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At least 541 records · Page 30
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2026

Existing Hydropower Assets (EHA) Puerto Rico Plant Database Extension

This dataset is an extension and subset of the Existing Hydropower Assets (EHA) Plant Database, 2025, released by Oak Ridge National Laboratory through HydroSource covering hydropower plants in Puerto Rico. The extension enhanced EHA to support modeling performed under the Department of Energy Hydropower Office's SECURE Water Act Section 9505 Fourth Assessment (9505). Included is a spatial dataset containing the location of the powerhouse and plant characteristics and a spatial dataset containing the location of the point-of-diversion and plant characteristics. Enhancements made in this dataset from EHA include updating plant’s spatial locations to explicitly represent the location of the powerhouse; identifying a plant’s point-of-diversion (source of water) spatial location; adding additional plants not included in the 2025 EHA, and revising attributes with updated information.

Broman, Daniel P [Pacific Northwest National Labor↗
DOE OSTI2026

Existing Hydropower Assets (EHA) Alaska Plant Database Extension

This dataset is an extension and subset of the Existing Hydropower Assets (EHA) Plant Database, 2025, released by Oak Ridge National Laboratory through HydroSource covering hydropower plants in Alaska. The extension enhanced EHA to support modeling performed under the Department of Energy Hydropower Office's SECURE Water Act Section 9505 Fourth Assessment (9505). Included is a spatial dataset containing the location of the powerhouse and plant characteristics and a spatial dataset containing the location of the point-of-diversion and plant characteristics. Enhancements made in this dataset from EHA include updating plant’s spatial locations to explicitly represent the location of the powerhouse; identifying a plant’s point-of-diversion (source of water) spatial location; adding State of Alaska Plant ID, Intertie Region, and Alaska Energy Region as attributes, and revising the County, Pt_Own, OwType, and Dam_Own attributes with updated information.

Broman, Daniel P [Pacific Northwest National Labor↗
DOE OSTI2023

Advanced monitoring of soil-vegetation co-dynamics reveals the successive controls of snowmelt on soil moisture and on plant seasonal dynamics in a mountainous watershed

Evaluating the interactions between above- and below-ground processes is important to understand and quantify how ecosystems respond differently to atmospheric forcings and/or perturbations and how this depends on their intrinsic characteristics and heterogeneity. Improving such understanding is particularly needed in snow-impacted mountainous systems where the complexity in water and carbon storage and release arises from strong heterogeneity in meteorological forcing and terrain, vegetation and soil characteristics. This study investigates spatial and temporal interactions between terrain, soil moisture, and plant seasonal dynamics at the intra- and inter-annual scale along a 160 m long mountainous, non-forested hillslope-to-floodplain system in the upper East River Watershed in the upper Colorado River Basin. To this end, repeated UAV-based multi-spectral aerial imaging, ground-based soil electrical resistivity imaging, and soil moisture sensors were used to quantify the interactions between above and below-ground compartments. Results reveal significant soil-plant co-dynamics. The spatial variation and dynamics of soil water content and electrical conductivity, driven by topographic and soil intrinsic characteristics, correspond to distinct plant types, with highest plant productivity in convergent areas. Plant productivity in heavy snow years benefited from more water infiltration as well as a shallow groundwater table depth. In comparison, low snowpack years with an early first bare-ground date, which are linked to an early increase in plant greenness, imply a short period of saturated conditions that leads to lower average and maximum greenness values during the growing season. Overall, these results emphasize the strong impact of snowpack dynamics, and terrain and subsurface characteristics on the heterogeneity in plant type and seasonal dynamics.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Impact of intense sanitization procedures on bacterial communities recovered from floor drains in pork processing plants

Pork processing plants in the United States (US) cease operations for 24–48 h every six or twelve months to perform intense sanitization (IS) using fogging, foaming, and further antimicrobial treatments to disrupt natural biofilms that may harbor pathogens and spoilage organisms. The impact such treatments have on short-term changes in environmental microorganisms is not well understood, nor is the rate at which bacterial communities return. Swab samples were collected from floor drains to provide representative environmental microorganisms at two US pork processing plants before, during, and after an IS procedure. Samples were collected from four coolers where finished carcasses were chilled and from four locations near cutting tables. Each sample was characterized by total mesophile count (TMC), total psychrophile count (TPC), and other indicator bacteria; their biofilm-forming ability, tolerance of the formed biofilm to a quaternary ammonium compound (300 ppm, QAC), and ability to protect co-inoculated Salmonella enterica. In addition, bacterial community composition was determined using shotgun metagenomic sequencing. IS procedures disrupted bacteria present but to different extents depending on the plant and the area of the plant. IS reduced TPC and TMC, by up to 1.5 Log 10 CFU only to return to pre-IS levels within 2–3 days. The impact of IS on microorganisms in coolers was varied, with reductions of 2–4 Log 10 , and required 2 to 4 weeks to return to pre-IS levels. The results near fabrication lines were mixed, with little to no significant changes at one plant, while at the other, two processing lines showed 4 to 6 Log 10 reductions. Resistance to QAC and the protection of Salmonella by the biofilms varied between plants and between areas of the plants as well. Community profiling of bacteria at the genus level showed that IS reduced species diversity and the disruption led to new community compositions that in some cases did not return to the pre-IS state even after 15 to 16 weeks. The results found here reveal the impact of using IS to disrupt the presence of pathogen or spoilage microorganisms in US pork processing facilities may not have the intended effect.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

The Neighboring Subunit Is Engaged to Stabilize the Substrate in the Active Site of Plant Arginases

Arginine acts as a precursor of polyamines in plants in two known pathways, agmatine and ornithine routes. It is decarboxylated to agmatine by arginine decarboxylase, and then transformed to putrescine by the consecutive action of agmatine iminohydrolase and N-carbamoylputrescine amidohydrolase. Alternatively, it can be hydrolyzed to ornithine by arginase and then decarboxylated by ornithine decarboxylase to putrescine. Some plants lack a functional ornithine pathway, but all have one or two arginases that can have dual cellular localization, in mitochondria and plastids. It was recently shown that arginases from Arabidopsis thaliana and soybean act also as agmatinases, thus they can produce putrescine directly from agmatine. Therefore, arginase (together with arginine decarboxylase) can complement putrescine production in plastids, providing a third polyamine biosynthesis pathway in plants. Phylogenetic analysis suggests that arginases, highly conserved in the plant kingdom, create the only group of enzymes recognized in the family of ureohydrolases in plants. Arginases are metalloenzymes with binuclear manganese cluster in the active site. In this work, two arginases from A. thaliana and Medicago truncatula are structurally characterized and their binding properties are discussed. Crystal structures with bound ornithine show that plant hexameric arginases engage a long loop from the neighboring subunit to stabilize α-amino and carboxyl groups of the ligand. This unique ligand binding mode is unobserved in arginases from other domains of life. Structural analysis shows that substrate binding by residues from two neighboring subunits might also characterize some prokaryotic agmatinases. This feature of plant arginases is most likely the determinant of their ability to recognize not only arginine but also agmatine as their substrates, thus, to act as arginase and agmatinase.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Foliar Application of an Inositol-Based Plant Biostimulant Boosts Zinc Accumulation in Wheat Grains: A μ-X-Ray Fluorescence Case Study

There has been much interest in the incorporation of organic molecules or biostimulants into foliar fertilizers with the rationalization that these compounds will enhance the uptake, or subsequent mobility of the applied nutrient. The objective of this research was to investigate the effects of an inositol-based plant stimulant on the mobility and accumulation of foliar-applied zinc (Zn) in wheat plants ( Triticum aestivum L.). High-resolution elemental imaging with micro-X-ray fluorescence (μ-XRF) was utilized to examine Zn distribution within the vascular bundle of the leaf and whole grains. The inclusion of myo -inositol with Zinc sulfate, significantly increased Zn concentration in shoots in contrast to untreated controls and Zn sulfate applied alone. Foliar Zn treated plants increased Zn in grains by 5–25% with myo -inositol plus Zn treated plants significantly increasing grain Zn concentration compared to both Zn treated and non-treated controls. XRF imaging revealed Zn enrichment in the bran layer and germ, with a very low Zn concentration present in the endosperm. Plants treated with Zn plus myo -inositol showed an enhanced and uniform distribution of Zn throughout the bran layer and germ with an increased concentration in the endosperm. While our data suggest that foliar application of myo -inositol in combination with Zn may be a promising strategy to increase the absorption and mobility of Zn in the plant tissue and subsequently to enhance Zn accumulation in grains, further research is needed to clarify the mechanisms by which myo -inositol affects plant metabolism and nutrient mobility.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Enhancing the Phytoremediation of Heavy Metals by Combining Hyperaccumulator and Heavy Metal-Resistant Plant Growth-Promoting Bacteria

Heavy metals (HMs) have become a major environmental pollutant threatening ecosystems and human health. Although hyperaccumulators provide a viable alternative for the bioremediation of HMs, the potential of phytoremediation is often limited by the small biomass and slow growth rate of hyperaccumulators and HM toxicity to plants. Here, plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB)-assisted phytoremediation was used to enhance the phytoremediation of HM-contaminated soils. A PGPB with HM-tolerant (HMT-PGPB), Bacillus sp. PGP15 was isolated from the rhizosphere of a cadmium (Cd) hyperaccumulator, Solanum nigrum . Pot experiments demonstrated that inoculation with strain PGP15 could significantly increase the growth of S. nigrum . More importantly, strain PGP15 markedly improved Cd accumulation in S. nigrum while alleviating Cd-induced stress in S. nigrum . Specifically, PGP15 inoculation significantly decreased the contents of H 2 O 2 , MDA, and O 2 · − in S. nigrum , while the activities (per gram plant fresh weight) of SOD, APX, and CAT were significantly increased in the PGP15-inoculated plants compared with the control sample. These results suggested that the interactions between strain PGP15 and S. nigrum could overcome the limits of phytoremediation alone and highlighted the promising application potential of the PGPB-hyperaccumulator collaborative pattern in the bioremediation of HM-contaminated soils. Furthermore, the PGP15 genome was sequenced and compared with other strains to explore the mechanisms underlying plant growth promotion by HMT-PGPB. The results showed that core genes that define the fundamental metabolic capabilities of strain PGP15 might not be necessary for plant growth promotion. Meanwhile, PGP15-specific genes, including many transposable elements, played a crucial role in the adaptive evolution of HM resistance. Overall, our results improve the understanding of interactions between HMT-PGPB and plants and facilitate the application of HMT-PGPB in the phytoremediation of HM-contaminated soils.

Zhang, Yong↗
DOE OSTI2022

One-Step Regeneration of Hairy Roots to Induce High Tanshinone Plants in Salvia miltiorrhiza

Salvia miltiorrhiza is a traditional Chinese medicinal plant of Labiatae, which has been widely utilized to treat a variety of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. However, due to the long growth cycle, low content of active ingredients, and serious quality deterioration of S. miltiorrhiza , the use of biotechnology to improve S. miltiorrhiza to meet the growing demand for clinical applications has become a research hotspot. In this study, a novel one-step hairy root regeneration method was developed, which could rapidly obtain hairy roots and regenerated plants with high tanshinone content. By optimizing the parameters of Agrobacterium rhizogenes transformation in S. miltiorrhiza , it was finally established that the explants were infected in Ar.qual (OD 600 = 0.6) for 10 min, co-cultured for 3 days, and then screened on the screening medium containing 7.5 mg/l hygromycin, the maximum transformation frequency can reach 73.85%. GFP and PCR detection yielded a total of 9 positive transgenic hairy root lines and 11 positive transgenic regenerated plants. SmGGPPS1 was successfully overexpressed in positive transgenic regenerated plants, according to the results of qRT-PCR. The content of tanshinone IIA and cryptotanshinone were dramatically enhanced in transgenic regenerated plants and hairy roots by Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography analysis. Based on the Agrobacterium-mediated transformation of S. miltiorrhiza , this study developed a new method for regenerating plants with transgenic hairy roots. This method provides a foundation for the breeding of S. miltiorrhiza and the sustainable development of medicinal plant resources, as well as provides a useful reference for the application of other species.

Su, Yuekai↗
DOE OSTI2022

Cytochrome b 5 : A versatile electron carrier and regulator for plant metabolism

Cytochrome b 5 (CB5) is a small heme-binding protein, known as an electron donor delivering reducing power to the terminal enzymes involved in oxidative reactions. In plants, the CB5 protein family is substantially expanded both in its isoform numbers and cellular functions, compared to its yeast and mammalian counterparts. As an electron carrier, plant CB5 proteins function not only in fatty acid desaturation, hydroxylation and elongation, but also in the formation of specialized metabolites such as flavonoids, phenolic esters, and heteropolymer lignin. Furthermore, plant CB5s are found to interact with different non-catalytic proteins such as ethylene signaling regulator, cell death inhibitor, and sugar transporters, implicating their versatile regulatory roles in coordinating different metabolic and cellular processes, presumably in respect to the cellular redox status and/or carbon availability. Compared to the plentiful studies on biochemistry and cellular functions of mammalian CB5 proteins, the cellular and metabolic roles of plant CB5 proteins have received far less attention. This article summarizes the fragmentary information pertaining to the discovery of plant CB5 proteins, and discusses the conventional and peculiar functions that plant CB5s might play in different metabolic and cellular processes. Gaining comprehensive insight into the biological functions of CB5 proteins could offer effective biotechnological solutions to tailor plant chemodiversity and cellular responses to environment stimuli.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Advances in Genes-Encoding Transporters for Cadmium Uptake, Translocation, and Accumulation in Plants

Cadmium (Cd) is a heavy metal that is highly toxic for plants, animals, and human beings. A better understanding of the mechanisms involved in Cd accumulation in plants is beneficial for developing strategies for either the remediation of Cd-polluted soils using hyperaccumulator plants or preventing excess Cd accumulation in the edible parts of crops and vegetables. As a ubiquitous heavy metal, the transport of Cd in plant cells is suggested to be mediated by transporters for essential elements such as Ca, Zn, K, and Mn. Identification of the genes encoding Cd transporters is important for understanding the mechanisms underlying Cd uptake, translocation, and accumulation in either crop or hyperaccumulator plants. Recent studies have shown that the transporters that mediate the uptake, transport, and accumulation of Cd in plants mainly include members of the natural resistance-associated macrophage protein (Nramp), heavy metal-transporting ATPase (HMA), zinc and iron regulated transporter protein (ZIP), ATP-binding cassette (ABC), and yellow stripe-like (YSL) families. Here, we review the latest advances in the research of these Cd transporters and lay the foundation for a systematic understanding underlying the molecular mechanisms of Cd uptake, transport, and accumulation in plants.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Biological Parts for Plant Biodesign to Enhance Land-Based Carbon Dioxide Removal

A grand challenge facing society is climate change caused mainly by rising CO 2 concentration in Earth’s atmosphere. Terrestrial plants are linchpins in global carbon cycling, with a unique capability of capturing CO 2 via photosynthesis and translocating captured carbon to stems, roots, and soils for long-term storage. However, many researchers postulate that existing land plants cannot meet the ambitious requirement for CO 2 removal to mitigate climate change in the future due to low photosynthetic efficiency, limited carbon allocation for long-term storage, and low suitability for the bioeconomy. To address these limitations, there is an urgent need for genetic improvement of existing plants or construction of novel plant systems through biosystems design (or biodesign). Here, we summarize validated biological parts (e.g., protein-encoding genes and noncoding RNAs) for biological engineering of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) traits in terrestrial plants to accelerate land-based decarbonization in bioenergy plantations and agricultural settings and promote a vibrant bioeconomy. Specifically, we first summarize the framework of plant-based CDR (e.g., CO 2 capture, translocation, storage, and conversion to value-added products). Then, we highlight some representative biological parts, with experimental evidence, in this framework. Finally, we discuss challenges and strategies for the identification and curation of biological parts for CDR engineering in plants.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Quantifying wind plant blockage under stable atmospheric conditions

Wind plant blockage reduces the wind velocity upstream undermining turbine performance for the first row of the plant. We assess how atmospheric stability modifies the induction zone of a wind plant in flat terrain. We also explore different approaches to quantifying the magnitude and extent of the induction zone from field-like observations. To investigate the influence from atmospheric stability, we compare simulations of two stable boundary layers using the Weather Research and Forecasting model in large-eddy simulation mode, representing wind turbines using the generalized actuator disk approach. We find a faster cooling rate at the surface, which produces a stronger stably stratified boundary layer, amplifies the induction zone of both an isolated turbine and of a large wind plant. A statistical analysis on the hub-height wind speed field shows wind slowdowns only extend far upstream (up to 15D) of a wind plant in strong stable boundary layers. To evaluate different ways of measuring wind plant blockage from field-like observations, we consider various ways of estimating the freestream velocity upstream of the plant. Sampling a large area upstream is the most accurate approach to estimating the freestream conditions, and thus of measuring the blockage effect. Also, the choice of sampling method may induce errors of the same order as the velocity deficit in the induction zone.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Enabling control co-design of the next generation of wind power plants

Abstract. Layout design and wake steering through wind plant control are important and complex components in the design and operation of modern wind power plants. They are currently optimized separately, but with more and more computational and experimental studies demonstrating the gains possible through wake steering, there is a growing need from industry and regulating bodies to combine the layout and control optimization in a co-design process. However, combining these two optimization problems is currently infeasible due to the excessive number of design variables and large solution space. In this article, we present a method that enables the coupled optimization of wind power plant layout and wake steering with no additional computational expense than a traditional layout optimization. We developed a geometric relationship between wind turbines to find an approximate optimal yaw angle, bypassing the need for either a nested or coupled wind plant control optimization. It also provides a significant and immediate improvement to wind power plant design by enabling the co-design of turbine layout and yaw control for wake steering. A small co-designed plant shown in this article produces 0.8 % more energy than its sequentially designed counterpart. This additional energy production comes with no additional infrastructure, turbine hardware, or control software; it is simply the outcome of optimizing the turbine layout and yaw control together, resulting in millions of dollars of additional revenue for the wind power plants of the future.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
NASA NTRS1980

Plants and weightlessness

The growth of two plants, wall cress and short-day red goosefoot, was traced for their entire lifetime in weightlessness. In the beginning both plants grew normally: the seeds sprouted in the normal periods, and the shoots did not differ in any way from the control plants. It is true that certain roots lost their normal orientation and did not go deeper into the nutrient medium, but rather crept over its surface. But then both the wall cress and the goosefoot slowed down their normal rate of growth, which became noticeable from the rate of formation of new leaves in the wall cress and stem development in the goosefoot. Although no disorders were successfully found in the morphology of the two plants, almost half of the experimental cress and goosefoot plants ceased growth completely, yellowed and died. The other part continued to develop normally and by the end of vegetation, differed from the control plants only in a lower height. Not all were fertile since certain experimental plants, after losing spatial orientation, became twisted and produced sterile flowers.

Karminskiy, V.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Evaluation of solar thermal power plants using economic and performance simulations

An energy cost analysis is presented for central receiver power plants with thermal storage and point focusing power plants with electrical storage. The present approach is based on optimizing the size of the plant to give the minimum energy cost (in mills/kWe hr) of an annual plant energy production. The optimization is done by considering the trade-off between the collector field size and the storage capacity for a given engine size. The energy cost is determined by the plant cost and performance. The performance is estimated by simulating the behavior of the plant under typical weather conditions. Plant capital and operational costs are estimated based on the size and performance of different components. This methodology is translated into computer programs for automatic and consistent evaluation.

El-Gabawali, N.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Comparative analysis of the conceptual design studies of potential early commercial MHD power plants (CSPEC)

A conceptual design study of the MHD/steam plant that incorporates the use of oxygen enriched air preheated in a metallic heat exchanger as the combustor oxidant showed that this plant is the most attractive for early commercial applications. The variation of performance and cost was investigated as a function of plant size. The contractors' results for the overall efficiencies are in reasonable agreement considering the slight differences in their plant designs. NASA LeRC is reviewing cost and performance results for consistency with those of previous studies, including studies of conventional steam plants. LeRC in house efforts show that there are still many tradeoffs to be considered for these oxygen enriched plants and considerable variations can be made in channel length and level of oxygen enrichment with little change in overall plant efficiency.

Sovie, R. J.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Advanced coal gasifier-fuel cell power plant systems design

Two advanced, high efficiency coal-fired power plants were designed, one utilizing a phosphoric acid fuel cell and one utilizing a molten carbonate fuel cell. Both incorporate a TRW Catalytic Hydrogen Process gasifier and regenerator. Both plants operate without an oxygen plant and without requiring water feed; they, instead, require makeup dolomite. Neither plant requires a shift converter; neither plant has heat exchangers operating above 1250 F. Both plants have attractive efficiencies and costs. While the molten carbonate version has a higher (52%) efficiency than the phosphoric acid version (48%), it also has a higher ($0.078/kWh versus $0.072/kWh) ten-year levelized cost of electricity. The phosphoric acid fuel cell power plant is probably feasible to build in the near term: questions about the TRW process need to be answered experimentally, such as weather it can operate on caking coals, and how effective the catalyzed carbon-dioxide acceptor will be at pilot scale, both in removing carbon dioxide and in removing sulfur from the gasifier.

Heller, M. E.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Resistance of mature Arabidopsis plants to mechanical deformation in relation to g-force during development

Arabidopsis plants were grown in centrifuge tubes under well standardized culture conditions. Each plant was subjected to centrifugation (roots out) for 10 min at one of a series of centripetal forces between 7 and 390g. No deformation was observed in plants centrifuged at less than 35g. An 'average' degree of deformation was attained at about 60g. All plants exposed to more than 95g were maximally deformed but none was broken nor otherwise damaged irreversibly even at 390g. In every case new shoot growth continued normally after the centrifugation. A plant population grown on horizontal clinostats (0.5 rpm) under culture conditions exactly the same as for the upright plants responded to centrifugation stress in a way that was not substantially different from the response pattern of the plants cultured upright at 1g.

Brown, A. H.↗