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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 55 records · Page 3
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

A novel green hydrogen production using water-energy nexus framework

The transformation of electrical energy to hydrogen via water electrolysis consumes considerable amount of fresh water and a productive use of nontraditional water sources enhances the reliability and resilience of energy and water systems. In this study, we have designed a solid oxide electrolysis cell (SOEC) system which is an evolving hydrogen production technology at high temperatures for water electrolysis. Here, the SOEC uses steam generated from flue gas as its feedstock and is fully integrated with numerous power production units, including coal and natural gas-fired power plants as its energy feedstock. While there is a hasten global shift away from fossil fuel, integrating its asset into this technology helps limit the risk and future losses of stranded assets and reduce the cost of investment in the new technologies. But high capital expenditures and doubt concerning the future cost and efficiency upgrade are obstacles to investing in water electrolysis. Such a detailed Levelized cost of hydrogen and techno-economic analysis is conducted to show the viability and environmental impacts of this novel technology. The results show SOEC efficiency of 97.4 % and 56.3 % as thermal-to-hydrogen efficiency of the system with a daily hydrogen production of 242,400 kg at $2.9–3.5/kg H 2 . The estimates show a positive gain prospect in this technology and techno-economic challenges.

08 HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2023

Recent developments in 3D-printed membranes for water desalination

The recognition of membrane separations as a vital technology platform for enhancing the efficiency of separation processes has been steadily increasing. Concurrently, 3D printing has emerged as an innovative approach to fabricating reverse osmosis membranes for water desalination and treatment purposes. This method provides a high degree of control over membrane chemistry and structural properties. In particular, when compared to traditional manufacturing techniques, 3D printing holds the potential to expedite customization, a feat that is typically achieved through conventional manufacturing methods but often involves numerous processes and significant costs. This review aims to present the current advancements in membrane manufacturing technology specifically tailored for water desalination purposes, with a particular focus on the development of 3D-printed membranes. A comprehensive analysis of recent progress in 3D-printed membranes is provided. However, conducting experimental work to investigate various influential factors while ensuring consistent results poses a significant challenge. To address this, we explore how membrane manufacturing processes and performance can be effectively pre-designed and guided through the use of molecular dynamics simulations. Finally, this review outlines the challenges faced and presents future perspectives to shed light on research directions for optimizing membrane manufacturing processes and achieving optimal membrane performance.

3D printing membranes↗
DOE OSTI2026

Theoretical model of dielectrophoretic water vapor condensation during multiphase flow of electrically charged water droplets in air

Water droplet growth in air, influenced by vapor diffusion and electrical charging, has significant implications for indoor air quality, cloud formation, and aerosol dynamics. Here, this study presents a comprehensive theoretical model that describes the growth dynamics of electrically charged water droplets under external electric fields, incorporating diffusion, electrostatic, and dielectrophoretic forces to enhance understanding and practical applications in air dehumidification and environmental control. A theoretical model was established to analyze the growth dynamics of the charged water droplets. The approach extended the thermodynamic framework of the Modified Kelvin-Thomson equation by integrating electrostatic and dielectrophoretic effects, enabling a comprehensive evaluation of vapor concentration near the surface of charged droplets. A sensitivity analysis was performed to assess the roles of droplet size, electric field intensity, surface charge, and vapor concentration on condensation rates. The study progressed beyond the classical diffusion-limited growth of neutral droplets, addressing the behavior of charged droplets in electrohydrodynamic environments. The model highlighted the significance of dielectrophoretic drift flux for dipolar vapor molecules, especially in micron-sized droplets ranging from 10 to 100 µm. Findings demonstrated that, for smaller droplets subjected to elevated electrical charge, average growth rates varied from 0.3 to 1.6 µm/s if the air relative humidity increased from 50 to 100 %. Analytical results are corroborated by numerical simulations, which exhibited strong concordance, thereby validating the proposed theoretical approach. This research introduced an innovative and scalable analytical methodology for electric field-enhanced droplet growth, offering valuable insights into the advancement of energy-efficient air dehumidification, water desalination, and atmospheric water harvesting technologies.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2023

Water Recovery From Cooling Tower Plumes

According to studies by the UN and the US State Department, we are on the path to an extreme freshwater shortage by 2030. The US’s largest water withdrawal source is power plants, which account for 39% of total US freshwater withdrawals, mostly for cooling. Cooling towers are the most common cooling system. To solve these problems and enable efficient water- based cooling – Infinite Cooling’s novel technology uses electric fields to ionize the air, charge the escaping water leaving cooling towers and direct the water toward mesh collectors where it collects and gets recycled for use in the cooling system. This technology was developed at MIT and was reduced to practice on a lab-scale prototype, and a prototype at the MIT Cogeneration Power Plant. This DOE award funded taking this technology from a lab-scale prototype to TRL 5 on an operating cooling tower in the field at the MIT Nuclear Research Laboratory. The funding helped to design and optimize an electrostatic plume collection system and test it in high-fidelity lab setting and in actual field conditions on a cooling tower. Throughout the award, Infinite Cooling investigated the formation of plumes on cooling towers, used that information to optimize the design, material and electrical properties of the collection device and quantified the collection yield via flow rate and water quality.

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2022

A Novel Steam Condenser with Loop Thermosyphons and Film-Forming Agents for Improved Heat Transfer Efficiency and Durability

In this DOE/NETL BAA program, Advanced Cooling Technologies, Inc. (ACT), with Suez Water Technologies & Solutions (Suez), developed film-forming amine coatings applied to condenser surfaces that incorporated loop thermosyphons to enhance steam surface condenser performance and efficiency for coal-fired power plants. The condensation phenomenon resulting from these coatings promotes efficient dropwise condensation without additional thermal resistance through the use of film-forming amines (FFA). The loop thermosyphon technology was being developed to supplant current pumped cooling water systems to reduce operations and maintenance issues, reduce energy use, and promote high thermal performance. Both of ACT’s advanced coating and loop thermosyphon technologies were developed for application to wet cooling and indirect dry cooling systems. Internal steam condensation and subsequent heat dissipation complete the thermodynamic power cycle used by power plant cooling systems. The successful 3-year project period delved into understanding the experimental performance gain using film-forming amines applied to flat and tubular condenser surfaces under realistic operating conditions. The performance gain was used to create a technoeconomic analysis to more clearly understand the market value for power plants using FFA coatings to achieve dropwise condensation on condenser surfaces. A tall (50 ft.) loop thermosyphon was designed, fabricated, and tested to optimize the performance characteristics by tuning the working fluid charge and determining the temperature drop across the loop at different heat loads. Commercialization opportunities were explored to transition the loop thermosyphon work into the building HVAC market.

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Affinity of small-molecule solutes to hydrophobic, hydrophilic, and chemically patterned interfaces in aqueous solution

Significance Increasing global population, urbanization, and climate change pose tremendous constraints on water availability. While membrane processes offer attractive, energy-efficient options, transformative advances in membrane technology are needed to enable reuse of poor-quality waters from diverse sources. This work brings fundamental understanding of solute–surface interactions to membrane phenomena, including selectivity and fouling. Molecular simulations reveal limitations of traditional predictive measures of solute–surface partitioning, suggesting alternative thermodynamic signatures for solute binding that highlight the contextual nature of hydrophobicity. An inverse design algorithm provides a tool to pattern membrane nanoscale chemistry to optimize solute affinity and selectivity. This work demonstrates how simulations can inform practical materials design for sustainable water treatment and, more broadly, many technologies involving water-mediated solute–surface interactions.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
NASA NTRS1977

Efficiency and cost advantages of an advanced-technology nuclear electrolytic hydrogen-energy production facility

The concept of an advanced-technology (viz., 1985 technology) nuclear-electrolytic water electrolysis facility was assessed for hydrogen production cost and efficiency expectations. The facility integrates (1) a high-temperature gas-cooled nuclear reactor (HTGR) operating a binary work cycle, (2) direct-current (d-c) electricity generation via acyclic generators, and (3) high-current-density, high-pressure electrolyzers using a solid polymer electrolyte (SPE). All subsystems are close-coupled and optimally interfaced for hydrogen production alone (i.e., without separate production of electrical power). Pipeline-pressure hydrogen and oxygen are produced at 6900 kPa (1000 psi). We found that this advanced facility would produce hydrogen at costs that were approximately half those associated with contemporary-technology nuclear electrolysis: $5.36 versus $10.86/million Btu, respectively. The nuclear-heat-to-hydrogen-energy conversion efficiency for the advanced system was estimated as 43%, versus 25% for the contemporary system.

Donakowski, T. D.↗
DOE OSTI2025

Perovskite Catalysts for Pure-Water-Fed Anion-Exchange-Membrane Electrolyzer Anodes: Co-design of Electrically Conductive Nanoparticle Cores and Active Surfaces

Anion-exchange-membrane water electrolyzers (AEMWEs) are a possible low-capital-expense, efficient, and scalable hydrogen-production technology with inexpensive hardware, earth-abundant catalysts, and pure water. However, pure-water-fed AEMWEs remain at an early stage of development and suffer from inferior performance compared with proton-exchange-membrane water electrolyzers (PEMWEs). One challenge is to develop effective non-platinum-group-metal (non-PGM) anode catalysts and electrodes in pure-water-fed AEMWEs. We show how LaNiO3-based perovskite oxides can be tuned by cosubstitution on both A- and B-sites to simultaneously maintain high metallic electrical conductivity along with a degree of surface reconstruction to expose a stable Co-based active catalyst. The optimized perovskite, Sr0.1La0.9Co0.5Ni0.5O3, yielded pure-water AEMWEs operating at 1.97 V at 2.0 A cm-2 at 70 °C with a pure-water feed, thus illustrating the utility of the catalyst design principles.

Zhai, Tingting↗
DOE OSTI2021

National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI) Power Sector Technology Roadmap 2021

The National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI) is a research consortium formed to accelerate transformative research in desalination and treatment to lower the cost and energy required to produce clean water from nontraditional water sources and realize a circular water economy. NAWI’s goal is to enable the manufacturing of energy-efficient desalination technologies in the United States at a lower cost with the same (or higher) quality and reduced environmental impact for 90 percent of nontraditional water sources within the next 10 years. The nontraditional source waters of interest include brackish water; seawater; produced and extracted water; power, mining, industrial, municipal, and agricultural waste waters. When these desalination and treatment technologies are fully developed and utilized, they will be able to contribute to the water needs for many existing end-use sectors. NAWI has identified five end-use sectors that are critical to the U.S. economy for further exploration: Power, Resource Extraction, Industry, Municipal, and Agriculture (PRIMA). This Power Sector roadmap aims to advance desalination and treatment of nontraditional source waters for beneficial use in public water supplies by identifying research and development (R&D) opportunities that help overcome existing treatment challenges. Under NAWI’s vision, the transition from a linear to a circular water economy with nontraditional source waters will be achieved by advancing desalination and reuse technologies in six key areas: Autonomous operations, Precision separations, Resilient treatment and transport, Intensified brine management, Modular membrane systems, and Electrified treatment systems, collectively known as the A-PRIME areas. Technological advances in these different areas will enable nontraditional source waters to achieve pipe parity with traditional supplies.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2021

National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI) Resource Extraction Sector Technology Roadmap 2021

The National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI) is a research consortium formed to accelerate transformative research in desalination and treatment to lower the cost and energy required to produce clean water from nontraditional water sources and realize a circular water economy. NAWI’s goal is to enable the manufacturing of energy-efficient desalination technologies in the United States at a lower cost with the same (or higher) quality and reduced environmental impact for 90 percent of nontraditional water sources within the next 10 years. The nontraditional source waters of interest include brackish water; seawater; produced and extracted water; power, mining, industrial, municipal, and agricultural waste waters. When these desalination and treatment technologies are fully developed and utilized, they will be able to contribute to the water needs for many existing end-use sectors. NAWI has identified five end-use sectors that are critical to the U.S. economy for further exploration: Power, Resource Extraction, Industry, Municipal, and Agriculture (PRIMA). This Resource Extraction Sector roadmap aims to advance desalination and treatment of nontraditional source waters for beneficial use in public water supplies by identifying research and development (R&D) opportunities that help overcome existing treatment challenges. Under NAWI’s vision, the transition from a linear to a circular water economy with nontraditional source waters will be achieved by advancing desalination and reuse technologies in six key areas: Autonomous operations, Precision separations, Resilient treatment and transport, Intensified brine management, Modular membrane systems, and Electrified treatment systems, collectively known as the A-PRIME areas. Technological advances in these different areas will enable nontraditional source waters to achieve pipe parity with traditional supplies.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2021

National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI) Agriculture Sector Technology Roadmap 2021

The National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI) is a research consortium formed to accelerate transformative research in desalination and treatment to lower the cost and energy required to produce clean water from nontraditional water sources and realize a circular water economy. NAWI's goal is to enable the manufacturing of energy-efficient desalination technologies in the United States at a lower cost with the same (or higher) quality and reduced environmental impact for 90 percent of nontraditional water sources within the next 10 years. The nontraditional source waters of interest include brackish water; seawater; produced and extracted water; power, mining, industrial, municipal, and agricultural waste waters. When these desalination and treatment technologies are fully developed and utilized, they will be able to contribute to the water needs for many existing end-use sectors. NAWI has identified five end-use sectors that are critical to the U.S. economy for further exploration: Power, Resource Extraction, Industry, Municipal, and Agriculture (PRIMA). This Agriculture Sector roadmap aims to advance desalination and treatment of nontraditional source waters for beneficial use in public water supplies by identifying research and development (R&D) opportunities that help overcome existing treatment challenges. Under NAWI's vision, the transition from a linear to a circular water economy with nontraditional source waters will be achieved by advancing desalination and reuse technologies in six key areas: Autonomous operations, Precision separations, Resilient treatment and transport, Intensified brine management, Modular membrane systems, and Electrified treatment systems, collectively known as the A-PRIME areas. Technological advances in these different areas will enable nontraditional source waters to achieve pipe parity with traditional supplies.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2021

National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI) Municipal Sector Technology Roadmap 2021

The National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI) is a research consortium formed to accelerate transformative research in desalination and treatment to lower the cost and energy required to produce clean water from nontraditional water sources and realize a circular water economy. NAWI's goal is to enable the manufacturing of energy-efficient desalination technologies in the United States at a lower cost with the same (or higher) quality and reduced environmental impact for 90 percent of nontraditional water sources within the next 10 years. The nontraditional source waters of interest include brackish water; seawater; produced and extracted water; power, mining, industrial, municipal, and agricultural waste waters. When these desalination and treatment technologies are fully developed and utilized, they will be able to contribute to the water needs for many existing end-use sectors. NAWI has identified five end-use sectors that are critical to the U.S. economy for further exploration: Power, Resource Extraction, Industry, Municipal, and Agriculture (PRIMA). This Municipal Sector roadmap aims to advance desalination and treatment of nontraditional source waters for beneficial use in public water supplies by identifying research and development (R&D) opportunities that help overcome existing treatment challenges. Under NAWI's vision, the transition from a linear to a circular water economy with nontraditional source waters will be achieved by advancing desalination and reuse technologies in six key areas: Autonomous operations, Precision separations, Resilient treatment and transport, Intensified brine management, Modular membrane systems, and Electrified treatment systems, collectively known as the A-PRIME areas. Technological advances in these different areas will enable nontraditional source waters to achieve pipe parity with traditional supplies.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2021

National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI) Industrial Sector Technology Roadmap 2021

The National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI) is a research consortium formed to accelerate transformative research in desalination and treatment to lower the cost and energy required to produce clean water from nontraditional water sources and realize a circular water economy. NAWI's goal is to enable the manufacturing of energy-efficient desalination technologies in the United States at a lower cost with the same (or higher) quality and reduced environmental impact for 90 percent of nontraditional water sources within the next 10 years. The nontraditional source waters of interest include brackish water; seawater; produced and extracted water; power, mining, industrial, municipal, and agricultural waste waters. When these desalination and treatment technologies are fully developed and utilized, they will be able to contribute to the water needs for many existing end-use sectors. NAWI has identified five end-use sectors that are critical to the U.S. economy for further exploration: Power, Resource Extraction, Industry, Municipal, and Agriculture (PRIMA). This Industrial Sector roadmap aims to advance desalination and treatment of nontraditional source waters for beneficial use in public water supplies by identifying research and development (R&D) opportunities that help overcome existing treatment challenges. Under NAWI's vision, the transition from a linear to a circular water economy with nontraditional source waters will be achieved by advancing desalination and reuse technologies in six key areas: Autonomous operations, Precision separations, Resilient treatment and transport, Intensified brine management, Modular membrane systems, and Electrified treatment systems, collectively known as the A-PRIME areas. Technological advances in these different areas will enable nontraditional source waters to achieve pipe parity with traditional supplies.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
NASA NTRS2008

Portable Nanomesh Creates Safer Drinking Water

Providing astronauts with clean water is essential to space exploration to ensure the health and well-being of crewmembers away from Earth. For the sake of efficient and safe long-term space travel, NASA constantly seeks to improve the process of filtering and re-using wastewater in closed-loop systems. Because it would be impractical for astronauts to bring months (or years) worth of water with them, reducing the weight and space taken by water storage through recycling and filtering as much water as possible is crucial. Closed-loop systems using nanotechnology allow wastewater to be cleaned and reused while keeping to a minimum the amount of drinking water carried on missions. Current high-speed filtration methods usually require electricity, and methods without electricity usually prove impractical or slow. Known for their superior strength and electrical conductivity, carbon nanotubes measure only a few nanometers in diameter; a nanometer is one billionth of a meter, or roughly one hundred-thousandth the width of a human hair. Nanotubes have improved water filtration by eliminating the need for chemical treatments, significant pressure, and heavy water tanks, which makes the new technology especially appealing for applications where small, efficient, lightweight materials are required, whether on Earth or in space. "NASA will need small volume, effective water purification systems for future long-duration space flight," said Johnson Space Center s Karen Pickering. NASA advances in water filtration with nanotechnology are now also protecting human health in the most remote areas of Earth.

Source record↗
DOE OSTI2020

Smart technologies enable homes to be efficient and interactive with the grid

Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers compare two different approaches to test how advanced, energy-efficient building technologies such as smart thermostats, heat pump water heaters, and advanced heat pump HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) can be optimized within a home and connected at a neighborhood-scale load to a community microgrid in the Alabama Power Smart Neighborhood located in Hoover. Working with Southern Company and Alabama Power, ORNL researchers are pioneering that future where smart homes and smart neighborhoods can benefit both homeowners and utilities, by reducing energy consumption by 44% and peak demand by 34%.This project is one of two neighborhoods in the U.S Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Connected Neighborhood project, supported by Building Technologies Office , where ORNL researchers leverages DOE investment in micro-grids and responsive, flexible building loads research to improve grid reliability – a goal of DOE’s Grid-interactive Efficient Buildings (GEB) Initiative. Researchers control the neighborhood and microgrid to enable utilities achieve their desired load and cost profiles while ensuring the comfort of homeowners in the Smart Neighborhood. This transactive control approach maximizes the utilization of technical resources of the microgrid and controllable loads, while reducing costs for both the homeowners and Alabama Power. These tests partially seek to determine a more precise range of tolerance with respect to occupant comfort as researchers work to facilitate customer acceptance and perception of new building technologies that enable energy savings.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
NASA NTRS2018

ISRU Technology Development for Extraction of Water from the Mars Surface

Goals: Develop technologies to extract water from planetary regolith considering production rate vs: energy/power consumption (efficiency, yield, heat recuperation options); Mass and sizing: modularity, batch sizes, soil feed options, etc.; Ruggedness in terms of soil, environmental, and operational parameters; seals and component wear, etc.; Removal of product and disposal of spent material. Summary: Technology development is underway for several ISRU water extraction hardware concepts for Mars application - Hydrated minerals (Auger dryer, Microwave, Open Air), Subsurface Ice (Rodwell); Models are developed with experimental and breadboard efforts for use in larger ISRU system models; Each effort consists of a 3 year development plan, with the goal of integrating into a larger subsystem test in 2020 - Concurrent technology advance allows for flexibility in system design; depending on architecture decisions and progress of associated subsystems.

In-Situ Resource Utilization↗
DOE OSTI2022

Demonstration and Evaluation of the Human-Technology Integration Function Allocation Methodology

There is an imminent need for the existing nuclear power plants to reduce their operating and maintenance (O&M) costs to remain economically viable. Digital technology, including automation, provides a significant opportunity for the existing nuclear power plant fleet to transform the way in which work is accomplished, reducing O&M costs, and allowing the fleet to remain economically competitive. One notable opportunity to significantly reduce O&M costs pertains to modifications to the plant equipment and main control room (MCR). Existing instrumentation and control (I&C) technologies in the MCR are highly analog, costly to operate and maintain, and demand a high cognitive and physical workload from plant staff (i.e., operators). Digitalizing the MCR has a range of broad economic benefits, including improved plant performance and reduced manual work. Further, digital I&C systems can fundamentally change the way in which plant staff operate the plant; this is the concept of operation. Human-technology integration is important to ensure that impacts to the concept of operation are done in a way that account for capabilities of people and technology. Human-technology integration employs human factors engineering (HFE) methods and principles to maximize the benefits of digital technology, reducing human error, improving overall decision-making and usability. The U.S. Department of Energy Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program is applying human-technology integration research to ensure digital technologies are safe, reliable, and efficient. This paper documents the demonstration of the human-technology guidance developed by the Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program from a first-of-a-kind digital I&C upgrade, specifically addressing function analysis and allocation for a new digital I&C system that included changes in automation levels. The program’s specific approach is included in this work, following lessons learned. This document serves as a resource for industry to follow in applying human-technology integration and HFE to digital modifications, specific to function analysis and allocation. The lessons learned should be considered in the planning and execution of HFE activities that support such digital modifications.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
NASA NTRS1977

Space power technology applied to the energy problem

A solution to the energy problem is suggested through the technology of photovoltaic electrolysis of water to generate hydrogen. Efficient solar devices are discussed in relation to available solar energy, and photovoltaic energy cost. It is concluded that photovoltaic electrolytic generation of hydrogen will be economically feasible in 1985.

Miller, J. L.↗