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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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This submission includes the processed and raw field electrical data from NREL's August 2022 HERO WEC (hydraulic and electric reverse osmosis wave energy converter) deployment at Jennette's Pier for the electrical PTO (power take-off).
Through a grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Municipality of Anchorage initiated a pilot program in their Solid Waste Services (SWS) department to add heavy-duty electric trucks to its vehicle fleet. The project involves the purchase and deployment of a Peterbilt 220EV electric box truck and two Peterbilt 520EV heavy-duty electric refuse trucks. The Alaska Center for Energy and Power at the University of Alaska Fairbanks performed data analysis. Data collected include telemetry data from both types of electric trucks, charging data from the 520EV telemetry data and a Level 2 charger, and facility-level electric use data.
Through a grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Municipality of Anchorage initiated a pilot program in their Solid Waste Services (SWS) department to add heavy-duty electric trucks to its vehicle fleet. The project involves the purchase and deployment of a Peterbilt 220EV electric box truck and two Peterbilt 520EV heavy-duty electric refuse trucks. The Alaska Center for Energy and Power at the University of Alaska Fairbanks performed data analysis. Data collected include telemetry data from both types of electric trucks, charging data from the 520EV telemetry data and a Level 2 charger, and facility-level electric use data.
During the Community Research on Climate and Urban Science (CROCUS) Urban Integrated Field Laboratory (UIFL) project, led by Argonne National Laboratory, this dataset was collected by METEK uSonic-3 Class A MP sonic anemometer at 10 meter height of the Argonne Deployable Mast (ADM) from July 26 to July 28, 2024, .As part of the CROCUS 2024 Urban Canyon Intensive Observation Period (IOP), 3-D sonic anemometer on the ADM was set up to provide continuous measurements of wind and temperature in Chicago during July 2024. These measurements cover winds in X-, Y- and Z- direction and sonic temperature at 30-Hz resolution. The data are formatted as NetCDF (.nc) files, making them easily accessible using common software such as MATLAB, R, and Python.
Conference paper presented at 17th International Conference on Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies (GHGT-17), Calgary, Alberta, Canada, October 20–24, 2024. This paper presents an overview of the Plains CO 2 Reduction (PCOR) Partnership Initiative and the current commercial carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) activity in the region, discusses challenges facing CCUS in the region, and highlights important challenges that have recently been overcome to enable CCUS deployment in the region.
In 2012, PYT was awarded a grant from the Department of Energy Tribal Energy Program to conduct a Renewable Energy Development and Deployment Feasibility Study that would define the technical and economic viability of renewable energy on tribal lands. Red Mountain Energy Partners (RMEP) was hired by PYT to complete the study. Through this study, Red Mountain concluded that there are viable opportunities for solar at Tortuga Ranch, the Casino del Sol and a third site near the Justice Center on Camino de Oeste.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, in accordance with the RE-Powering America's Lands initiative, engaged the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to conduct feasibility studies to assess the viability of developing renewable energy generating facilities on contaminated sites. Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (PNSY) is a United States Navy facility located on a series of conjoined islands in the Piscataqua River between Kittery, ME and Portsmouth, NH. EPA engaged NREL to conduct a study to determine technical feasibility of deploying ground-source heat pump systems to help PNSY achieve energy reduction goals.
Biomass for biofuels, bioproducts and bioenergy can be sourced from forests, agricultural crops, various residue streams, and dedicated woody or herbaceous crops. Short rotation woody crops (SRWC), like willow and hybrid poplar, are perennial cropping systems that produce a number of environmental and economic development benefits in addition to being a renewable source of biomass that can be produced on marginal land. Both hybrid poplar and willow have several characteristics that make them an ideal feedstock for biofuels, bioproducts, and bioenergy; these include high yields that can be obtained in three to four years, ease of cultivar propagation from dormant cuttings, a broad underutilized genetic base, ease of breeding, ability to resprout after multiple harvests, and feedstock composition similar to other sources of woody biomass. Despite the range of benefits associated with SRWC systems, their deployment has been restricted by high costs, low market acceptance associated with inconsistent chip quality (see below for further explanation), and misperceptions about other feedstock characteristics (see below for further explanation). Harvesting of SRWC is the largest single cost factor (~1/3 of the final delivered cost) in the feedstock supply system. Harvesting is also the second largest input of primary fossil energy in the system after commercial N fertilizer, accounting for about one third of the input. Therefore, improving the efficiency of the harvesting system has the potential to reduce both cost and environmental impact. At the start of this project, we projected that improving the overall efficiency of the harvesting system by 25% would reduce the delivered cost of SRWC by approximately $0.50/MMBtu (or about $7.50/dry ton). This goal was exceeded over the duration of this project, as noted below.
Credit enhancements represent a variety of financial support structures that are designed to reduce risk to those holding the debt, including debt raised via a securitization process, and thus lower the required yield associated with the security. The purpose of all forms of credit enhancement is to increase the collateral against which notes are secured (Lin,1999). The following section evaluates is not guaranteed. Perceived risks of the solar asset class--including those related to technology, offtaker creditworthiness, and regulatory policy--can increase the required yield, increase probability of investor loss of interest and/or principal, or both. In many cases, this is a cyclical phenomenon: risk perception is fed by lack of historical knowledge, which is in turn fed by risk perception. Therefore, successful access to capital market investment in order to spur low-cost solar deployment depends on the success of this initial fledgling period.
The report provides results from the Sunshine State Solar Grid Initiative (SUNGRIN) high penetration solar PV deployment project led by Florida State University’s (FSU) Center for Advanced Power Systems (CAPS). FSU CAPS and industry and university partners have completed a five-year effort aimed at enabling effective integration of high penetration levels of grid-connected solar PV generation. SUNGRIN has made significant contributions in the development of simulation-assisted techniques, tools, insight and understanding associated with solar PV effects on electric power system (EPS) operation and the evaluation of mitigation options for maintaining reliable operation. An important element of the project was the partnership and participation of six major Florida utilities and the Florida Reliability Coordinating Council (FRCC). Utilities provided details and data associated with actual distribution circuits having high-penetration PV to use as case studies. The project also conducted foundational work supporting future investigations of effects at the transmission / bulk power system level. In the final phase of the project, four open-use models with built-in case studies were developed and released, along with synthetic solar PV data sets, and tools and techniques for model reduction and in-depth parametric studies of solar PV impact on distribution circuits. Along with models and data, at least 70 supporting MATLAB functions have been developed and made available, with complete documentation.
Retrospective experience curves are a useful tool for understanding historic technology development, and can contribute to investment program analysis and future cost estimation efforts. This work documents our development of an analysis approach for deriving retrospective experience curves with a variable learning rate, and its application to develop an experience curve for compact fluorescent lamps for the global and North American markets over the years 1990-2007. Uncertainties and assumptions involved in interpreting data for our experience curve development are discussed, including the processing and transformation of empirical data, the selection of system boundaries, and the identification of historical changes in the learning rate over the course of 15 years. In the results that follow, we find that that the learning rate has changed at least once from 1990-2007. We also explore if, and to what degree, public deployment programs may have contributed to an increased technology learning rate in North America. We observe correlations between the changes in the learning rate and the initiation of new policies, abrupt technological advances, including improvements to ballast technology, and economic and political events such as trade tariffs and electricity prices. Finally, we discuss how the findings of this work (1) support the use of segmented experience curves for retrospective and prospective analysis and (2) may imply that investments in technological research and development have contributed to a change in market adoption and penetration.
At a time when upholding national security has never been more important, there exists a need for the advancement of radiation detection technologies. Neutron and photon detectors are essential to fulfilling mission areas including detection and localization of missing, stolen or smuggled radiological or nuclear materials, quantification of the effects of a radiological or nuclear event, and supporting nonproliferation efforts. The aim of this study was to evaluate a new radiation detector based on the scintillation elpasolite compound Cs 2 LiYCl 6 :Ce (CLYC) for simultaneous measurements of neutron and photon flux and the localization of radiation sources. Previous studies performed on the CLYC scintillator indicate its potential for thermal neutron and gamma-ray measurements. This study is dedicated to the novel application of the CLYC as a dual neutron / photon detector and as part of a directional detection system. Both computational modeling and an experimental study were carried out within this research project. As part of the computational study, the response of a CLYC scintillator detector to gamma rays induced by thermal neutron interaction with Cl and 7 Li nuclei was investigated using the MCNP6 code. In addition, arrays of three and four CLYC detectors were modeled in order to evaluate the directional detection of both a thermal neutron source and a gamma-ray source. It was shown that little or no quality of source direction determination would be lost when three detectors were used in the array compared to four detectors. In the experimental study, the photon spectroscopy capabilities of the CLYC detectors were evaluated. A gamma-ray energy resolution of 4.9% was measured for the 662-keV peak of 137 Cs and 3.6% for the 1.33-MeV peak of 60 Co. Using a thermal neutron source, the pulse shape discrimination analysis was successfully performed for the CLYC detector signal waveforms. Thermal neutrons and gamma rays were separated with an exceptional figure of merit (FOM) of 2.3. An array of three CLYC detectors was assembled for the purpose of directional neutron / gamma-ray detection. The intrinsic peak efficiency of CLYC detectors was evaluated. The three-CLYC detector array was deployed for directional measurements with a single gamma-ray 137 Cs source, two gamma-ray sources of 137 Cs and 60 Co isotopes and a thermal neutron source designed using a 239PuBe neutron source supplied with a polyethylene moderator. Measurements were carried out using sources located in the longitude and latitude planes over the angles from 0° to 360°. The measured data were processed through a maximum likelihood estimation algorithm providing a possible direction for which the radioactive source in each case was positioned. The estimated directions were close if not exact matches for the actual directions to the radioactive source. The largest discrepancy in direction produced by the algorithm was approximately 11%. However, it was hypothesized that this percent error can be decreased by homogenizing the directional detection system to consist of scintillators of the same size and quality, identical photomultiplier tubes and identical aluminum housings. The feasibility of this hypothesis to decrease the percent error was confirmed by the zero percent error achieved in the directional measurements produced in the computational study utilizing a homogenous directional detection system. The results of computational and experimental studies completed within this research project provide means to propose the array of three CLYC scintillators as an efficient dual neutron / gamma-ray directional detector.
Research was conducted to develop a farm and field deployable microbial bioreactor for bioethanol production from biomass. Experiments were conducted to select the most efficient microorganisms for conversion of plant fiber to sugars for fermentation to ethanol. Mixtures of biomass and surface soil samples were collected from selected sites in Alabama black belt counties (Macon, Sumter, Choctaw, Dallas, Montgomery, Lowndes) and other areas within the state of Alabama. Experiments were conducted to determine the effects of culture parameters on key biomass saccharifying enzymes (cellulase, beta-glucosidase, xylanase and beta-xylosidase). A wide-scale sampling of locally-grown fruits in Central Alabama was embarked to isolate potential xylose fermenting microorganisms. Yeast isolates were evaluated for xylose fermentation. Selected microorganisms were characterized by DNA based methods. Factors affecting enzyme production and biomass saccharification were examined and optimized in the laboratory. Methods of biomass pretreatment were compared. Co-production of amylolytic enzymes with celluloytic-xylanolytic enzymes was evaluated; and co-saccharification of a combination of biomass, and starch-rich materials was examined. Simultaneous saccharification and fermentation with and without pre-saccharifcation was studied. Whole culture broth and filtered culture broth simultaneous saccahrifcation and fermentation were compared. A bioreactor system was designed and constructed to employ laboratory results for scale up of biomass saccharification.
Sprint is one of the telecommunications industry leaders in the deployment of hydrogen fuel cell (HFC) systems to provide backup power for their mission critical wireless network facilities. With several hundred fuel cells commissioned in California, states in the gulf coast region, and along the upper eastern seaboard. A strong incentive for advancing the integration of fuel cells into the Sprint network came through the award of a Department of Energy (DOE) grant focused on Market Transformation activities for project (EE0000486). This grant was funded by the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The funding provided by DOE ($7.295M) was allocated to support the installation of 260 new HFC systems, equipped with an on-site refillable Medium Pressure Hydrogen Storage Solution (MPHSS), as well as for the conversion of 21 low pressure hydrogen systems to the MPHSS, in hopes of reducing barriers to market acceptance.
Atmospheric aerosols influence global climate by scattering and absorbing sunlight (direct effects) and by changing the microphysical structure, lifetime, and coverage of clouds (indirect effects). While it is widely accepted that aerosol indirect effects act to cool the Earth-atmosphere system by increasing cloud reflectivity and coverage, the magnitudes of the indirect effects are poorly quantified. One key aerosol property for understanding aerosol indirect effects is the ability of aerosol particles to form cloud droplets at atmospheric relevant supersaturations—i.e., cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) activity. For particles consisting of typical atmospheric inorganic compounds, their CCN activity is well understood and can be effectively predicted using Köhler theory based on physicochemical properties of the solute, such as its mass, molar volume, and activity coefficient. However, atmospheric aerosols often consist of hundreds of organic species, which can contribute ~20-90% to the total fine aerosol mass. Depending on their properties, organic species can significantly influence the ability of aerosol particles to act as CCN and form cloud droplets. This project focuses on the CCN activity of secondary organic aerosol compounds formed from key biogenic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) under representative conditions, and the relationship between the hygroscopicity and composition of organic aerosols. The ARM Aerial Facility (AAF) scanning mobility particles sizer (SMPS) was deployed during a ~ 6 week intensive measurement campaign, taking place June 15-July 31 2015 at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) Environmental Simulation Chamber. The SMPS was operated with a CCN counter. Aerosol particles were first classified by the differential mobility analyzer inside the SMPS; the classified aerosol will then be simultaneously characterized by a condensation particle counter (part of the SMPS) and the CCN counter.
Bioenergy is renewable energy generated from biological source materials, and includes electricity, transportation fuels and heating. Source materials are varied types of biomass, including food crops such as corn and sugarcane, non-edible lignocellulosic materials such as agricultural and forestry waste and dedicated crops, and municipal and livestock wastes. Key aspects of policies for bioenergy deployment are presented in this brief as part of the Clean Energy Solutions Center's Clean Energy Policy Brief Series.
Under the International Energy Agency Wind Implementing Agreement (IEA Wind) Task 11, researchers started examining novel applications for remote sensing and the issues around them during the 51st topical expert meeting about remote sensing in January 2007. The 59th topical expert meeting organized by Task 11 in October 2009 was also dedicated to remote sensing, and the first draft of the Task's recommended practices on remote sensing was published in January 2013. The results of the Task 11 topical expert meetings provided solid groundwork for a new IEA Wind Task 32 on wind lidar technologies. Members of the wind community identified the need to consolidate the knowledge about wind lidar systems to facilitate their use, and to investigate how to exploit the advantages offered by this technology. This was the motivation that led to the start of IEA Wind Task 32 'Lidar Application for Wind Energy Deployment' in November 2011. The kick-off was meeting was held in May 2012.
As the first utility scale wave power project in the US, the Wave Power Demonstration Project at Reedsport (OR) was planned to consist of 10 PowerBuoys (Phase II)1, located 2.5 miles off the coast. U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) funding under a prior DOE Grant (DE-FG36-08GO88017) along with funding from PNGC Power, an Oregon-based electric power cooperative, was utilized for the design completion, fabrication, assembly and factory testing of the first PowerBuoy for the Reedsport project. The design and fabrication of the first PowerBuoy and factory testing of the power take-off subsystem were completed, and the power take-off subsystem was successfully integrated into the spar at the fabricator’s facility in Oregon. The objectives of this follow-on grant were: advance PB150B design from TRL 5/6 to TRL 7/8; deploy a single PB150 and operate autonomously for 2 years; establish O&M costs; collect environmental information; and establish manufacturing methodologies.