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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 1,117 records · Page 62
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2026

Python-EPICS RF Conditioning Automatic Control System at the Spallation Neutron Source

The RF Test Facility (RFTF) at the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) is used for the conditioning of RF compo-nents such as ceramic vacuum windows and power cou-plers prior to their installation in the H- ion linear accel-erator. This process exposes components to high-power RF fields and thermal cycling to improve performance and remove surface impurities. To automate and optimize this process, a Python-based EPICS control system was developed alongside targeted hardware upgrades. The system enables real-time monitoring and control of RF power levels, temperature, and vacuum pressure. A user-friendly graphical interface was implemented using CS-Studio (Phoebus), allowing operators to adjust parameters and collect data efficiently. The system integrates a High-Power Protection Module (HPM) for interlocks based on vacuum and arc detection, ensuring safe operation. These upgrades have significantly improved the efficiency, accuracy, and safety of RF conditioning at the SNS RFTF. This paper describes the updated RF conditioning sys-tem, highlighting the software and hardware develop-ments and their application in support of the Proton Pow-er Upgrade (PPU) project.

Lee, Sung-Woo [ORNL] (ORCID:000000030915835X)↗
DOE OSTI2026

Status Update of Permanent Magnet Radiation Resiliency Studies at CEBAF

The proposed energy upgrade of the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) incorporates Fixed-Field Alternating-gradient (FFA) arcs utilizing permanent magnet technology. Given the radiation environment within the CEBAF tunnel enclosure, validating the long-term magnetic stability of these materials is a critical step for the project's technical feasibility. This contribution presents an overview of the ongoing permanent magnet radiation resiliency program at Jefferson Lab. We briefly review the experimental methodology used to monitor demagnetization in situ and summarize the operational experience from the initial data-taking campaign. Furthermore, we discuss the upgrades implemented for the second exposure campaign, currently underway, which aims to refine dose correlation and reduce systematic uncertainties. We report on the general status of the program and the roadmap for certifying permanent magnet optics for the proposed upgrade energies.

Bodenstein, R. [Thomas Jefferson National Accelera↗
DOE OSTI2022

Design of a PIP-II Era Mu2e Experiment

We propose a design of an upgraded Mu2e experiment for the future Fermilab PIP-II era based on the muon collider front end. The consensus is that such an upgrade should provide a factor of 10 increase in the rate of stopping muons in the experimental target. The current Mu2e design is optimized for 8 kW of protons at 8 GeV. The PIP-II upgrade project is a 250-meter-long CW linac capable of accelerating a 2-mA proton beam to a kinetic energy of 800 MeV (total power 1.6 MW). This would significantly improve the Fermilab proton source to enable next-generation intensity frontier experiments. But using this 800 MeV beam poses challenges to the Mu2E experiment. Bright muon beams generated from sources designed for muon collider and neutrino factory facilities have been shown to generate two orders of magnitude more muons per proton than the current Mu2e production target and solenoid. In contrast to the current Mu2e, the muon collider design has forward-production of muons from the target.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2022

STC Qualification Tests of PIP-II HB650 Cavities

Design of the high beta 650 MHz prototype cryomodule for PIP-II is currently undergoing at Fermilab. The cryomodule includes six 5-cell elliptical SRF cavities with accelerating voltage up to 20 MV and low heat dissipation (Q₀ > 3.3 · 10^{z}EhNZeHn). Characterization of performance of fully integrated jacketed cavities with high power coupler and tuner is crucial for the project. Such a characterization of jacketed cavity requires a horizontal test cryostat. The Fermilab Spoke Test Cryostat (STC) has been upgraded to accommodate testing of 650 MHz cavities. Commissioning of upgraded STC has been reported at SRF’19 conference. In this paper we present results of testing of the prototype HB650 cavity in upgraded STC facility. We characterize cavity performance and qualify it for the prototype HB650 cryomodule assembly.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Baylor University Campus-Wide Deep Dive

In January 2020, staff members from the Engagement and Performance Operations Center (EPOC) and the Lonestar Education And Research Network (LEARN) met with researchers and staff at Baylor University for the purpose of a Campus-Wide Deep Dive into research drivers. The goal of this meeting was to help characterize the requirements for five campus research use cases and to enable cyberinfrastructure support staff to better understand the needs of the researchers they support. Profiled scientific use cases included: - Experimental High Energy Physics (HEP) - Proton Computed Tomography (pCT) - Nutrition and Relation to Digestive Microbiome - Baylor University Core Research Facilities - Molecular Quantum-dot Cellular Automata (QCA), and Material Science of Quantum Computing - Modeling and Simulation of Low-Dimensional and Nano-Structured Materials - Computational Fluid Dynamics Material for this event included the written documentation from each of the research areas at Baylor University, documentation about the current state of technology support, and a write-up of the discussion that took place in person. The Case Studies highlighted the ongoing challenges that Baylor University has in supporting a cross-section of established and emerging research use cases. Each Case Study mentioned unique challenges which were summarized into common needs. These included: - Tradeoffs for network/software security, and usability of the resulting infrastructure. Better communication to set expectations and understand realities is required. - Computation use on campus is widespread and healthy. While no major problems were uncovered, upgrades to maintain current usage patterns and encourage growth will be required. - Storage is a critical need for enterprise use cases and research. In particular, a campus wide ‘storage architecture’ to support research use cases (e.g. instruments, data sharing) is required in the 2-5 year time window. - Instrumentation on campus is healthy and expanding. Technology must scale with this in the form of computation and storage. - Working with LEARN to upgrade network capacity (in multiples of 10G, or upgrades to 100G) will be required in the 1-3 year time frame. - Network monitoring and visibility will help to establish external science use cases. - Data sharing via portal systems is not currently a critical need, but growing in scope. EPOC can assist Baylor with options.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Microalgae Conversion to Biofuels and Biochemical via Sequential Hydrothermal Liquefaction (SEQHTL) and Bioprocessing: 2020 State of Technology

A preliminary techno-economic analysis (TEA) was developed for the fiscal year 2020 state of technology (SOT) assessment to evaluate the benefits and risks for a large-scale microalga hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) system based on most recent testing results. The focus of the study is directed toward the conversion system, which consists of five processes: two-stage sequential HTL (SEQHTL), biocrude upgrading to final fuels, bioprocessing for co-product generation, hydrogen generation, and steam cycle. In this system, algae biomass with corn stover supplement during the lower algae productivity seasons (winter, fall, and spring) to match the maximum algae seasonal production rate in summer is employed to maintain a constant plant capacity in all the seasons. Algae only (summer season) or algae/corn stover blended feedstock (other seasons) are sent to a two-stage SEQHTL process. In stage I, the carbohydrates in the feedstock are extracted and separated from the residual solid. The residual solid from stage I is further converted to biocrude in the SEQHTL stage II step. The biocrude is upgraded to final fuel products in an upgrading process. The extract stream from HTL stage I is sent to the bioprocessing section for co-product generation via fermentation of carbohydrate. Lactic acid (LA) is assumed to be the co-product based on current bioprocessing testing results.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Determination of Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, and Oxygen in Bio-Oils: Laboratory Analytical Procedure (LAP)

The determination of total carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen in bio-oils is important as these values can be used to track the carbon balance of production processes as well as calculate total oxygen content by difference. Oxygen content of bio-oils is a key metric for production and upgrading strategies as these are typically aimed at reducing oxygen. Oxygenates in bio-oils contribute to poor hydrocarbon miscibility, high acidity, high viscosity, and poor stability. Upgrading of bio-oils via deoxygenation produces hydrocarbons which can be used to generate feedstocks for renewable fuels and chemicals. In this Laboratory Analytical Procedure (LAP), combustion-based ultimate analysis is used to determine the weight percent (wt%) of C, H, and N in bio-oils and upgraded products. Ultimate analysis uses high temperatures and a pure oxygen environment to completely combust organic samples to carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), water (H 2 O), and nitrogen oxides (NO x ). In this procedure the amount of C and H in the sample are quantified by measuring resultant CO 2 and H 2 O with Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). For N, NO x is reduced to nitrogen (N 2 ) which is measured with a thermal conductivity detector (TCD), providing total N content.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Demonstration of NREL Modeling Capability to Design the Next Generation of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines with Stiesdal and Magellan Wind (Cooperative Research and Development Final Report)

This Technology Commercialization Fund (TCF) CRADA involved demonstration of NREL modeling capability using OpenFAST (formerly known as FAST) to design the next generation of floating offshore wind turbines (FOTW) with Stiesdal’s TetraSpar design. The objective of the project was to enable the design and optimization of next generation FOWT that show promise to make FOWT cost-competitive with other energy technologies by upgrading, verifying, and validating improvements to OpenFAST. This objective was achieved by (1) upgrading OpenFAST to compute floating substructure flexibility and member-level loads, which is critical to enable the design of floating substructures—especially newer designs that are streamlined, flexible, and cost-effective; (2) verifying the new OpenFAST capabilities through model-to-model comparisons and validating the capabilities through comparisons to empirical data generated with wave-tank testing, using TetraSpar data provided by Stiesdal; and (3) making available the upgraded OpenFAST tool to the wind energy community to enable next-generation floating wind designs.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Design Considerations for Fermilab Multi-MW Proton Facility in the DUNE/LBNF era

Fermilab has submitted two Snowmass whitepapers on a future 2.4~MW upgrade for DUNE/LBNF featuring a 2 GeV extension of the PIP-II linac and the construction of a new rapid-cycling-synchrotron. This paper summarizes the relationship between these two scenarios, emphasizing the commonalities and tracing the differences to their original design questions. In addition to a high-level summary of the two 2.4~MW upgrade scenarios, there is a brief discussion of staging, beamline capabilities, subsequent upgrades, and relevant R&D. We are proposing a vigorous program to address various challenges associated with each scenario and to down-select the concept, most suitable to provide proton beams for years to come.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Improving Unit Flexibility Utilizing Plasma Ignitors

Coal fired steam generation operators face increasing market challenges, including competition from low cost generation, renewables, and regulatory pressure. These market conditions are forcing utilities to operate their coal assets in a more flexible mode, including more frequent starts and stops, faster ramp rates, frequent cycling, and extended operation at the lowest possible loads. Without upgrades to firing and control systems, pressure parts, and auxiliary systems, CAPEX and OPEX costs will increase significantly. Typically, expensive support fuels (Oil or Gas) are required to maintain safe, stable coal ignition when operating below 25% to 35% MCR (Maximum Continuous Rating). The exact minimum load without support fuel differs depending upon unit design specifications and fuel being burned. Frequent starts also increase the use of support fuels. The firing and burner control systems must be designed to allow for proper operation over the unit’s load range, ensuring that all mechanical components operate properly, and proper control of air and fuel streams can be maintained. To address the need for frequent starts and the need for stable low load operation on coal fired steam generators, this paper discusses options available, including, Firing Systems upgrades, Digital solutions, and pressure part upgrades. Several case studies are included that highlight options available allowing units to stay in operation and reduce CAPEX and OPEX costs.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
DOE OSTI2022

Irrigation Modernization Task 4: Accelerating Energy Solutions (FY2022 Final Report)

This report offers insights on energy solutions for irrigation modernization that serve the needs of farmers as well as residents and industry in the local community. Solutions are found in the irrigation districts where local generation from renewable energy sources – solar, hydro, and wind – can be combined with energy storage and customer loads. These combined resources configured in microgrids can lower costs during peak loads and provide resiliency by maintaining electricity supply during outages. The goal of this project, as stated in the FY2022 AOP, is to promote realization of energy solutions that are tailored to physical location, community, infrastructure, and energy value streams. Further, it is to develop examples of how to increase value of, and overcome barriers to, energy solutions in the context of irrigation modernization. In pursuit of that goal, the project looked at options for: 1) Reducing the cost of energy consumed in irrigation systems, 2) Increasing the revenue from surplus power generation, and 3) Deploying new power generation configured as part of a local microgrid. Potential solutions to reducing energy costs and increasing surplus power revenue revolve around addressing regulatory and legal constraints tied to how power is purchased by and sold to the irrigator or irrigation district. Some headway was made in identifying barriers and ways to push utilities to be more accommodating to distributed energy sources; however, for the most part, real progress hinges on changes at the regulatory and legislative level. Deployment of local, renewable generation systems can be implemented provided the economics of the project and the location are favorable. In concert with Famers Conservation Alliance and Energy Trust of Oregon, a number of approaches were studied in the past year, including off-grid solar powered pumps, grid-tied community solar projects, and in-conduit canal hydropower systems. Ultimately three viable projects were identified: 1) North Unit Irrigation District/City of Redmond, Oregon Critical Facility Microgrid – offers combined in-conduit hydro and solar power generation. 2) Wallowa County/Joseph, Oregon Irrigation System Upgrades – centered on upgrades to a non-powered dam that will add a turbine as well as in-conduit power in canal feeders downstream. 3) Medford, Oregon Wastewater Treatment Plant Biogas Cogeneration System – centered on building out biogas storage and grid upgrades to power the plant, sell excess power, and provide emergency backup power (supplanting a diesel generator). Each of these projects has characteristics that broaden the understanding of the value of microgrids employing renewable energy to achieve resiliency and net-zero carbon goals. The first two projects are centered on new hydropower systems. Although the Medford project is only tangentially tied to an irrigation district, it was selected for study analysis as it was the only one mature enough (with sufficient data) to complete an analysis within this project year. Thus, we chose to move forward developing a case study, in concert with the Community Water-Power Resilience project, to demonstrate a method for evaluating such projects. Essentially, this case study serves as a template for studies to be carried out next year that more directly involve irrigation system hydropower, e.g., the project at the Wallowa County/Joseph, Oregon Irrigation System. Lastly, it is recognized that the locations and case studies in this report are all located in Oregon. We recognize this as a limitation. While the intent is not to ignore other states or regions, this result is driven by the fact that we have cultivated a collaboration with non-profit entities in Oregon that focus on these topics – Farmers Conservation Alliance and Energy Trust of Oregon. These partners were central to identifying projects that may be good fits for this program. A goal in the coming year is to establish collaboration with entities in other states/regions that, similarly, can connect us to potential projects in their geographic area. The potential benefits from the WPTO’s support for demonstration projects as energy solutions in irrigation districts include: (1) Alternative power supplies for communities and farms using renewable, carbon-free energy resources, (2) Cost savings for electricity for communities and farms, (3) Resiliency of power supplies for critical loads when electricity from the grid is not available, (4) Resiliency of power supplies for critical infrastructure in the event of catastrophic events, and (5) Demonstration of irrigation modernization projects that provide resilience and a reduced carbon footprint to irrigation districts and nearby communities. These deployments can serve as vanguards/archetypes spurring similar projects in other districts and states.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Ice Dusty Plasma (Final Report)

The NSF/DOE funding described in this final report was for constructing a substantial upgrade that would enable operation at variable and much lower cryogenic temperatures than was available in a previous experiment that operated from 2013 to 2019. Components for the upgraded experiment were designed and ordered from August to December 2019 and assembly began in early 2020. However, COVID-19 halted all lab work for much of 2020 and then when lab work resumed, numerous restrictions on lab access and in-lab time further impeded progress. Because of these delays, first plasma was obtained in late 2021 and a normal work pace resumed only in mid-2022. A no-cost extension was requested because the COVID-19 delays prevented work from being done at the anticipated rate. Constructing a water-ice experiment was a significant gamble because the parameter regime differs substantially from conventional laboratory plasmas and injecting water vapor into a plasma goes very much against convention as one normally goes to great lengths to avoid water vapor. This experiment opens a new frontier, namely the study of how charged ice grains form, grow, and interact with a plasma environment. The just-completed upgrade was a further gamble because it combines technology never previously used together (cryocoolers, plasma, and ice).

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Accelerator challenges in the Fermilab Neutrino Program

In Fermilab's 2022-2023 proton complex run, Fermilab recovered from an unexpected failure in the neutrino focusing horn to achieve a record beam power of 960 kW. For Snowmass and P5, Fermilab recently proposed a new upgrade plan known as Accelerator Complex Evolution (ACE) to occur after PIP-II upgrade in tandem with DUNE/LBNF operation. The first phase of ACE, is the ACE Main Injector Ramp and Targetry upgrade, would raise the LBNF beam power from 1.2 MW to 2 MW by shortening the Main Injector cycle time to around 0.65s. The second phase of ACE, the ACE Booster Replacement, would replace the Booster with a new machine and achieve 2.4 MW for DUNE/LBNF. The core accelerator challenges, present and future, for operating intense neutrino beams at Fermilab will be highlighted.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2024

The CMS Phase 2 Outer Tracker Analyzer of Test Outputs - POTATO!

The Phase-2 upgrade of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), also known as the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) is designed to achieve peak instantaneous luminosities which is about an order of magnitude higher than the nominal design value of $10^{34}~cm^{-2}s^{-1}$ delivering a total of atleast $3000 fb^{-1}$ data over 10 years of operation at $\sqrt{s}~=~14~TeV$. One crucial aspect of the CMS Phase-2 detector upgrade is the replacement of the existing tracking detector in order to deal with the extreme HL-LHC conditions, retaining and further expanding the physics performances achieved in the previous years. The outer part of the upgraded tracker (OT), will be equipped with over 13,000 macro Pixel-Strip (PS) and Strip-Strip (2S) modules! Module production is distributed across centers worldwide and necessitates coordinated efforts and standardized procedures. Along with production and assembly of the modules, Fermilab OT group is also working on a tool, Phase 2 Outer Tracker Analyzer of Test Outputs (POTATO) that will analyze, grade, upload and manage the large quantity of files to be stored in the centralized Database (DB). In this contribution a brief overview of the module testing and the power and dire need of POTATO to handle this large number of test outputs will be presented.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Updating Scientific Linux 7 to Alma Linux

This is a poster for SIST program that talks about the upgrades of Scientific Linux 7 to Alma Linux. This includes how we kept track of all upgrades, and the process of upgrading.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Fermilab Neutrino Program – Accelerators & Experiments

We provide an overview of the Fermilab neutrino program, including details for both the accelerator and experiment aspect of the program. On the accelerator side, the current operation of the proton complex is presented, alongside the status of the upcoming PIP-II upgrade and the newly proposed ACE-MIRT upgrade. On the detector side, the SBN and NOVA programs are presented, as well as the status of the upcoming DUNE/LBNF upgrade. The Fermilab neutrino program planning is contextualized in terms of the recent P5 report, as well as ongoing discussions on future flavor and collider programs.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Fermilab high-intensity neutrino program: present and future

This talk will provide an overview of the Fermilab neutrino program, including details for both the accelerator and experiment aspect of the program. The current operation of the proton complex will be discussed, alongside the status of the upcoming PIP-II upgrade and the newly proposed ACE-MIRT upgrade. Additionally, the status of the SBN and NOVA programs will be presented, as well as the status of the upcoming DUNE/LBNF upgrade.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

ZIPPER: Zonal isolation with plug and perf in enhanced reservoirs (Final Technical Report)

Modern multistage hydraulic stimulation treatments in cased wellbores require an effective method of isolating stages between treatments. A commonly used method in the oil and gas industry, plug and perf, is not currently viable for Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) due to limitations of a critical component of the system – the ball drop (flow through) frac plug. Commercially available ball drop frac plugs do not meet the temperature or wellbore diameter requirements needed for use in EGS stimulations. For example, one particular drillable bridge and frac plug line from a large tool developer is only rated to 175 °C, while another is only available up to casing sizes of 5 ½” and rated up to 204 °C. We developed, prototyped, and field tested an upgraded ball drop frac plug to meet the requirements of EGS stimulations, including high-temperature (225+ °C), differential pressure (6000+ psi), and wellbore diameters ranging from 6 5/8” to 10 5/8”. We focused on designs and materials to optimize drillability, a key cost driver in plug and perf systems. The primary objective was to upgrade a drillable frac plug (currently rated to a temperature of 175°C and a pressure of 10,000 psi in 7” casing) to withstand temperatures of 225+°C. The upgraded frac plug was tested in the laboratory as well as in a field trial at a geothermal field. Engineering design and fabrication of the new plug was completed in 2019. Lab testing, validation, and qualification of the plug was completed in 2020. Ultimately the plug was successfully run during a multistage stimulation treatment in a fully horizontal EGS well in 2022. Prior to this project, a ball-drop, flow-through stimulation plug had never been used in a geothermal well. At the conclusion of this project, three different types of zonal isolation plugs were evaluated under full-scale operating conditions across 16 stimulation treatment stages in a first-of-a-kind EGS project called Project Red. This trial included the newly designed high-temperature, large-diameter plug. The plugs met all of 5 the technical requirements for commercial viability. Project Red has since been fully commissioned and is generating electricity on the Nevada grid - the first EGS project to successfully deliver power to the grid in the US.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗