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At least 1,225 records · Page 68
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

Evaluating Future US Hydropower Opportunities

Uncertainties, and a lack of confidence regarding issues, such as water availability/storage capacities and operational constraints, can be major obstacles in assessing the range of future opportunities for existing dams, which are certainly substantial. The authors discuss specific challenges facing current infrastructure and water resource data analysis that can inhibit large-scale evaluation of potential hydro development at existing dams. Recent advances in data and tools that may address these challenges are introduced.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

An Overview of Mesoscale Convective Systems: Global Climatology, Satellite Observations, and Modeling Strategies

Deep convection is responsible for redistributing water as well as energy and providing vital water resources for many regions of the world. Cumulonimbus clouds aggregation into a single storm system develop mesoscale convective systems (MCS). MCSs have precipitation covering a horizontal region on the scale of 100?km or more. After more than the last seven decades, MCS has been gradually received wide attention in the scientific community as an important component of the Earth's hydrologic cycle and energy balance. MCSs differ from ordinary deep convection because of the mesoscale circulations consisting of a layer of air overturning on a scale much larger than those created by individual convective updrafts or downdrafts. Moreover, a key feature that separates MCS from ordinary deep convection is the significant portion of stratiform precipitation that results in the production and detrainment of a large number of ice particles from their organized convective cores and continues the mesoscale ascent that supports ice growth and aggregation as the crystals fall. This significant stratiform precipitation gives rise to top-heavy latent heating profiles that have substantial impacts on the upper-level global circulations, especially for those MCS that have a larger portion of stratiform rainfall. Top-heavy latent heating profiles are more frequent over the ocean than over the land. These unique features of MCS suggest that they are important for the hydrologic cycle, general circulation, and radiative balance of the climate system. In this chapter, we focus on the recent advances in the climatological perspective of MCS as well as the research tools used to better understand MCS after the advent of the satellite era. We will discuss both tropical and midlatitude MCS, the influence of modes of tropical climate variability on MCS, and the new insight from satellite observations on MCS interaction with the land surface.

Chakraborty, Sudip↗
DOE OSTI2024

Full-Scale Development and Piloting of a Hybrid Digital Twin for Wastewater Operations Optimization

This full-scale pilot of a machine learning based nutrient controller/digital twin is being done as part of The Water Research Foundation (WRF) project 5121: Development of Innovative Predictive Control Strategies for Nutrient Removal. The overall goal of this project is to develop and full-scale test a hybrid (machine learning + mechanistic model) nutrient management controller at four different water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs). The controller demonstrates both short-term optimization functions and predictive capabilities. This project includes the design of the controller, its performance at the WRRFs, and a description of the future improvements.

Johnson, Bruce↗
DOE OSTI2025

Influence of Reservoir Convection on Heat Extraction with Closed-Loop Geothermal Systems

Over the past few years, advancements in closed-loop geothermal systems (CLGS), also called advanced geothermal systems (AGS), have sparked a renewed interest in these types of designs. CLGS have certain advantages over traditional and enhanced geothermal systems (EGS), including not requiring in-situ reservoir permeability, conservation of the circulating fluid, and allowing for different fluids, including working fluids directly driving a turbine at the surface. CLGS may be attractive in environments where water resources are limited, rock contaminants must be avoided, and stimulation treatments are not available (e.g., due to regulatory or technical reasons). Despite these advantages, CLGS have some challenges, including limited surface area for heat transfer and requiring long wellbores and laterals to obtain multi-MW output in conduction-only reservoirs. CLGS have been investigated in conduction-only systems. In this paper, we explore the impact of both forced and natural convection on the levels of heat extraction with a CLGS deployed in a hot wet rock reservoir. We bound potential benefits of convection by investigating liquid reservoirs over a range of natural and forced convective coefficients. Additionally, we investigate the effects of permeability, porosity, and geothermal temperature gradient in the reservoir on CLGS outputs. Reservoir simulations indicate that reservoir permeabilities of at least ~100 mD are required for natural convection to increase the heat output with respect to a conduction-only scenario. The impact increases with increasing reservoir temperature. When subject to a forced convection flow field, Darcy velocities of at least 10-7 m/s are required to obtain an increase in heat output.

advanced geothermal systems↗
DOE OSTI2026

Creating a Training Dataset for Semantic Segmentation of Canal Networks for Irrigation Modernization

Canal infrastructure has provided critical irrigation water to the western United States for over a century. To continue providing vital water resources to the semi-arid West, irrigation systems must undergo maintenance and modernization. Many canal companies are resource-constrained, and because funding opportunities often require detailed knowledge of existing infrastructure, they can struggle to secure financial capital. We address this problem by creating training data for a semantic segmentation deep learning model to map canal networks throughout the western United States. To create a diverse and robust training dataset, we labelled 1-m NAIP imagery with the locations of no canals, wet canals, and dry/vegetated canals. Since creating these datasets is time consuming, we first developed a preprocessing methodology to identify canals within our four study areas. We used NAIP imagery and provided canal centerline data to buffer, standardize, and cluster the imagery, automating the labeling process as much as possible. However, this still required manual cleaning and manual classification of canal type. Challenges arose when canals were interrupted (e.g., road culverts or piped sections) or when nearby features shared similar characteristics (e.g., irrigated fields, trees, and shadows). Combining automated preprocessing with manual refinement produced four detailed canal masks to be used in the semantic segmentation model developed by Richard Tapia.

13 - HYDRO ENERGY↗
NASA NTRS2019

JSC-Rocknest: a Large-Scale Mojave Mars Simulant (MMS) Based Soil Simulant for In-Situ Resource Utilization Water-Extraction Studies

The Johnson Space Center Rocknest (JSC-RN) simulant was developed in response to a need by NASA's Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) project for a simulant to be used in component and system testing for water extraction from Mars regolith. JSC-RN was de-signed to be chemically and mineralogically similar to material from the aeolian sand shadow named Rocknest in Gale Crater, particularly the 1-3 weight percentage water release as measured by the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument. Rocknest material is a proxy for average martian soils, which are unconsolidated and could be easily scooped by rovers or landers in order to extract water. One way in which water can be extracted from aeolian material is through heating, where adsorbed and structural water is thermally removed from minerals. The water can then be condensed and used as drinking water or split and used as propellant for spacecraft or as a source of breathable O2. As such, it was essential that JSC-RN contained evolved gas profiles, especially low temperature water (less than 400 degrees Centigrade), that mimicked what is observed in martian soils. Because many of these ISRU tests require hundreds of kilograms of Mars soil simulant, it was essential that JSC-RN be cost-effective and based on com-ponents that could be purchased commercially (i.e., not synthesized in the lab). Here, we describe the JSC-RN martian soil simulant, which is ideal for large-scale production and use in ISRU water extraction studies.

Hogancamp, J. V.↗
NASA NTRS2020

JSC-Rocknest: A Large-Scale Mojave Mars Simulant (MMS) Based Soil Simulant for In-Situ Resource Utilization Water-Extraction Studies

The Johnson Space Center-Rocknest (JSC-RN) simulant was developed in response to a need by NASA's Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) project for a simulant to be used in component and system testing for water extraction from Mars regolith. JSC-RN was designed to be chemically and mineralogically similar to material from the aeolian sand shadow named Rocknest in Gale Crater, particularly the 1-3 wt.% low temperature (<450 ºC) water release as measured by the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument on the Curiosity rover. Sodium perchlorate, goethite, pyrite, ferric sulfate, regular and high capacity granular ferric oxide, and forsterite were added to a Mojave Mars Simulant (MMS) base in order to match the mineralogy, evolved gases, and elemental chemistry of Rocknest. Mineral and rock components were sent to the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in Denver for mixing. Approximately 800 kg of JSC-RN was sent back to NASA in 5 gallon buckets, which were subsampled and characterized. All samples of the USGS-produced simulants had similar evolved gas profiles as a small prototype batch of JSC-RN made in JSC laboratories, with the exception of HCl, and were similar in terms of mineralogy and total chemistry. Also, all JSC-RN subsamples were homogenous and had similar mineralogy, total chemistry, and low-temperature evolved gas profiles as the Rocknest aeolian sand shadow examined with Curiosity’s instrument suite on Mars. In particular, the low temperature water releases were similar and the amount of water evolved from JSC-RN at <450 ºC was similar to the water content of Rocknest based on SAM water peak integrations. Overall, JSC-RN is ideally suited for ISRU studies of water extraction of global martian soil due to its excellent agreement with measured properties of martian soils and its proven feasibility for large-scale production.

Simulant↗
NASA NTRS2020

Resources from Water-Rock Interactions for Future Human Exploration of Mars

One of the most exciting endeavors in modern space exploration is extended human exploration of the Moon and Mars. We have entered a new phase in the human venture where we seek to expand our "...presence deeper into space and to the Moon for sustainable long-term exploration and utilization". With this endeavor come new challenges. Among them is the requirement for In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) methods to supplement or replace materials transported from Earth. The energy required to leave Earth's gravity well is immense, as is well illustrated by the nearly 3000 metric ton Saturn V required to deliver a payload of less than 50 metric tons to the Moon during the Apollo era. Much of this mass is propellant. Launch vehicles from Earth into space are generally 85 to 95% propellant (oxidizer + fuel) by mass. Potential ascent vehicles from Mars would also need to be approximately 80% propellant by mass to return to Earth. ISRU of fuel reactants could exchange delivered fuel mass directly for payload mass on the order of several metric tons. Devices like MOXIE are being designed to address the oxidizer component. However, 40% of the propellant mass in an ascent vehicle is the fuel reactant, and ISRU of this component has not been addressed for Mars or the Moon. Toward addressing this need, we have begun to develop and optimize methods to generate and recover fuel components, including H2, from Lunar and Martian relevant materials as potential in situ resources for future extended human missions. Hydrogen is an ideal resource to target. Not only can H2 be used directly as part of a propellant, it can also be used as a component in other fuels, such as methane. It is useful agriculturally for fixing nitrogen and can be oxidized to produce heat and water.

Adcock, C. T.↗
DOE OSTI2023

Multi-decade high-resolution regional hindcasts for wave energy resource characterization in U.S. coastal waters

Long-term, high-resolution, regional wave hindcast datasets were generated using unstructured-grid Simulating WAves Nearshore (SWAN) models for the U.S. coastal waters to support nearshore wave energy development in the U.S. including those bordering U.S. territorial islands. The model domains resolved the entire U.S. exclusive economic zones, with a spatial resolution of approximately 200 m nearshore. The regional SWAN models were driven by the global WAVEWATCH III® model outputs and run for a 42-year period from 1979 to 2020. Extensive model validations were performed using buoy observations and altimeter data. Regional resource characterization was performed based on hindcast data points at 2 km from shore and along the 100 m isobath. Aggregations of wave resource parameters were produced, and spatial and seasonal variations were analyzed for all the regions. Wave resource metrics recommended by international standards, including a 3-hour time series of six resource parameters, hourly frequency- and directionally resolved wave spectra at selected “virtual buoy” locations, and average-annual values of omni-directional wave power, significant wave height, and energy period are publicly disseminated through an Amazon Web Service and a Marine Energy Atlas web application tool to facilitate wave energy research and a wide range of coastal ocean applications.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗
DOE OSTI2022

Physically Realistic Estimates of Electric Water Heater Demand Response Resource

Multiple grid integration studies have examined the value of demand response, including from water heaters, to bulk power systems. Common shortcomings of these studies include physically unrealistic assumptions. For example, studies often assume that all electric water heater load can be shed for up to an hour to provide capacity or contingency service, that all electric water heater load is shiftable, and that round-trip efficiencies for shifting service are 100%. Another issue is that simply summing up estimates of individual water heaters' flexibility bounds, an attractive idea for constructing the MW-scale resources necessary for direct inclusion in grid investment and operational models, can result in significant overestimates of actual resource, because, e.g., a water heater with the ability to reduce load may not be able sustain the reduction for as long as the aggregate model suggests is possible. This presentation demonstrates the impact of estimating the flexibility of electric water heaters with physically realistic models suitable for grid service analysis. Electric water heater flexibility representations are constructed based on ResStock simulations of New England. Specifically, we examine contingency resource (related to capacity, shed, and contingency reserve services) and energy shifting resource from electric resistance and heat pump water heaters. Different estimation methods are compared; and the surrogate models' event responses are validated against events directly simulated in EnergyPlus. We also demonstrate the impact of using electric water heaters for contingency reserves and energy shifting in detailed models of possible future ISO New England power systems.

building energy modeling↗
DOE OSTI2022

Comparisons of biomass, water use efficiency and water use strategies across five genomic groups of Populus and its hybrids

Abstract Genetic improvement and hybridization in the Populus genus have led to the development of genotypes exhibiting fast growth, high rooting ability and disease resistance. However, while large biomass production is important for bioenergy crops, efficient use of resources including water is also important in sites lacking irrigation and for maintaining ecosystem water availability. In addition, comparison of water use strategies across a range of growth rates and genetic variability can elucidate whether certain strategies are shared among the fastest growing and/or most water use efficient genotypes. We estimated tree water use throughout the second growing season via sapflow sensors of 48 genotypes from five Populus taxa; P. deltoides W. Bartram ex Marshall × P. deltoides (D × D), P. deltoides × P. maximowiczii A. Henry (D × M), P. deltoides × P. nigra L. (D × N), P. deltoides × P. trichocarpa Torr. & Gray (D × T) and P. trichocarpa × P. deltoides (T × D) and calculated average canopy stomatal conductance ( G S ). We regressed G S and atmospheric vapor pressure deficit (VPD) wherein the slope of the relationship represents stomatal sensitivity to VPD. At the end of the second growing season, trees were harvested, and their dry woody biomass was used to calculate whole tree water use efficiency (WUE T ). We found that D × D and D × M genotypes exhibited differing water use strategies with D × D genotypes exhibiting high stomatal sensitivity while retaining leaves while D × M genotypes lost leaf area throughout the growing season but exhibited low stomatal sensitivity. Across measured taxa, biomass growth was positively correlated with WUE T , and genotypes representing each measured taxa except D × N and T × D had high 2‐year dry biomass of above 6 kg/tree. Overall, these data can be used to select Populus genotypes that combine high biomass growth with stomatal sensitivity and WUE T to limit the negative impacts of bioenergy plantations on ecosystem water resources.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
NASA NTRS2005

Issues that Drive Waste Management Technology Development for Space Missions

Waste management technologies for space life support systems are currently at low development levels. Manual compaction of waste in plastic bags and overboard disposal to earth return vehicles are the primary current waste management methods. Particularly on future missions, continuance of current waste management methods would tend to expose the crew to waste hazards, forfeit recoverable resources such as water, consume valuable crew time, contaminate planetary surfaces, and risk return to Earth of extraterrestrial life. Improvement of waste management capabilities is needed for adequate management of wastes. Improvements include recovery of water and other resources, conversion of waste to states harmless to humans, long-term containment of wastes, and disposal of waste. Current NASA requirements documents on waste management are generally not highly detailed. More detailed requirements are needed to guide the development of waste management technologies that will adequately manage waste. In addition to satisfying requirements, waste management technologies must also recover resources. Recovery of resources such as water and habitat volume can reduce mission cost. This paper explores the drivers for waste management technology development including requirements and resource recovery.

Fisher, John W.↗
DOE OSTI2023

In-situ resource utilization-derived water purification and hydrogen and oxygen production

This disclosure provides an integrated system and method for producing purified water, hydrogen, and oxygen from contaminated water. The contaminated water may be derived from regolith-based resources on the moon, Mars, near-Earth asteroids, or other destination in outer space. The integrated system and method utilize a cold trap to receive the contaminated water in a vapor phase and selectively freeze out water from one or more volatiles. A heat source increases temperature in the cold trap to vaporize the frozen contaminated water to produce a gas stream of water vapor and volatiles. A chemical scrubber may remove one or more volatiles. The integrated system and method utilize ionomer membrane technology to separate the water vapor from remaining volatiles. The water vapor is delivered for crew use or delivered to an electrolyzer to produce hydrogen and oxygen.

Finger, Barry Wynns↗