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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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At least 109 records · Page 6
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

Microwave-enhanced catalytic ammonia synthesis under moderate pressure and temperature

In this study, an alternative approach based on microwave-enhanced ammonia synthesis for Haber-Bosch process was carried out under moderate pressure of 0.1–0.65 MPa and temperature range of 280–400 °C over a stable CsRu/CeO 2 catalyst. The ammonia production rate is significantly improved under microwave conditions. At 0.65 MPa and 320 °C, maximum ammonia production rate was achieved at H 2 /N 2 ratio of 1/1. Stable performance was obtained in a 6-cycles of startup-shutdown operation for cumulative on-line time of 80 h. The work demonstrates the potential of microwave catalytic technology for the distributed ammonia synthesis using renewable power having intermittent nature of energy supply.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2022

California Consumers’ Beliefs and Trust in Electric Utilities

The authors use survey and interview data from California homeowners to understand customers’ trust in their utility company. The authors find that customers’ beliefs about the reliability of electricity do not predict trust. Instead, what matters are beliefs that the utility company does a bad job managing customer service, costs, and wildfires. Distrust among survey respondents aligns with interview participants’ descriptions of utility companies as powerful, greedy monopolies that benefit themselves at the expense of helpless consumers. These results have implications for the energy transition and, more generally, understanding potential challenges experienced by technocratic institutions.

Horne, Christine↗
DOE OSTI2020

Identifying Characteristics of Wildfire Towers and Troughs

Wildfire behavior is dictated by the complex interaction of numerous physical phenomena including dynamic ambient and fire-induced winds, heat transfer, aerodynamic drag on the wind by the fuel and combustion. These phenomena create complex feedback effects between the fire and its surroundings. In this study, we aim to study the mechanisms by which buoyant flame dynamics along with vortical motions and instabilities control wildfire propagation. Specifically, this study employs a suite of simulations conducted with the physics-based coupled fire-atmosphere behavior model (FIRETEC). The simulations are initialized with a fire line and the fires are allowed to propagate on a grass bed, where the fuel heights and wind conditions are varied systematically. Flow variables are extracted to identify the characteristics of the alternating counter-rotational vortices, called towers and troughs, that drive convective heat transfer and fire spread. These vortices have previously been observed in wildfires and laboratory fires, and have also been observed to arise spontaneously in FIRETEC due to the fundamental physics incorporated in the model. However, these past observations have been qualitative in nature and no quantitative studies can be found in the literature which connected these coherent structures fundamental to fire behavior with the constitutive flow variables. To that end, a variety of state variables are examined in the context of these coherent structures under various wind profile and grass height conditions. Identification of various correlated signatures and fire-atmosphere feedbacks in simulations provides a hypothesis that can be tested in future observational or experimental efforts, potentially assisting experimental design, and can aid in the interpretation of data from in situ detectors.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Bridging the Gap on Data, Metrics, and Analyses for Grid Resilience to Weather Events: Information that utilities can provide regulators, state energy offices, and other stakeholders

A growing number of states require regulated utilities to file resilience plans to improve the electric grid’s ability to anticipate, withstand, adapt to and recover from increasingly severe weather events. This report aims to help state regulators identify and request data, metrics, and analyses from utilities and use it in decisions on utility resilience plans and investments. The report reviews state requirements and utility plans focused on overall grid resilience, climate change resilience and vulnerabilities, infrastructure modernization, storm protection, and wildfire mitigation. It details types of data, metrics, and analyses across five categories--and provides examples of each from the utility plans. The first category is vulnerability assessments, or evaluations of the susceptibility of systems, communities, or assets to potential harm from identified hazards. The second is data on hazards and the exposure of utility assets and customers to these hazards. The third is attribute metrics, or system characteristics that contribute to or describe the resilience of a system. The fourth is performance metrics, which are impacts of resilience investments on system performance--typically a reduction of negative impacts from hazard events. Finally, evaluation and prioritization are analyses that utilities conduct to estimate impacts from resilience measures (evaluation) and prioritize measures based on costs and estimated impacts (prioritization). The report concludes with examples of key trends and emerging best practices for states and utilities, and identifies areas for further research.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2020

Reducing Exposures to Airborne Particles Through Improved Filtration: A High-Level Modeling Analysis

Indoor airborne particulates are well-known health hazards and filtration is one common method of reducing exposures. Based on our previously developed Regional Shelter Analysis methodology and parameters that characterize the existing US building stock, we perform a high-level assessment of the potential benefits of upgrading existing filters in furnace and in heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems using off-the-shelf filters. We use three metrics to assess the improvement: Building Transmission Factor (a measure of protection against outdoor airborne particles), Indoor Normalized Time and Space Integrated Air Concentration (a measure of indoor exposure to indoor-origin airborne particles), and Building Exit Fraction (fraction of indoor airborne particles that are released to the outdoor atmosphere). We also discuss the potential reduction in regional exposures due to particles exiting the building and exposing downwind building occupants. Our modeling indicates that while buildings provide their occupants passive protection against airborne particulate hazards, including but not limited to PM 2.5 , PM 10 , and wildfire smoke; improving particle filtration efficiency may further improve this protection. The degree of improvement varies with particle size and building type. Of the building types studied, apartments are predicted to benefit most, with greater than a factor of 2 improvement (≥50% reduction in exposures) for 1 µm particle exposures when using MERV 7 to 12 rated filters. Non-residential buildings were notably less responsive to improved filtration but had the highest Building Exit Fractions with 30% to 40% of indoor airborne particles released to the outdoor atmosphere (apartment buildings only released 6% to 9%). Improvements predicted for single family homes were intermediate between apartments and non-residential buildings. Improvements in the Regional Exposure metric are larger, ranging from a factor of 2.5x to 10x for residences (when using MERV 7 to 12 rated filters) and up to 25x for large apartments with MERV 14 or 15 rated filters. The results of our modeling analysis are broadly consistent with the limited experimental data and modeling results available in the literature.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2022

Near-Term Reliability and Resilience (NTRR) (Final Report)

The Near-Term Reliability and Resiliency (NTRR) was awarded in December 2020 as an inter-lab project to examine the reliability and resilience of the electricity grid and natural gas transportation availability. The project builds on studies conducted by The North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and other non-governmental research and operational focused on reliability and resilience analyses challenges. The research was conceived to address near-term scenarios (within 10 years), when many local and regional policy transitions could begin to impact grid reliability, resilience, and supporting infrastructure availability. To integrate the natural gas interdependency, the team began with the generating capacity and demand projections from the 2020 NERC Long-Term Reliability Assessment and the Bulk Electric System (BES) transmission topologies defined in the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC) Anchor Data Set, Eastern Interconnection Reliability Assessment Group Multi-Regional Modeling Working Group (ERAG/MMWG) Data Set, the team calculated baseline regional power sector gas demands from present electricity delivery year through the end of delivery year 2030/31 by applying security constrained economic dispatch. This demand was compiled along with demand projections for regional residential, commercial, and industrial natural gas demands from the most recent Energy Information Administration (EIA) Annual Energy Outlook Reference Case into Deloitte’s MarketBuilder® North American Gas Model. Through the application of these demands, MarketBuilder® was projected the topology of natural gas flows in the natural gas pipeline network across the interconnected North American system along with regional natural gas prices that may be seen by market participants in future years Additionally, contingencies and sensitivities focused on the built models of the Eastern Interconnection (EI) and Western Interconnection (WI). They address challenges from the following with the outcomes being an identification of performance under the extreme conditions and an identification of potential grid weaknesses that should be addressed to mitigate the reduced performance and improve the resilience and reliability of the specific regions as well as the National Grid: • Weather events including extreme heat, extreme cold, high wind, no wind, wind and solar forecasting errors, and wildfires. • Gas availability, factoring in supply disruption (contractual and physical), seasonal availability constraints, and infrastructure limitations; and • Transmission availability and congestion.

03 NATURAL GAS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Local Resource Assessment: Beetle-Killed Spruce in Alaska

This report synthesizes forest inventory and spatial data from federal and state sources to present a snapshot of beetle-killed spruce across Southcentral and Interior Alaska. This natural resource is under investigation for use in cellulose-based products, particularly building insulation. Research funded by the Department of Energy's ARPA-E program, has successfully developed insulation - Celium - using beetle-killed spruce combined with mycelium, the root network of fungi. The resulting insulation product can be manufactured locally and used across all Alaskan climate zones for residential, commercial, and shipping applications. Removing standing dead wood also contributes to wildfire risk reduction and mitigates associated public health impacts. This Local Resource Assessment, funded by the Denali Commission, contextualizes and reconciles unaligned forestry data sources, establishing a pathway to refined, replicable analysis and, ultimately, presenting estimates of beetle-killed spruce biomass to inform the potential scale and development of a Celium industry.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2025

Burn severity and vegetation type control phosphorus concentration, molecular composition, and mobilization

Shifting phosphorus (P) dynamics after wildfires can have cascading impacts from terrestrial to aquatic environments. However, it is unclear whether shifts in P composition or P concentration are responsible for changes in P dynamics post-fire. We used laboratory leaching experiments of Douglas fir forest and sagebrush shrubland chars to examine how the potential mobility of P compounds is influenced by different burn severities. Burning produced a 6.9- and 29-fold increase in particulate P mobilization but a 3.8- and 30.5-fold decrease in aqueous P released for Douglas fir forest and sagebrush shrubland, respectively. The mechanisms driving particulate- and dissolved-phase P compound mobilization were contrasting. Phosphorus compound mobilization in the particulate phase was controlled by solid char total P concentrations, while the aqueous phase was driven by solubility changes of molecular species. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) on the solid chars indicated that organic orthophosphate monoester and diester species were thermally mineralized to inorganic P moieties with burning in both vegetation types, which decreases P solubility. This coincided with the production of calcium- and magnesium-bound inorganic P compounds. With increasing burn severity there were systematic shifts in P concentration and composition – higher-severity chars mobilized P compounds in the particulate phase, although the magnitude of change was vegetation-specific. Our results indicate a post-fire transformation to both the composition of the solid charred material and how P compounds are mobilized, which may influence its environmental cycling and fate.

31P solution-state NMR↗
DOE OSTI2024

Emergency department visits in California associated with wildfire PM 2.5 : differing risk across individuals and communities

The threats to human health from wildfires and wildfire smoke (WFS) in the United States (US) are increasing due to continued climate change. A growing body of literature has documented important adverse health effects of WFS exposure, but there is insufficient evidence regarding how risk related to WFS exposure varies across individual or community level characteristics. To address this evidence gap, we utilized a large nationwide database of healthcare utilization claims for emergency department (ED) visits in California across multiple wildfire seasons (May through November, 2012–2019) and quantified the health impacts of fine particulate matter <2.5 μm (PM 2.5 ) air pollution attributable to WFS, overall and among subgroups of the population. We aggregated daily counts of ED visits to the level of the Zip Code Tabulation Area (ZCTA) and used a time-stratified case-crossover design and distributed lag non-linear models to estimate the association between WFS and relative risk of ED visits. We further assessed how the association with WFS varied across subgroups defined by age, race, social vulnerability, and residential air conditioning (AC) prevalence. Over a 7 day period, PM 2.5 from WFS was associated with elevated risk of ED visits for all causes (1.04% (0.32%, 1.71%)), non-accidental causes (2.93% (2.16%, 3.70%)), and respiratory disease (15.17% (12.86%, 17.52%)), but not with ED visits for cardiovascular diseases (1.06% (–1.88%, 4.08%)). Analysis across subgroups revealed potential differences in susceptibility by age, race, and AC prevalence, but not across subgroups defined by ZCTA-level Social Vulnerability Index scores. These results suggest that PM 2.5 from WFS is associated with higher rates of all cause, non-accidental, and respiratory ED visits with important heterogeneity across certain subgroups. Notably, lower availability of residential AC was associated with higher health risks related to wildfire activity.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Security constrained optimal power shutoff for wildfire risk mitigation

Abstract Electric grid faults are increasingly the source of ignition for major wildfires. To reduce the likelihood of such ignitions in high risk situations, utilities use preemptive de‐energization of power lines, commonly referred to as Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS). Besides raising challenging trade‐offs between power outages and wildfire safety, PSPS removes redundancy from the network at a time when component faults are likely to happen. This may leave the network particularly vulnerable to unexpected line faults that may occur while the PSPS is in place. Previous works have not explicitly considered the impacts of these outages. To address this gap, the Security Constrained Optimal Power Shutoff problem is proposed which uses post‐contingency security constraints to model the impact of unexpected line faults when planning a PSPS. This model enables, for the first time, the exploration of a wide range of trade‐offs between both wildfire risk and pre‐ and post‐contingency load shedding when designing PSPS plans, providing useful insights for utilities and policy makers considering different approaches to PSPS. The efficacy of the model is demonstrated using the EPRI 39‐bus system as a case study. The results highlight the potential risks of not considering security constraints when planning PSPS and show that incorporating security constraints into the PSPS design process improves the resilience of current PSPS plans.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Aircraft Measurements from a U.S. Western Wildfire Demonstrating Day and Night Differences in the Chemical Composition and Optical Properties of Biomass Burning Aerosols and Their Atmospheric Evolution

The composition and transformations of biomass burning aerosols (BBA) have been measured onboard the NOAA Twin Otter research aircraft during the Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments and Air Quality field study. Here, we analyze real-time aerosol mass spectrometry measurements across three flights during the afternoon, late afternoon, and night of August 28, 2019, for one midsized wildfire. Analysis of several metrics showed that the aerosol composition and optical properties varied depending on the burning conditions at the fire zone and the time of day the BBA was emitted, with substantial variations in the available sunlight. The total aerosol mass loadings were dominated by organic components with a much smaller contribution from inorganic species. A gradual buildup of organic material was observed during the afternoon as the plume aged, indicating the condensation of photochemically formed low-volatility oxidized organic compounds. Highly hygroscopic ammonium nitrate was the main inorganic component, suggesting potential water content in BBA particles and the likelihood of their aqueous-phase reactivity. Depletions of particle-phase NO 3 – and Cl – relative to carbon monoxide were observed in the late afternoon and nighttime plumes, respectively, aligning with known gas-particle partitioning thermodynamics and the heterogeneous chemistry of dissolved nitrate and chloride. The wavelength-dependent light absorption by aerosol species was higher for the plume sampled at night and showed no significant changes with plume age, despite observed trends in composition and mass downwind. These differences in particle composition and optical properties demonstrate that the processes involved in BBA aging are not uniform for the same wildfire over the course of the day and depend highly on when the BBA was emitted, as well as the burning phase at the emissions source.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Low–severity fire as a mechanism of organic matter protection in global peatlands: Thermal alteration slows decomposition

Worldwide, regularly-recurring wildfires shape many peatland ecosystems to the extent that fire-adapted species often dominate plant communities, suggesting that wildfire is an integral part of peatland ecology rather than an anomaly. The most destructive blazes are smoldering fires that are usually initiated in periods of drought and can combust entire peatland carbon stores. However, peatland wildfires more typically occur as low-severity surface-burns that arise in the dormant season when vegetation is desiccated, and soil moisture is high. In such low-severity fires, surface layers experience flash heating, but there is little loss of underlying peat to combustion. This study examines the potential importance of such processes in several peatlands that span a gradient from hemiboreal to tropical ecozones and experience a wide range of fire return intervals. We show that low-severity fires can increase the pool of stable soil carbon by thermally altering the chemistry of soil organic matter (SOM), thereby reducing rates of microbial respiration. Using XPS and FTIR, we demonstrate that low-severity fires significantly increase the degree of carbon-condensation and aromatization of SOM functional groups, particularly on the surface of peat aggregates. Laboratory incubations show lower CO 2 emissions from peat subjected to low-severity fire, and predict lower cumulative CO 2 emissions from burned peat after one to three years. Also, low-severity fires reduce the temperature sensitivity (Q 10 ) of peat, indicating that these fires can inhibit microbial access to SOM. The increased stability of thermally-altered SOM may allow a greater proportion of organic matter to survive vertical migration into saturated and anaerobic zones of peatlands where environmental conditions physiochemically protect carbon stores from decomposition for thousands of years. Furthermore, across latitudes, low-severity fire is an overlooked factor influencing carbon cycling in peatlands, which is relevant to global carbon budgets as climate-change alters fire regimes worldwide.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2026

Persistence and potential of soil organic carbon in nature‐based climate solutions: A review of managed disturbances

Societal Impact Statement Implementing nature-based climate solutions is important for mitigating climate change, which is a global issue, but requires local adjustments in management practices. Using the association between soil carbon and minerals as a proxy for carbon persistence, we evaluated the effect of different management regimes on soil carbon sequestration and loss. We identified areas where management practices that increase carbon inputs should be prioritized and areas where management should focus on avoiding severe disturbances. Using this storage-potential-and-persistence framework to identify how to increase or maintain soil organic carbon storage locally will increase the effectiveness of nature-based climate solutions globally. Summary Increasing soil organic carbon storage could reduce the pace of climate change, but the longevity of this nature-based climate solution depends on the persistence of carbon in soils, not just the input rates into soils. We apply a framework for considering how soil carbon persistence—namely, via the association with minerals—sheds light on soil carbon sequestration. We review how management of disturbances, such as prescribed burning, forestry, and grazing, can change soil carbon storage, persistence, and potential. Past work demonstrated that management of disturbances can sequester soil carbon, but it remains unclear how the potential stabilization of that accrual and vulnerability to loss varies across disturbance types and geographies. We found that there is substantial geographical heterogeneity in the overlap among estimates of carbon accrual, disturbance occurrence, and potential stabilization: Fire-prone grasslands and intensively grazed rangelands occur in areas estimated to have high potential to store mineral-associated organic carbon, and studies also find that adjusted fire and grazing can promote mineral-associated organic carbon. Plantation forestry and burned area span large regions where particulate organic matter is the dominant form, and studies find that particulate organic carbon is disproportionately lost following intense wildfires and forest harvests. Thus, areas with high mineral-associated organic carbon deficits should be prioritized for practices that increase carbon inputs; whereas areas with high proportions of particulate organic carbon should be prioritized for practices that help to avoid severe disturbances. Taken together, the distribution of and changes in persistence mechanisms shed light on the durability of nature-based climate solutions.

fire↗
DOE OSTI2025

Bacteria isolated from the grape phyllosphere capable of degrading guaiacol, a main volatile phenol associated with smoke taint in wine

Recent wildfires near vineyards in the Pacific United States have caused devastating financial losses due to smoke taint in wine. When wine grapes (Vitis vinifera) are exposed to wildfire smoke, their berries absorb volatile phenols derived from the lignin of burning plant material. Volatile phenols are released during the winemaking process giving the finished wine an unpleasant, smokey, and ashy taste known as smoke taint. Bacteria are capable of undergoing a wide variety of metabolic processes and therefore present great potential for bioremediation applications in many industries. In this study, we identify two strains of the same species that colonize the grape phyllosphere and are able to degrade guaiacol, a main volatile phenol responsible for smoke taint in wine. We identify the suite of genes that enable guaiacol degradation in Gordonia alkanivorans via RNAseq of cells growing on guaiacol as a sole carbon source. Additionally, we knockout guaA, a cytochrome P450 gene involved in the conversion of guaiacol to catechol; ΔguaA cells cannot catabolize guaiacol in vitro, providing evidence that GuaA is necessary for this process. Furthermore, we analyze the microbiome of berries and leaves exposed to smoke in the vineyard to investigate the impact of smoke on the grape microbial community. We found smoke has a significant but small effect on the microbial community, leading to an enrichment of several genera belonging to the Bacilli class. Collectively, this research shows that studying microbes and their enzymes has the potential to identify novel tools for alleviating smoke taint.

Castro, Claudia [United States Department of Agric↗
DOE OSTI2023

Climate Change Will Increase Biomass Proportion of Global Forest Carbon Stocks Under an SSP5–8.5 Climate Trajectory

Abstract A large amount of carbon is stored in global forests. However, the fraction of carbon stored as plant biomass versus soil organic carbon (SOC) varies among forest types, and potential changes over the 21st century are uncertain. Here, we used extensive data derived from inventories and remote sensing and Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) models to examine the current and 21st century dynamics in the proportion of biomass and SOC across global forests. We found that precipitation, elevation, soil, and wildfire were the primary controls of these differences in carbon pools. Under the SSP5–8.5 climate scenario, CMIP6 models project that the ratio of biomass to ecosystem carbon in global forests will increase across the 21st century, with the largest increases in boreal forests (95 ± 37%) compared to moist tropical forests (16 ± 15%). Changes in forest carbon pools resulting in greater biomass fraction will affect disturbance, and ecosystem carbon and energy balances, all of which interact with the climate system.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2026

Acute wood smoke exposure is associated with cell-specific hippocampal transcriptomic responses in an accelerated ovarian failure mouse model

Background Wildfire events are increasing in frequency and intensity, and aging individuals demonstrate heightened biological susceptibility to air pollution exposures including increased risk of neurological sequelae. Declining ovarian hormones levels that occur with aging in females along with associated systemic physiological and inflammatory changes may contribute to increased cerebral vulnerability to air pollution, representing a potential but underexplored mechanism. Menopause and the menopausal transition represent a period of profound physiological change that affects cardiovascular, neurological, and immune health. Methods We tested whether peri-menopausal–like hormonal status amplifies hippocampal responses to acute wood smoke (WS) using an ovary-intact, 4-vinylcyclohexene diepoxide (VCD) model of moderate accelerated ovarian failure (AOF) in female C57BL/6 mice. Animals were exposed to HEPA-filtered air (FA) or WS for 4 h/day over 2 consecutive days (∼0.5 mg/m³). Exposure characterization confirmed a complex mixture of combustion products with significant levels of both trace metals and gas release during WS exposure. Results Spatial transcriptomics (10x Visium; n = 4 sections/group) with automated cell-type annotation identified astrocytes, GABAergic and glutamatergic neurons, oligodendrocytes, revealed cell type-specific transcriptional alterations following WS exposure. Distinct transcriptional patterns were observed across all identified neuronal and glial cell populations. Conclusion Together, these findings define a cell-type specific transcriptomic framework describing how WS exposure and ovarian hormone decline interact to influence hippocampal responses and identify potential cellular pathways relevant to hippocampal vulnerability.

63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTAN↗
DOE OSTI2024

Dominance of Particulate Mercury in Stream Transport and Rapid Watershed Recovery from Wildfires in Northern California, USA

Frequency and intensity of wildfires are expected to increase due to climate change, especially in areas with a long summer drought. Forests are a major sink for the global pollutant mercury (Hg), and fluvial transport of Hg from recently burned watersheds has not been widely investigated. Here, we examined two years of fluvial transport of Hg and its speciation (total Hg, methyl-Hg, particulate, and dissolved forms) under storm events and baseflow in two recently burned watersheds with different burned proportions and one nonburned reference watershed in the Coastal Ranges of northern California. We examined postfire storm-event transport of Hg and its methylated form (methyl-Hg), addressed the importance of the “initial runoff pulse” to postfire Hg fluvial transport and its predominant association with suspended solids, and elucidated potential sources of Hg exports from the burned landscapes using geochemical indicators, which suggested that ash materials were likely the significant sources of particulates in the first high-flow season postfire but not subsequently. The maximum total suspended solid and total Hg levels in the “first pulse” at the severely burned watershed were 442 and 46 times higher, respectively, than those at the reference watershed. Stream suspended solid and Hg levels declined substantially in the burned watersheds after just a few months of rainfall likely due to the rapid regrowth of vegetation commonly observed in postfire landscapes, implying that the wildfire effects on immediate Hg inputs from the burned landscape are at most transient in nature.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2026

Mechanical Solution for Existing Conductors

The rapid growth in energy demand, driven by advancements in AI technology, renewable energy integration, and increased industrial activity, highlights the need for innovative solutions to improve the resiliency and efficiency of the power grid. This report details the fire testing of GridWrap’s Composite WiRe Wrap, to evaluate the wrap's ability to enhance conductor performance under wildfire-simulated conditions. Conductors were prepared and tested in a controlled environment at 400°C for 18 minutes, during which sag and temperature data were recorded. The results demonstrated that the unwrapped conductor sagged 3/16ths of an inch, while the WiRe Wrapped conductor sagged only 1/16th of an inch under identical conditions, indicating a significant improvement in mechanical performance. This project, conducted as part of a collaborative effort between BEA (Idaho National Laboratory’s managing contractor) and GridWrap, Inc., demonstrates the potential of grid-enhancing technologies like WiRe Wrap to reduce sag, increase grid resiliency, and support the future energy landscape. By validating the performance of such technologies in real-world scenarios, this work provides critical insights for industry adoption, benefiting both grid operators and U.S. taxpayers through improved reliability, reduced emissions, and enhanced energy delivery.

24 - POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗