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At least 1,063 records · Page 59

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DOE OSTI2021

A Comparison of Machine Learning Methods to Forecast Tropospheric Ozone Levels in Delhi

Ground-level ozone is a pollutant that is harmful to urban populations, particularly in developing countries where it is present in significant quantities. It greatly increases the risk of heart and lung diseases and harms agricultural crops. This study hypothesized that, as a secondary pollutant, ground-level ozone is amenable to 24 h forecasting based on measurements of weather conditions and primary pollutants such as nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds. We developed software to analyze hourly records of 12 air pollutants and 5 weather variables over the course of one year in Delhi, India. To determine the best predictive model, eight machine learning algorithms were tuned, trained, tested, and compared using cross-validation with hourly data for a full year. The algorithms, ranked by R2 values, were XGBoost (0.61), Random Forest (0.61), K-Nearest Neighbor Regression (0.55), Support Vector Regression (0.48), Decision Trees (0.43), AdaBoost (0.39), and linear regression (0.39). When trained by separate seasons across five years, the predictive capabilities of all models increased, with a maximum R 2 of 0.75 during winter. Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory was the least accurate model for annual training, but had some of the best predictions for seasonal training. Out of five air quality index categories, the XGBoost model was able to predict the correct category 24 h in advance 90% of the time when trained with full-year data. Separated by season, winter is considerably more predictable (97.3%), followed by post-monsoon (92.8%), monsoon (90.3%), and summer (88.9%). These results show the importance of training machine learning methods with season-specific data sets and comparing a large number of methods for specific applications.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2023

Review of the 1st EUV Light Sources Code Comparison Workshop

We review the results of the 1 st Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) Light Sources Code Comparison Workshop. The goal of this workshop was to provide a platform for specialists in EUV light source plasma modeling to benchmark and validate their numerical codes using well-defined case studies. Detailed consideration of a plethora of atomic collisional and radiative processes is required for modeling EUV light source plasmas. Eight institutions spanning four countries contributed data to the workshop. Two topics were addressed, namely (i) the atomic kinetics and radiative properties of tin plasmas under EUV-generating conditions and (ii) laser absorption in a fully ionized, one-dimensional hydrogen plasma. In this paper, we summarize the key findings of the workshop and outline plans for future iterations of the code comparison activity.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

DOE OSTI2026

Transformative Impacts of Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy on Environmental and Biological Research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

This manuscript will present an advancement of transformative research that has been conducted at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) over a 25-year period (2000–2025) on a variety of environmental and biological matrices. These investigations derived a fundamental understanding of how elemental detection and analysis of these matrices led to the knowledge and discovery of natural processes in plants and the environment. Each project led to the initiation of a new research area which unearthed awesome and novel breakthroughs. Highlights are listed below: 1. The preliminary research at ORNL centered on the detection of aerosols utilizing Laser-induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) technology. The Clean Air Act Amendment (CAAA) of 1990 highlighted the importance of identifying hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) due to their impact on environmental and human health, thereby underscoring the need to detect various toxic elements. Research in aerosol chemistry aimed to identify these harmful elements released by factories during periods of increased emissions in their manufacturing processes. LIBS emerged as the most effective method for real-time, in situ measurements of metal species in both gaseous and aerosol phases. 2. An understanding of the presence of total carbon in soils gives perspective on how to develop carbon sequestration strategies. The recognition that carbon sinks can evolve back to carbon sources to emit back to the atmosphere was an important consideration. Also, the concentration of carbon in soil indicates the health of land areas for growing crops successfully. 3. The direct detection of most of the elements in a wood sample in a single emission spectrum, without sample preparation, encouraged the research to use the LIBS technique for preservative treated wood coupled with use of multivariate statistical methodology. Additionally, it encouraged the researchers to try to differentiate natural woods from different parts of the country, and it was successfully demonstrated that LIBS coupled with MVA analysis could differentiate wood of different species from each other and of similar species grown in different environments based on their elemental spectra. This was a breakthrough since it revealed a systematic approach to connect elemental scarcity and abundance to either drought or typical rainfall conditions for the hardwood trees grown in specific areas. 4. Furthermore, the research progressed to reveal physiological and developmental processes contributing to biomass production such that the variation in leaf elemental composition increases our understanding of terrestrial nutrient cycles, as well as tracking the transfer of toxic elements from soils to living organisms. 5. Recently another breakthrough viz., ionomics initiated the correlation of elements to specific genes, uncovering the function that the element performed in the plant. More recently, this has been extended from plants to fungi as well as fungi growing in symbiotic relations with plants.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

DOE OSTI2023

Evaluating Contemporary and Future-Scenario Substantial-Precipitation Events in the Missouri River Basin Using Object-Oriented Analysis

The Missouri River Basin is the largest single river basin in the United States, and, as such, it plays an important role in natural ecosystems as well as the country’s economy, through agriculture, hydroelectric power generation, and transportation. Episodes of heavy precipitation can have a substantial negative impact on all these aspects of the basin, so understanding how well these episodes are simulated and projected to change in the future climate is important. We analyzed contemporary and projected mid-century behavior of heavy-precipitation episodes using an object-oriented analysis to diagnose short-term (≥5-day) and extended-period (≥30-day) events with substantial precipitation, using PRISM gridded, observed precipitation and RegCM4 regional-climate simulations that used outputs from two different GCMs for boundary conditions. The simulations were produced for the North American portion of the CORDEX program. A 25 km grid was used for the simulations and for aggregated PRISM precipitation. Overall, the simulated contemporary-climate events compared favorably with the PRISM events’ frequency and duration. The simulated event areas tended to be larger than the areas in the PRISM events, suggesting that the effective resolution of the simulations is greater than 25 km. Event areas and durations change little going from contemporary to scenario climate. The short-term events increase in frequency by an amount commensurate with the increase in mean precipitation simulated for the basis. However, the extended-term events showed little change in frequency, despite the average precipitation increase. Roughly half the extended-period events overlapped with at least one short-term event in both the observations and the simulations. Extended-period events that overlap a short-term event generally have larger areas and longer durations compared to their counterparts with no overlapping short-term events. Understanding the climate dynamics yielding the two types of extended-period events could be useful for assessing future changes in the Missouri River Basin’s heavy precipitation events and their impact.

Fisel, Brandon J.↗

DOE OSTI2021

Climate Change Mitigation Potential of Wind Energy

Global wind resources greatly exceed current electricity demand and the levelized cost of energy from wind turbines has shown precipitous declines. Accordingly, the installed capacity of wind turbines grew at an annualized rate of about 14% during the last two decades and wind turbines now provide ~6–7% of the global electricity supply. This renewable electricity generation source is thus already playing a role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the energy sector. Here we document trends within the industry, examine projections of future installed capacity increases and compute the associated climate change mitigation potential at the global and regional levels. Key countries (the USA, UK and China) and regions (e.g., EU27) have developed ambitious plans to expand wind energy penetration as core aspects of their net-zero emissions strategies. The projected climate change mitigation from wind energy by 2100 ranges from 0.3–0.8 °C depending on the precise socio-economic pathway and wind energy expansion scenario followed. The rapid expansion of annual increments to wind energy installed capacity by approximately two times current rates can greatly delay the passing of the 2 °C warming threshold relative to pre-industrial levels. To achieve the required expansion of this cost-effective, low-carbon energy source, there is a need for electrification of the energy system and for expansion of manufacturing and installation capacity.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2024

An Overview of Electric Vehicle Load Modeling Strategies for Grid Integration Studies

The adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) has emerged as a solution to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector, which has motivated the implementation of public policies to promote their use in several countries. However, the high adoption of EVs poses challenges for the electricity sector, as it would imply an increase in energy demand and possible impacts on the power quality (PQ) of the power grid. Therefore, it is important to conduct EV integration studies in the power grid to determine the amount that can be incorporated without causing problems and identify the areas of the power sector that will require reinforcements. Accurate EV load patterns are required for this type of study that, through mathematical modeling, reflect both the dynamic behavior and the factors that influence the decision to recharge EVs. This article aims to present an overview of EVs, examine the different factors considered in the literature for modeling EV load patterns, and review modeling methods. EV load modeling methods are classified into deterministic, statistical, and machine learning. The article shows that each modeling method has its advantages, disadvantages, and data requirements, ranging from simple load modeling to more accurate models requiring large datasets.

Computer Science↗

DOE OSTI2020

Using Residential and Office Building Archetypes for Energy Efficiency Building Solutions in an Urban Scale: A China Case Study

Building energy consumption accounts for 36% of the overall energy end use worldwide and is growing rapidly as developing countries continue to urbanize. Understanding the energy use at urban scale will lay the foundation for identification of energy efficiency opportunities to be deployed at speed. China has almost half of global new constructions and plays an important role in building suitability. However, an open source national building energy consumption database is not available in China. To provide data support for building energy consumptions, this paper used a simulation method to develop an urban building energy consumption database for a pilot city in Wuhan, China. First, residential, small, and large office building archetype energy models were created in EnergyPlus to represent typical building energy consumption in Wuhan. The baseline reference model simulation results were further validated using survey data from the literature. Second, stochastic simulations were conducted to consider different design parameters and occupants’ energy usage intensity scenarios, such as thermal properties of the building envelope, lighting power density, equipment power density, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) schedule, etc. A building energy consumption database was generated for typical building archetypes. Third, data-driven regression analysis was conducted to support quick building energy consumption prediction using key high- level building information inputs. Finally, a web-based urban energy platform and an interface were developed to support further third-party application development. The research is expected to provide fast energy efficiency building design solutions for urban planning, new constructions as well as building retrofits.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2021

Commercial PV Inverter IEEE 1547.1 Ride-Through Assessments Using an Automated PHIL Test Platform

As more countries seek solutions to their de-carbonization targets using renewable energy (RE) technologies, interconnection standards and national grid codes for distributed energy resources (DER) are being updated to support higher penetrations of RE and improve grid stability. Common grid-code revisions mandate DER devices, such as solar inverters and energy storage systems, ride-through (RT) voltage and frequency disturbances. This is necessary because as the percentage of generation from DER increases, there is a greater risk power system faults will cause many or all DER to trip, triggering a substantial load-generation imbalance and possible cascading blackout. This paper demonstrates for the first time a methodology to verify commercial DER devices are compliant to new voltage, frequency, and rate of change of frequency (ROCOF) RT requirements established in IEEE Std. 1547-2018. The methodology incorporates a software automation tool, called the SunSpec System Validation Platform (SVP), in combination with a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) system to execute the IEEE Std. 1547.1-2020 RT test protocols. In this paper, the approach is validated with two commercial photovoltaic inverters, the test results are analyzed for compliance, and improvements to the test procedure are suggested.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2021

Comparison of Long-Term Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage to Reference Power Generation Technologies Using CO2 Avoidance Cost in the U.S.

Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) can sequester atmospheric CO2, while producing electricity. The CO2 avoidance cost (CAC) is used to calculate the marginal cost of avoided CO2 emissions for BECCS as compared to other established energy technologies. A comparative analysis using four different reference-case power plants for CAC calculations is performed here to evaluate the CO2 avoidance cost of BECCS implementation. Results from this work demonstrate that BECCS can generate electricity at costs competitive with other neutral emissions technologies, while simultaneously removing CO2 from the atmosphere. Approximately 73% of current coal power plants are approaching retirement by the year 2035 in the U.S. After considering CO2 sequestered from the atmosphere and coal power plant CO2 emissions displaced by BECCS, CO2 emissions can be reduced by 1.4 billion tonnes per year in the U.S. alone at a cost of $88 to $116 per tonne of CO2 removed from the atmosphere, for 10% to 90% of available biomass used, respectively. CAC calculations in this paper indicate that BECCS can help the U.S. and other countries transition to a decarbonized electricity grid, as simulations presented in this paper predict that BECCS power plants operate at lower CACs than coal plants with CCS.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

DOE OSTI2022

Reviewing and Exploring the Qualitative Impacts That Different Market and Regulatory Measures Can Have on Encouraging Energy Communities Based on Their Organizational Structure

The emergence of energy communities represents a promising option to democratize the energy system by empowering consumers to take a more active role. This can aid in achieving energy and environmental goals as well as encouraging more equitable distribution of costs and revenues between all parties on the energy system. Despite this potential, energy communities are still a nascent solution, the success of which is heavily influenced by regulations. As a result, there are a wide variety of organizational structures for energy communities at this time. This paper provides a review of the policy landscape in Spain as it relates to energy communities. This work also presents a formalized method for characterizing different energy community structures and provides a qualitative assessment of the impacts of different measures to encourage energy communities with respect to their organizational structure. Findings suggest that many market-focused measures, including wholesale, local flexibility, capacity, and multisector market measures favor larger, more integrated communities, while regulatory, legal, and organizational measures, including peer-to-peer trading, aggregation, and self-consumption favor smaller, more distributed communities. Additionally, when developing policies to encourage the growth of energy communities, policymakers should be cognizant of the progression of policies in the context of the desired outcomes for energy community growth specific to the region or country and its goals.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

DOE OSTI2022

Initial Findings from US Department of Energy’s Better Plants Virtual in-Plant Training on 50001 Ready

Manufacturing facilities use about 35% of the domestic energy in the United States every year. Implementing an effective energy management system (EnMS) is one of the most important approaches to improve energy efficiency. However, the implementation of EnMS is low for many countries (including the US) and even for energy-intensive sectors. The reasons for the low implementation rate of energy management systems had been investigated by multiple researchers, but very few studies have focused on the barriers and challenges of implementing ISO 50001-based energy management systems. To contribute to this understudied area, this paper discusses the implementation and outcomes of the first Better Plants 50001 Ready Virtual In-plant Training. This paper first provides an overview of 50001 Ready and the 50001 Ready Navigator Tool. Then, it provides details on this training event and its outcomes. Finally, it discusses findings from the responses to 40 live polling questions about the status of the 25 tasks of the 50001 Ready Navigator for participating companies, key components of the participating manufacturing companies’ energy management systems, and challenges and barriers that these companies are facing. The findings suggest that although many companies understood the importance of an effective energy management system, about half of them do not understand the required resources for building energy management systems, and most of them have only just begun establishing these systems and need more assistance and resources in multiple areas. More specifically, more assistance is necessary for the following: (1) improving corporate management’s understanding of the time and resources needed to build an EnMS as well as the benefits; (2) creating linear regression models for more accurate energy performance tracking; (3) understanding energy use, collecting and analyzing energy performance data; (4) optimizing equipment operational controls, and creating action plans.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2022

A Review on Geothermal Energy and HPHT Packers for Geothermal Applications

Energy is an essential component for prosperity, economic growth, and development and has become a basic necessity for humans, but at the same time, it has an impact on the environment. Therefore, it is believed that, in the coming future, renewable energy will play an important part in fulfilling the energy demand. In that respect, geothermal energy will be vital as it is a continuous source of energy that is not affected by metrological conditions and can be used in power generation or domestic heating. Many countries around the globe are actively producing energy from geothermal resources. However, the extraction of the heat from the subsurface comes with challenges such as subsurface environment, wellbore instability, corrosion, loss of circulation, and cementing operation. However, one of the most challenging and critical tasks is the zonal isolation of the geothermal well. A packer is a tool that is used for the zonal isolation of a well, and at high pressure and high temperature (HPHT) conditions, which is common for geothermal wells. Most of the components of packers fail, causing well integrity issues. This paper gives a review of the forces acting on packers, testing standards, problems encountered by a packer in the HPHT subsurface environment, and designs to overcome those problems.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2022

Elaboration of Energy Balance: A Model for the Brazilian States

The energy balance constitutes a powerful management instrument for government agencies, as it offers an overview of the energy situation of the country (or region) and serves as a guide for energy policies and monitoring of these policies. Although Brazil has published the national energy balance for more than half a century, the national publication does not adequately address energy statistics at the level of the states. This occurs either due to the lack of specific data or the absence of total disaggregation. Accordingly, the elaboration and implementation of public policies for the energy sector in the Brazilian states lack consistent energy statistics. Therefore, this paper aims to present a model for the Brazilian states to elaborate the energy balance. The proposed model consists of applying internationally referenced methodologies to develop a user-friendly software, which includes automatic energy unit conversions, different chart styles, high-level data organization, and Sankey diagrams. As a result, the software can be adopted by local governments as a tool to maintain the state energy balance publication periodically, and hence obtain the detailed information necessary to manage and formulate energy policies. The advantage of the software is that it can be operated by non-experts and the energy flow as well as the entire report can be generated automatically. The proposed software was successfully used to generate the energy balance of the Mato Grosso do Sul state.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

DOE OSTI2025

Refrigerants for a Sustainable Future

Worldwide use of high global warming potential (GWP) hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerants for space conditioning and food storage results in significant equivalent greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This is further exacerbated in developed countries by the current transition from hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC) refrigerants to HFC refrigerants. Under the Kigali amendment to the Montreal Protocol, the proposed phase-out of currently used HFC and HCFC refrigerants has initiated a re-evaluation of some pre-existing refrigerants as well as the development and evaluation of new refrigerants. Making the ideal refrigerant selections for heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, and refrigeration (HVAC&R) applications is thereby difficult in an already overabundant refrigerants market. In this paper, a study of key parameters required of a good refrigerant is conducted, followed by the analysis of refrigerants desired and refrigerants used in two major sectors of the HVAC&R industry, namely commercial refrigeration and residential air-conditioning and heat pumps. Finally, keeping in consideration the global environmental regulations and safety standards, a recommendation of the most suitable refrigerants in both sectors has been made.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2025

A Comparison Between Industrial Energy Efficiency Measures in Guatemala and the United States

Energy auditing has been cited as a key tool in closing the gap between the actual energy consumption in industrial facilities and what should be at an environmentally sustainable level. Several factors affect the likelihood that energy audits will be effective in closing that gap, and more analysis is needed to understand these factors, especially for developing nations. This study compares three energy efficiency measures (EEMs) frequently recommended in both the United States and Guatemala, namely, installing solar panels to generate electricity, installing higher-efficiency lighting, and upgrading to premium efficiency motors. The implementation of each of these EEMs contributes to more sustainable energy consumption, and each of these EEM’s payback periods is affected by capital costs, energy costs, and other local factors analyzed in this study. Projected payback periods for each EEM based on Guatemalan and U.S. capital cost and energy cost ranges are assessed via EEM-specific payback period calculations and compared to the energy audit data from each country. While lower capital costs incentivize EEM implementation and reduce payback periods, there is an interplay between energy cost and capital cost that impacts the trends in the U.S. and Guatemala. As in the case of the solar panel installation EEM, though Guatemalan companies pay ~110% more for electricity than U.S. companies, when Guatemalan capital costs are lower, payback periods are lower than in the U.S. Conversely, in cases where Guatemalan capital costs are higher—as for higher-efficiency lighting and motor installation—Guatemalan payback periods are roughly the same as those in the U.S. because of the higher Guatemalan energy costs.

Khosla, Radhika↗

DOE OSTI2023

Genomic Features of Antimicrobial Resistance in Staphylococcus pseudintermedius Isolated from Dogs with Pyoderma in Argentina and the United States: A Comparative Study

Staphylococcus pseudintermedius is the most common opportunistic pathogen in dogs and methicillin resistance (MRSP) has been identified as an emerging problem in canine pyoderma. Here, we evaluated the antimicrobial resistance (AMR) features and phylogeny of S. pseudintermedius isolated from canine pyoderma cases in Argentina (n = 29) and the United States (n = 29). 62% of isolates showed multi-drug resistance. The AMR genes found: mecA, blaZ, ermB, dfrG, catA, tetM, aac(6')-aph(2"), in addition to tetK and lnuA (only found in U.S. isolates). Two point mutations were detected: grlA(S80I)-gyrA(S84L), and grlA(D84N)-gyrA(S84L) in one U.S. isolate. A mutation in rpoB (H481N) was found in two isolates from Argentina. SCCmec type III, SCCmec type V, ΨSCCmec 57395 were identified in the Argentinian isolates; and SCCmec type III, SCCmec type IVg, SCCmec type V, and SCCmec type VII variant in the U.S. cohort. Sequence type (ST) ST71 belonging to a dominant clone was found in isolates from both countries, and ST45 only in Argentinian isolates. This is the first study to comparatively analyze the population structure of canine pyoderma-associated S. pseudintermedius isolates in Argentina and in the U.S. It is important to maintain surveillance on S. pseudintermedius populations to monitor AMR and gain further understanding of its evolution and dissemination.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2026

Reexamining Fat: Exploring Diversity, Plasticity, Development, Functional Implication, and Therapeutic Options

Obesity has become so prevalent in many developed countries that it is increasingly perceived as a new norm, despite decades of interventions and drug development. Although research continues to explore novel strategies, no single approach to date has demonstrated sustained success in reducing its population-level dominance. This underscores the need to better evaluate and integrate the growing body of knowledge surrounding obesity’s multifaceted nature. Stamped under one ‘fat’ name, adipose tissue varies by color, location, morphology, composition, and function. This variability suggests a level of complexity that demands deeper investigation. Although the relevance and roles of different adipose types have been extensively discussed throughout the literature, their interdependence, synergy, and collective impact on the body remain to be fully expounded. This review aims to further consolidate and elucidate the available information on the different adipose tissue types and their association with obesity and metabolic health. We also discuss existing and emerging therapeutic strategies, highlighting their respective strengths and limitations.

BAT↗

DOE OSTI2024

Unveiling the Arsenal of Apple Bitter Rot Fungi: Comparative Genomics Identifies Candidate Effectors, CAZymes, and Biosynthetic Gene Clusters in Colletotrichum Species

The bitter rot of apple is caused by Colletotrichum spp. and is a serious pre-harvest disease that can manifest in postharvest losses on harvested fruit. In this study, we obtained genome sequences from four different species, C. chrysophilum, C. noveboracense, C. nupharicola, and C. fioriniae, that infect apple and cause diseases on other fruits, vegetables, and flowers. Our genomic data were obtained from isolates/species that have not yet been sequenced and represent geographic-specific regions. Genome sequencing allowed for the construction of phylogenetic trees, which corroborated the overall concordance observed in prior MLST studies. Bioinformatic pipelines were used to discover CAZyme, effector, and secondary metabolic (SM) gene clusters in all nine Colletotrichum isolates. We found redundancy and a high level of similarity across species regarding CAZyme classes and predicted cytoplastic and apoplastic effectors. SM gene clusters displayed the most diversity in type and the most common cluster was one that encodes genes involved in the production of alternapyrone. Our study provides a solid platform to identify targets for functional studies that underpin pathogenicity, virulence, and/or quiescence that can be targeted for the development of new control strategies. With these new genomics resources, exploration via omics-based technologies using these isolates will help ascertain the biological underpinnings of their widespread success and observed geographic dominance in specific areas throughout the country.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗