Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “Batch processing”

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.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 1,153 records · Page 64
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2018

Lab-scale Development of a Hybrid Capture System with Advanced Membrane, Solvent system, and Process Integration

The objective of the project is to achieve lab-scale demonstration of a transformational hybrid membrane/solvent system for the capture of CO 2 from flue gas. A novel process integration scheme was proposed to overcome the low partial pressure of CO 2 present in flue gas. This scheme takes advantage of the potential synergies inherent in the membrane and solvent capture systems. The proposed hybrid technology replaces the second-stage membrane with a solvent capture process. The combustion air is used as a sweeping gas in the solvent stripper. This overall configuration has the major advantages of requiring much less air and eliminating the problems associated with oxygen slip in the membrane-based systems. Even more importantly, because of the presence of the air sweep in the stripper, much lower temperatures are required for solvent regeneration, which enables heat integration to the point that no process steam is required. This project was to perform lab-scale demonstration of Liquid Ion Solutions (LIS) transformational hybrid membrane/solvent system for post-combustion CO 2 capture while demonstrating significant progress toward achievement of the overall fossil energy performance goals of 90% CO 2 capture rate with 95% CO 2 purity at a cost of electricity 30% less than baseline capture approaches. This report is written chronologically based on budget periods. Each budget period discusses the work performed and its results. At the end of each budget period the milestone charts are provided to show the progress. This project was not able to meet its stated goals. The performances of the power plant equipped with the hybrid process and Baseline Case B12B were compared. The simulation results showed that the power plant equipped with hybrid CO2 capture process has an improved thermal efficiency of 33.4% compared to the Baseline Case B12B, which is 32.5%. However, the COE for the hybrid process is $146.3/MWh which is higher than the $142.8/MWh for Case B12B. If this process were to be applied as a retrofit, it may make sense to use this configuration as it does not require any change in an existing plant configuration and steam cycle. However, for a new powerplant the capital cost is higher than the Case B12B. On the membrane development side, we successfully showed that interfacially-controlled envelope (ICE) membranes work. The inclusion of surface modified nano-particles results in much higher gas diffusivities. The Gen-1 ICE membrane developed under this project showed exceptional improved permeability for CO 2 . However, we ran into major problems which were associated with the scalability and reproducibility of the poly(phosphozene) polymers. The issues with scale-up are and batch to batch variability is also discussed. At the end of this report we have provided our recommendations on materials development for better membrane materials and alluded to the use of much simpler chemistry while keeping the concept of ICE membrane intact. It is also clear that vacuum and compression equipment is costly. If a process which can eliminate the use of vacuum and compression equipment would significantly decrease the overall cost of capture. Some thoughts regarding such system is also provided in the outlook portion of this report.

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Calcined Mg-Fe layered double hydroxide as an absorber for the removal of methyl orange

In this work, methyl orange (MO) was effectively removed from aqueous solution with the calcined product of hydrothermal synthesized Mg/Fe layered double hydroxide (Mg/Fe-LDH). The structure, composition, morphology and textural properties of the Mg/Fe-LDH before and after adsorption were characterized by X-ray diffraction, Fourier transformation infrared spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, nitrogen adsorption apparatus and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. It was confirmed that MO had been absorbed by calcined Mg/Fe-LDH which had strong interactions with MO. The adsorption of MO onto the Mg/Fe-LDH was systematically investigated by batch tests. The adsorption capacity of the Mg/Fe-LDH toward MO was found to be 194.9 mg • g{sup −1}. Adsorption kinetics and isotherm studies revealed that the adsorption of MO onto Mg/Fe-LDH was a spontaneous and endothermic process. These results indicate that Mg/Fe-LDH is a promising material for the removal of MO.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2018

Preparation and Characterization of Eu{sup 3+}-Doped Transparent Oxyfluoride Glasses

A process has been proposed for the preparation of oxyfluoride glasses based on the SiO{sub 2}–B{sub 2}O{sub 3}–Bi{sub 2}O{sub 3}–ZnO–CaF{sub 2} system at various ratios of batch components, and transparent glasses have been obtained at a temperature below 1000°C. According to X-ray diffraction data, all of the glasses are X-ray amorphous. The surface morphology of the glasses has been examined and their glass transition temperatures have been determined. Their local structure has been studied by IR spectroscopy and it has been shown that, independent of composition, the glasses contain complex polyborate anions formed by [BO{sub 3}] and [BO{sub 4}] groups. Bismuth is incorporated into the glass network to form Bi–O–Si bonds and [BiO{sub 6}] network-formers.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2016

SHINE and Mini-SHINE Column Designs for Recovery of Mo from 140 g-U/L Uranyl Sulfate

Argonne is assisting SHINE Medical Technologies (SHINE) in their efforts to develop an accelerator-driven process that utilizes a uranyl-sulfate solution for the production of fission Mo-99. In an effort to design a Mo-recovery system for the SHINE project using low-enriched uranium (LEU), we conducted batch, breakthrough, and pulse tests to determine the Mo isotherm, mass-transfer zone (MTZ), and system parameters for a 130 g-U/L uranyl sulfate solution at pH 1 and 80°C, as described previously. The VERSE program was utilized to calculate the MTZ under various loading times and velocities. The results were then used to design Mo separation and recovery columns employing a pure titania sorbent (110-μm particles, S110, and 60 Å pore size). The plant-scale column designs assume Mo will be separated from 271 L of a 141 g-U/L uranyl sulfate solution, pH 1, containing 0.0023 mM Mo. The VERSE-designed recovery systems have been tested and verified in laboratory-scale experiments, and this approach was found to be very successful.

38 RADIATION CHEMISTRY, RADIOCHEMISTRY, AND NUCLEA↗
DOE OSTI2017

Waste Water for Power Generation via Energy Efficient Selective Silica Separations

Silica is ubiquitous in produced and industrial waters, and plays a major disruptive role in water recycle. Herein we have investigated the use of mixed oxides for the removal of silica from these waters, and their incorporation into a low cost and low energy water purification process. High selectivity hydrotalcite (HTC, (Mg 6 Al 2 (OH) 16 (CO 3 )•4H 2 O)), is combined in series with high surface area active alumina (AA, (Al 2 O 3 )) as the dissolved silica removal media. Batch test results indicated that combined HTC/AA is a more effective method for removing silica from industrial cooling tower wasters (CTW) than using HTC or AA separately. The silica uptake via ion exchange on the mixed oxides was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), and Energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). Furthermore, HTC/AA effectively removes silica from CTW even in the presence of large concentrations of competing anions, such as Cl - , NO 3 - HCO 3 - , CO 3 2- and SO 4 2- . Similar to batch tests, Single Path Flow Through (SPFT) tests with sequential HTC/AA column filtration has very high silica removal too. Technoeconomic Analysis (TEA) was simultaneously performed for cost comparisons to existing silica removal technologies.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
NASA NTRS2001

First Protein Crystallization Experiments on The International Space Station: Sweet Success in Space With Thaumatin

We determined the room temperature 1.2 A structure of thaumatin using a crystal grown in the first protein crystallization experiment conducted aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The crystals were grown in the Enhanced Gaseous Nitrogen Dewar (EGN) developed by Alexander McPherson and co-workers. EGN transports frozen solutions contained in tygon tubing in a liquid nitrogen Dewar to ISS where the tubes then thaw. Batch, free interface diffusion (FID), or vapor diffusion crystallization occurs after thawing. EGN was flown to the ISS on STS-106 on September 8, 2000. This was a "risk mitigation" flight that tested EGN performance and the process of conducting experiments on ISS. We focused on how to map a hanging drop crystallization recipe to the EGN FID method. Thaumatin was chosen as the test system. Three series of crystallization recipes were set-up. Each series tested different volume ratios of protein-rich solution to precipitant-rich solution. The series differed from each other by fixing either the protein concentration or the amount of protein in the solutions. Upon return of the samples to Earth on October 24 by STS-92, bubbles that spanned the diameter of the tubing were observed in all tubes. Such bubbles interrupt liquid-liquid diffusion and force vapor diffusion equilibration to occur instead. Nonetheless, crystals grew in 9 of 30 tubes. Many large crystals were grown, the largest being 2.0 x 1.1 x 1.0 cubic mm. The largest crystal was used to collect data at room temperature on beamline 7-1 of the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Source to a maximum resolution of 1.2 A. The structure was refined anisotropically using SHELX with a data to parameter ratio of 4.5 to give an R(sub factor) of 15.8% (R(sub free) = 18.2%) for ail reflections without generated hydrogens. This refinement is proceeding. Comparisons of this 1.2 A microgravity structure to previous reports of the thaumatin structure at 1.75 A and to ground control crystals will be presented.

Kundrot, Craig E.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Adaptive, Active Learning, and Multifidelity Monte Carlo Methods in the MOOSE Stochastic Tools Module

MOOSE is an open-source computational platform for constructing multi-physics models and executing them in a massively parallel fashion. It has a stochastic tools module (STM) for forward/inverse uncertainty quantification (UQ) and surrogate modeling. This presentation details some recent developments to the STM with respect to the implementation of adaptive, active learning, and multifidelity Monte Carlo methods for forward UQ of computational models. Specifically, the adaptive Monte Carlo methods include Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC)-driven algorithms like adaptive importance sampling and parallelized subset simulation for statistical QoI estimation, rare events analysis, and stochastic gradient-free optimization. The active learning methods include Gaussian Process (GP) surrogates and their training via Adam optimization, design of acquisition functions, and integration with samplers like Monte Carlo, adaptive importance, and parallelized subset simulation. These active learning methods are also designed to work in a batch mode, wherein, the required calls to the full computational model are executed in parallel whenever a user-specified batch size is met. The multifidelity methods in STM are broadly divided into two categories: hierarchical, where a defined hierarchy exists among the low-fidelity models, and peer, where all the low-fidelity models are treated equally. A GP surrogate is used to learn the differences between the low- and high-fidelity models in both multifidelity categories, and acquisition functions from the active learning classes are used to decide whether to rely on a low-fidelity model or call the expensive high-fidelity model. Alongside the software description and usage, applications are also presented to nuclear engineering computational models including a TRISO nuclear fuel particle, a reactor pressure vessel, and a heat-pipe microreactor.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2019

Composition-Based Density Model for High Level Waste Glasses

In this report, the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) provides a first-principles model capable of predicting the density of high-level waste (HLW) glass based on the glass composition. The model relies on the additivity of the specific volume of bound glass oxides to obtain a quantitative evaluation of the approximate glass density. A database of glass densities and compositions was compiled from various sources including previous Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) variability study glasses, HLW studies from other institutions, and literature references. There are a total of 1104 glass compositions in the database with densities ranging from 2.224 g/cm 3 to 3.997 g/cm 3 . The breadth of the compositional coverage space is reported as well. A predictive method was investigated in which the glass density was calculated as a function of the weighted partial molar volumes of the individual glass oxides and the molar mass of the glass. This method yielded a high correlation between the predicted density and the measured density. In addition, a linear regression of these predictions indicated that the predicted value was equal to the measured within the bounds of analytical uncertainty. The following conclusions were drawn from the results of these analyses: 1. Measured glass density is highly correlated with glass composition (R 2 ≈ 0.95). 2. The correlation between glass density and glass composition can be expressed as either: a. A weighted sum of the individual oxide glass-component densities, or b. A weighted sum of the individual oxide glass-component partial molar volumes. 3. A linear regression of the predicted density via partial molar volume method to the measured density yields a slope of 0.9975 and an intercept of -0.0007 – the uncertainty interval associated with these coefficients contain one and zero, respectively. 4. The fitted coefficients and associated uncertainty intervals of the linear regression of the predicted density via the partial molar volume method to the measured density suggest that the predicted theoretical density is, within analysis uncertainty, equal to the measured density of the glass. It is recommended that glass density measurements included with the variability study for each sludge batch be discontinued. In their place, SRNL will calculate a bounding glass density value for the frit/sludge system using the model. It is also recommended that DWPF implement the density model as part of the fissile loading determination portion of the SME acceptability process. Details for implementation are provided in this report.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2014

CFD Simulations of a Regenerative Process for Carbon Dioxide Capture in Advanced Gasification Based Power Systems

This project describes the work carried out to prepare a highly reactive and mechanically strong MgO based sorbents and to develop a Population Balance Equations (PBE) approach to describe the evolution of the particle porosity distribution that is linked with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to perform simulations of the CO2 capture and sorbent regeneration. A large number of MgO-based regenerable sorbents were prepared using low cost and abundant dolomite as the base material. Among various preparation parameters investigated the potassium/magnesium (K/Mg) ratio was identified as the key variable affecting the reactivity and CO2 capacity of the sorbent. The optimum K/Mg ratio is about 0.15. The sorbent formulation HD52-P2 was identified as the “best” sorbent formulation and a large batch (one kg) of the sorbent was prepared for the detailed study. The results of parametric study indicate the optimum carbonation and regeneration temperatures are 360° and 500°C, respectively. The results also indicate that steam has a beneficial effect on the rate of carbonation and regeneration of the sorbent and that the reactivity and capacity of the sorbent decreases in the cycling process (sorbent deactivation). The results indicate that to achieve a high CO2 removal efficiency, the bed of sorbent should be operated at a temperature range of 370-410°C which also favors production of hydrogen through the WGS reaction. To describe the carbonation reaction kinetics of the MgO, the Variable Diffusivity shrinking core Model (VDM) was developed in this project, which was shown to accurately fit the experimental data. An important advantage of this model is that the changes in the sorbent conversion with time can be expressed in an explicit manner, which will significantly reduce the CFD computation time. A Computational Fluid Dynamic/Population Balance Equations (CFD/PBE) model was developed that accounts for the particle (sorbent) porosity distribution and a new version of the method of moments, called Finite size domain Complete set of trial functions Method Of Moments (FCMOM) was used to solve the population balance equations. The PBE model was implemented in a commercial CFD code, Ansys Fluent 13.0. The code was used to test the model in some simple cases and the results were verified against available analytical solution in the literature. Furthermore, the code was used to simulate CO2 capture in a packed-bed and the results were in excellent agreement with the experimental data obtained in the packed bed. The National Energy Laboratory (NETL) Carbon Capture Unit (C2U) design was used in simulate of the hydrodynamics of the cold flow gas/solid system (Clark et al.58). The results indicate that the pressure drop predicted by the model is in good agreement with the experimental data. Furthermore, the model was shown to be able to predict chugging behavior, which was observed during the experiment. The model was used as a base-case for simulations of reactive flow at elevated pressure and temperatures. The results indicate that by controlling the solid circulation rate, up to 70% CO2 removal can be achieved and that the solid hold up in the riser is one of the main factors controlling the extent of CO2 removal. The CFD/PBE simulation model indicates that by using a simulated syngas with a composition of 20% CO2, 20% H2O, 30% CO, and 30% H2, the composition (wet basis) in the reactor outlet corresponded to about 60% CO2 capture with and exit gas containing 65% H2. A preliminary base-case-design was developed for a regenerative MgO-based pre-combustion carbon capture process for a 500 MW IGCC power plant. To minimize the external energy requirement, an extensive heat integration network was developed in Aspen/HYSYS® to produce the steam required in the regenerator and heat integration. In this process, liquid CO2 produced at 50 atm can easily be pumped and sequestered or stored. The preliminary economic analyses indicate that the estimated cost of carbon v capture is in the range of $31-$44/ton, suggesting that a regenerative MgO-Based process can be a viable option for pre-combustion carbon dioxide capture in advanced gasification based power systems.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2018

Photochemical Kinetic Modeling of Degradation of Aqueous Polyvinyl Alcohol in a UV/H{sub 2}O{sub 2} Photoreactor

This study presents a photochemical kinetics model to describe the degradation of water-soluble PVA (Polyvinyl Alcohol) polymer in a UV/H{sub 2}O{sub 2} batch reactor. Under the effect of UV light, the photolysis of hydrogen peroxide into hydroxyl radicals can generate a series of polymer scission reactions. For a better understanding and analysis of the UV/H{sub 2}O{sub 2} process in the cracking of the PVA macromolecules, a chemical reaction mechanism of the degradation process and a relevant photochemical kinetics model are developed to describe the disintegration of the polymer chains. Taking into account the probabilistic fragmentation of the polymer, the statistical moment approach is used to model the molar population balance of live and dead polymer chains. The model predicts the PVA molecular weight reduction, the acidity of the solution, and hydrogen peroxide residual. In addition to previously published data collected in this laboratory, a new set of experiments were conducted using a 500 mg/L PVA aqueous for different hydrogen peroxide/PVA ratios for model validation. Measurements of average molecular weights of the polymer, hydrogen peroxide concentrations and pH of the PVA solution were determinant factors in constructing a reliable photochemical model of the UV/H{sub 2}O{sub 2} process. Experimental data showed a decrease in the PVA molecular weight and a buildup of the solution acidity. The experimental data also served to determine the kinetics rate constants of the PVA photochemical degradation and validate the model whose predictions are in good agreement with data. The model can provide a comprehensive understanding of the impact of the design and operational variables.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Data-Driven Protection Software to classify fault locations by protective zone in distribution systems with high PV penetration

The software contains (a) the source codes to generate Point-on-Wave (PoW) transient data for any feeder model in Alternative Transient Program (ATP) format. Codes provide options to change different steady state settings, including the loading condition and PV capacity and transient state setting like faults type, location and initiation time (b) data post-processing source code to converted data from native format to COMTRADE, csv, HDF5 (c) Docker container to train CNN to classify fault locations by protective zone. The container takes dataset and other training parameters (sampling rate, training epochs, batch size etc) as input to train CNN. The container writes back the trained CNN model, training and testing metrics and plots to the local workstation

Ramesh, Meghana↗
DOE OSTI2021

CAZymes from the thermophilic fungus Thermoascus aurantiacus are induced by C5 and C6 sugars

Abstract Background Filamentous fungi are excellent lignocellulose degraders, which they achieve through producing carbohydrate active enzymes (CAZymes). CAZyme production is highly orchestrated and gene expression analysis has greatly expanded understanding of this important biotechnological process. The thermophilic fungus Thermoascus aurantiacus secretes highly active thermostable enzymes that enable saccharifications at higher temperatures; however, the genome-wide measurements of gene expression in response to CAZyme induction are not understood. Results A fed-batch system with plant biomass-derived sugars d -xylose, l -arabinose and cellobiose established that these sugars induce CAZyme expression in T. aurantiacus . The C5 sugars induced both cellulases and hemicellulases, while cellobiose specifically induced cellulases. A minimal medium formulation was developed to enable gene expression studies of T. aurantiacus with these inducers. It was found that d-xylose and l -arabinose strongly induced a wide variety of CAZymes, auxiliary activity (AA) enzymes and carbohydrate esterases (CEs), while cellobiose facilitated lower expression of mostly cellulase genes. Furthermore, putative orthologues of different unfolded protein response genes were up-regulated during the C5 sugar feeding together with genes in the C5 sugar assimilation pathways. Conclusion This work has identified two additional CAZyme inducers for T. aurantiacus , l -arabinose and cellobiose, along with d -xylose. A combination of biochemical assays and RNA-seq measurements established that C5 sugars induce a suite of cellulases and hemicellulases, providing paths to produce broad spectrum thermotolerant enzymatic mixtures.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Exploration of Processing Parameters of Vacuum Assisted Micelle Confinement Synthesis of Spherical CL-20 Microparticles

We recently developed a vacuum assisted micelle confinement synthesis for spherical microparticles of CL-20 with outstanding monodispersity. These microparticles are promising energetic material for explosive devices with enhanced and predictable performances. In this paper, to facilitate further development and application of this synthesis, the particle growth process was monitored by in-situ dynamic light scattering measurements. The result was interpreted by a finite element model to obtain critical parameters. Finally, these parameters were then used to predict the behavior and product quality of batch synthesis under various operation conditions.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2017

Preparing NERSC users for Cori, a Cray XC40 system with Intel many integrated cores

The newest NERSC supercomputer Cori is a Cray XC40 system consisting of 2,388 Intel Xeon Haswell nodes and 9,688 Intel Xeon-Phi “Knights Landing” (KNL) nodes. Compared to the Xeon-based clusters NERSC users are familiar with, optimal performance on Cori requires consideration of KNL mode settings; process, thread, and memory affinity; fine-grain parallelization; vectorization; and use of the high-bandwidth MCDRAM memory. This paper describes our efforts preparing NERSC users for KNL through the NERSC Exascale Science Application Program, Web documentation, and user training. We discuss how we configured the Cori system for usability and productivity, addressing programming concerns, batch system configurations, and default KNL cluster and memory modes. Here, system usage data, job completion analysis, programming and running jobs issues, and a few successful user stories on KNL are presented.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2017

Synergistic maximization of the carbohydrate output and lignin processability by combinatorial pretreatment

Lignocellulosic biorefineries have gained much attention worldwide as a potential solution to the challenges of energy demand and global climate change. However, the industrial implementation of biorefineries has been hindered by low fermentable sugar yields and low lignin processability. Combinatorial pretreatments with a low holding temperature were investigated in an effort to synergistically improve the carbohydrate output and lignin processability from corn stover. Upon combinatorial pretreatment with 1% H 2 SO 4 for 30 min followed by 1% NaOH for 60 min at 120 °C, glucan and xylan conversion increased by 11.2% and 8.3% respectively relative to single pretreatment. This combinational pretreatment removed the amorphous portion, disrupted the rigid structure, and increased the water holding capacity of corn stover, thus increasing the hydrolysis performance. With whole fractionation by combinatorial pretreatment, glucose and xylose yields were 88.4% and 72.6%, respectively, representing increases of 10.0% and 8.1%. The lignin yield was 19.7% in the solid residue and 77.6% in the liquid stream, which increased by 33.4%. When grown in fed-batch fermentation mode, a record level of polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) concentration (1.0 g l –1 ) was obtained using lignin as a carbon source by Pseudomonas putida KT2440. Lignin characterization results showed that combinatorial pretreatment increased the G- and H-lignin content, reduced the β–β and β-O-4 groups, and fractionated more aromatic monomers, thus facilitating lignin processability into PHA. Furthermore, these results highlighted the use of combinational pretreatment at a low holding temperature as a means to synergistically maximize the carbohydrate output and lignin processability, which provides a unique set of features to improve the biorefining performance.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2024

Tetrafluoroboric Acid Digestion for Accurate Determination of Rare Earth Elements in Coal and Fly Ash by ICP-MS Analysis

Coal and coal-related fly ash often contain rare earth elements (REEs) that have the potential to be utilized as valuable mineral resources. Accurately determining the REE content in coal and fly ash is crucial for resource evaluation. The conventional approach involves using hydrofluoric acid (HF) to dissolve silicates and release REEs, which, however, prolongs the digestion process due to the additional step of complexing fluoride ions (F−) with boric acid (H3BO3). Determining the correct amount of H3BO3 for neutralization can be challenging, and in some instances, the binding of fluoride ions with certain lanthanides (Lns) hampers the accurate determination of all 14 naturally occurring rare earth elements in a single digestion batch by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). In this study, we present an alternative method that achieves the accurate determination of all 14 naturally occurring REEs using tetrafluoroboric acid (HBF4) followed by ICP-MS analysis. This approach eliminates the need for an F− complexing step. We tested this method on certified REE reference materials, including NIST 1632e (coal) and NIST 1633c (fly ash), as well as the REE geological reference material USGS AGV-1 (andesite). Our results demonstrated excellent recovery rates (relative standard deviation, RSD < ±10%), with a correlation coefficient (r2) exceeding 0.99. Using this method, we investigated the concentrations of all 14 REEs in coal and fly ash samples collected from various locations in the southwestern USA. This improved digestion technique streamlines the analysis process and enhances the accuracy of REE determination, facilitating a more comprehensive evaluation of REE-rich coal and fly ash deposits for resource exploration.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Isolation and conversion of electrolyte components into a value-added product

The overall objective of this work was to develop a process for effectively (i) recycling the electrolyte components from the end-of-life batteries and reduce the environmental hazard, (ii) understand the fundamental differences between pristine and recycled electrolyte components, (iii) electrochemically and analytically evaluate the recycled electrolyte components and (iv) establish deviations from the pristine electrolyte, and effectively separation of value-added product. We focused on determining scaling up the electrolyte recovery process by distillation of end-of-life batteries to get yield enough to use it for electrolyte formulation of reuse in the battery cell. The used cells from the ORNL battery manufacture facility (BMF)as well as received from the industry partner, Austin Elements Inc., was scaled to 10 used multilayered pouch cells in each batch of distillation and systematically separated and identified the electrolyte components of the used cells with FTIR and NMR studies. We were able to recovery 10g of solvent mass from the used pouch cells. NMR spectroscopy showed that the solvent was pure EMC,DMC and the sample was used to make a new battery cell. The end-of-life battery, it was noted that some cells were visually drier than the other cells and were more advanced in aged. In that case, even though the same distillation conditions were utilized, no usable mass of electrolyte solvent was recovered. It is expected that most of the solvent was decomposed during the battery charge-discharge cycling. The solid salt residue was separated by chemical and water treatment processes. Components of resulting solid product was analyzed by XRD and XPS measurements. The solid products are very much related to the salts used in the electrolyte solution.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Isolation and Conversion of Electrolyte Components into a Value-Added Product

The overall objective of this work was to develop a process for effectively (i) recycling the electrolyte components from the end-of-life batteries and reduce the environmental hazard, (ii) understand the fundamental differences between pristine and recycled electrolyte components, (iii) electrochemically and analytically evaluate the recycled electrolyte components and (iv) establish deviations from the pristine electrolyte, and effectively separation of value-added product. We focused on determining scaling up the electrolyte recovery process by distillation of end-of-life batteries to get yield enough to use it for electrolyte formulation of reuse in the battery cell. The used cells from the ORNL battery manufacture facility (BMF) as well as received from the industry partner, Austin Elements Inc., was scaled to 10 used multilayered pouch cells in each batch of distillation and systematically separated and identified the electrolyte components of the used cells with FTIR and NMR studies. We were able to recovery 10g of solvent mass from the used pouch cells. NMR spectroscopy showed that the solvent was pure EMC, DMC and the sample was used to make a new battery cell. The end-of-life battery, it was noted that some cells were visually drier than the other cells and were more advanced in aged. In that case, even though the same distillation conditions were utilized, no usable mass of electrolyte solvent was recovered. It is expected that most of the solvent was decomposed during the battery charge-discharge cycling. The solid salt residue was separated by chemical and water treatment processes. Components of resulting solid product was analyzed by XRD and XPS measurements. The solid products are very much related to the salts used in the electrolyte solution.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗