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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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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Twenty Years of Progress, Challenges, and Opportunities in Measuring and Understanding Soil Respiration

Abstract Soil respiration (Rs), the soil‐to‐atmosphere flux of CO 2 , is a dominant but uncertain part of the carbon cycle, even after decades of study. This review focuses on progress in understanding Rs from laboratory incubations to global estimates. We survey key developments of in situ ecosystem‐scale Rs observations and manipulations, synthesize Rs meta‐analyses and global flux estimates, and discuss the most compelling challenges and opportunities for the future. Increasingly sophisticated lab experiments have yielded insights into the interaction among heterotrophic respiration, substrate supply, and enzymatic kinetics, and extended incubation‐based analyses across space and time. Observational and manipulative field‐based experiments have used improved measurement approaches to deepen our understanding of the integrated effects of environmental change and disturbance on Rs. Freely‐available observational databases have enabled meta‐analyses and studies probing the magnitude of, and constraints on, the global Rs flux. Key challenges for the field include expanding Rs measurements, experiments, and opportunities to under‐represented communities and ecosystems; reconciling independent estimates of global respiration fluxes and trends; testing and leveraging the power of machine learning and process‐based models, both independently and in conjunction with each other; and continuing the field's tradition of using novel experiments to explore diverse mechanisms and ecosystems.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Scenarios in IPCC assessments: lessons from AR6 and opportunities for AR7

Scenarios have been an important integrating element in the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in the understanding of possible climate outcomes, impacts and risks, and mitigation futures. Integration supports a consistent, coherent assessment, new insights and the opportunity to address policy-relevant questions that would not be possible otherwise, for example, which impacts are unavoidable, which are reversible, what is a consistent remaining carbon budget to keep temperatures below a level and what would be a consistent route of action to achieve that goal. The AR6 builds on community frameworks that are developed to support a coherent use of scenarios across the assessment, yet their use in the assessment and the related timelines presented coordination challenges. From lessons within each Working Group (WG) assessment and the cross-WG experience, we present insights into the role of scenarios in future assessments, including the enhanced integration of impacts into scenarios, near-term information and community coordination efforts. Recommendations and opportunities are discussed for how scenarios can support strengthened consistency and policy relevance in the next IPCC assessment cycle.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Opportunities in electrically tunable 2D materials beyond graphene: Recent progress and future outlook

The interest in two-dimensional and layered materials continues to expand, driven by the compelling properties of individual atomic layers that can be stacked and/or twisted into synthetic heterostructures. The plethora of electronic properties as well as the emergence of many different quasiparticles, including plasmons, polaritons, trions, and excitons with large, tunable binding energies that all can be controlled and modulated through electrical means, has given rise to many device applications. In addition, these materials exhibit both room-temperature spin and valley polarization, magnetism, superconductivity, piezoelectricity that are intricately dependent on the composition, crystal structure, stacking, twist angle, layer number, and phases of these materials. Initial results on graphene exfoliated from single bulk crystals motivated the development of wide-area, high purity synthesis and heterojunctions with atomically clean interfaces. Now by opening this design space to new synthetic two-dimensional materials “beyond graphene,” it is possible to explore uncharted opportunities in designing novel heterostructures for electrically tunable devices. To fully reveal the emerging functionalities and opportunities of these atomically thin materials in practical applications, this review highlights several representative and noteworthy research directions in the use of electrical means to tune these aforementioned physical and structural properties, with an emphasis on discussing major applications of beyond graphene 2D materials in tunable devices in recent years and an outlook of what is to come in the next decade.

Vincent, Tom (ORCID:0000000159749137)↗
DOE OSTI2024

Equity and modeling in sustainability science: Examples and opportunities throughout the process

Equity is core to sustainability, but current interventions to enhance sustainability often fall short in adequately addressing this linkage. Models are important tools for informing action, and their development and use present opportunities to center equity in process and outcomes. This Perspective highlights progress in integrating equity into systems modeling in sustainability science, as well as key challenges, tensions, and future directions. We present a conceptual framework for equity in systems modeling, focused on its distributional, procedural, and recognitional dimensions. We discuss examples of how modelers engage with these different dimensions throughout the modeling process and from across a range of modeling approaches and topics, including water resources, energy systems, air quality, and conservation. Synthesizing across these examples, we identify significant advances in enhancing procedural and recognitional equity by reframing models as tools to explore pluralism in worldviews and knowledge systems; enabling models to better represent distributional inequity through new computational techniques and data sources; investigating the dynamics that can drive inequities by linking different modeling approaches; and developing more nuanced metrics for assessing equity outcomes. We also identify important future directions, such as an increased focus on using models to identify pathways to transform underlying conditions that lead to inequities and move toward desired futures. By looking at examples across the diverse fields within sustainability science, we argue that there are valuable opportunities for mutual learning on how to use models more effectively as tools to support sustainable and equitable futures.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Evaluating opportunity for distributed wind energy in rural and agricultural areas

Wind energy is among the most mature renewable energy technologies, accounting for 11% of the current US electricity generation in 2024, with the lowest average levelized cost. While it is known that substantial opportunity exists for further development, a key question has been where wind energy is best suited compared to other technologies. This study leverages an immense dataset of parcel-resolved technoeconomic potential for the contiguous United States, focusing on distributed wind (DW) energy—a configuration where one or more turbines, typically 30–60 m in height are used to satisfy nearby energy needs. The analysis is conducted at multiple spatial scales and considers land use, crop land, census, and incentive program data to determine the most opportune areas for market development. The results show that rural, agricultural and residential areas are most suited to DW. Connection type (in front of, or behind the meter) and regulations determine the best application, while siting constraints, economics, demand and the wind resource determines the optimal size of turbine.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Frontiers and opportunities in bioenergy crop microbiome research networks

Researchers from across the four U.S. Department of Energy Bioenergy Research Centers engaged in a microbiome workshop that focused on identifying challenges and collaboration opportunities to better understand bioenergy-relevant plant–microbe interactions. The virtual workshop included hands-on educational sessions and a keynote address on current best practices in microbiome science and community microbiome standards, as well as breakout sessions aimed at identifying microbiome-related data and measurements that should be prioritized, opportunities for and barriers to integrating plant metabolites to microbiome research, and strategies for more effectively integrating microbiome data and processes into existing models. Based on participant discussion, key findings of the workshop were the need to prioritize scaling data sharing across BRCs and the broader research community and securing collaborative infrastructure in the areas of microbiome-ecosystem modeling and molecular plant-microbe interactions. This workshop review highlights additional main findings from this event, to encourage cross-site and more holistic meta-analyses while promoting wide scientific community engagement across plant microbiome sciences.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Nuclear structure opportunities with GeV radioactive beams at FAIR

The Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) is in its final construction stage next to the campus of the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung Helmholtzzentrum for heavy-ion research in Darmstadt, Germany. Once it starts its operation, it will be the main nuclear physics research facility in many basic sciences and their applications in Europe for the coming decades. Owing to the ability of the new fragment separator, Super-FRagment Separator, to produce high-intensity radioactive ion beams in the energy range up to about 2 GeV/nucleon, these can be used in various nuclear reactions. This opens a unique opportunity for various nuclear structure studies across a range of fields and scales: from low-energy physics via the investigation of multi-neutron systems and halos to high-density nuclear matter and the equation of state, following heavy-ion collisions, fission and study of short-range correlations in nuclei and hypernuclei. Here, the newly developed reactions with relativistic radioactive beams (R3B) set up at FAIR would be the most suitable and versatile for such studies. An overview of highlighted physics cases foreseen at R3B is given, along with possible future opportunities, at FAIR.

FAIR↗
DOE OSTI2023

Analyzing File Access Patterns on Large-Scale HPC Systems: Opportunities for File Prefetching

This paper explores the potential opportunities for implementing file prefetching techniques on large-scale high-performance computing (HPC) systems. Specifically, we investigate the file access patterns of various applications across multiple scientific domains using two years' worth of Darshan I/O traces obtained from the Summit supercomputer. We identify recurring trends and patterns which indicate that prefetching can be effectively leveraged to improve data access performance on HPC systems. This study serves as a valuable reference for system architects and developers in the HPC community, providing insights into the opportunities and challenges associated with enabling file prefetching on large-scale HPC systems.

Karimi, Ahmad Maroof↗
DOE OSTI2022

Challenges of and Opportunities for a Large Diverse Software Team

A large software team consisting of members with different expertise, skillsets, personalities, ethnicities, and involving collaboration on a large and complex software product presents many technical and cultural challenges, but also provides unique opportunities. In this article, we discuss the essential issues we faced when successfully transforming a collection of various independently developed software libraries into one large integrated product: the eXtreme-scale scientific Software Development Kit (xSDK). Furthermore, we argue it is just as important to pay attention to cultural challenges, such as establishment of reliable communication channels that considers, among others, differences in personalities and backgrounds as well as overcoming geographical separation and time-zone distribution when collaborating, as technical challenges. Finally, we discuss opportunities stemming from participating in a large diverse software team, such as increased internal expertise, variety of skillsets, broadened connections to external experts, and access to a larger pool of ideas or solutions.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2020

Opportunities for Clean Energy in Natural Gas Well Operations

The oil and gas industry is increasingly seeking operational improvements to reduce both costs and emissions while improving resilience against electric grid outages. This study describes techno-economic analysis of opportunities for distributed energy generation and storage technologies to support companies’ energy cost savings, clean energy, and energy resiliency goals. Specifically, the analysis evaluates solar photovoltaics (PV), distributed wind energy, and battery energy storage at hypothetical upstream well sites in the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania, both grid-connected and off-grid. Results indicate opportunity for solar PV to reduce operational costs. Additionally, these technologies reduce the site’s consumption of grid electricity and natural gas and thus can help reduce Scope 1 and 2 emissions associated with electricity and natural gas consumption. For each emissions reduction scenario, a cost of avoided emissions was calculated; these values can be compared to internal organizational value placed on emissions reductions, compared to other emissions reduction strategies such as energy efficiency, reducing flaring, and direct carbon capture and sequestration, and compared to existing (albeit limited) U.S. carbon markets such as California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard. Results indicate that the associated costs of emissions reductions via distributed renewables are competitive with these options and markets. The study also explores the ability of these electric clean energy technologies to support site resiliency against utility outages.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2023

Opportunities to advance the synthesis of ecology and evolution

Despite decades of research on the interactions between ecology and evolution, opportunities still remain to further integrate the two disciplines, especially when considering multispecies systems. Here, we discuss two such opportunities. First, the traditional emphasis on the distinction between evolutionary and ecological processes should be further relaxed as it is particularly unhelpful in the study of microbial communities, where the very notion of species is hard to define. Second, key processes of evolutionary theory such as adaptation should be exported to hierarchical levels higher than populations to make sense of biodiversity dynamics. Together, we argue that broadening our perspective of eco-evolutionary dynamics to be more inclusive of all biodiversity, both phylogenetically and hierarchically, will open up fertile new research directions and help us to address one of the major scientific challenges of our time, that is, to understand and predict changes in biodiversity in the face of rapid environmental change.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Data for Climate vs Energy Security: Quantifying the Trade-offs of BECCS Deployment and Overcoming Opportunity Costs on Set-Aside Land

Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) sits at the nexus of the climate and energy security. We evaluated trade-offs between scenarios that support climate stabilization (negative emissions and net climate benefit) or energy security (ethanol production). Our spatially explicit model indicates that the foregone climate benefit from abandoned cropland (opportunity cost) increased carbon emissions per unit of energy produced by 14–36%, making geologic carbon capture and storage necessary to achieve negative emissions from any given energy crop. The toll of opportunity costs on the climate benefit of BECCS from set-aside land was offset through the spatial allocation of crops based on their individual biophysical constraints. Dedicated energy crops consistently outperformed mixed grasslands. We estimate that BECCS allocation to land enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) could capture up to 9 Tg C year–1 from the atmosphere, deliver up to 16 Tg CE year–1 in emissions savings, and meet up to 10% of the US energy statutory targets, but contributions varied substantially as the priority shifted from climate stabilization to energy provision. Our results indicate a significant potential to integrate energy security targets into sustainable pathways to climate stabilization but underpin the trade-offs of divergent policy-driven agendas.

Field Data↗
DOE OSTI2021

Advances and opportunities in materials science for scalable quantum computing

We report that by harnessing unique quantum mechanical phenomena, such as superposition and entanglement, quantum computers offer the possibility to drastically outperform classical computers for certain classes of problems. The realization of this potential, however, presents a substantial challenge, because noise and imperfections associated with the materials used to fabricate devices can obscure the delicate quantum mechanical effects that enable quantum computing. Hence, progress in synthesis, characterization, and modeling of materials for quantum computing have driven many exciting advances in recent years and will become increasingly important in the years to come. As progressively more complex, multi-qubit systems come online, and as significant government and industrial investment drives research forward, new challenges and opportunities for materials science continue to emerge. The articles in this issue survey the current state of materials science progress and obstacles for some leading quantum computing platforms; opportunities for deeper involvement by materials scientists abound. Ultimate realization of the full potential of quantum computers will require a multidisciplinary effort spanning many traditional areas of expertise.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Exploring Renewable Energy Opportunities in Select Southeast Asian Countries: A Geospatial Analysis of the Levelized Cost of Energy of Utility-Scale Wind and Solar Photovoltaics

The costs of renewable energy-based electricity generation have fallen precipitously in recent years to levels that are increasingly competitive with traditional generation such as fossil fuel-based generation. As these costs become increasingly competitive, private developers, policymakers, and energy system planners are searching for opportunities to harness high-quality renewable energy resources. Developing economies are setting ambitious targets and exploring how cost-effective, grid-connected renewable energy options can help power economic growth and meet growing electricity demands. This includes the member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) that are determined to reach a target of 23% of renewable energy in the region's total primary energy supply by 2025. A critical gap to identifying opportunities and scaling up renewable energy is the lack of quality data and analyses to support decisions on the investment and deployment of renewables - including wind and solar photovoltaics (PV). This work supports decision making by providing high-quality data and spatial analysis of the cost of utility-scale wind and solar PV generation in select countries of Southeast Asia - specifically, the ASEAN member states. Generation costs are expressed as the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) - a commonly used metric that represents the net present value of the unit cost of electricity during the lifetime of a particular electricity generation technology. This is the first spatial estimate of LCOE for these technologies within the ASEAN member states - providing insights into the roles that renewable energy resource quality and other factors may play in generation costs.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Hydropower Geotechnical Foundations: Executive Summary on Current Practice and Innovation Opportunities for Low-Head Applications

The following content provides a companion executive summary of Hydropower Geotechnical Foundations: Current Practice and Innovation Opportunities for Low-Head Applications (DeNeale et al. 2020), a technical report developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Knight Piésold Consulting, with funding from the US Department of Energy (DOE) Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO). This executive summary provides a brief synopsis of the broader information contained in the technical report. This study (and the associated technical report): (1) covers background information on hydropower; (2) describes various characteristics relevant to hydropower foundations for undeveloped US streams; (3) presents the current state of practice in foundation development; (4) provides a representative assessment of conventional hydropower foundation costs and timelines; (5) addresses key challenges facing conventional hydropower foundations; and (6) presents opportunity areas and examples for innovative hydropower foundation technologies while highlighting some advances in non-hydropower industries.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Evaluating Energy Efficiency Opportunities from Connected and Automated Vehicle Deployments Coupled with Shared Mobility in California

Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs) can be considered to be a disruptive transportation technology, with the potential to significantly improve overall transportation system efficiency; however, CAVs may increase induce vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and bring on greater energy consumption. Further, shared mobility is another disruptive transportation event that is reshaping our travel patterns. The primary goal of this project was to extensively collect data from vehicles and associated infrastructure equipped with CAV technologies from both real-world experiments and simulation studies mainly deployed in California, and develop a comprehensive framework for evaluating energy efficiency opportunities from large-scale (e.g., statewide) introduction of CAVs and a wide deployment of shared mobility systems in a variety of scenarios. To quantify the combined impact of CAV and shared mobility on travel behavior, traffic performance, and energy efficiency, a unique mesoscopic simulation-based model was developed for mobility and energy efficiency evaluation considering these disruptive transportation technologies. As a complement to existing studies on nationwide evaluation of CAVs’ energy impacts, this project was focused on data collection efforts and CAV applications under congested traffic environments that are frequently experienced on a massive scale across the major metropolitan areas in California. Extensive real-world data collection supplemented with simulation studies were conducted to cover a variety of CAV and shared mobility scenarios, particularly on scenarios less-explored in the existing research. Another key component of this project was to consider the interaction between different CAV technologies and shared mobility models, and the compound effect on energy efficiency. A comprehensive modeling suite was developed to quantify the impact of new mobility technologies on travel behavior and traffic performance. The developed modeling framework includes an energy intensity module, mode choice module and activity generation module that are integrated into an agent-based BEAM simulation platform to perform impact analysis based on a variety of scenarios. In addition, the RouteE model has been upgraded to incorporate the impact of CAVs on traffic flow, VMT and energy intensity, using micro-simulation data collected from both freeways and urban arterials. A novel fundamental influencing factor (FIF) mode choice model was developed to link CAV and shared mobility components with travel behaviors, and adapted into the BEAM-centered model framework. A statewide energy inventory was constructed under various CAV technology deployment scenarios by incorporating datasets and models for predicting vehicle market share and vehicle usage, which are tightly associated with the penetration of shared mobility systems. Based applying this modeling suite to a calibrated network in Riverside California, it was found that cooperative automated driving in general will improve mobility, but automated vehicles, even when deployed in a shared autonomous fleet, will likely bring an increase of VMT (up to 36%) due to mode shifts and deadheading. Ride-hailing vehicles typically have better energy efficiency and a higher share of electric vehicles, which helps offset the negative impact from VMT increases when estimating the system-level energy consumption. In general, simulation results show a 6% increase in energy consumption for the scenarios with an increasing shift to ride-hailing modes. The statewide analysis based on the National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) sample data is consistent with the findings from the Riverside network and validate the developed clustering-prediction modeling methodology. The outcomes from this project will help close the knowledge gap on recognizing the potential performance and energy impacts of a broad deployment of CAV and shared mobility technologies across a wide range of roadway infrastructure with varying levels of congestion. Results from this project: 1) will support policymakers in steering CAV development and deployment towards an energy favorable direction; 2) reduce uncertainties in estimating energy saving opportunities from new mobility technologies and services; 3) increase the confidence of CAV technology investors both on the infrastructure side (i.e., transportation agencies) and on the vehicle side (i.e., OEMs); and 4) expedite the deployment of energy-efficient CAV and shared mobility applications.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Opportunities and Challenges from Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for the Advancement of Science, Technology, and the Office of Science Missions

In February 2019, the President signed Executive Order 13859, Maintaining American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence. This order launched the American Artificial Intelligence Initiative, a concerted effort to promote and protect AI technology and innovation in the United States. The Initiative implements a government-wide strategy in collaboration and engagement with the private sector, academia, the public, and like-minded international partners. Among other actions, key directives in the Initiative called for Federal agencies to: Prioritize AI research and development investments, Enhance access to high-quality cyberinfrastructure and data, Ensure that the US maintains an international leadership role in the development of technical standards for AI, and Provide education and training opportunities to prepare the American workforce for the new era of AI. The mission of the Department of Energy (DOE) is to ensure America’s security and prosperity by addressing its energy, environmental, and nuclear challenges through transformative science and technology solutions. In terms of Science and Innovation, the DOE’s mission is to maintain a vibrant US effort in science and engineering as a cornerstone of our economic prosperity with clear leadership in strategic areas. From July to October in 2019, the Argonne, Oak Ridge, and Berkeley National Laboratories hosted a series of four AI for Science Town Hall meetings in Chicago, Oak Ridge, Berkeley, and Washington DC. The four meetings were attended by over 1300 scientists from the 17 DOE Labs, 39 companies, and over 90 universities. The goal of the Town Hall series was ‘to examine scientific opportunities in the areas of artificial intelligence, Big Data, and high-performance computing (HPC) in the next decade, and to capture the big ideas, grand challenges, and next steps to realizing these.’ The discussions at the meetings were captured in the final report of the AI for Science Town Hall meetings.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2021

Opportunities for Solar Industrial Process Heat in the United States

Energy used in the production and processing of materials and products represents a significant fraction of the overall energy footprint of the industrial sector. Solar technologies may provide suitable alternative to existing combustion technologies, but their relevance for industries in the United States has been largely unexplored at the necessary levels of spatial, temporal, and operational detail. To provide the first assessment of the technical opportunities for solar technologies to meet the demand for process heat in the United States, we first develop estimates of energy use by process temperature at the county and hourly resolutions for all manufacturing industries. We then estimate the opportunities for seven solar technology packages—comprised of solar thermal and photovoltaic-connected electrotechnologies—to meet process heat demand given solar resources and available land area by county.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗