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At least 685 records · Page 38

Systems and methods for managing energy storage operations

An energy storage device (ESD) manager determines charge conditions that result in charge-related aging of an energy storage device (ESD), such as a battery, cell, or the like. The ESD manager may determine charge-related costs for charge operations, which may quantify charge-related aging imposed by subjecting ESD to specified charge conditions. The ESD manager may evaluate and/or modify charge operations to reduce charge-related aging. The ESD manager may be further configured to model charge-related aging behavior over time and/or under variable charge conditions. The ESD manager may configure charge operations to ensure that charge-related performance loss remains below a threshold for a specified usage duration.

Gering, Kevin L.↗

Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory Building 59 (Raw)

The building management system in Building 59 is monitoring and archiving building-level electricity usage, HVAC and lighting system states (e.g., setpoint, temperature, flow rate, pressure), indoor environmental conditions (air temperature, relative humidity, CO2), on-site weather (air temperature, relative humidity), and especially occupant counts as well as other metrics such as Wi-Fi signal. This dataset could support multiple use cases, such as model predictive control and occupant related demand management. Raw data.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Lawrence Berkeley National Lab Building 59

The building management system in Building 59 is monitoring and archiving building-level electricity usage, HVAC and lighting system states (e.g., setpoint, temperature, flow rate, pressure), indoor environmental conditions (air temperature, relative humidity, CO2), on-site weather (air temperature, relative humidity), and especially occupant counts as well as other metrics such as Wi-Fi signal. This dataset could support multiple use cases, such as model predictive control and occupant related demand management.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Low-nickel cathode chemistry for sustainable and high-energy lithium-ion batteries

The transition to sustainable energy storage demands lithium-ion batteries with high energy density and reduced reliance on critical metals such as nickel (Ni), yet current strategies to increase capacity have largely depended on raising Ni content, leading to escalating supply risks, rising costs and sustainability concerns. More critically, Ni-rich cathodes suffer from rapid electrochemical degradation driven by structural instability, creating an insurmountable trade-off between capacity and cycle life. Here, in this study, we introduce a low-Ni chemistry cathode, Li(Li 0.05 Ni 0.57 Mn 0.31 Co 0.07 )O 2 , with a radial phase integration design that overcomes these limitations, enabling a remarkable Ni usage reduction (Ni < 0.6) while demonstrating high capacity (215 mAh g −1 ) and markedly improved cyclability (~97% retention over 400 cycles) compared to conventional high-Ni cathodes (Ni = 0.8). Advanced X-ray and electron microscopy analyses reveal that the designed cathode exhibits a highly reversible oxygen anionic redox, benefiting from a structurally stable surface and minimizing irreversible phase transitions. Moreover, the integrated structure substantially mitigates lattice strain and improves mechanical stability even under harsh conditions. In conclusion, this advance offers a general design principle for developing next-generation cathodes that combine resource efficiency with long-term electrochemical reliability.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

FEW questions, many answers: using machine learning to assess how students connect food–energy–water (FEW) concepts

There is growing support and interest in postsecondary interdisciplinary environmental education which integrate concepts and disciplines in addition to providing varied perspectives. There is a need to assess student learning in these programs as well as rigorous evaluation of educational practices, especially of complex synthesis concepts. This work tests a text classification machine learning model as a tool to assess student systems thinking capabilities using two questions anchored by the Food-Energy-Water (FEW) Nexus phenomena by answering two questions (1) Can machine learning models be used to identify instructor-determined important concepts in student responses? (2) What do college students know about the interconnections between food, energy and water, and how have students assimilated systems thinking into their constructed responses about FEW? Reported here are a broad range of model performances across 26 text classification models associated with two different assessment items, with model accuracy ranging from 0.755 to 0.992. Expert-like responses were infrequent in our dataset compared to responses providing simpler, incomplete explanations of the systems presented in the question. For those students moving from describing individual effects to multiple effects, their reasoning about the mechanism behind the system indicates advanced systems thinking ability. Specifically, students exhibit higher expertise for explaining changing water usage than discussing tradeoffs for such changing usage. This research represents one of the first attempts to assess the links between foundational, discipline-specific concepts and systems thinking ability. These text classification approaches to scoring student FEW Nexus Constructed Responses (CR) indicate how these approaches can be used, in addition to several future research priorities for interdisciplinary, practice-based education research. Development of further complex question items using machine learning would allow evaluation of the relationship between foundational concept understanding and integration of those concepts as well as more nuanced understanding of student comprehension of complex interdisciplinary concepts.

96 KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND PRESERVATION↗

Decarbonizing Medium- & Heavy-Duty On-Road Vehicles: Zero-Emission Vehicles Cost Analysis

We simulate adoption and energy consumption of zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) in the medium and heavy duty (MD/HD) sector. With continued improvement in ZEV technologies, total-cost-of-driving parity with conventional vehicles is achievable by 2035 for all MD/HD vehicle classes. Two technological solutions – battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) are viable in multiple market segments, offering alternative pathways for decarbonization. In this scenario, ZEV sales reach 99+% by 2045 and 42% by 2030. 80% of the MD/HD stock transitions to ZEVs by 2050, reducing CO2 emissions by 69% from 2019. Disparities in adoption rate and vehicle usage between vehicle classes and between short and long-haul applications highlight opportunities for targeted policies (to reduce emissions it is critical to understand what vehicles transition to ZEV, not just how many vehicles). Results are highly sensitive to assumed fuel prices, technology improvement trajectories, adoption decision-making, and assumptions about future freight demand and vehicle use.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

Performance Improvements of the Griffin Solvers in FY24

The Griffin code is a MOOSE-based reactor physics application jointly developed by Idaho National Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory under the Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation Program. This fiscal year, we have made significant efforts to improve the performance of transport solver options and cross-section generation for the efficient use of Griffin in advanced reactor applications. For the HFEM-PN solver, the residual evaluations of HFEM kernels were optimized by utilizing the pre- computed averaged cross sections for individual elements. Numerical integration involving the evaluation of basis functions at quadrature points was bypassed by facilitating precomputed element mass matrices for response matrices. Red-black iterations were improved by introducing a new generalized minimum residual based solver. The memory usage of response matrix storage was significantly reduced by applying basis function rotations on interfaces and calculating volumetric odd-parity moments on the fly. Additionally, the adjoint flux and transient calculation capabilities of the HFEM-PN solver were successfully implemented and verified using the TWIGL benchmark problem. For the DFEM-SN solver, memory footprint and computation time were significantly reduced by not treating angular flux vectors as the MOOSE nonlinear system vectors. Specifically for IQS, scalar adjoint weighting was introduced to further eliminate angular adjoint flux storage in the MOOSE auxiliary system. It was demonstrated through the three-dimensional Advanced Burner Test Reactor core problem that the memory usage for transient calculations with the IQS method was reduced by over 7.5× compared to before the optimizations. For the self-shielding application programming interface, a new double-heterogeneity treatment method, named the Bell Function-Based Analytic Two-Region Slowing Down Method, was developed to efficiently flux-volume homogenize TRISO particles with the matrix. Additionally, optimizations were made to hyper- fine group (HFG) slowing down calculations by pretabulating collision probability coefficients and grouping isotopes, significantly reducing the computational time for calculating scattering sources per HFG. Lastly, the pin power reconstruction module was extended to account for temporal behavior in a microreactor analysis problem, specifically for a control drum transient. Verification tests for each of these improvements demonstrated significant performance enhancements and memory reduction.

22 - GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

The Dark Energy Survey Year 3 high-redshift sample: selection, characterization, and analysis of galaxy clustering

ABSTRACT The fiducial cosmological analyses of imaging surveys like DES typically probe the Universe at redshifts z < 1. We present the selection and characterization of high-redshift galaxy samples using DES Year 3 data, and the analysis of their galaxy clustering measurements. In particular, we use galaxies that are fainter than those used in the previous DES Year 3 analyses and a Bayesian redshift scheme to define three tomographic bins with mean redshifts around z ∼ 0.9, 1.2, and 1.5, which extend the redshift coverage of the fiducial DES Year 3 analysis. These samples contain a total of about 9 million galaxies, and their galaxy density is more than 2 times higher than those in the DES Year 3 fiducial case. We characterize the redshift uncertainties of the samples, including the usage of various spectroscopic and high-quality redshift samples, and we develop a machine-learning method to correct for correlations between galaxy density and survey observing conditions. The analysis of galaxy clustering measurements, with a total signal to noise S/N ∼ 70 after scale cuts, yields robust cosmological constraints on a combination of the fraction of matter in the Universe Ωm and the Hubble parameter h, $\Omega _m h = 0.195^{+0.023}_{-0.018}$, and 2–3 per cent measurements of the amplitude of the galaxy clustering signals, probing galaxy bias and the amplitude of matter fluctuations, bσ8. A companion paper (in preparation) will present the cross-correlations of these high-z samples with cosmic microwave background lensing from Planck and South Pole Telescope, and the cosmological analysis of those measurements in combination with the galaxy clustering presented in this work.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗

Quantifying the environmental benefits of a solvent-based separation process for multilayer plastic films

Food packaging often appears in the form of multilayer (ML) plastic films, which leverage the functional properties of different polymers to achieve specific food protection goals (e.g., oxygen, water, and temperature barriers). These properties are essential to enable long shelf lives, reduce refrigeration usage, mitigate food waste, and increase food accessibility. However, ML film production processes generate large amounts of plastic waste that cannot be mechanically recycled. Recently, we have proposed a process, called solvent-targeted recovery and precipitation (STRAP), that enables the separation and recycling of the constituent polymers of ML films. This technology uses a series of solvent washes that selectively dissolve and precipitate target polymers. Quantifying the environmental benefits of STRAP over virgin resin production is essential for the commercial deployment of this technology. Further, this work uses life cycle assessment (LCA) methods to evaluate these impacts in terms of carbon footprint, energy use, water use, and toxicity. We analyze three STRAP process variants that use antisolvent and temperature-driven precipitation to treat different ML films. Our analysis reveals that the STRAP-A and STRAP-B process variants can provide environmental benefits over virgin film production. Furthermore, it gives valuable insight into the critical components of ML films (specific polymers) and of the STRAP processes (equipment) that are responsible for the highest impacts. Ultimately, we believe that the proposed analysis framework can lead to the design of more environmentally-friendly ML films and recycling processes.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

In-Depth Optimization with the OpenACC-to-FPGA Framework on an Arria 10 FPGA

The reconfigurable computing paradigm that uses field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) has received renewed interest in the high-performance computing field due to FPGAs' unique combination of performance and energy efficiency. However, difficulties in programming and optimizing FPGAs have prevented them from being widely accepted as general-purpose computing devices. In accelerator-based heterogeneous computing, portability across diverse heterogeneous devices is also an important issue, but the unique architectural features in FPGAs make this difficult to achieve. To address these issues, a directive-based, high-level FPGA programming and optimization framework was previously developed. In this work, developed optimizations were combined holistically using the directive-based approach to show that each individual benchmark requires a unique set of optimizations to maximize performance. The relationships between FPGA resource usages and runtime performance were also explored.

Lambert, Jacob↗

Exploring decarbonization pathways for USA passenger and freight mobility

Abstract Passenger and freight travel account for 28% of U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions today. We explore pathways to reduce transportation emissions using NREL’s TEMPO model under bounding assumptions on future travel behavior, technology advancement, and policies. Results show diverse routes to 80% or more well-to-wheel GHG reductions by 2050. Rapid adoption of zero-emission vehicles coupled with a clean electric grid is essential for deep decarbonization; in the median scenario, zero-emission vehicle sales reach 89% for passenger light-duty and 69% for freight trucks by 2030 and 100% sales for both by 2040. Up to 3,000 terawatt-hours of electricity could be needed in 2050 to power plug-in electric vehicles. Increased sustainable biofuel usage is also essential for decarbonizing aviation (10–42 billion gallons needed in 2050) and to support legacy vehicles during the transition. Managing travel demand growth can ease this transition by reducing the need for clean electricity and sustainable fuels.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

An Integrated High Pressure SOFC and Premixed Compression Ignition (PCI) Engine System

Components for a transformative, high pressure, intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) and premixed compression ignition (PCI) engine system were developed. The resulting system is a 1 MWe natural gas fueled hybrid SOFC and reciprocating internal combustion engine system capable of achieving over 70% electrical efficiency at a cost of $0.87/W. To achieve 70% electric efficiency, the SOFC system operates at 80% fuel utilization; however, when operating at this high level of fuel utilization, fuel to the engine (anode tailgas) is extremely dilute. Accordingly, a substantial portion of the effort focused on development and assessment of the combustion strategy capable of consuming this dilute fuel mixture. The engine testing effort showed that pre-chamber assisted compression ignition provides the best combination of controllability, efficiency and emissions. The engine experiments showed that high efficiency combustion can be achieved with near zero criteria pollutants. It is likely that the engine system could operate with minimal aftertreatment requirements, reducing complexity, cost, and precious metal usage. System level modeling was used to assess the overall efficiency, determine cost and efficiency tradeoffs, and demonstrate the potential to perform load following with the hybrid system. Finally, advanced manufacturing was used to demonstrate the potential to fabricate heat exchangers needed for the hybrid system from low chromium materials, which addresses the issue of chromium poisoning of the SOFC stack material.

03 NATURAL GAS↗

Stochastic Virtual Battery Modeling of Uncertain Electrical Loads using Variational Autoencoder

Effective utilization of flexible loads for grid services, while satisfying end-user preferences and constraints, requires an accurate estimation of the aggregated predictive flexibility offered by the electrical loads. Recently, there have been efforts to quantify the predictive flexibility of thermostatic loads (e.g. residential air-conditioners, electric water-heaters) using the notion of virtual battery (VB), whose state evolution is governed by a first order dynamics including self-dissipation rate, and power and energy capacities. Identifying the VB model parameters for a collection of thermostatic loads, however, is challenging primarily due to uncertainties and lack of information regarding the end-user behavior, underlying device models and parameters. In this paper, we propose a \textit{variational autoencoder}-based deep learning algorithm to identify the parameters of the VB model. Using available sensors and meters data, the proposed algorithm generates not only point estimates of the VB parameters, but also confidence intervals around those values. Effectiveness of the proposed frameworks is demonstrated on a collection of electric water-heater loads, whose operation is driven by uncertain water usage profiles.

virtual battery, deep learning algorithms↗

Status Report on the INL IES Plug-and-Play Framework

This report discusses the advancements and status of the flexible plug-and-play framework development currently ongoing that aims to integrate Modelica/Dymola with the Risk Analysis and Virtual ENvironment (RAVEN) software in terms of both Functional Mock-Up Interface (FMI)/Functional Mock-Up Unit (FMU) construction and usage, which aims to ease the sharing and simulation of complex dynamic models. This report discusses the FMI/FMU development advancements, overall focusing on the deployment of methodologies for RAVEN to export and use FMI/FMU of both Python-based models and advanced AI-constructed algorithms.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

From inert gas to fertilizer, fuel and fine chemicals: N 2 reduction and fixation

The 100th anniversary of a leading nitrogen fixation technology developer like CASALE SA is a reason to reflect over the 20th century successful solution of the problem of world food supply, and to look out for solutions for sustainable developments with respect to ammonia production. Here, we review the role of nitrogen as essential chemical constituent in photosynthesis and biology, and component of ammonia as it is used as fertilizer for primary production by photosynthesis for farming and food supply and its future role as energy carrier. While novel synthesis methods and very advanced synchrotron based x-ray analytical techniques are being developed, we feel it is important to refer to the historical and economical context of nitrogen. The breaking of the N≡N triple bond remains a fundamental chemical and energetic problem in this context. We review the electrochemical ammonia synthesis as an energetically and environmentally benign method. Two relatively novel X-ray spectroscopy methods, which are relevant for the molecular understanding of the catalysts and biocatalysts, i.e. soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy and nuclear resonant vibration spectroscopy are presented. We illustrate the perceived reality in fertilizer usage on the field, and fertilizer production in the factory complex with photos and thus provide a contrast to the academic view of the molecular process of ammonia function and production.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Huslia Tribal Council Biomass Project: A Project to Increase Sustainability and Reduce Energy Costs in Huslia, AK

The Huslia Tribal Council (HTC) and the Tanana Chiefs Conference (TCC), partnering with the City of Huslia, the Yukon-Koyukuk School District, and Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, applied to the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Indian Energy for funding of a community biomass boiler system. The biomass system contributes to heating three community buildings in Huslia, Alaska with locally harvested fuels: the clinic, the water treatment plant/washeteria, and the school. The remaining heating needs are supported by in-building oil-fired boilers, burning imported heating fuel. Some issues, such as control set points on the oil boilers, need to be resolved before the biomass heating system is used at full capacity. The project objectives of the community biomass boiler system were cost reduction, carbon reduction, community resilience, and economic development. Once fully operational, the cost reduction from decreased fuel oil usage due to support from the biomass boiler system is expected to more than offset the cost of purchasing locally harvested biofuel, resulting in overall savings to the community. Locally sourced wood is considered carbon-neutral, so the biomass boiler system decreases the carbon footprint of heating the community buildings. The project increases resilience by decreasing dependence on heating oil brought in from elsewhere. Lastly, it produces economic development by employing locals to gather the wood burned in the biomass boiler. This project satisfies all of the objectives that HTC set out to achieve.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

Utah FORGE: Wells 16A(78)-32 and 16B(78)-32 Stimulation Program Report - May 2024

This dataset consists of a comprehensive report documenting the stimulation program conducted in May 2024 on Utah FORGE wells 16A(78)-32 and 16B(78)-32. It includes detailed accounts of operational and scientific objectives, stimulation methodologies, and testing outcomes. The report describes the hydraulic fracturing activities, equipment setups, proppant and fluid usage, and the execution of a nine-hour circulation test. It also includes observations from seismic and fiber optic monitoring systems, providing data on microseismic activity and fracture propagation. Detailed parameters for each stimulation stage are provided, alongside operational challenges and solutions. The dataset includes analyses of injection and production rates, well temperatures, and pressure data, supported by graphical illustrations and logs.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗

Novel usage of deep learning and high-performance computing in long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments

Mención Internacional en el título de doctorDeep-learning methods are playing a crucial role in numerous scientific and industrialapplications. Over the past two decades, these techniques have helped in the collection,reconstruction, and analysis of large data samples in particle physics experiments. Themain topic of this PhD research is the study of deep-learning techniques in long-baselineneutrino oscillation experiments. Neutrinos are mysterious light elementary particles,and their investigation is essential to shed light on some of the remaining open questionsin physics. The work presented here describes an algorithm based on a convolutionalneural network developed to provide highly accurate and efficient selections of electronneutrino and muon neutrino interactions in the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment(DUNE). With this algorithm, the electron neutrino (antineutrino) selection efficiencypeaks at 90% (94%) and exceeds 85% (90%) for reconstructed neutrino energies between2-5 GeV. The selection efficiency for muon neutrino (antineutrino) interactions is foundto have a maximum of 96% (97%) and exceeds 90% (95%) efficiency for reconstructedneutrino energies above 2 GeV. When considering all electron neutrino and antineutrinointeractions as signal (both those appearing from oscillations and those intrinsic tothe beam), a selection purity of 90% is achieved. These event selections are criticalto maximise the sensitivity of the experiment to CP-violating effects, key to furtherunderstand the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the Universe.In high-energy physics experiments, deep learning has also been explored for producingfast simulations and physically-motivated manipulations of simulated images. Some ofthose simulations, such as the light production and detection, are very computationallyexpensive and require novel methods to produce the necessary samples while controllingthe varied underlying physics model parameters. To do so, we invented the model-assistedgenerative adversarial network (MAGAN), first validated on simple generic case studiesand then successfully applied to the DUNE photon-detector simulation.Moreover, we also developed graph neural networks for 3D-voxel classification ofambiguities and optical crosstalk for a different particle physics experiment, most preciselyfor the proposed SuperFGD. This novel 3D-granular plastic-scintillator neutrino detectorwill be used to upgrade the near detector of the T2K neutrino oscillation experiment, and our method reports efficiencies and purities of 94-96% per event in the classificationof particle track voxels.Due to the growth and complexity of deep neural networks, researchers have beeninvestigating techniques to train those networks in a more computationally-efficient way.Many efforts have been made by the community to optimise deep-learning models byparallelising or distributing their training computation across multiple devices. In thisthesis, we study an approach based on data locality for those neural networks that cannotbenefit from scaling their computation due to a significant bottleneck in the data I/O.The research also includes a detailed study on the performance of deep neural networkson hardware accelerator boards.Los métodos de aprendizaje profundo son cada vez más utilizados en numerosas aplicacionescientíficas e industriales hoy en día. Durante las dos últimas décadas, estastécnicas se han empleado en la recolección, reconstrucción y análisis de la gran cantidadde datos generados por experimentos de física de partículas. El tema principal de estatesis doctoral es el uso de estos modelos de aprendizaje profundo en experimentos defísica de neutrinos, en concreto en los experimentos de larga distancia DUNE y T2K. Losneutrinos, partículas fundamentales neutras, de las más ligeras del Universo, pueden serclave para explicar algunas de las cuestiones todavía sin resolver en física fundamental.Entre las diferentes contribuciones que esta tesis ha hecho a su estudio, cabe destacar eldesarrollo de un algoritmo basado en una red de neuronas convolucional para seleccionarcon gran eficiencia y precisión las interacciones de neutrinos electrónicos y muónicos enel Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). La eficiencia de selección obtenidapara neutrinos (antineutrinos) electrónicos alcanza un máximo del 90% (94%) y supera el85% (90%) para neutrinos con energías reconstruidas en el rango 2-5 GeV. La selección deneutrinos (antineutrinos) muónicos tiene una eficiencia máxima del 96% (97%) y excedeel 90% (95%) para neutrinos con energías reconstruidas de más de 2 GeV. Considerandocomo señal todas las interacciones de neutrinos y antineutrinos electrónicos (procedentestanto de oscilaciones como intrínsecos en el haz inicial), se logra una pureza en la seleccióndel 90%. Dichas selecciones de eventos son fundamentales para maximizar la sensibilidaddel experimento a los efectos de violació...

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗