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At least 73 records · Page 4
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Editorial: Resolving atmospheric flow in complex environments: recent experiments in terrain and forest canopies

The characterization of atmospheric flows in complex environments, which may include steep terrain slopes and heterogeneous vegetation and/or forest cover, is a long-standing challenge in boundary-layer meteorology. Atmospheric observations are complicated by the presence of transient, terrain-induced flow features, forest-canopy-atmosphere interactions, and atmospheric stability effects, not to mention the logistical hurdles involved with instrument deployment, data analysis, and quality control. Furthermore, challenges in atmospheric modeling arise due to numerical errors associated with complex terrain flows, as well as reliance on simplified parameterizations for unresolved processes such as turbulent mixing and land-surface or forest-canopy-atmosphere interactions. These modeling challenges are exacerbated in the so-called “gray zone,” wherein features of interest have length scales that are similar to the model grid spacing, or when the principal flow layer is smaller than the grid spacing (e.g., slope flows).

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Editorial: Cell Free Biocatalysis for the Production of Bioproducts

Biological approaches show promise for the sustainable and cost competitive production of commodity fuels and chemicals. A lot of efforts have been devoted to engineering microbial chassis to produce select fuels and chemicals. These approaches have had some level of success exemplified, of course, by the production of ethanol at high yield and titer but also recent successes with commodity chemicals such as 1,4-butanediol, 1,3-propanediol, and even to some extent with sustainable aviation fuel intermediates such as farnesene. However, many of these processes still suffer from low yields, usually below the standard needed to drive a sustainable and atom efficient bioeconomy. Additionally, for many other chemicals and fuel precursors, titers and yields are only a fraction of what they are for ethanol. Indeed, there exist many limiting factors associated with the use of microbial biocatalysts. Some of these factors include the diversion of carbon from products to sustain growth and biomass formation, the production of byproducts or regulatory mechanisms, the toxicity of end products or intermediates, and the difficulty of separating products from growth media.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Editorial: Edge computation and digital distribution networks

The development of digital technologies is penetrating all areas of energy revolution. Based on the in-depth integration of advanced digital technologies, distribution networks are gradually transforming into digital distribution networks (DDNs) with tremendous changes from the structure to the operation mode. DDNs is the digitalized appearance of the physical distribution network, in which ubiquitous connections and massive data are the basic characteristics (Huo et al., 2022). It is an important task to utilize the massive data and propose novel operation modes to construct more efficient and intelligent distribution networks (Jian et al., 2022). Among the advanced digital technologies in DDNs, edge computing has received wide attention (Zhao et al., 2022). It has superior performance in local sensing and intelligent computation, which can effectively relieve huge communication pressure. However, the limited computing resources and the complex computing tasks at the edge side significantly challenge the collaboration of distribution network regulation and advanced digital technologies (Hu et al., 2022). It is necessary to find out proper methods to utilize advanced digital technology to construct DDNs. This Research Topic is organized to introduce the recent progress in the construction, operation and advanced computational methods for DDNs. Finally, seven papers have been accepted, which can be sorted into the following three categories: 1) Evolution and technical features of DDNs, 2) Intelligent operation control of DDNs, 3) Advanced simulation for large-scale DDNs. The three sections below respectively introduce the major research and contributions of the papers covered in each category.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2022

Editorial: Lignocellulose valorization: Fractionation, conversion and applications

Lignocellulosic biomass is the most abundant form of renewable feedstock on the Earth. Chemicals, energies, and materials derived from lignocellulosic biomass are renewable and sustainable, and have the potential to replace fossil feedstocks. Biorefinery, a process to fractionate lignocellulose into the three major components, is considered the most pivotal step for bioenergy, biomaterials and biochemicals. However, due to the complex hierarchy and chemical structures, only limited lignocellulose is valorized into value-added products, and most of them are burnt or just discarded. Therefore, there is a need to investigate the heterogeneous structure of lignocellulose, improve its efficient fractionation into cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin, and develop the technology that can convert the lignocellulose into high-value chemical products and high-performance functional materials in a sustainable and promising configuration. In short, the ultimate goal of biomass utilization is that the production of biofuels and biomaterials in industrial applications must be cost-, and performance-competitive with petroleum-derived equivalents.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2023

Editorial: Advanced water splitting technologies development: Best practices and protocols

As the level of deployment and utilization of renewable energy sources, including wind and solar, continues to rise, large-scale, long-term energy storage technologies that could accommodate weekly and seasonal energy fluctuations will play a significant role in the overall deployment of renewable energies in the future. Harnessing and storing renewable energy resources via electrochemical, photoelectrochemical, or thermochemical processes by converting renewable energy into sustainable (energy storage) fuels have the potential to meet the long-term, terawatt scale energy storage challenge. Renewable hydrogen production is the cornerstone for sustainable fuel production and deep decarbonization of multiple sectors in our society. Cost-competitive clean hydrogen provides value to applications, such as 1) in the transportation sector for fuel cell vehicles, 2) in the electric grid sector for system stability and load balancing, and 3) in the industrial sector with metal refineries, cement production, and biomass upgrading (carbon-free fertilizer production). In addition, coupling clean renewable hydrogen with the carbon and nitrogen cycles enables known and well-established thermal-chemical processes to generate renewable hydrocarbon fuels and ammonia. The Advanced Water Splitting Technologies (AWST): low temperature electrolysis (LTE), high temperature electrolysis (HTE), photoelectrochemical (PEC) and solar thermo-chemical hydrogen (STCH) provide four unique and parallel approaches to produce low cost, low greenhouse gas (GHG) emission hydrogen at scale (Figure 1). Cost competitive clean hydrogen production using these four technologies is a current high priority focus for governments and industry. In June of 2022, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) launched the first in a series of Earthshot Initiatives. The Hydrogen Shot, “1 1 1” aims to reduce the cost of clean hydrogen by more than 80% to one dollar per one kilogram in 1 decade ($\$$1/kg H 2 ). The European Green Deal and the International Energy Agency (IEA) have implemented a strong focus on green hydrogen production for a clean and secure energy future.

benchmarking, low temperature electrolysis↗
DOE OSTI2023

Editorial: Benchmark experiments, development and needs in support of advanced reactor design

Advanced nuclear reactor designs will for the most part be a departure from low enrichment light water reactor (LWR) designs currently operated around the world. Such advanced designs include but are not limited to new TRISO-fueled high temperature gas reactors, heat-pipe cooled micro-reactors, fluoride salt cooled high-temperature reactors, molten salt reactors, lead cooled fast reactors, nuclear thermal propulsion concepts, and include LWR designs with advanced fuel and clad types. Modeling and simulation methods for advanced reactors is necessary for regulators to approve license requests. However, regulators also require that modeling approaches be validated against experimental measurements. Hence, there is a crucial need for data for advanced reactor systems that will support validation of analysis methods. To this end, this Research Topic includes eleven papers organized into topical seven categories relevant for advanced reactor design.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Editorial: Achieving Water-Energy-Food Nexus Sustainability: A Science and Data Need or a Need for Integrated Public Policy?

The benefits of addressing the water, energy, and food sectors in an integrated manner is gaining significant recognition. An integrated approach can provide improved resource use efficiencies, more coherent environmental policies, and an overall strategy for achieving sustainability in the three sectors, as outlined in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2 (Food), 6 (Water), and 7 (Energy). Societies are concerned with ensuring food security, avoiding wars over water, and creating opportunity by ensuring access to energy. To be effective, however, this approach needs to be adopted at all levels of societies including government, private and civil society and reinforced by management and planning methods. This special issue identifies different approaches that are either being conceptualized or tested to support the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus approach. The articles contribute to answering the question, “Is achieving Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus Sustainability a science and data need or an integrated public policy need?” In either case, both natural and social sciences will need to combine to support science issues or integrated policy issues. The papers explore the ways in which science, data, and policy development could help to define integrative principles and policies for the three sectors. This approach could expand beyond the water, energy, and food sectors to include health, environment, trade, commerce, and international assistance thereby providing broad support to the SDGs. Moreover, this issue demonstrates that data combined with new technologies (tools and models) can support better decision-making when adopted by governments and the sectors.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Editorial: Exogenous carbon-based materials in soil ecosystems

Various exogenous carbon-based materials (ECMs) such as crop straw, biochar, carbon-based nano-fertilizer, and microplastics have accumulated in soil ecosystems. These ECMs may cause direct and indirect impacts on soil properties, processes, productivity, and health, thus potentially changing the function and stability of soil ecosystems. However, large knowledge gaps still exist on ECMs in soil ecosystems, including their accumulation, interactions with soil components, and potential ecological impacts and risks. Therefore, more efforts are needed to further understand the impacts especially the long-term effects of ECMs in soil ecosystems. By generating new knowledge, this Research Topic aims to improve the understanding of the effects of ECMs on soil ecosystems, including soil quality, nutrient cycling, microbial ecology, crop growth, environmental health and ecological risk.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Editorial: Hydrology, ecology, and nutrient biogeochemistry at the terrestrial-aquatic interface

Terrestrial-aquatic interfaces (TAI) play important roles in mediating the exchange of water and chemicals between land, surface and subsurface water systems, which is tightly coupled with biogeochemical transformations that influence water quality and ecosystem health (Harvey and Gooseff, 2015; Harvey et al., 2019). Understanding and predicting the interactions between the hydrologic, ecologic, and biogeochemical processes at those interfaces is crucial for the sustainable management of water resources and promotion of healthy ecosystems under different environmental stresses and disturbances, including climate change, human activities, and more frequent occurrence of extreme events. Both process-based and data-driven approaches have emerged to address critical challenges at TAIs as integral parts of the Earth system (e.g., Ward and Packman, 2019; Chen et al., 2021; Dwivedi et al., 2022). In this Research Topic, we sought research that advances the understanding of coupled hydrologic, ecologic, and biogeochemical processes along various TAIs from the summit to sea, e.g., river corridors and coastal TAI systems. We invited observational, experimental, theoretical, analytical, numerical, and data-driven research that aims to understand hydro-biogeochemical processes such as the redox dynamics and biogeochemical transformations of carbon, nutrients, and metals occurring at the TAIs and address their heterogeneity and scaling challenges.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Editorial: Innovations in climate resilience

At Battelle’s second Annual Innovations in Climate Resilience Conference, we were inspired this year by the phrase “Bold Leaps and Action.” Climate resilience is a goal and a field that requires boldness. Achieving a state in which societies, countries, continents, and even the globe is robust to changes in climate is often met with doubt, speculation, and indifference. Boldness is required to overcome the gap between an individual’s personal experience and the sheer scale of climate interactions that span from microbes to planets and from nanoseconds to millennia. Moreover, individual scientists, government leaders, and industrialists might each make a small impact and never directly see a measurable effect in Earth’s climate resilience. Is the scientific work in this area futile? Are we as a community on the right path or are we on the right track? Or are we collectively leveraging our potential and contributions toward scalable and more impactful climate resilience solutions that create compounding effects for cities, regions, countries? That leads us to the second part of the phrase that inspired us. It is not just bold leaps but it is action too. The scientific community must put into effect the discoveries that come along with our work in climate resilience. This includes the processes or activities that translate foundational science into real products that society can use. Never before in the history of this country have we had such a commitment to the Research Topic of climate resilience. The White House has made it a major part of their platform. Congress has appropriated and authorized billions of dollars in support. The part we need next is real action. Through our efforts we can discover the interconnected scientific breakthroughs at many spatial scales from city/regional/state to global that were not possible without those government programs.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Editorial: Subsurface microbiology within hydrocarbon resources or stored gases

A Research Topic on the microbiology of hydrocarbon and gas storage reservoirs has far reaching industrial applications. In recent decades, there has been a growing interest in understanding microbial communities in subsurface energy reservoirs, such as coal, oil, and shale beds. This area of research has broadened to include gas storage reservoirs for hydrogen and CO 2 . Scientists are beginning to unravel the unexpected impact microorganisms have on these systems, through changing the fluid geochemistry, the gas content, and even the permeability. By recognizing the influence of these tiny organisms on our engineered environments, we can develop better risk assessments, target mitigation strategies, expand energy production, and refine operational guidance, ultimately contributing to a more sustainable energy future.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Editorial: Forest Rhizosphere Interactions: Cascading Consequences for Ecosystem-Level Carbon and Nutrient Cycling

Mycorrhizal fungimine organicmatter and subsequently transfer plant-available nutrients to roots. While there is disagreement considering the role of mycorrhizal fungi in ecosystem carbon (C) and nutrient cycling relative to factors such as climate (Cotton, 2018; Bennett and Classen, 2020), soil nutrient availability (Brzostek et al., 2015; Frey, 2019), or host plant community composition (Read and Perez-Moreno, 2003), it is now clear that mycorrhizal fungal symbionts control a substantial proportion of C and nutrient flow belowground (Steidinger et al., 2019). Yet, determining the relative importance of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) and ectomycorrhizal (EM) fungi to these processes is still an open field of inquiry in ecosystemecology (Averill et al., 2019a) and earth system modeling (Sulman et al., 2019). At large scales, ecosystems dominated by EM fungi are thought to store more soil C per unit nitrogen (N) (Averill et al., 2014), have slower N cycles (Phillips et al., 2013), and respond more strongly to global change drivers such as N-deposition (Jo et al., 2019). However, it is unclear how generalizable these patterns are across sites, and plant and mycorrhizal taxa. If site or species-dependent relationships exist between mycorrhizal plants, fungi, and soil biogeochemical cycles, forecasting hot spots and hot moments of mycorrhizal fungal activities and their consistency across space and time would be evenmore challenging (Averill et al., 2019b; Kivlin and Hawkes, 2020).

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Editorial: Genomic insights on fungal hybrids

Hybrids are chimeric organisms that result from the crossing of two genetically divergent lineages. Compared to their parents, hybrids sometimes show higher adaptive capacities towards specific niches, thereby contributing to diversification (Abbott et al., 2013). Fungal hybrids have been neglected by formal studies for a long time due to the inherent challenges of the microbial species concept and the difficulty of identifying hybrids based on morphological characters (Gabaldon, 2020a; Boekhout et al., 2021). Although the first fungal hybrids were identified in Saccharomyces, thanks to careful dissection of metabolic properties (Morales and Dujon, 2012) and emerging genome sequencing technologies (Hittinger, 2013), it was the spread of these sequencing technologies that revealed the true pervasiveness of hybrids across the fungal tree of life (Naranjo-Ortiz and Gabaldon, 2020; Gabaldon, 2020b). Sequencing techniques, particularly genomic approaches, have not only unearthed the hybrid nature of many fungal organisms, but also serve as ideal tools for the study of hybrids. Hybrids have chimeric genomes, which usually display high instability and are subject to evolutionary pressures that are different from that of non-hybrid genomes (Runemark et al., 2019). Understanding how hybrids are formed, how they cope with their chimeric genomes, and how they evolve and adapt to distinct environments is a matter of intensive research. This Research Topic gathers six outstanding contributions that use genomic approaches to tackle diverse questions that relate to fungal hybrids.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Editorial: Editors’ showcase: fuels and chemicals

Throughout its history, industrial microbiology has answered many challenges; food and beverage, antibiotics, pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, biomaterials, fuels, and chemicals, often with billions of dollars of impact on markets and society. But these efforts pale in comparison to the challenge of planetary-scale carbon management, which must balance the circularity of a carbon economy with the sequestration of excess environmental carbon. Biorefineries, integrating carbon capture with diverse bioproduct markets, offer our best route to stabilizing an unbalanced global carbon cycle while powering a robust and equitable bioeconomy.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Editorial: Deep-sea observation equipment and exploration technology

The increasing interest in deep-sea exploration is a crucial catalyst for driving advancements in deep-sea observation technology research. Numerous sophisticated sensors have been developed to facilitate comprehensive studies in deep-sea physics, chemistry, and geology. For example, cutting-edge small and compact seabed samplers are now employed on various platforms, such as Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs), and Human-Operated Vehicles (HOVs), enabling observation of the hadal zone. Additionally, Micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) sensors are routinely utilized for ocean wave observation. This Research Topic aims to foster new insights into ocean exploration and observation technology, including ocean sensor technology, ocean observation platforms, and ocean observation reliability technology.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2024

Editorial: Advanced in situ characterization of biological interfaces and materials

Rapid changes are occurring on this dynamic planet–in 2020 anthropogenic mass was reported to not only match but exceed the mass of natural origins (Elhacham et al., 2020). These indications do not bold well for humanity in the coming generations, as we face 2 degree overall temperature increases over the next 5 years, CO 2 is spewing into the atmosphere at the Gigatonne (Gt) rate per year without any signs of mitigation in the foreseeable future, ocean water levels are rising to incredible levels, drinking water availability is disappearing, humanity is heavily reliant on the “drill-and-fill” culture, and two wars are currently being fought in Gaza and Ukraine (Carr et al., 2024). And even with these pressures, humanity continues to eke out impressive scientific and technological achievements in the recent past including mRNA vaccines to counter a global pandemic (Hogan and Pardi, 2022) and the development of CRISPR-Cas9 drugs (Parums, 2024). All these developments are only possible from the incremental methodological improvements taking place presently.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Editorial: Functionalization of porous materials for sustainable energy applications

Global energy demands are shifting toward a more sustainable future, with the goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. Emerging technologies are driving this transition. The industry, academia, government, non-profit organizations, and the broader community are collaboratively working to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and address climate change to ensure a sustainable future. According to the International Energy Agency, in 2022, the production, transportation, and processing of oil and gas resulted in 5.1 billion tons of CO 2 -equivalent emissions, representing nearly 15% of all energy-related GHG emissions. Moreover, the end-use of oil and gas accounted for an additional 40% of emissions. The IEA’s Net Zero Emissions by 2050 Scenario calls for immediate, collective action from the industry, transportation and other stakeholders to mitigate these emissions. In this effort, the development of energy materials will play a critical role in reducing emissions. Among these, porous materials offer an innovative solution, leveraging their high surface area, adjustable pore sizes, and chemical versatility to address these pressing challenges effectively. By carefully designing their nanostructures, the architecture and properties of these materials can be tailored for specific applications. Key factors such as chemical composition, particle size, pore distribution, and surface area optimization enhance the reactivity and energy conversion efficiency. Additionally, pre- and post-functionalization processes can introduce targeted chemical properties, further improving their performance. This Research Topic explores recent advancements in energy and materials science through four scholarly papers, showcasing innovative solutions for sustainable energy technologies while providing valuable insights into the unique properties and structure of porous materials (Figure 1). Li et al. present their work on highly defective NiFeV layered triple hydroxides, highlighting enhanced electrocatalytic activity and stability for oxygen evolution reactions (OER). Kovalskii et al. contribute a mini-review on hydrogen storage using hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) and BN-based materials, offering an insightful overview of these promising materials. Chava et al. discuss their recent achievements in ceramic electrolytes used for improvement of performance of solid-state batteries. Lastly, Li et al. review the properties of porous materials with a focus on shrinkage behavior during the drying process, shedding light on key considerations for material design.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Editorial: Particulate Matter Emissions From Conventional and Reformulated Fuel Combustion: Advances in Experiments and Simulations

Particulate matter (PM or soot) emissions generated by combustion of conventional and reformulated fuels adversely impact the environment and human health (Bond et al., 2013; Landrigan et al., 2018; World Health Organization (WHO), 2016), generating public awareness and motivating efforts towards the mitigation of their harmful effects. Soot formation is one of the most complex phenomena in combustion, involving interactions between combustion chemistry, fluid mechanics, mass/heat transport, and particle dynamics, spanning different spatial and temporal scales. A fundamental understanding of soot formation process is thus necessary to achieve a strong reduction of PM emissions and design cleaner and more efficient combustion systems. This has motivated a longstanding and ongoing research activity aimed at improving our understanding of the physical and chemical processes involved in soot formation, well reviewed in these recent works (Wang and Chung, 2019; Michelsen et al., 2020; Martin et al., 2022). Despite the wide interest, the transition from gas-phase molecules to incipient soot particles is still elusive and the successive particle growth and oxidation processes are far from being fully understood, especially in conditions relevant to real-world applications. Recent advances in combustion PM emission diagnostic and computational capabilities helped in improving the predictability of fundamental chemical and aerosol models for practical applications, thus tackling some of the above-mentioned challenges. The aim of this research topic is to display the ongoing research efforts in addressing the existing gaps on particulate formation from various fuel sources and in conditions typical of practical combustion applications (e.g. flames, engines, pool fires), through both experimental and numerical approaches.

42 ENGINEERING↗