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At least 1,135 records · Page 63

Oxygen isotope ratios in zircon and garnet: A record of assimilation and fractional crystallization in the Dinkey Dome peraluminous granite, Sierra Nevada, California

Abstract The 119 Ma Dinkey Dome pluton in the central Sierra Nevada Batholith is a peraluminous granite and contains magmatic garnet and zircon that are complexly zoned with respect to oxygen isotope ratios. Intracrystalline SIMS analysis tests the relative importance of magmatic differentiation processes vs. partial melting of metasedimentary rocks. Whereas δ18O values of bulk zircon concentrates are uniform across the entire pluton (7.7‰ VSMOW), zircon crystals are zoned in δ18O by up to 1.8‰, and when compared to late garnet, show evidence of changing magma chemistry during multiple interactions of the magma with wall rock during crustal transit. The evolution from an early high-δ18O magma [δ18O(WR) = 9.8‰] toward lower values is shown by high-δ18O zircon cores (7.8‰) and lower δ 18O rims (6.8‰). Garnets from the northwest side of the pluton show a final increase in δ18O with rims reaching 8.1‰. In situ REE measurements show zircon is magmatic and grew before garnets. Additionally, δ18O in garnets from the western side of the pluton are consistently higher (avg = 7.3‰) relative to the west (avg = 5.9‰). These δ18O variations in zircon and garnet record different stages of assimilation and fractional crystallization whereby an initially high-δ18O magma partially melted low-δ18O wallrock and was subsequently contaminated near the current level of emplacement by higher δ18O melts. Collectively, the comparison of δ18O zoning in garnet and zircon shows how a peraluminous pluton can be constructed from multiple batches of variably contaminated melts, especially in early stages of arc magmatism where magmas encounter significant heterogeneity of wall-rock assemblages. Collectively, peraluminous magmas in the Sierran arc are limited to small <100 km2 plutons that are intimately associated with metasedimentary wall rocks and often surrounded by later and larger metaluminous tonalite and granodiorite plutons. The general associations suggest that early-stage arc magmas sample crustal heterogeneities in small melt batches, but that with progressive invigoration of the arc, such compositions are more effectively blended with mantle melts in source regions. Thus, peraluminous magmas provide important details of the nascent Sierran arc and pre-batholithic crustal structure.

Geochemistry & Geophysics↗

Walking on the dark side: Anthropogenic factors limit suitable habitat for gray wolf ( Canis lupus ) in a large natural area covering Belarus and Ukraine

Due to successful conservation initiatives and legislations, the grey wolf (Canis lupus) is recolonising its historic range in Europe. However, wolves have never been extirpated across large areas in Eastern Europe but are often constrained to remote and inaccessible places due to centuries of persecution. This study aimed to identify the potentially suitable wolf habitats in Polesia, a massive cross-border lowland region extending over southern Belarus and northern Ukraine, which are often neglected in large carnivore studies at the continental scale. We hypothesized that anthropogenic rather than environmental factors govern wolf habitat suitability. We used a dataset of 4191 GPS locations obtained from radio-collared wolves (n = 26) and confirmed observations (n = 231) during 2014–2021 and applied maximum entropy method to estimate relative habitat suitability for wolves in Polesia. Artificial light at night (ALAN), proportion of cropland and tree cover were the most important factors affecting wolf habitat suitability. Road densities contributed poorly to predicting habitat suitability for wolves. Our models predicted a quarter of Polesia as suitable habitat and revealed priority areas connecting the important source populations in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone in the east and the Bialowieza Forest in the west and thus essential for long-term wolf conservation. Our results provide the bases for effective, long-term wolf monitoring and management programs in both Belarus and Ukraine. However, national and transboundary wolf management in Polesia has been extremely challenging since 2022 due to the ongoing war and subsequent habitat degradation in this part of Europe.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Advancing Sodium-Ion Battery Cathodes: A Low-Cost, Eco-Friendly Mechanofusion Route from TiO 2 Coating to Ti 4+ Doping

Layered oxide battery cathodes often require extra stabilization strategies, such as surface coating or doping, to mitigate side reactions and enhance longevity. Conventional methods such as aqueous deposition and atomic layer deposition are costly and environmentally unfriendly and even damage the original structure, especially for air-sensitive sodium-ion battery (SIB) cathodes. Herein, we introduce an all-dry mechanofusion technique that modifies hydroxide precursors with TiO 2 coating before sintering with a sodium source. Using advanced characterizations including X-ray diffraction, neutron diffraction, and solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance for structural insights, X-ray absorption spectroscopy to study metal valence states, and transmission X-ray microscopy for nanoscale visualization of nickel oxidation states, we verified that postsintering transforms TiO 2 surface coating into Ti doping, leading to improved Ni-oxidation homogeneity, modified charge compensation, and enhanced thermal stability. Electrochemical tests reveal superior performance in capacity retention, rate capability, and air stability for these modified cathodes, with pouch cells maintaining over 85% capacity after 650 cycles. This method presents a sustainable, cost-effective route for advanced SIB cathode development.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Preliminary design overview and performance assessment of the ITER low-field side reflectometer

The design of the ITER low-field side reflectometer (LFSR) has matured to a complete end-to-end preliminary design. LFSR will supply three key plasma measurements: (1) electron density profile, (2) electron density fluctuations, and (3) poloidal rotation. Simultaneous measurements of the three quantities are enabled by an array of six monostatic antennas which inject from an equatorial port on the outboard side of the ITER vessel. Low-loss transmission lines, consisting of corrugated, overmoded waveguide and miter bends, transmit the 30–165 GHz, O- and X-mode signals to and from the ITER plasma. Integrated transmission-line components serve a range of purposes, such as protection from high-power stray radiofrequency radiation, accommodation of transmission-line displacement, and simultaneous measurement of reference and plasma phases during the discharge. Broadband transmission signals are realized by full-band microwave transceivers combined with quasi-optical multiplexing. A field-programmable gate array (FPGA) processor demodulates the profile reflectometer signals, enabling real-time density profile measurements for plasma control system feedback. A full-scale transmission line test facility provides an integrated environment to assess the performance of critical LFSR components. Theoretical modeling together with insertion loss measurements provide the basis for a comprehensive power budget, which accounts for transmitted output power, transmission-line losses, antenna coupling, and plasma effects. Results indicate that high signal-to-noise ratios are achievable with the current design. A synthetic reflectometer model, using real design parameters and baseline ITER profiles, has been developed to estimate the return signal. With evolving microwave and data acquisition technologies, full-band, ultrafast sweeps (<1 μs) will be realizable for ITER.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

The Demand-Side Opportunity: The Roles of Distributed Solar and Building Energy Systems in a Decarbonized Grid

Building energy systems represent a significant and largely untapped demand-side grid resource. Buildings use about 75% of electricity in the United States, including around 80% of peak demand, meaning that changes in building energy use have significant implications for grid operations. Building energy technologies-including energy-efficient devices, flexible loads, and energy storage-can be coordinated and aggregated to perform similar functions as centralized grid assets. Recent advances in information and communication (ICT) technologies have significantly improved building energy technology automation, coordination, and aggregation capabilities. With declining costs and technological advances, building energy systems can increasingly compete with conventional grid assets such as natural gas plants. Building energy technologies enable the deployment of distributed solar photovoltaics (DPV). Energy-efficient buildings allow DPV to meet greater shares of building load while flexible loads and energy storage can reshape building load profiles to optimize the on-site use of DPV. Optimized on-site use of DPV increases the value proposition for DPV adoption and can help utilities cost-effectively integrate higher levels of DPV penetration. Together, DPV and building energy technologies could help grids achieve deep decarbonization more quickly and cost-effectively.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

StructureDistiller: Structural relevance scoring identifies the most informative entries of a contact map

Protein folding and structure prediction are two sides of the same coin. Contact maps and the related techniques of constraint-based structure reconstruction can be considered as unifying aspects of both processes. We present the Structural Relevance (SR) score which quantifies the information content of individual contacts and residues in the context of the whole native structure. The physical process of protein folding is commonly characterized with spatial and temporal resolution: some residues are Early Folding while others are Highly Stable with respect to unfolding events. We employ the proposed SR score to demonstrate that folding initiation and structure stabilization are subprocesses realized by distinct sets of residues. The example of cytochrome c is used to demonstrate how StructureDistiller identifies the most important contacts needed for correct protein folding. This shows that entries of a contact map are not equally relevant for structural integrity. The proposed StructureDistiller algorithm identifies contacts with the highest information content; these entries convey unique constraints not captured by other contacts. Identification of the most informative contacts effectively doubles resilience toward contacts which are not observed in the native contact map. Furthermore, this knowledge increases reconstruction fidelity on sparse contact maps significantly by 0.4 Å.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Transferable Reinforcement Learning for Smart Homes: Preprint

To harness the great amount of untapped resources at the demand side, smart home technology plays a vital role in solving the "last mile" problem in smart grid. Reinforcement learning (RL), which has demonstrated an outstanding performance in solving many sequential decision-making problems, can be a great candidate to be used in smart home control. For instance, many studies have started investigating the load scheduling problem under dynamic pricing scheme. Based on those, this study aims at providing an affordable solution to encourage a higher smart home adoption rate. Specifically, we investigate combining transfer learning (TL) with RL to reduce the training cost of an optimal RL control policy. Given an optimal policy for a benchmark home, TL can jump-start the RL training of a policy for a new home, which has different appliances and user preferences. Simulation results show that by leveraging TL, RL training converges faster and requires much less computing time for new homes that are similar to the benchmark home. In all, this study proposes a cost-effective approach for training RL control policies for homes at scale, which ultimately reduces the controller's implementation costs, increases the adoption rate of RL controllers, and makes more homes grid-interactive.

ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION,↗

Statorless mixed flow turbine for transonic pulsating inflow

Effective harvesting of power from high speed highly transient inflows such as the outflow of rotating detonation combustors (RDCs) is key to achieving their promised cycle efficiency step jump. To increase power density and efficiency simultaneously, a concept that can directly ingest transonic outflow, addressing the choking is needed, i.e. without additional transition elements. A new statorless design was assessed using a comprehensive approach to quantify all contributions to loss generation in transient flows, locally and globally. The turbine rotor was designed under steady flow conditions with a genetic algorithm. The comparison of power and loss generation between steady and unsteady flow results shows that a design methodology under steady-state conditions is suitable to characterize the performance of different designs. Three design families were further assessed under highly transient transonic conditions including traveling shock waves with a relative total pressure amplitude of 149.6% around the mean value and inflow angle variations from -26.5 deg to +51.8 deg. The oblique shock impinging on the pressure side (PS) of the turbine augments the shaft power extraction. When the oblique shock reflects between the pressure side and suction side (SS), its strength diminishes. This paper provides design guidelines on efficient turbine work extraction from the shocks emanating from detonation combustors.

rotating detonation engines↗

Advanced Anti-Fouling Coatings to Improve the Efficiency of Coal Power Plants

As the total cost of carbon to generate energy has become a global concern, operators are increasingly looking at all parts of the generation cycle to find areas where efficiency gains may be found. It has been long identified that fouling of heat exchangers is a persistent cause of up to 2.5% of global CO 2 emissions. Unfortunately, practice has also demonstrated that unless a powerful economic driver exists to encourage preemptive mitigation of fouling, there will always be a strong tendency for operators to minimize any form of intervention due to high costs and challenges in scheduling downtime. The objective of this proposed research effort was to demonstrate how existing power plants could lower their carbon emissions and significantly improve heat transfer efficiency using new surface treatment materials to control fouling in a variety of heat exchange equipment. The surface treatment material which was optimized and deployed in this effort is now known commercially as HeatX. It is a low-surface energy, water- and oil-repellent, abrasion resistant material which can be applied in-situ to a wide variety of previously worn/used/in-service substrates. Once applied, it provides a barrier against corrosion, scale deposit formation, and biofilm adhesion on the circulating water-containing tube-side. Alternatively, if applied to the tube exterior, the non-wetting nature of the surface was demonstrated to promote dropwise condensation, subsequently lowering condenser backpressure and increasing overall plant efficiency. As part of this cooperative effort, the Department of Energy’s support was crucial to de-risk and demonstrate the concept of HeatX, while validating both the performance and economic benefit in multiple pilot field studies. The HeatX material properties were optimized in this effort for full field applicability to heat exchangers and condensers, and Oceanit developed the necessary procedures and protocols to provide enough material to support extended length, multi-year demonstrations in the power generation, desalination, and refining industries, making this technology broadly applicable and ready for commercial transition. Field deployment case studies at thermal power plants have shown that the HeatX treatment can provide economic savings of up to $15,000 per day for an operator based on avoiding maintenance costs and lowering fuel usage. The complete mitigation of fouling effects can increase the efficiency of equipment by up to 7%, in a field where gains of 0.5% are generally seen as operationally significant. The HeatX treatment has also demonstrated exceptional lifetime and compatibility with a wide variety of seawater and hydrocarbon environments, further increasing both the return on investment and the effective emission reduction. Such efficiency improvements correlate to massive carbon savings. For every 1 GW of capacity, operators can see carbon emissions reductions of 300,000 tons of CO 2 per year. When looking at the bigger picture, improved condenser function across the U.S. has the potential to prevent 221.3 million tons of CO 2 emissions, equivalent to the sequestration capacity of 129 million acres of forest. If applied on a global scale, 1.26 billion metric tons of CO 2 could be averted from the atmosphere, the same amount of carbon sequestrated by 1.5 billion acres of forest annually or 262,000 wind turbines operating annually. As businesses across multiple industries take a more active role in focusing on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) solutions as part of their core business operations, HeatX will be an attractive technology for commercial investment.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗

Interfacial Rashba-Effect-Induced Anisotropy in Nonmagnetic-Material–Ferrimagnetic-Insulator Bilayers

Interfacial magnetic anisotropy in magnetic insulators has been largely unexplored. Recently, interface-induced skyrmions and electrical control of magnetization have been discovered in insulator-based heterostructures, which demand a thorough understanding of interfacial interactions in these materials. We observe a substantial, tunable interfacial magnetic anisotropy between Tm 3 Fe 5 O 12 epitaxial thin films and fifteen nonmagnetic materials spanning a significant portion of the periodic table, which we attribute to Rashba spin-orbit coupling. Our results show a clear distinction between nonmagnetic capping layers from the d-block and the p-block. Finally, this work offers a new path for controlling magnetic phases in magnetic insulators for low-loss spintronic applications.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Mechanism of methanol synthesis on Ni(110)

Planewave density functional theory (DFT-PW91) calculations are employed to study the methanol synthesis through CO 2 and CO hydrogenation, as well as the two side reactions: the water gas shift (WGS) reaction and formic acid formation, on Ni(110). For the WGS reaction on Ni(110), we find that the redox mechanism is favored over the carboxyl-mediated mechanism. We show that the formate pathway is the dominant one for formic acid formation. For methanol synthesis through CO 2 and CO hydrogenation on Ni(110), our results reveal that the formic-acid- and dioxymethylene-mediated pathways coexist, in contrast to methanol synthesis on Cu(111) where the formic-acid-mediated pathway dominates. We also find that on Ni(110), hydrogenation of CH 2 O* to CH 3 O* and that to CH 2 OH* both contribute to MeOH synthesis. Based on the derived energetics, we ascertain that CH 3 O* hydrogenation to CH 3 OH* is likely the rate-determining step along the CH 3 O* pathway on Ni(110). Remarkably, CH 3 O* hydrogenation can be facilitated by the presence of HCO*, demonstrating the promotional effect of CO. Furthermore, we show that CO also participates in methanol synthesis directly via its hydrogenation to HCO* and further to CH 2 O*. Additional microkinetic modeling by considering feed composition and reaction conditions would provide further mechanistic insights into methanol synthesis on Ni(110).

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Correlated Insulating Behavior in Infinite-Layer Nickelates

Unlike their cuprate counterparts, the undoped nickelates are weak insulators without long-range antiferromagnetic order. Identifying the origin of this insulating behavior, found on both sides of the superconducting dome, is potentially a crucial step in the development of a coherent understanding of nickelate superconductivity. In this work, we study the normal-state resistivity of infinite-layer nickelates using high magnetic fields to suppress the superconductivity and examine the impact of disorder and doping on its overall temperature ( T ) dependence. In superconducting samples, the resistivity of Nd- and La-based nickelates continues to exhibit weakly insulating behavior with a magnitude and functional form similar to that found in underdoped electron-doped cuprates. We find a systematic evolution of the insulating behavior as a function of nominal hole doping across different rare-earth families, suggesting a pivotal role for strong electron interactions, and uncover a correlation between the suppression of the resistivity upturn and the robustness of the superconductivity. By contrast, we find very little correlation between the level of disorder and the magnitude and onset temperature of the resistivity upturn. Combining these experimental observations with previous Hall effect measurements on these two nickelate families, we consider various possible origins for this correlated insulator behavior and its evolution across their respective phase diagrams.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Quantification of heterogeneous, irreversible lithium plating in extreme fast charging of lithium-ion batteries

Realization of extreme fast charging (XFC, ≤15 minutes) of lithium-ion batteries is imperative for the widespread adoption of electric vehicles. However, dramatic capacity fading is associated with XFC, limiting its implementation. To quantitatively elucidate the effects of irreversible lithium plating and other degradation mechanisms on the cell capacity, it is important to understand the links between lithium plating and cell degradation at both the local and global (over the full cell) scales. Here, we study the nature of local lithium plating after hundreds of XFC cycles (charging C-rates ranging from 4C to 9C) in industrially-relevant pouch cells using spatially resolved X-ray diffraction. Our results reveal a spatial correlation at the mm scale between irreversible lithium plating on the anode, inactive lithiated graphite phases, and local state-of-charge of the cathode. In regions of plated lithium, additional lithium is locally and irreversibly trapped as lithiated graphite, contributing to the loss of lithium inventory (LLI) and to a local loss of active anode material. The total LLI in the cell from irreversibly plated lithium is linearly correlated to the capacity loss in the batteries after XFC cycling, with a non-zero offset originating from other parasitic side reactions. Finally, at the global (cell) scale, LLI drives the capacity fade, rather than electrode degradation. We anticipate that the understanding of lithium plating and other degradation mechanisms during XFC gained in this work will help lead to new approaches towards designing high-rate batteries in which irreversible lithium plating is minimized.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Proof-of-Principle Design of a High-Field Overpass/Underpass Nb 3 Sn Dipole

A block coil geometry is appealing in the body of particle accelerator dipole or quadrupole magnets, but less so in the ends of conventional designs, because conductors near the midplane of the beam tube must be bent in the hard direction to cross over to the other side of the tube. In order to avoid damage to brittle conductors such as Nb 3 Sn or HTS, the bend must be very gradual, resulting in undesirably long magnet ends. An alternative design -"overpass/underpass" or "cloverleaf" - can ramp the conductor within a short length with bending only in the easy direction. Described here is a proof-of-principle design and analysis of an "overpass/underpass" coil geometry for a block coil dipole of 11 Tor more.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

Uranium Oxide Elutriation at Higher Flow Rates and Longer Times

This work supports the recovery of high-assay low-enriched uranium (i.e., U enriched in 235 U to >5% and <20%) from used nuclear fuel. One step includes elutriating triuranium octoxide (U 3 O 8 ) from a fluidized bed of alumina (Al 2 O 3 ) that fills the main reaction chamber. The experiments outlined in this report assessed the effects of the time and flow rate on the elutriation of U 3 O 8 powder from the reaction vessel. Testing at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) was performed in a one-fourth scale experimental apparatus based on a pilot-scale system, which is the Material Recovery Pilot Plant (MRPP) at Idaho National Laboratory (INL). The experimental system comprises a supply of pressurized nitrogen (N 2 ), a gas heater, the reaction vessel, a knock-out pot, and a water trap where elutriated particles are collected for sampling. An Al 2 O 3 fluidized bed is contained within the reaction vessel. A bed of Al 2 O 3 with a nominal size of 180 µm and U 3 O 8 with a nominal size of 7 µm was fluidized at 2 different flow rates so the U 3 O 8 physically separated from the bed. The apparatus was simple and had no valves or sharp bends downstream from the reactor. The flow exited the reactor through a side port at the top. The flow passed through a knock-out vessel before the flow was passed through a bubbler to capture the U 3 O 8 . Seven tests were completed with U 3 O 8 using an elutriating gas of N 2 heated to 200°C. Tests were performed with bed loadings that comprise 25.0 g of U 3 O 8 , or 3.6 wt% of the bed mass. Except for one test performed at 12 SLPM, the gas flow rate through the bed for the other experiments was set at 10 SLPM as measured by the mass flow meter. Linear velocities through the bed were calculated as 28 and 34 cm/s, or 0.9 and 1.1 ft·s -1 . The duration of the tests ranged from 20 to 180 min, and one test had a flow cycled between 0 and 5 SLPM every 5 min for 40 min. The testing successfully demonstrated elutriation of U 3 O 8 from the fluidized bed as up to a 100% of the U 3 O 8 was transferred out of the bed. The removal of U 3 O 8 had a logarithmic dependence on flow rate. The design changes made the apparatus easier to clean, and the mass balances were better than those used in previous studies. Some elutriated Al 2 O 3 collected in the tubing that connected the reactor to the knock-out pot, but the amount of Al 2 O 3 was minimal for 10 SLPM. The flow at 12 SLPM showed considerable transport of Al 2 O 3 bed material into the reaction-vessel headspace and the transfer line to the knock-out pot.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Mineral Deposition on the Rough Walls of a Fracture

Modeling carbonate growth in fractures and pores is important for understanding carbon sequestration in the environment or when supersaturated solutions are injected into rocks. Here, we study the simple but nontrivial problem of calcite growth on fractures with rough walls of the same mineral using kinetic Monte Carlo simulations of attachment and detachment of molecules and scaling approaches. First, we consider wedge-shaped fracture walls whose upper terraces are in the same low-energy planes and show that the valleys are slowly filled by the propagation of parallel monolayer steps in the wedge sides. The growth ceases when the walls reach these low-energy configurations so that a gap between the walls may not be filled. Second, we consider fracture walls with equally separated monolayer steps (vicinal surfaces with roughness below 1 nm) and show that growth by step propagation will eventually clog the fracture gap. In both cases, scaling approaches predict the times to attain the final configurations as a function of the initial geometry and the step-propagation velocity, which is set by the saturation index. The same reasoning applied to a random wall geometry shows that step propagation leads to lateral filling of surface valleys until the wall reaches the low-energy crystalline plane that has the smallest initial density of molecules. Thus, the final configurations of the fracture walls are much more sensitive to the crystallography than to the roughness or the local curvature. The framework developed here may be used to determine those configurations, the times to reach them, and the mass of deposited mineral. Effects of transport limitations are discussed when the fracture gap is significantly narrowed.

calcite↗

Elemental characterization of crystalline silicotitanate following Hanford tank waste processing

To expedite vitrification of low activity waste at the Hanford Site, a Tank-Side Cesium Removal system is being evaluated. This method utilizes an inorganic ion exchange (IX) media, crystalline silicotitanate (CST), to remove 99.9% of the 137Cs from tank waste supernate. Laboratory scale testing of the ion exchange process has been conducted by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to evaluate Cs removal with CST in supernates collected from Hanford tanks 241-AP-107 and 241-AW-102 under prototypic plant operating conditions. In an effort to understand the selectivity and partitioning of other analytes toward CST, specifically Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) hazardous metals, selected +2 cations, and transuranic elements, a method for the complete dissolution of CST and Cs removal from the digestate was applied to the spent CST post-processing Hanford tank waste. The CST was shown to adsorb a relevant fraction of Ca, Cd, Pb, Sr, and potentially Fe by IX and/or other mechanisms. The spent CST also adsorbed actinides, including U, Pu, Np, and Am. This work discusses digestion of CST and removal of Cs from the digestate allowing effective analysis and provides insight as to what analytes may be competing for IX sites on the CST media.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

A Scalable Compact Additively Manufactured Molten Salt to Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Heat Exchanger for Solar Thermal Application

Design of an additively manufactured molten salt (MS) to supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO 2 ) primary heat exchanger (PHE) for solar thermal power generation is presented. The PHE is designed to handle temperatures up to 720 °C on the MS side and an internal pressure of 200 bar on the sCO 2 side. In the core, MS flows through a three-dimensional periodic lattice network, while sCO 2 flows within pin arrays. The design includes integrated sCO 2 headers located within the MS flow, allowing for a counterflow design of the PHE. The sCO 2 headers are configured to enable uniform flow distribution into each sCO 2 plate while withstanding an internal pressure of 200 bar and minimizing obstruction to the flow of MS around it. The structural integrity of the design is verified on additively manufactured (AM) 316 stainless steel sub-scale specimens. An experimentally validated, correlation-based sectional PHE core thermofluidic model is developed to study the impact of flow and geometrical parameters on the PHE performance, with varied parameters including the mass flowrate, surface roughness, and PHE dimensions. A process-based cost model is used to determine the impact of parameter variation on build cost. The model results show that a heat exchanger with a power density of 18.6 MW/m 3 (including sCO 2 header volume) and effectiveness of 0.88 can be achieved at a heat capacity rate ratio of 0.8. As a result, the impact of design and AM machine parameters on the cost of the PHE are assessed.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗