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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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904 records · Page 51
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

An Innovative Zero-Liquid Discharge Intermediate-Cold-Liquid Eutectic-Freeze Desalination System

A novel freeze desalination technology is presented for purification of water produced from various industrial processes, including oil and gas extraction. The main innovative idea is introducing a water-immiscible intermediate-cold-liquid (ICL) medium which absorbs the cold from a refrigeration cycle and transfers it to a freezing chamber where it is mixed with brine. The cold ICL enters the freezing chamber at temperatures between -10°C to -30°C. Precooled brine in injected into the freezing chamber and pure water freezes out of the brine upon mixing with the ICL. The rate of freezing inside the chamber is controlled by adjusting the flow rate of the cold ICL relative to the inlet brine. Both eutectic freeze and non-eutectic freezing are possible by controlling the temperature of the freezing chamber. The solid-liquid slurry created in the freezing chamber flows to a filter separation unit after passing through a separation column. The ice crystals are separated from the liquid by a rotary filter device. The collected ice is rinsed by a centrifugal unit. The rinsed ice is melted to produce fresh water. The developed technology resolves the issues common to current freeze-desalination systems while offering superior heat transfer performance ascribed to direct-contact between the cooling medium and the brine in addition to producing solid salt and pure water. The system operates under atmospheric pressure. The low operation temperature minimizes the corrosion issues common in systems exposed to brine. Also, due to the low operating temperature, there are no concerns about evaporation of volatile organics from the produced water during the treatment. The developed technology effectively eliminates the use of chemicals for pretreatment of brine. The system can be constructed from commercially available components. Extensive testing using a lab-scale prototype by using synthetic brine and actual produced water with TDS values from 50,000 ppm to 300,000 ppm showed that freshwater could be achieved with relatively small dependency on the quality of the input brine. The quality of the treated water was found to be mainly a function of the duration of the centrifugal process. Treated water with TDS as low as 200 ppm could be achieved in the tests. Thermo-economic modeling coupled with system level thermochemical process model were developed for prediction of the LCOW. The LCOW was predicted to be $\$$0.50 to $\$$0.90 per barrel of produced water. The potential markets for deployment of the technology are the oil and gas, in-land thermoelectric powerplants, RO desalination plants, and mining industry.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Accurate and Rapid Forecasts for Geologic Carbon Storage via Learning-Based Inversion-Free Prediction

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is one approach being studied by the U.S. Department of Energy to help mitigate global warming. The process involves capturing CO 2 emissions from industrial sources and permanently storing them in deep geologic formations (storage reservoirs). However, CCS projects generally target “green field sites,” where there is often little characterization data and therefore large uncertainty about the petrophysical properties and other geologic attributes of the storage reservoir. Consequently, ensemble-based approaches are often used to forecast multiple realizations prior to CO 2 injection to visualize a range of potential outcomes. In addition, monitoring data during injection operations are used to update the pre-injection forecasts and thereby improve agreement between forecasted and observed behavior. Thus, a system for generating accurate, timely forecasts of pressure buildup and CO 2 movement and distribution within the storage reservoir and for updating those forecasts via monitoring measurements becomes crucial. This study proposes a learning-based prediction method that can accurately and rapidly forecast spatial distribution of CO 2 concentration and pressure with uncertainty quantification without relying on traditional inverse modeling. The machine learning techniques include dimension reduction, multivariate data analysis, and Bayesian learning. The outcome is expected to provide CO 2 storage site operators with an effective tool for timely and informative decision making based on limited simulation and monitoring data.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Editorial: Water supply sustainability and challenges in Asian megadeltas under global change

Globally, riverine deltas comprise barely 1% of land area, but they support the livelihoods of more than 500 million people (Moorhouse et al., 2021). The Asian megadeltas (e.g., Indus, Bengal, Mekong, Red River, and Yangtze) and their riverine floodplains are the most dynamic economic and environmental systems in the world. These low-lying coastal landforms support surface water bodies and highly productive aquifer systems. However, water resources of the Asian megadeltas are extremely vulnerable to geogenic (e.g., arsenic) and anthropogenic (e.g., bacteria) contamination, increased water salinisation from rising sea levels (Figure 1), and chemicals (e.g., fertilizers, pesticides) from land-use practices (Mukherjee et al., 2024) – all of which are threatening the sustainability of water supply and food security in the region. This Research Topic collection features five original articles that explore water chemistry including arsenic and bacteriological contamination, water salinisation, water-energy-food nexus in irrigated agriculture, and groundwater depletion resulting from irrigation, rapid urbanization, and climate change. Although the Research Topic collection does not include case studies from all the Asian Megadeltas shown in Figure 1, the relevance of multi-hazard driven water risks to all deltaic and river floodplain environments around the world is well-illustrated.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2026

Defining Infrastructure Feasibility for Hub-Scale Offshore Atlantic Carbon Storage in the Northeastern United States

In the Northeast U.S., deep rock formations along the Atlantic outer continental shelf may have the potential to sequester 150–1136 million metric tons of CO2. However, the design and infrastructure necessary to develop offshore carbon storage in this region is not well defined because there has been little oil and gas exploration and no commercial production. Consequently, an infrastructure feasibility design was completed for a hub-scale offshore CO2 storage system along the Northeast U.S. Atlantic. The design included development of a detailed, site-specific geological model for a location near the Great Stone Dome geological structure in the Baltimore Canyon Trough off the coast of Delaware, Maryland, and New Jersey. A field injection system topology design was completed to portray a design with eight wells in two clusters connected by central manifolds. Reservoir simulations were completed for the injection system that showed the hub may be able to inject 17 million metric tons (MMT) of CO2 per year for thirty years, but injection rates varied substantially across the eight wells. A CO2 pipeline design determined feasible routes from the east coast shoreline to the injection field. Finally, the CO2 injection system design included subsea injection trees, manifolds, and power umbilicals. This is the first study to define large-scale carbon storage design and infrastructure options for the offshore Atlantic, which can help to progress this region towards field characterization and early-mover deployment for future decarbonization in the region.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗