SEARCH · Engineering Papers
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.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
This work examines the feasibility of a greenfield mixed plastics waste gasification facility with process modeling, TEA, and LCA.
Presented by NETL at ARPA-E Methane Pyrolysis Cohort Kick-off Meeting, 12/19
The invention provides a calcined Fe x —Al y —O z based catalyst for the decomposition of hydrocarbons such as methane to produce hydrogen and carbon. The catalyst comprises iron oxide mixed with aluminum oxide and calcined at temperatures above 1100° C., where Fe x —Al y —O z is a chemical composition with x>0.1, y>0.1, z≥0 and 0 2 and carbon. In an embodiment, carbon is separated from the catalyst and the catalyst is reused for continuous methane decomposition to produce H 2 .
Increased electricity production from renewable energy resources, coupled with low natural gas (NG) prices, has caused existing light-water reactors (LWRs) to experience diminishing returns from the electricity market. This reduction in revenue is forcing LWRs to consider alternative revenue streams, such as introduction hydrogen production or desalination, to remain profitable. This paper performs a technoeconomic assessment (TEA) regarding the viability of retrofitting existing pressurized-water reactors (PWRs) to produce green hydrogen (H 2 ) via high-temperature steam electrolysis (HTSE). Such an integration would allow nuclear facilities to expand into additional markets that may be more profitable in the long term and eliminate CO 2 emissions from the hydrogen production process. Here, to accommodate such an integration, a detailed single market levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) and multimarket analyses were conducted of HTSE process operation, requirements, costing, and flexibility. Alongside this costing analysis, market analyses were conducted on the electric and hydrogen markets in the PJM interconnect. Utilizing a novel stochastic, dispatch optimization approach results suggest that a positive gain is achievable, and by operating in multiple markets, the nuclear facility can avoid the sale of electricity during times of low electricity market pricing, while maintaining the ability to capitalize on the high electricity market pricing. It should be noted that the analysis conducted is a differential cash flow analysis and, as such, does not present profit levels. LCOH analysis results demonstrate the potential exists to produce hydrogen at a cost as low as $1.20/kg. This price is lower than traditional steam methane reforming (SMR) allowing nuclear based hydrogen production to disrupt the existing hydrogen production market.
The U.S. Department of Energy and National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR) demonstrate hydrogen electrolysis, hydrogen compression and storage, and variable hydrogen fuel cell power production using megawatt-scale equipment at NLR’s Flatirons Campus as part of the Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems (ARIES) initiative. This dataset is part of that effort and is intended for academic, national laboratory, industrial, and other stakeholders to plan, design, and validate models of megawatt-scale hydrogen technologies and diverse energy infrastructure. These data provide a baseline for how existing hydrogen electrolysis technologies perform when coupled with other energy technologies. This dataset contains inputs and outputs from simulations of a floating marine hydrokinetic turbine over approximately half a tidal cycle (~6.6 hours). Inflow conditions were derived from field measurements in Alaska’s Cook Inlet and represent a tidal environment in which the current speed ramps from near 0 m/s to a peak of 3 m/s and back. The original acoustic doppler current profiler dataset is publicly available on the Marine and Hydrokinetic Data Repository. In a full tidal cycle, the flow reverses and the rotor would reorient; this reversal was not modeled. In the Cook Inlet campaign , turbulence intensity was similar in both directions. Two inflow cases are included. In the first case, labeled “raw” in the files, the measured current time series was used directly in the InflowWind module of OpenFAST. Speed and direction were applied as a function of time and elevation, uniformly in the horizontal direction. With full spatial coherence, this approach captures high turbulent variability and results in pronounced power fluctuations, so it is considered a conservative, near-worst-case representation of loading. In the second case, labeled “average” in the files, a 30-minute moving average was applied to extract the slowly varying mean speed. The residual fluctuations about this mean were used to generate spatially varying, full-field turbulence inputs with TurbSim, giving a more physically realistic representation of the inflow across the rotor disk. Two random realizations were used to produce distinct inflow conditions for two OpenFAST simulations representing a two-turbine array. The same turbulence intensity is applied across the full time series, producing larger fluctuations at the start and end, where the mean speed is low. The second case is the more appropriate framework for performance and power assessment but overpredicts turbulence at lower flow speeds and underpredicts it at higher speeds. As the floating platform moves and the rotor changes its x-position, Taylor’s frozen turbulence hypothesis used by InflowWind assumes a constant rather than a time-varying mean velocity, introducing some inaccuracy in the velocity plane sampling. The turbine modeled is the 500-kW Reference Model 1, a horizontal-axis two-bladed hydrokinetic turbine on a four-column floating semisubmersible substructure . Simulations were performed using OpenFAST v4.1 with the Reference Open Source Controller (ROSCO) v2.10. All input files required to reproduce the simulations are included. The electrolyzer is a 1.25-MW proton exchange membrane type MC250 system manufactured by Nel . This unit supports up to 2.5 MW, but NLR has only a single 1.25-MW stack. The datasets report hydrogen balance-of-plant and system data, all captured at 1 Hz, including hydrogen mass production measured with an Emerson Coriolis flow meter. The system controls hydrogen production by varying direct current applied to the stack, from a maximum of 3,000 A to a minimum safe operating current of 300 A, or 10%. Because the current–voltage characteristic changes as the stack ages and efficiency degrades, the actual minimum safe operating power changes over time. The simulated tidal turbine time series data was translated from power (kilowatts) to current (amperes) using a curve fit with calibration data and sent to the electrolyzer power supply at 1-Hz. Each zip file represents a single tidal electrolysis experiment and is named: {technology}_{inflow method}_{number of 500 kW tidal turbines connected} For instance, “tidal-500kW-RM1_average_2.zip” is a 6-hour experiment using the 500-kW tidal reference model, scaled by 2x (1-MW) to better match the electrolyzer maximum of 1.25MW, fed with the 30-minute moving average current case. Each zip folder contains the following files: A .csv file of raw data. An .xlsx file explaining all the fields in the raw data. A .png plot showing the time series of hydrogen production in kilograms per hour, electrolysis power consumption, and input wave power. A .csv file combines all tidal profiles as "combined_tidal_experiments.csv." A separate experiment, “characterization_200.zip,” shows the MC250 electrolyzer steady-state response with 30-minute load steps over 5 hours and is accessible with this entry.
Two flux thimble tubes (FTT) made of 15% cold-worked 316 stainless steel (SS) were harvested from Ringhals Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) Unit 2, with peak damages of 76 and 100 displacements per atom (dpa) after 29 and 34 years’ service, respectively. Specimens sectioned from parent tubes were comprehensively characterized with nominal damage levels of ~0, ~41, ~74, 76, and 100 dpa at a nominal temperature range of 285-323 °C. Both FTTs contained helium and hydrogen gases as transmutation products. The helium follows a production rate of ~9.8 appm/dpa, while environmental factors complicate hydrogen production obscuring an exact H/dpa ratio. Irradiation-induced dislocation loops, nano-cavities, solute clusters, and microsegregation were all observed. The dislocation loops and nano-cavities indicated saturation at 41 dpa. The solute clusters continued to evolve with Ni-Si clusters formed at 41 dpa, and Ni-Si-Mn-P clusters formed at 74 and 100 dpa, but neither clusters exhibited distinct diffraction patterns at any damage levels. Solute clusters were observed to frequently be co-located with dislocation loops, but fully decorated loops were rarely detected. Significant radiation-induced segregation (RIS) was observed around grain boundaries at all damage levels. The modified inverse Kirkendall (MIK) model captured the RIS behavior of major elements. Large cavities within or around an Mn-S rich region were observed for the first time. Through all the damage levels, void swelling is always below 0.05%, making significant dimensional change unlikely in core internals when used at similar conditions. Meanwhile, the role of overwhelming nanocavities, presumably helium bubbles, should be considered in other potential degradation mechanisms, including irradiation-assisted stress corrosion cracking, embrittlement, and loss of fracture toughness, which remain the concerns for extended operation of nuclear power plants.
HydroGEN is a multi-lab consortium focused on early-stage R&D in H2 production, supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office (HFTO). The consortium advances research and development (R&D) of innovative materials for advanced water splitting (AWS) technologies to enable clean, sustainable and low-cost ($1/kg H2) hydrogen production and fosters cross-cutting innovation using theory-guided applied materials R&D to advance all emerging water-splitting pathways for hydrogen production. Hydrogen from Next-generation Electrolyzers of Water (H2NEW) is a consortium of nine U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratories focused on making large-scale electrolyzers, which produce hydrogen from electricity and water, more durable, efficient, and affordable. The presentation introduces the HydroGEN data hub to the H2NEW consortium and encourages H2NEW members to use it to store and share data with team members and eventually the public. The two consortia share this data hub.
HydroGEN is a multi-lab consortium focused on early-stage R&D in H2 production, supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office (HFTO). The consortium advances research and development (R&D) of innovative materials for advanced water splitting (AWS) technologies to enable clean, sustainable and low-cost ($1/kg H2) hydrogen production and fosters cross-cutting innovation using theory-guided applied materials R&D to advance all emerging water-splitting pathways for hydrogen production. HydroGEN is focused on low technology readiness level AWS technologies, including low- (alkaline exchanged membrane electrolysis) and high-temperature electrolysis (proton-conducting solid oxide electrolysis), photoelectrochecmical (PEC) and solar thermochemical (STCH) water splitting. This presentation will provide an overview of the HydroGEN EMN, its relationship to the H2NEW consortium, technical highlights of a few lab-led R&D projects, and the community appproach to benchmarking and protocol development for advanced water splitting technologies. Low-carbon hydrogen plays a vital role in the carbon dioxide utilization and decarbonization of several chemical and fuel industries.
The purpose of this report is to execute a market analysis to determine the potential market opportunities for natural gas-derived high-value carbon products and their associated applications. Currently, associated gas is released through the process of either venting or flaring. Vented or flared natural gas is presently lost to the atmosphere, despite the fact that it represents a significant resource of both carbon and hydrogen—two products that could have significant value. Transforming some of this underutilized supply into high-cost products could contribute to realizing the full value of United States (U.S.) natural gas resources. The products analyzed in this report are carbon fiber, carbon nanotubes, synthetic graphite, and carbon black. The report also touches on the market opportunities for hydrogen, a by-product of the pyrolysis process.
Palm oil, one of the most widely used vegetable oils, offers significant potential as a sustainable feedstock for biofuel production. This study explores the deoxygenation of palm oil using glycerol as a hydrogen donor, with nickel-molybdenum (NiMo) catalysts supported on commercial alumina (Al 2 O 3 ), and zeolite (HZSM-5) comparing with self-prepared zirconia (ZrO 2 ). The catalysts were synthesized via incipient wetness impregnation and evaluated for their performance in biofuel production. NiMo/Al 2 O 3 exhibited the lowest oxygen removal efficiency (68.5 %), while NiMo/HZSM-5 achieved a higher oxygen removal (74.3 %) but also demonstrated the highest coke formation. The type of support material influenced the resulting biofuel range, with NiMo/HZSM-5 and NiMo/ZrO 2 favoring jet fuel production, whereas NiMo/Al 2 O 3 was more suitable for diesel production. Notably, NiMo/ZrO 2 exhibited the highest performance in palm oil deoxygenation while minimizing coke formation. These findings highlight NiMo/ZrO 2 as a promising catalyst for efficient and stable biofuel production, with the support material significantly influencing product yield and fuel quality.
This is the Final Technical Report for the TEETH project. The TEETH concept couples high-temperature solar-thermochemical water splitting (TCWS) with electrochemical H 2 pumping through a proton conducting membrane (PCM) and capitalizes on the benefits of the individual technologies to synergistically providing new benefits. That is, TEETH is a coupled thermochemical/electrochemical process to produce H 2 from steam using solar energy. This approach is thermodynamically equivalent to other hybrid electrolytic processes but is unique in that the equilibrium of the reaction is driven forward by close coupling an electrically driven proton-conducting-membrane to the H 2 -producing reoxidation step. The process uniquely provides and benefits from the necessary H 2 /steam separation and, also unlike other hybrid processes, benefits thermodynamically from the use of readily generated high pressure steam. The concept also satisfies the objectives of previous concepts: 1) decreasing the reduction enthalpy (the reduction temperature), of the working metal-oxide (MO); 2) eliminating the need for a windowed receiver; and 3) widening the scope of material candidates, while also obviating the need for electrical connections to the working MO and avoiding the use of aqueous electrolytes and hydrated redox species (there is no liquid phase), without increasing mechanical complexity.
Thermocatalytic decomposition of methane provides opportunities for hydrogen (H2) production with no emission of carbon dioxide. However, high-value carbon products need to be produced for economic deployment of thermocatalytic decomposition and to achieve a minimum H 2 selling price below the U.S, Department of Energy target of $ 1/kg H 2 . In this review, we re-evaluate data on catalyst development reported in the literature and propose correlations between catalyst characteristics, catalytic stability, and properties of carbon co-products. In the first part of the review, growth mechanisms for carbon nanotubes using state-of-the-art chemical vapor deposition are reviewed to catalog the effects of catalyst characteristics, the influence of carbon sources, interactions between metal particles and supports, and metal particle sizes on carbon growth. In the second part, representative developments in mono-, bi-, and tri-metallic nickel catalysts are highlighted. We present kinetic analysis of reactions catalyzed by mono-metallic nickel catalysts, which generates a correlation between metal particle size and catalyst stability. Rational design of Ni-based catalysts for TCD of methane requires attention to the size of the metal particle and effective normalization of the reaction rates. Further attention to the distribution of the metal particle sizes may help identify catalyst properties that contribute longevity and selectivity to processes that use them. While it is tempting to focus on the highest valued carbon products (e.g., CNTs and CFs), analysis of the markets for other carbon products suggests that a more flexible approach may generate comparable returns without the risk associated with specialization.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Production of clean hydrogen energy from water splitting is vital for the future fuel industry, and nanocomposites have emerged as effective catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). In this study, Ru-CoO@SNG nanocomposites are prepared by controlled pyrolysis where Ru-CoO heterostructured nanoparticles are supported on nitrogen and sulfur codoped graphene oxide nanosheets. With a large surface area, the obtained composites exhibit a remarkable electrocatalytic activity toward HER in 1.0M KOH with an overpotential of only -90mV to reach the current density of 10 mA cm -2 , in comparison to -60mV for commercial Pt/C benchmark, along with high stability. Mechanistically, codoping of sulfur and nitrogen facilitates the dispersion of the nanoparticles, and the formation of Ru-CoO heterostructures increases the active site density, reduces the electron-transfer kinetics and boosts the catalytic performance. Further, results from this study highlight the unique potential of structural engineering in enhancing the electrocatalytic performance of heterostructured nanocomposites.
The H2@Scale concept envisions hydrogen as an energy intermediate across multiple energy sectors. The concept is motivated both by the opportunity to produce hydrogen from low-cost energy resources, and by the many potential applications of hydrogen, including as energy for transportation - used directly in fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs), as a feedstock for synthetic fuels, and to upgrade oil and biomass - feedstock for industry (e.g., for ammonia production, metals refining, and other end uses), heat for industry and buildings, and electricity storage. A key hydrogen production opportunity is using variable renewable electricity (i.e., electricity generated by wind turbines or solar photovoltaic panels) during hours when generation exceeds the load on the grid as a source of low-cost, dispatch constrained electricity (LDE). In addition to producing low-cost hydrogen, electrolysis can also serve as a form of responsive load on the electric grid, which can enhance grid stability, reduce curtailment, and create a supplementary revenue stream for generators. The future use and adoption of hydrogen across end-use applications depends both the cost of hydrogen production and on each application's threshold price (i.e., the maximum price each application will pay for hydrogen - above that price, the application has an alternative that is more economic). We estimate economic potential of the hydrogen market - the quantity of hydrogen at an equilibrium price at which suppliers are willing to produce and consumers are willing to buy the same quantity of hydrogen - by developing supply and demand curves for hydrogen production and use. The demand curves are based on the threshold price for various quantities of hydrogen in each market, which is affected by projected prices for alternatives that could provide the same service (e.g., fuel for vehicles, feedstock for metals refining). The supply curves include hydrogen produced via natural gas steam methane reforming, high-temperature electrolysis coupled with nuclear power plants, biomass gasification, and low-temperature electrolysis using LDE. We use a range of market and technology-advancement assumptions to estimate the economic potential for five scenarios in the mid 21st century timeframe, and the corresponding impacts on energy use and emissions. We estimate hydrogen's economic potential to be 14-48 MMT/yr in the contiguous United States - corresponding to 1.5-5 times current annual consumption - depending on key assumptions about the future market conditions and the success of hydrogen production research and development (R&D) in our five scenarios. As a result of the estimated economic potential markets, we also approximate that grid-integrated electrolysis can increase the penetration of wind generation in the electricity market by providing a value stream for LDE, and that total U.S. fossil fuel use could decline below a scenario with high renewable penetration on the grid. We find that hydrogen has potential to provide technical and economic synergies when integrated across multiple sectors of the U.S. energy system, but continued R&D, infrastructure, and market development for LDE are required.
The Department of Energy Hydrogen Fuel Cell Technology Office and Wind Energy Technologies Office's Wind-H2-Green Steel/Ammonia project is an initiative to demonstrate the feasibility and efficacy of GW-scale integrated energy systems. The team designed reference facilities that utilize wind- and solar-produced hydrogen for industrial steel and ammonia production. This novel concept warranted review of safety codes and standards as they apply to the designs and the identification of codes and standards gaps. This report reviews hydrogen production and storage codes and standards using reference design specifications from a Minnesota steel plant. Requirements, recommendations, and exclusions for the system were identified. Observed gaps included non-specific salt cavern storage requirements, electrolyzer capacity beyond regulated ranges, and lack of requirements for iron reduction via hydrogen. This report will aide future project design efforts and may provide a basis for safety reviews in new designs for industrial facilities with hydrogen production integration.
Climate change, global warming, fossil fuel depletion and rising fuel prices have created great incentives to seek alternative fuel production technologies. CO 2 transformation to value-added products using renewable H 2 has proven to be an emerging solution to enable this goal. In this regard, three different promising processes, namely methane, methanol and hydrocarbon synthesis via CO 2 hydrogenation are thoroughly discussed. In addition, the influential factors affecting process efficiencies such as catalyst design and mechanistic insight, operating conditions as well as reactor types are investigated, with key pathways that dictate catalyst activity and selectivity of the most promising materials described. Furthermore, a brief overview of the reactor configuration and its crucial role in the improving process viability is analyzed. Accordingly, fixed-bed, fluidized-bed, annular and spherical reactors along with H 2 O/H 2 perm-selective membrane reactors are disscussed for hydrocarbon production. In addition, different reactor configurations are compared to assess the best one that is adjustable depending on the reaction mechanism. In conclusion, a corrugated-wall dual-type membrane reactor is proposed as an emerging alternative for CO 2 hydrogenation to value-added products.
Two complementary rational synthetic routes have been developed in order to synthesize hangman chlorins, which differ with regard to the order of the installation (pre- and post-formation of the chlorin macrocycle) and position of the xanthene backbone about the chlorin periphery. The versatility of the synthetic method is demonstrated with the preparation of ten new hangman chlorins bearing a xanthene backbone and a pendant carboxylic acid. Cyclic voltammograms of hangman chlorins exhibit a hangman effect derived from intermolecular proton transfer. In conclusion, this hangman effect is manifested in catalytic hydrogen evolution production.