successfully completed six test flights on the Langley Hu-25 aircraft in July, 2014, and recorded data at multiple altitudes over land and ocean surfaces with and without intervening clouds. Preliminary results from these test flights will be presented in this paper.

Obland, Michael D.↗
DOE OSTI2026

Measuring labor productivity dynamics in U.S. industrial and electric power sectors: a case study (2014–2023)

This study proposes a subsystem methodology for measuring labor productivity in the U.S. industrial and electric power sectors by leveraging public data available between 2014 and 2023. Building on Pasinetti’s framework and subsequent developments, the approach employs Vertically Integrated Sectors (VIS) to account for both direct and indirect productivity effects. The novelty of this work is twofold. First, it enables the estimation of productivity trends over time, providing a robust foundation for empirical analysis. Second, it applies the methodology to a case study of the electric generation sector, highlighting its practical relevance. Using data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the Impact Analysis for Planning (IMPLAN) tool, the study reveals significant discrepancies between conventional productivity measures and those derived from the VIS approach. Furthermore, the proposed method aligns with the principles of Integrated Energy Systems by capturing the interrelations among generation, distribution, storage, and consumption. This alignment underscores its utility and applications for energy-related policy and planning. Overall, the findings contribute to more precise labor productivity assessments, supporting informed decision-making and future research. Additionally, the method highlights the importance of considering the whole supply chain, providing interrelated metrics for labor productivity which includes both, direct and indirect effects on the final labor productivity metric. By incorporating intersectoral dependencies, this method offers a more comprehensive and accurate measure of labor productivity compared to traditional metrics.

11 - NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
NASA NTRS1980

Development of procedures for calculating stiffness and damping of elastomers in engineering applications, part 7

An elastomer shear damper was designed, tested, and compared with the performance of the T 55 power turbine supported on the production engine roller bearing support. The Viton 70 shear damper was designed so that the elastomer damper could be interchanged with the production T 55 power turbine roller bearing support. The results show that the elastomer sheer dampener permitted stable operation of the power turbine to the maximum operating speed of 16,000 rpm.

Rieger, A.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Power Hibernation for Low-Cost Solar Powered Lunar Missions

Lunar Surface temperatures can span from equatorial highs near 400K and polar lows of 50K. The extreme cold combined with the 354-hour duration of the lunar night is particularly challenging for small robotic lander missions. NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) missions involve robotic landers intended to provide low-cost access to the lunar surface. Current CLPS Missions are solar powered and are only intended to survive a single lunar day. The ability to survive the night and continue operations over many lunar cycles would provide a dramatic increase in science productivity. The Power Hibernation approach relies on battery cells that can tolerate the extreme cold night and recover once temperatures return to normal. System recovery from hibernation depends on power electronics that can “cold start” at lunar dawn and operate on solar array output alone. Once battery and avionics systems are restored the spacecraft resumes daytime operations. The challenge is to achieve this capability with minimum impact to the spacecraft design and payload capacity. This talk will describe recent and ongoing investigations in battery and electronics technologies that will enable power hibernation and recovery.

Space Power↗