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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 577 records · Page 32
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2026

Green pretreatment strategies for enhanced microbial lipid fermentation and synergistic high-quality lignin recovery for next-generation integrated biorefineries

Miscanthus × giganteus (Mxg) is a warm-season perennial grass being commercialized as a biomass feedstock for temperate farms. Three process strategies were compared for converting Mxg into single-cell oil and extracted lignin intermediates, as hydrothermal (HT) processing and two natural deep eutectic solvents (NADES), ChCl:LA (choline chloride:lactic acid) and ChCl:Gly (choline chloride:glycerol). Pretreatments were performed at 10% and 50% solids loading at 140 °C, 2 h; HT: 190 °C, 10 min. Enzymatic hydrolysates, generated at 10% solids using washed and unwashed biomass, were evaluated for microbial lipid production. Maximum glucose conversions from washed biomass reached 83.5% (ChCl:LA), 52.7% (ChCl:Gly), and 74.0% (HT). Remarkably, NADES-derived hydrolysates effectively replaced refined sugars for the cultivation of the oleaginous yeast Rhodotorula toruloides, achieving ∼51% higher biomass (OD 90.7) and lipid titers of 19.36 g/L within 45 h using a two-stage fermentation strategy. Lipid contents ranged from 34.5–44.5% dry weight, demonstrating reduced reliance on purified sugars. Beyond carbohydrate valorization, ChCl:LA pretreatment enabled high-purity lignin recovery (>89%) in a lignin-first strategy. Structural analyses (2D-HSQC and ³¹P NMR) showed syringyl (78.15%), guaiacyl (15.15%), and p-hydroxyphenyl (6.41%) units, with higher phenolic hydroxyl content (0.91 mmol/g) and a lower S/G ratio (0.19) than HT lignin (0.87 mmol/g, S/G 0.22). These attributes favor downstream lignin depolymerization into low-molecular-weight aromatics. Overall, NADES pretreatment simultaneously enhances microbial lipid yields and recovers high-quality lignin, advancing the economic feasibility of renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production from bioenergy crops within an integrated biorefinery framework.

2D HSQC↗
DOE OSTI2023

Demonstrating non-isothermal vacuum membrane air dehumidification for efficient next-generation air conditioning

Vacuum membrane air dehumidification has gained significant interest in recent years as a highly efficient means of air dehumidification. Prior theoretical modeling work by the authors introduced the Active Membrane Energy Exchanger (AMX) concept, which combines active heat exchange and vacuum membrane dehumidification into one non-isothermal system, and found that it could outperform other air conditioning technologies under many conditions. However, no experimental literature exists on combining active heat exchangers and vacuum membrane dehumidification. Here, the goal of the present study is to evaluate the dehumidification (mass transfer) performance of the AMX concept relative to isothermal membrane dehumidification through three main methodologies: (1) membrane material-level characterization, (2) experimental prototype development and testing, and (3) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. The dense membranes used in this work showed up to a 40% increase in water vapor permeance at cooler temperatures, and the prototype system showed up to a 6% increase in humidity removal when the air was simultaneously cooled. Furthermore, the membrane module-integrated heat exchange tubes provided additional mixing and turbulence, leading to a 4–8% increase in humidity removal. The upper limit coefficient of performance was equal to approximately 2.2, necessitating advanced system designs to improve efficiency. This study is the first to highlight that combining the cooling and vacuum dehumidification processes can improve dehumidification performance.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗
DOE OSTI2025

Pool boiling heat transfer evaluation of next-generation dielectric fluid: Opteon™ 2P50

The growing use of artificial intelligence has led to heavy thermal loads and high heat dissipation rates in data centers. Conventional air-cooled technologies are not able to fulfill these requirements. To overcome these challenges, two-phase immersion cooling (2PIC) has emerged as one of the leading technologies for high power-density chips. 2PIC increases the heat dissipation rate and efficiency of the system while reducing the footprint of the cooling equipment. A fluid with adequate dielectric properties, a suitable normal boiling temperature to maintain chip temperatures, and good material compatibility, is desired for 2PIC system. In this study, the pool boiling heat transfer of a new developmental dielectric fluid, Opteon™ 2P50, was experimentally investigated. The heat transfer coefficients at various heat fluxes (20–150 kW/m 2 ) and the critical heat flux were measured using a smooth aluminum surface. Compared with HFE-7100, Opteon™ 2P50 shows higher heat transfer coefficient (up to 59% higher) and a slightly lower value of critical heat flux (around 5.9% lower). The modified Cooper correlation with the optimized leading constant resulted in reliable prediction accuracy with a 5.3% mean absolute error percentage. Overall, these results indicate that the new dielectric fluid provides similar thermal performance to some legacy fluids.

2P50↗
DOE OSTI2020

Next-generation anion exchange membrane water electrolyzers operating for commercially relevant lifetimes

Alkaline anion exchange membrane (AEM) water electrolysis has gained increasing attention due to its potential to achieve low-cost, high performance hydrogen production. However, most existing membranes are not durable in industrial settings. In this work, we demonstrate good performance relative to industrial parameters using Sustainion® anion exchange membranes. Long-duration tests showed stable performance of 1 A/cm 2 at 1.85 V with a degradation rate of less than 1 μV/h over 10,000 h. The projected lifetime is thus over 20 years. Daily on/off cycling performance over the course of 30 years was simulated experimentally through accelerated voltage shock tests, resulting in a performance loss of only 0.15 μV/cycle over 11,000 cycles. As shown through impact and crossover testing, an improvement in performance is achieved by the addition of zirconia to the polymer matrix and mechanically reinforcing the membrane.

08 HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2020

Functionalized separator for next-generation batteries

Advancements in battery technology have dramatically increased demand for improvements in separator design, as the separator plays a critical role in ensuring the safety and electrochemical performance of the cells. Current separators, either in commercial usage or under investigation, have yet to meet the high stability and lifespan performance standards necessary to prevent deterioration in the efficiency and reliability of the battery technologies. Recently, considerable effort has been devoted to developing functionalized separators, ranging from designing a variety of new materials and modification methods, and increasingly, to optimizing advanced preparation processes. In order to understand how the mechanisms of separator performance are affected by different properties, we will first summarize recent research progress and then have in-depth discussions regarding the separator's significant contribution to enhancing the safety and performance of the cell. Additionally, we then provide our design strategy for future separators, which not only meets the requirements of different type of batteries, but also aims for multifunctionality. We hope such a perspective could provide new inspiration in the development of separator research for future battery technologies.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Battery anode design: From 1D nanostructure to 3D nanoarchitecture – Enabling next-generation energy storage technology

Recently, many studies have reported the efficacy of 1D silicon nanostructures as anode materials (mostly nanowires) due to their large surface to volume ratio which could be an advantage in terms of charging kinetics. Anode design is a crucial factor for the further development of lithium-ion battery (LIB) technology, especially in terms of achieving the high charging rate performance, as typically needed in electric vehicles (EV). 3D nanostructures have been identified as the key to dramatically enhanced charging rate of LIB, in addition to the change of materials (from carbon-based anode to silicon-based). However, existing fabrication methodologies for 3D nanostructures are inherently expensive – using advanced lithography techniques or other nanopatterning methodologies, as well as using additive manufacturing approaches. Electrospinning (as an integrated additive manufacturing methodology) may be used to produce low-cost 3D-printed fiber structures. Here, in the present study, we demonstrate the groundwork in this field of research in the past 3–4 years, which would allow the extension of this special additive manufacturing approach to reach nanoscale 3D-printed fiber structures more economically and with scalability for manufacturing. This would pave the way to achieve the order of magnitude increase in battery charging rate as needed to realize the vision of the electrification of mobility/transportation.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Development of diamond-based diagnostics for next-generation XFELs

The composition and performance of three different diamond sensor based pass-through diagnostics are presented. A position-sensitive quadrant sensor was designed and characterized using the XPP beam at the SLAC LCLS, demonstrating a generated-charge resolution of 0.025 pC and a position sensitivity of 2 μm, measurable pulse-by-pulse at a repetition rate of up to 50 MHz. A compact signal path capable of repetition rates up to 1 GHz was used to characterize the charge collection properties of diamond sensors as a function of the density of electron-hole pairs created within the sensor, finding a limit of approximately 10 16 electron-hole pairs per cm 3 beyond which the collection efficiency and time began to degrade. Finally, a proposed scheme for measuring ionizing radiation at multi-GHz rates is presented, along with results preliminarily demonstrating signal transport capability in excess of 5 GHz.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2025

Towards next-generation optical potentials for nuclear reactions and structure calculations

Optical-model potentials (OMPs) are critical ingredients for basic and applied nuclear physics. Present-day computational capabilities allow us to generate data-driven nucleon-nucleus OMPs that are non-local and exactly dispersive (as theoretically required to be), include statistically-sound uncertainty quantification, and are trained on both scattering and bound-state data from a wide area of the nuclear chart. Combined together, these features allow for significant improvement in fidelity and extrapolative power of the model. Here, we present preliminary work toward the development and training of such an OMP. The capability of the model to describe data at this first stage is encouraging.

Perrotta, Salvatore Simone [Lawrence Livermore Nat↗