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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 649 records · Page 36
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

Advanced Downhole Acoustic Sensing for Wellbore Integrity (Final Report)

Borehole cement is used across the range of energy technologies to stabilize casing, to serve as a barrier to behind-casing fluid movement. Cement debonding and other flaws, both at cement interfaces and within the cement itself, can create leakage pathways that can threaten safety to personnel, and wellbore performance, with economic and regulatory consequences. A primary method to assess cement health and wellbore integrity is via acoustic methods. This project was designed with three aims: demonstrate a significant improvement in the interpretation of cement acoustic behavior, both during curing, and in interpreting effects of flaws and evolving interfaces; develop sensor technologies to improve signal-noise ratios and cement acoustic responses; and lastly, provide a borehole demonstration of at least one of these technologies. We have accomplished the first two objectives, and the third, delayed by pandemic health concerns, is proceeding as of this writing via a technology partner with the University of Texas Advanced Energy Consortium.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Project Liberty: Launch of an Integrated Bio-Refinery with Eco-Sustainable and Renewable Technologies. Conversion of Corn Stover Biomass to Bio-Ethanol, Final Report

POET-DSM Advanced Biofuels, in collaboration with parent companies, POET and DSM, has successfully designed, constructed, and continuously operated Project Liberty, a 770 bone-dry ton per day (tpd) nameplate capacity, 20 million gallon (cellulosic bioethanol) per year demonstration scale integrated biorefinery (IBR). The IBR produced cellulosic bio-ethanol from agriculture waste (corn stover) feedstock using next-generation pretreatment and enzymatic conversion technologies. The IBR plant was built and demonstrated operations in Emmetsburg, Iowa. The schedule for this IBR project is illustrated in Figure E1. Due to uncontrollable market factors and COVID-19 pandemic, cellulosic bioethanol production ceased near the end of 2019 and remaining operations were idled June of 2020.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Bay Area Regional Energy: Network Integrated Commercial Retrofits (BRICR) Project. Final Report

The BRICR project applied large-scale building energy modeling concepts with the aim of reducing the cost of energy efficiency targeting, design, and project development, and measurement of energy savings for energy efficiency programs implemented by local governments that serve small and medium commercial buildings (SMB). The project leveraged the services and resources of existing local government energy programs serving disadvantaged and hard-to-reach SMB customers. In contrast to programs run by utilities, local government programs generally do not have direct access to energy billing records for an entire class of customers in a geographic area, which prior research demonstrated useful for large-scale building energy model baseline development and calibration. , However, local governments are rich in public records that offer important clues about physical attributes and uses that, along with behavior, determine energy use. Relying only on public records, BRICR demonstrated development of credible baseline energy models for 3,792 office, retail, and hotel buildings. Publicly disclosed annual energy use data from a local energy benchmarking program and anonymized data from the Building Performance Database, the nation’s largest dataset about energy-related characteristics of buildings, were utilized to validate and calibrate energy models via an innovative method comparing distributions of energy intensity by fuel type for portfolios of buildings of similar size, vintage, and use. Portfolio calibration does not provide certainty that an energy model fits an individual building; the method is useful when billing data is not accessible – a common situation for researchers, energy service providers and ESCOs, local governments, and any party other than a utility. A software component was developed, the BRICR gem, which automates simulation when relevant data is added or edited by the user to a file saved in the standardized BuildingSync XML schema for energy audit data. The component was demonstrated as a simplified means to generate a mass of energy models corresponding to public records containing basic attributes such as building scale, location, use, year built, and aspect ratio in combination with building energy code prototype data corresponding to use and vintage. The component was also demonstrated as a simplified means to automate energy simulation when attributes are revised; the intention was to enable iterative improvement of the baseline model and energy savings estimates for common energy conservation measures as users revise relevant attributes based on their observations. In the context of institutional change and uncertainty for the participating local government energy programs, 13 whole building retrofits were completed. Impacts were measured by applying the CalTRACK2.0 methods to standardize measurement of normalized metered energy consumption. The GRIDMeter methods of stratified sampling and individual load shape analysis were applied to adjust for impacts of the effect of COVID-19 on retrofitted buildings in the context of all local buildings of similar size and use. Excluding impacts of the pandemic, retrofitted buildings demonstrated between 1.6% and 25.1% reduction in energy use. The project contributed use cases and feedback that helped inform evolution of the software tools and data formats that were combined for the first time in the BRICR project.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2023

ZrO 2 /MWCNT as a Support Platform for Acid and Metal Catalysis in Water: The Investigation of Pd-WO x -ZrO 2 /MWCNT Catalysts (Final Technical Report)

This final technical report covers the final renewal period, 08/01/2019 to 07/31/2020, and the no cost extension 08/01/2020 to 07/31/2021, that was required because of the pandemic interruption. The proposed research was in the area of sustainable recovery of fuels and/or chemicals from biomass; it was by design intended to address fundamental science of the catalysts and that required using a model reaction. The model reaction molecule was phenol because it is a reasonably simply molecule that can be derived from lignin, and requires both hydrogenation and dehydration catalytic reactions that can be performed in water. The needed bifunctional catalyst can be provided by a metal for hydrogenation and by an acid (preferably Brønsted acid) for the dehydration function. Therefore, phenol conversion to an alkane in liquid water at a practical temperature, e.g., 200°C, that will not require extreme pressures, captures many of the complications of biomass derived fuels so it may reveal fundamental science that is relevant to development and implementation of biomass refining.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Time-Sensitive Quantum Key Distribution (TSQKD)

This is the final report for the Time-Sensitive Quantum Key Distribution (TSQKD) project and summarizes the demonstration and longer-term field testing at an electric utility, EPB of Chattanooga, in Chattanooga, TN. The demonstration was held virtually (due to the COVID pandemic) and successfully executed the tests outlined in a prior report, “Task 10: Develop a QKD Time-Sensitive Networking Test Suite” submitted 9/30/2020. The portable test equipment explained in Task 10 and earlier task reports was tested at GE Research remotely connected with Qubitekk’s QKD equipment in San Diego, CA. Then the equipment was shipped to Qubitekk for physical integration with Qubitekk’s Quantum DataLoc™ Key Server 1570nm (http://qubitekk.com/products/qkd-for-industrial-control-systems-ics/). The portable test equipment was shipped from Qubitekk to EPB for demonstration and extended field testing. A summary of the demonstration and test results are described in this report. The demo and extended field test results are enabled by the NETCONF/YANG IEEE P1913 data management model developed as part of this project (Task 5). The NETCONF/YANG IEEE P1913 data management model demonstrated significant practical utility in providing a common means of monitoring and configuring the QKD system. All data in this report comes from the IEEE P1913 data management model.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2022

Microelectronics at the Department of Energy: Capabilities and Opportunities for Driving U.S. Competitiveness

Microelectronics are everywhere—embedded in our consumer products; underlying our power, transportation, and information infrastructure; and fortifying our national security. These and other microelectronics applications are also intricately linked with America’s energy and decarbonization goals. For instance, advanced power electronics are critical to our transition to renewable power and electric transport, and more energy-efficient computing and consumer devices are needed as energy consumption grows rapidly. Meanwhile, global supply chain disruptions beginning in 2020 and the ensuing chip shortage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic highlight the vulnerability of microelectronics supply chains. The globally distributed manufacturing base can be disrupted in unexpected ways, and there is no single solution to these challenges given the range of applications and technologies within the microelectronics industry—from ever-smaller, nanoscale feature sizes to large-scale commodity use cases to specialized functionalities. Rather, solutions will require the private sector, federal agencies, and research and development (R&D) organizations such as labs and universities to act in concert beyond their individual missions.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Structural analyses of macromolecules by solution scattering (CRADA Final Report)

New innovative Small Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS) methods to visualized macromolecules in solution at low resolution has led the SIBYLS group at Lawrence Berkeley Lab in being a world leader in biological SAXS. This research is particularly important now as LBNL establishes high-priority research topics including molecular to mesoscale analysis. This new expanding area of research relies on and ties in with our efforts towards developing a solution structure modeling tool for RNA structure prediction. Due to the pandemic our efforts focused on the SARS-CoV-2 proteins and RNA interactions. Specifically, we characterized SARS-CoC-2 proteins interaction with RNA (Wilanowski et al. 2021 -Hammel group) and Nucleoprotein interaction with RNA (Schneidman group).

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Exploring Impacts to COVID-19 Herd Immunity Thresholds Under Demographic Heterogeneity that Lowers Vaccine Effectiveness

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused severe health, economic, and societal impacts across the globe. Although highly efficacious vaccines were developed at an unprecedented rate, the heterogeneity in vaccinated populations has reduced the ability to achieve herd immunity. Specifically, as of Spring 2022, the 0–4 year-old population is still unable to be vaccinated and vaccination rates across 5-11 year olds are low. Additionally, vaccine hesitancy for older populations has further stalled efforts to reach herd immunity thresholds. This heterogeneous vaccine landscape increases the challenge of anticipating disease spread in a population. We developed an age-structured Susceptible-InfectiousRecovered-type mathematical model to investigate the impacts of unvaccinated subpopulations on herd immunity. The model considers two types of undervaccination - age-related and behaviorrelated - by incorporating four age groups based on available FDA-approved vaccines. The model accounts for two different types of vaccines, mRNA (e.g., Pfizer, Moderna) and vector (e.g., Johnson and Johnson), as well as their effectiveness. Our goal is to analyze different scenarios to quantify which subpopulations and vaccine characteristics (e.g., rate or efficacy) most impact infection levels in the United States, using the state of New Mexico as an example.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

LANL Regular Employee Population and Demographics, FY15-21

This document summarizes an effort to compile and analyze the LANL regular employee population’s demographic attributes and trends between FY15-FY21 using MicroStrategy, a web-based data analytics and visualization tool. LANL’s HR Division collected and prepared data for the Weapons Program’s annual reporting activities for the 2017 through 2023 NNSA Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan (SSMP). Los Alamos workforce data represent the fiscal year-end snapshot of the permanent employee population who are categorized by the Common Occupational Classification System (COCS). This work enables further analyses, including trends for all workforce attributes presented in the SSMPs as well as a definition of a crosswalk between COCS categorization and the internal laboratory job classification hierarchy. Data for other sites and the federal workforce, as shown in the SSMPs, are included and corresponding figures can be visualized within the MicroStrategy tool. A portable, Excel-based version of the tool was developed and shared with the multi-site workforce working group. This summary highlights selected aspects of the LANL regular workforce. The data analyses and visualizations communicate insights within three major themes regarding permanent LANL employees: 1) demographic transformation, 2) attrition, and 3) skills. Regarding demographic transformation, and consistent with the general trend across the enterprise, early career regular employees are the fastest growing group, with growth ranging between 12-34% year-to-year over the seven-year period analyzed. The data also reflect effects of internal and external factors on attrition; the large spike in separations in FY18 aligns with the contract transition from LANS to Triad and the dip in attrition between FY20-FY21 is likely a result of the global pandemic. The population of regular employees in general management, engineer, and operator COCS categories have the fastest growth rates amongst all the occupational categories. The MicroStrategy and Excel tools provide additional details and trends.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2022

UF Industrial Assessment Center - Budget Periods 2017-2021. Final Report

This report summarizes the work performed at the University of Florida’s Industrial Assessment Center (UF-IAC) during the five budget periods (BPs) in the years 2017 through 2021 under DOE Award No. DE-EE0007707. The objective of the work is to perform industrial assessments to small- and medium-sized manufacturing facilities in the State of Florida and to train students in industrial energy management and in performing industrial assessments. Specific details about the activities of the UF-IAC (referred to as the Center) during that time can be found in the 20 quarterly reports that were submitted throughout the duration of the contract. The project start and end dates are September 1, 2016 and August 31, 2021, respectively. The project was granted a six-month no-cost extension till February 28, 2022, to accommodate unexpected delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This project was performed by the University of Florida (PI: Dr. SA Sherif). The scope of work includes six milestone whose description and outcomes are listed in the Statement of Project Objectives (SOPO).

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2021

Economic Impact of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) on the State of Washington in Fiscal Year 2020

The FY 2020 Economic Impact Report details several of PNNL’s economic indicators, including PNNL’s total economic output, annual spending, jobs, number of employees, purchased goods and services, companies with roots in PNNL, STEM support and corporate charitable contributions. It also explains the economic impact of PNNL operations on the state of Washington—all within the context of PNNL’s response to the COVID pandemic and the effect of COVID-19 on PNNL’s economic impact within the state and local community during FY 2020. The results are impressive. Our response to COVID allowed for the majority of our staff to transition to telework, stay productive, avoid furloughs, and even hire new staff. COVID had minimal impact on our ability to positively effect economic impact in the state and community. Additionally, we directly and indirectly supported more than $1.59B through PNNL payroll and domestic purchased goods and services, and we generated 7,580 jobs in Washington State. PNNL’s annual spending was more than $1.1B. Battelle and PNNL contributions to philanthropic and civic organizations totaled $1.08M, many of which are outlined within the report. This information is intended to answer questions we often get from stakeholders who believe in the power of science and technology institutions to help sustain vibrant, educated communities in our state.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Salt International Collaborations (FY22 Update)

This report summarizes the international collaborations conducted by Sandia funded by the US Department of Energy Office (DOE) of Nuclear Energy Spent Fuel and Waste Science & Technology (SFWST) as part of the Sandia National Laboratories Salt R&D and Salt International work packages. This report satisfies the level-three milestone M3SF-22SN010303063. Several stand-alone sections make up this summary report, each completed by the participants. The sections discuss international collaborations on geomechanical benchmarking exercises (WEIMOS), granular salt reconsolidation (KOMPASS), engineered barriers (RANGERS), numerical model comparison (DECOVALEX) and an NEA Salt Club working group on the development of scenarios as part of the performance assessment development process. Finally, we summarize events related to the US/German Workshop on Repository Research, Design and Operations. The work summarized in this annual update has occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, and little international or domestic travel has occurred. Most of the collaborations have been conducted via email or as virtual meetings, but a slow return to travel and in-person meetings has begun.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Removable, Sequestration Coatings for Mitigating Hazardous Contaminants Related to Deactivation and Decommissioning Activities

This project is a collaborative effort between InnoSense LLC (ISL) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) aimed at mitigating the mercury (Hg) contamination problem at the Y-12 National Security Complex (NSC). The report summarizes the research and technology development work of the Phase IIB Project, led by Dr. Uma Sampathkumaran at ISL for the period of July 31, 2017–October 31, 2021. The Y-12 site cleanup includes technologies for safe and cost-effective facility demolition, soil remediation, and on-site treatment and disposal of mercury bearing wastes. One of the technology demonstration goals was a reactive strippable coating for targeted pre-demolition and de-contamination to limit Hg mobilization and the volume of debris requiring treatment for disposal. Toward this, ISL has developed a water-based reactive strippable coating (Trap & See-Hg™) to sequester elemental Hg(0) and mercuric Hg(II) species in the coating. The coating provides multiple benefits including (1) Hg vapor suppression, (2) sealing in the hazardous contaminants, (3) visually locating the contaminant through color changes, and (4) remediating the contaminated surfaces upon coating removal. Through collaboration between ORNL and ISL in Phase II work, the team successfully demonstrated the Trap & See-Hg technology to (1) visually locate the presence of Hg on concrete, soil and drywall surfaces, (2) effectively sequester all mercury species (elemental, soluble and insoluble Hg) from lab-generated and ex-situ soil and brick/rubble samples collected from the Y 12 site with 80 to 95% efficiency to capture/reduce Hg vapor concentration, (3) be applied by manual and robotic spray applicators and cure at room ambient, (4) remain a cohesive and peelable coating upon drying, and (5) sequester Hg0 from walls in the alpha-2 building basement at Y-12 during a small scale in-situ field trial. In Phase IIB, ISL’s effort was focused on refining the coating formulations with additives containing passive and reactive sorbents, colorimetric indicator, and thixotropic agents to achieve the desired performance. The paints were then evaluated at ORNL for applicability to metal and concrete surfaces of different sizes and shapes, and soil rubble, Hg-sorption capacity and achieving sag-free coating on surfaces when applied by a manual spray applicator. Ambient cure of the coating resulted in a dry thickness of 16–20 mil. The coatings were removed from smooth or rough surfaces with low to moderate force. Both lab-generated Hg-contaminated samples and soil and brick/rubble samples containing a range of Hg concentrations (collected from the Y-12 site by UCOR) were used in this project. Optimized formulations were applied to these samples and evaluated for ability to suppress Hg vapors, sequester Hg 0 and Hg(II) species and color mapping of mercury species on the test surface. The ORNL team initially identified three to four potential sites at Y-12 and ORNL for potential demonstration. However, the pandemic closed any possible avenues for on-site demonstration of the robotic spray applicator. The metal and concrete samples with low to high Hg content provided by UCOR from an ongoing demolition were subsequently used for ex-situ sample characterization and analysis at ORNL over a period of 25 days. The coatings suppressed Hg vapors with an efficiency of 95–99% from heavily contaminated metal and 60% from concrete substrate. Analysis of total Hg in the peeled paints indicates sorption capacities ranging from 12 µg Hg/g of paint from concrete to 1.2 mg Hg/g of paint from the metal substrates while peeled paints from soil samples could capture a total Hg from 2.3 mg Hg/g to 66 mg/g paint. Toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP) tests recovered total mercury leached at 0.15±0.0008 µg/L for concrete to 126.81±0.67 µg/L and 377.25±5.67 µg/L for the two metal substrates, to allow for informed decisions on downstream disposal considerations. Together, this Phase IIB demonstrated the potential value of the Trap & See-Hg for Hg uptake, vapor suppression, and color mapping, and may thus be used to enhance worker safety during site cleanup, facility demolition, and downstream waste disposal at Y-12 NSC.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2022

Monitoring SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater

The detection of SARS-CoV-2 cases throughout the pandemic has been based on individual testing, which is subject to inaccuracies in what is actually occurring within the local population. Wastewater biosurveillance has been used around the world to detect the presence of drugs, viruses, and other chemicals present in a population. Fecal shedding of SARS-CoV-2 implies that wastewater can be analyzed in order to detect varying levels of the virus within a given community. This analysis can show the fluctuation of SARS-CoV-2 at a population level over time. In this experiment, the amount of SARS-CoV-2 in the wastewater sample was compared to the amount of Pepper Mild Mottle Virus (PMMoV) detected in the same sample. PMMoV is present consistently in human fecal matter, and can be used to normalize the amount of SARS-CoV-2 detected in wastewater.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Integrated Monitoring of Macroalgae Farms Using Acoustics and UUV Sensing

The vision of this project was to develop an integrated system for autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) monitoring of offshore kelp farms using acoustic, environmental, and optical sensors. This project supports the overall MARINER goals of developing an offshore kelp aquaculture industry to produce low-carbon or carbon-neutral biofuels. The project commenced in the spring of 2018 and used laboratory experiments to test the efficacy of acoustic sensors for monitoring kelp farm lines and growing kelp biomass. Sensors were then integrated onto two AUVs as well as an autonomous surface vehicle in order to establish the optimal type, price point, and vehicle to most efficiently monitor kelp farm structures, kelp biomass, and the surrounding environment. Multiple field deployments of these vehicles and sensors in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine confirmed that farm lines and kelp could be visualized and that monitoring the spatial patterns of environmental variables was possible. The COVID-19 pandemic severely limited fieldwork activities and laboratory testing, with deployments around kelp farms not occurring again until January 2021. Time spent away from the field focused on data visualization and the development of a low-cost, vessel-based sensor system. Unfortunately, the low-cost system experienced a disk failure during its first deployment and due to multiple resignations from the project team further engineering and development was not possible. Additionally, final results from acoustic sensor testing in 2021 were also not able to be completed due to the resignation of the postdoc leading the analysis. Despite these setbacks, multiple avenues for further development of optical imagery processing from the 360-degree Kelpcam camera and testing of the low-cost sensor system may be possible.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiation for Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning: Literature Review

Ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) remains the only ASHRAE-recognized technology for the effective disinfection of air and surfaces, yet the technology still faces barriers to adoption. Even so, there is a growing body of literature on the subject, somewhat due the possibilities that a technology that can disinfect from a distance presents but also because the technology has been known for some time. Recent interest in the technology has been driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing the rate of growth of the literature. This document attempts to provide an overview of the technology and map out the various important parts of the literature, including potential sources of literature.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

2021-2022 Remote Work Study Final Results

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many organizations—from national laboratories to private companies—to change their workforce model to incorporate remote work. This study and the summarized results sought to understand the experiences of remote workers and the ways that remote work can impact recruitment and retention, employee engagement, and career development. Sandia, like many companies, has committed to establishing a hybrid work model that will persist postpandemic, and more Sandia employees than ever before have initiated remote work agreements. This parallels the nationwide increase in remote employment and motivates this study on remote work as an enduring part of workforce models.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2022

LLNL FY21 NCSP Overview [Slides]

This presentation details the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on LLNL in fiscal year 2021, as well as budget information and major accomplishments for the lab in IE, analytical methods, nuclear data, training and education, and IPD.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗