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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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The Energy Efficient Engine (E3) is a NASA program to develop fuel saving technology for future large transport aircraft engines. Testing of the General Electric E3 core showed that the core component performance and core system performance necessary to meet the program goals can be achieved. The E3 core design and test results are described.
The goal of the Energy Efficiency Field Study: Influence of Key Measures in Home Rule States project is to empower and support the states of Utah and Arizona in the successful implementation of their building energy codes. Employing the Department of Energy (DOE) Residential Building Energy Code Field Study Data Collection & Methodology, the research team evaluated real-world implementation status against a baseline, with a particular focus on the unique challenges presented by the dry, hot climates of Utah and Arizona.
Possible ways to improve the energy efficiency of hydroelectric generating sets of pumped-storage power plants (PSPPs) are studied. The Kiev PSPP is used as an example to show how its generating sets can be upgraded. It is concluded based on studies conducted that synchronous motor-generators should be replaced with asynchronized motor-generators. The feasibility of changing over the turbine to variable-speed operation is shown.
The Hill District neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania worked with the U.S. Department of Energy through the Communities LEAP (Local Energy Action Program) pilot to explore strategies that improve residential energy efficiency, support the transition to renewable energy, and identify potential funding streams for increased neighborhood investment. Communities LEAP is supporting clean energy transitions in 24 communities across the United States that are facing energy-related challenges.
Here we study firm responses to a large-scale energy efficiency program in China, focusing on the quality of reporting and compliance outcomes. Using statistical methods to detect data manipulation in compliance reports, we find evidence that firms deliberately exaggerated performance during the first phase of the program (2006-2010), suggesting the high compliance rate was overstated. In its second phase (2011-2015), the number of firms in the program expanded by an order of magnitude, and the compliance rate decreased. We develop a simple model to show how the observed increase in non-compliance is consistent with reduced misreporting. Statistical tests find no evidence of manipulation in the second phase. Larger firms, especially those not controlled by the state, and firms in cities with relatively low growth were more likely to report non-compliance, which suggests a role for state control and local protectionism in shaping compliance decisions. Based on our findings, we offer several lessons for future program design.
This report characterizes opportunities and pitfalls for leveraging key building lifecycle “events” as intervention points to enhance energy efficiency in real estate portfolios. It is based primarily on 33 interviews conducted with key industry stakeholders, including commercial real estate owners, operators, tenants, investors, developers, vendors, architecture/engineering firms, and construction managers. We focus on the following key events in the real estate life cycle because they are likely to present an opportunity for energy efficiency improvements: a) purchase or sale of a property; b) renovation; c) major equipment replacement; d) lease turnover or renewal; and e) refinancing. The stakeholder interviews covered business roles and processes, priorities, and sensitivities in these commercial real estate events.
This project will develop foundations for energy-efficient, high-data-rate, and reliable communication links for next-generation advanced wireless technologies. The Internet of Everything is emerging as a major technology that can establish a massively connected network among both human-type users and machine-type devices. Particularly, massive machine-type communication is becoming the dominant communication paradigm for numerous emerging areas, including data center networking and wireless backhaul, healthcare (e-health), manufacturing (industry 4.0), utilities, transportation (connected cars and public safety), and virtual or augmented reality for human-machine interaction applications. The rising demand for high data rates, especially in indoor scenarios and densely populated outdoor environments, will eventually overload conventional RF-based technologies. This project aims to conduct fundamental research to design, optimize, and validate a communication-aware, energy-efficient, and reliable network (CommAwareNet) architecture for future smart facilities and environments that require unprecedented high throughput needs for massive numbers of the machine- and human-type users. The scientific and technical merit of this work lies in the research required to bring the proposed transformative CommAwareNet solution into fully functional and practical architecture.
Membrane technology for CO 2 capture has become an attractive strategy due to its cost and energy efficiency and low materials costs. In the past decade, membrane-based process designs for post-combustion power plant CO 2 capture have been developed, utilizing existing highly CO 2 -permeable membranes with relatively low CO 2 /N 2 selectivity (<50), and have obtained reasonably economic carbon capture. However, few membrane-based process designs were proposed for moderate to highly CO 2 -selective membranes (CO 2 /N 2 selectivity of 50–300, and >300, respectively), which have vastly emerged in recent years, such as various facilitated transport membranes (FTMs). Herein, we proposed a two-stage membrane-base process design targeting economic carbon capture from coal-fired flue gas. This process design features the utilization of highly CO 2 -selective membranes for one-stage CO 2 enrichment to 95% dry-base purity in the first stage and recycle of the remaining CO 2 by a highly CO 2 -permeable membrane in the second stage, in order to achieve economic CO 2 capture with 90% capture rate and >95% CO 2 product purity. Through an integration-iteration membrane model and the Aspen Plus process simulation, a sensitivity study of operating pressures (feed and permeate pressures) and membrane properties (CO 2 permeance and CO 2 /N 2 selectivity) was conducted. Critical CO 2 /N 2 selectivity of 300–400 was found for the highly CO 2 -selctive membranes to meet the demand for cost and energy efficient results. The lowest possible membrane area of 4.8 × 10 5 m 2 and fractional energy of 19.3% were obtained, which is comparable to or even more attractive than reported membrane-based process designs. Here, this work provides a new membrane process design option for highly CO 2 -selective membranes and gives insights on the influence of membrane performance and operation condition.
The aerodynamic and mechanical design description of the low pressure compressor component of the Energy Efficient Engine were used. The component was designed to meet the requirements of the Flight Propulsion System while maintaining a low cost approach in providing a low pressure compressor design for the Integrated Core/Low Spool test required in the Energy Efficient Engine Program. The resulting low pressure compressor component design meets or exceeds all design goals with the exception of surge margin. In addition, the expense of hardware fabrication for the Integrated Core/Low Spool test has been minimized through the use of existing minor part hardware.
Communities across the United States experience extreme weather-related events that lead to disruptions in electric service. In 2017 alone, the nation experienced droughts, floods, freezes, hurricanes, and wildfires that cumulatively cost over $300 billion in damages and led to longer and more frequent disruptions in power. Without on-site backup power, these disruptions endanger public safety, security, and health. To better prepare for future disruptions, state and local governments are reducing the electric demand of their critical operations through energy efficiency, as well as making new investments in microgrids with distributed generation to ensure continuous electric supply during extended grid outages to power critical facilities. This resource describes how energy efficiency can be integrated planning for microgrids for resilience at critical public facilities, lowering the cost of a new system that can sustain operation during a grid outage. It includes real world examples as well as modeled scenarios to illustrate how efficiency can achieve energy and cost savings.
Static scale model tests were conducted to evaluate exhaust system mixers for a high bypass ratio engine as part of the NASA sponsored Energy Efficient program. Gross thrust coefficients were measured for a series of mixer configurations which included variations in the number of mixer lobes, tailpipe length, mixer penetration, and length. All of these parameters have a significant impact on exhaust system performance. In addition, flow visualization pictures and pressure/temperature traverses were obtained for selected configurations. Parametric performance trends are discussed and the results considered relative to the Energy Efficient Engine program goals.
The Hanford site, located in southeastern Washington, produced much of our nation's weapons-grade plutonium for the Defense nuclear weapons program. This production lasted the better part of four decades with production ending in 1987. Since 1987, the focus of the Hanford site has turned to clean-up activities. Mission Support Alliance (MSA) is the integrator of the multi-contractor effort to clean up the Hanford site. MSA collaborates with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and all Hanford site contractors in finding and implementing new, cost-saving, safe and practical solutions to cleanup challenges with a continual focus on innovative processes and technologies that reduce costs, energy use and bring safety improvements to the site. Support Services include environmental integration and land management; fleet and road maintenance; water/electric and utilities; cyber security and information management as well as the preservation of the site's cultural artifacts. This paper describes the process, challenges, and focus on infrastructure upgrade and energy efficiency projects in the context of a multi-contractor nuclear clean-up site. Project development and new technology deployment at Hanford has long been plagued with economic challenges. For example, despite extensive auditing, analysis, and project development, most of the energy-related projects on the Hanford site have gone unfunded due to the low cost of electricity, the relatively high cost of labor, and costs associated with detailed safety and cultural reviews. - The Hanford site is a direct-service customer of the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) and has a marginal electricity rate of $0.033/kWh. - Labor costs on the Hanford site track high because of the requirements associated with the safety and security necessary to operate a legacy nuclear weapons complex. - In partnership with three federally recognized and other affected Native American tribes (Yakama Nation, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Nez Perce Tribe, and Wanapum People), most activities on the Hanford site are afforded in-depth cultural reviews. To work within these constraints, the MSA Energy Management team has embarked on a three-pronged approach to energy project development: Program Visibility: The MSA Energy Management team has promoted both project opportunities and requirements across the Hanford site. This information comes in the form of site-wide newsletters, group meetings, e-mails, success stories, and recognition of staff. Single-point Analysis: To by-pass the inevitable duplications of effort, learning curve issues, and to improve project consistency/delivery, the MSA Energy Management team serves as the single resource to the site for energy project analysis. This resource includes initial assessment, engineering analysis, efficiency calculation and project recommendations. Contractor/utility Interface: In addition to the infrastructure under its own purview, MSA provides all support services for the contractor/utility interface. These activities include formulation and submission of incentive-based efficiency projects, project tracking, and incentive awards. All incentive awards are forwarded to the relevant contractor and then highlighted in the visibility campaign. Successful energy efficiency projects at Hanford have included high efficiency heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) systems, interior and exterior lighting/lighting control systems, pump and motor systems, and the right-sizing of transformers and area-wide electrical distribution systems. Prior to the initiation of this program and structure (roughly 3 years ago) the average annual energy efficiency incentive applied for and received was under $10,000, with an annual energy savings of approximately 36,000 kilowatt hours (kWh). In fiscal year 2017, the annual incentive received was over $419,000, with identified energy savings of over 1.3 million kWh. Details and case studies of the major project accomplishments are included. The success of this program can be traced to an understanding of the constraints, the development of a program to address these constraints, and good communication/coordination across DOE and the multiple contractors serving the Hanford site. (authors)
Small- and medium-sized manufacturers (SMMs) in the United States, making up over 98% of manufacturing firms, account for 48.3% of the sector’s energy consumption. Despite access to energy assessments and technical resources, such as those from the US Department of Energy’s Better Plants program and Industrial Training and Assessment Centers, implementation rates for identified energy-saving measures remain lower than expectations, averaging 47%. Some barriers were identified by other researchers as limited workforce capacity, inadequate training, and time constraints hinder progress. This article studied the development of customized checklists together with the energy assessment report as a practical solution to improve implementation rates for energy efficiency projects among SMMs. The framework for the checklists was grounded in five principles: short, precise, actionable, relevant, and codeveloped (SPARC). A case study of a 500,000-squarefoot SMM demonstrates how tailored checklists targeting significant energy users—such as heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC), lighting, and compressed air systems for this facility—can simplify the process for staff to do facility walkthroughs to monitor best practices and track the progress of energy efficiency project implementation.
The rotary kilns used by the pulp and paper industry to regenerate lime in the Kraft process are very energy intensive. Throughout the 90 s, in response to increasing fuel prices, the industry used back up insulation in conjunction with the high alumina brick used to line the burning zones of their kilns. While this improved energy efficiency, the practice of installing insulating brick behind the working lining increased the inner wall temperatures. In the worst case, due to the increased temperatures, rapid brick failures occurred causing unscheduled outages and expensive repairs. Despite these issues, for the most part, the industry continued to use insulating refractory linings in that the energy savings were large enough to offset any increase in the cost of maintaining the refractory lining. Due to the dramatic decline in the price of natural gas in some areas combined with mounting pressures to increasing production of existing assets, over the last decade, many mills are focusing more on increasing the uptime of their kilns as opposed to energy savings. To this end, a growing number of mills are using basic (magnesia based) brick instead of high alumina brick to line the burning zone of the kiln since the lime mud does not react with these bricks at the operating temperatures of the burning zone of the kiln. In the extreme case, a few mills have chosen to install basic brick in the front end of the kiln running a length equivalent to 10 diameters. While the use of basic brick can increase the uptime of the kiln and reduce the cost to maintain the refractory lining, it does dramatically increase the heat losses resulting from the increased operating temperatures of the shell. Also, over long periods of time operating at these high temperatures, damage can occur in the shell. There are tradeoffs between energy efficiency, capacity and uptime. When fuel prices are very high, it makes sense to insulate the lining. When fuel prices are lower, trading some thermal efficiency for increased uptime and capacity seems reasonable. This paper considers a number of refractory linings in an effort to develop optimized operating strategies that balance these factors. In addition to considering a range of refractory materials, the paper examines other factors such as the chain area, discharge dams and other operating variables that impact the service life of the refractory lining. The paper provides recommendations that will help mill personnel develop a strategy to select a refractory lining that is optimized for their specific situation.
The renovation of the Schneider Avenue Building to construct two research laboratories within the building is complete. The research laboratories are for the Purdue Calumet Water Institute and the Energy Efficiency and Reliability Center. The Water Institute occupies approximately 1000+ SF of research space plus supporting offices. The Energy-Efficiency Center occupies approximately 1000+ SF that houses the research space. The labs will enhance the Water & Energy Institute’s research capabilities necessary to tackle these issues through the development of practical approaches critical to local government and industry. The addition of these research laboratories to the Purdue University Calumet campus is in both direct support of the University’s Strategic Plan as well as the 2008 Campus Master Plan that identifies a 20% shortage of research space.
The slide deck is being prepared for healthcare sector stakeholders as a resource on the energy use of Medical Imaging Equipment (MIE) which will provide an overview of existing work, review existing literature on MIE energy use and identify energy efficiency opportunities.
Motor-driven systems accounts for approximately 60% of manufacturing final electricity use worldwide. Setting standards and designing policies to increase the energy efficiency of the electric motor stocks in a country is a complex process that requires substantial amount of data and analysis. One of the key data needed for this purpose is the purchase price of electric motors in local market conditions. This study was conducted to develop a bottom-up approach to estimate the purchase price of electric motors in different countries/regions for different sizes, number of poles, enclosures, and efficiency levels by adjusting a recent analysis from the U.S to local parameters. The methodology allows for estimates of manufacturer selling prices, along with other costs associated with the distribution channel to calculate purchase prices for different efficiency levels, in different economies. In this report, we provide preliminary results for selected countries/regions in order to illustrate the possible applications of our analysis. Despite the uncertainties due to specific market conditions, this approach can be used by analysts, industry experts, policy makers, and other interested parties to have a more systematic way to estimate the purchase price of electric motors at the country level and use such prices in cost-benefit analyses and cost-effectiveness of higher energy efficiency standards for electric motors.
The development of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell power plants with high energy efficiencies and high power densities is gaining momentum because of the vital need of such high levels of performance for extraterrestrial (space, underwater) and terrestrial (power source for electric vehicles) applications. Since 1987, considerable progress has been made in achieving energy efficiencies of about 60 percent at a current density of 200 mA/sq cm and high power densities (greater than 1 W/sq cm) in PEM fuel cells with high (4 mg/sq cm) or low (0.4 mg/sq cm) platinum loadings in electrodes. The following areas are discussed: (1) methods to obtain these high levels of performance with low Pt loading electrodes - by proton conductor impregnation into electrodes, localization of Pt near front surface; (2) a novel microelectrode technique which yields electrode kinetic parameters for oxygen reduction and mass transport parameters; (3) demonstration of lack of water transport from anode to cathode; (4) modeling analysis of PEM fuel cell for comparison with experimental results and predicting further improvements in performance; and (5) recommendations of needed research and development for achieving the above goals.