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At least 127 records · Page 7
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Stress Testing California's Hydroclimatic Whiplash: Potential Challenges, Trade‐Offs and Adaptations in Water Management and Hydropower Generation

Abstract Inter‐annual precipitation in California is highly variable, and future projections indicate an increase in the intensity and frequency of hydroclimatic “whiplash.” Understanding the implications of these shocks on California's water system and its degree of resiliency is critical from a planning perspective. Therefore, we quantify the resilience of reservoir services provided by water and hydropower systems in four basins in the western Sierra Nevada. Using downscaled runoff from 10 climate model outputs, we generated 200 synthetic hydrologic whiplash sequences of alternating dry and wet years to represent a wide range of extremes and transitional conditions used as inputs to a water system simulation model. Sequences were derived from upper (wet) and lower (dry) quintiles of future streamflow projections (2030–2060). Results show that carryover storage was negatively affected in all basins, particularly in those with lower storage capacity. All basins experienced negative impacts on hydropower generation, with losses ranging from 5% to nearly 90%. Reservoir sizes and inflexible operating rules are a particular challenge for flood control, as in extremely wet years spillage averaged nearly the annual basins' total discharge. The reliability of environmental flows and agricultural deliveries varied depending on the basin, intensity, and duration of whiplash sequences. Overall, wet years temporarily rebound negative drought effects, and greater storage capacity results in higher reliability and resiliency, and lesser volatility in services. We highlight potential policy changes to improve flexibility, increase resilience, and better equip managers to face challenges posed by whiplash while meeting human and environmental needs.

Environmental Sciences & Ecology↗
NASA NTRS1980

Expanded interleaved solid-state memory for a wide bandwidth transient waveform recorder

An interleaved, solid state expanded memory for a 100 MHz bandwidth waveform recorder is described. The memory development resulted in a significant increase in the storage capacity of a commercially available recorder. The motivation for the memory expansion of the waveform recorder, which is used to support in-flight measurement of the electromagnetic characteristics of lightning discharges, was the need for a significantly longer data window than that provided by the commercially available unit. The expanded recorder provides a data window that is 128 times longer than the commercial unit, while maintaining the same time resolution, by increasing the storage capacity from 1024 to 131 072 data samples. The expanded unit operates at sample periods as small as 10 ns. Sampling once every 10 ns, the commercial unit records for about 10 microseconds before the memory is filled, whereas, the expanded unit records for about 1300 microseconds. A photo of the expanded waveform recorder is shown.

Thomas, R. M., Jr.↗
DOE OSTI2026

Update on Integrity Monitoring, Prediction and Assessment, Corrosion Control, and Repair of the Hanford Storage Tanks

DOE has launched a multi-year research program with the focus of preserving and increasing available volume for waste storage at Hanford. The long-term availability and operability of the Hanford Double Shell Tanks (DST) is critical to the completion of the Hanford mission. Maintaining the integrity of the tank will involve having a technology for repair or refurbishment of a DST should the tank function be compromised by degradation, monitoring the tank for indications of accelerated degradation, developing a means for mitigating accelerated degradation, and evaluating options for increasing the storage capacity in the tank farm without constructing new tanks. The project work was started in the middle of 2024; significant progress has been made in the following four areas: (i) tank refurbishment using a high performance grout and an epoxy sealant layer system, (ii) developing a chemically and radiologically stable reference electrode, (iii) designing and implementing a cathodic protection system to mitigate underside corrosion of DST secondary shells, and (iv) exploring evaporation to increase waste storage capacity.

Shukla, Pavan [Savannah River National Laboratory ↗
DOE OSTI2025

Machine-learning and first-principles investigation of lightweight medium-entropy alloys for hydrogen-storage applications

The transition to a low-carbon economy demands efficient and sustainable energy-storage solutions, with hydrogen emerging as a promising clean-energy carrier and with metal hydrides recognized for their hydrogen-storage capacity. Here, we leverage machine learning (ML) to predict hydrogen-to-metal (H/M) ratios and solution energy by incorporating thermodynamic parameters and local lattice distortion (LLD) as key features. Our best-performing ML model provides improvements to H/M ratios and solution energies over a broad class of medium-entripy alloys (easily extendable to multi-principal-element alloys), such as Ti–Nb-X (X = Mo, Cr, Hf, Ta, V, Zr) and Co–Ni-X (X = Al, Mg, V). Ti–Nb–Mo alloys reveal compositional effects in H-storage behavior, in particular Ti, Nb, and V enhance H-storage capacity, while Mo reduces H/M and hydrogen weight percent by 40–50 %. We attributed results in molybdenum-rich alloys to slow hydrogen kinetics, as validated by our pressure-composition-temperature (PCT) isotherm experiments on pure Ti and Ti 5 Mo 95 alloys. Density functional theory (DFT) and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations also confirm that Ti and Nb promote H diffusion, whereas Mo hinders it, highlighting the interplay between electronic structure, lattice distortions, and hydrogen uptake. Notably, our Gradient Boosting Regression model identifies LLD as a critical factor in H/M predictions. Here, to aid material selection, we present two periodic tables illustrating elemental effects on (a) H 2 wt% and (b) solution energy, derived from ML, and provide a reference for identifying alloying elements that enhance hydrogen solubility and storage.

08 HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2021

Numerical Simulations of Geologic Storage Reservoir Management to Support Risk Mitigation Evaluation

This report provides a detailed description of a set of numerical simulations that represent reservoir behavior over time in response to different operational decision scenarios for detection of potential leakage and reduction or avoidance of leakage impact at a hypothetical geological carbon storage (GCS) site. These simulations serve as the basis for a series of GCS leakage risk forecasts that are to be developed using the National Risk Assessment Partnership’s Open-Source Integrated Assessment Model (NRAP-Open-IAM), and a demonstration of a simple decision support workflow for evaluation of mitigation strategies based on results of those system model forecasts. This risk assessment and decision support study is forthcoming. Four injection scenarios were considered: a constant rate carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) injection case (base case), a case with CO 2 injection rate adjustment, a case with early termination of injection operations, and a case with brine extraction. CO 2 injection operations were controlled to ensure that the pressure transient remains below the defined manageable reservoir fracture pressure, with consideration shown to hypothetical locations within the modeled spatial domain where the overburden was weaker and lower transient pressure increases were allowable. Additionally, a brine extraction alternative was considered as a reservoir management and risk mitigation option to reduce reservoir pressure, steer the plume away from any hypothetical geohazard such as fault as needed, and enhance storage capacity. Such operational actions contribute to risk management overtime. This study explores the potential utility of reservoir management for risk reduction at GCS sites. This study shows that the injection design may modify the time to CO 2 breakthrough at a legacy well; in particular, these results show that brine extraction can add value for mitigating risk both by delaying leakage and reducing pressure build-up. For the scenario considered, both pressure plots and pressure distributions demonstrate that pressure build-up was decreased by 3% with brine extraction. Additionally, extraction of brine afforded enhancement of CO 2 storage capacity by 5% compared to the base case. These findings suggest that brine extraction has substantial potential to steer the risk-related reservoir effects away from known geohazards (e.g., faults and legacy wells) by conducting pressure transient effects and CO 2 plume movement toward the production well. Injection rate adjustment scenarios considered in this study show potential value for managing both reservoir pressure transients and CO 2 plume behavior. Operational actions for reducing injection and/or early termination of injection (as compared to the base case), however, require careful design; tailoring both the extent and timing of injection rate adjustment over the injection and post-injection operational period must be thoroughly planned to balance maximizing storage and minimizing subsurface environmental risk. The study also gives preliminary consideration to the effectiveness that monitoring strategy may play in providing useful information to inform reservoir management decisions for risk reduction. Two types of monitoring were considered: 1) pressure build-up or pressure transient; and 2) potential leakage detection from a CO 2 mass or plume. Four hypothetical legacy wells, two plugged and two abandoned, were placed in the model domain. Monitoring along these wells was measured over time in individual stacked reservoir formations and shale formations to support risk mitigation decisions, especially operational decisions that assisted in risk reduction. These simulations will serve as the basis for a series of GCS leakage risk forecasts that are to be developed using NRAP’s Open-IAM, and demonstration of a simple decision support workflow for comparative assessment of mitigation alternatives based on results of those system model forecasts. This risk assessment and decision support study is forthcoming.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Simulation study of chemo-mechanical impacts of CO 2 injection in morrow b sandstone reservoir

Here, this study investigates the impacts of geomechanical and geochemical changes on carbon storage in a partially depleted oil reservoir, using results from four different coupled simulation models. Models were used to examine the relative importance of storage mechanisms, and how changing reservoir parameters might affect these mechanisms through time. The study uses data from a Morrowan sandstone reservoir in the Farnsworth Unit (FWU), Ochiltree County, Texas which is currently undergoing CO 2 enhanced oil recovery (EOR). Partially depleted oil reservoirs such as the FWU offer attractive carbon utilization and/or storage targets because of existing infrastructure and economic benefits from incremental oil recovery as well as tax credits. However, prediction of storage capacity or long-term fluid migration in these fields can be difficult because of the wide variation in formation fluids and operational histories that may have undergone. CO 2 injection can cause complex geomechanical and geochemical responses in a reservoir as a result of interplay between dynamic changes in pore pressure, reservoir temperature, fluid composition, and interactions between formation fluids, CO 2 , and reservoir rock. Thus, multiple coupled numerical simulation models must be developed and used to more precisely understand what CO 2 storage mechanisms are most significant, as well as the long-term fate of the stored CO 2 . Our study used results from hydrodynamic, coupled hydro-geomechanical, coupled hydro-geochemical, and coupled hydro-geomechanical-geochemical models to examine how changes in geomechanical and geochemical properties can impact the injectivity or storage capacity of CO 2 . Models simulated historical field operations and then forward-modeled a water-alternate-gas (WAG) operation for 20 years, followed by a 1000-year post-injection monitoring. The work demonstrates that in this specific reservoir, geomechanical impacts appear to be more significant than any geochemical processes, which showed minimal impact on reservoir properties. Furthermore, these simulation scenarios corroborated other studies showing more than 90% of CO 2 injected are being stored and will remain stored in the reservoir. The study was able to draw on a rich set of data from this currently operational project for the work. Because the Morrow is a widespread oil-bearing reservoir in the midcontinent of the United States and is fairly typical of many sandstone reservoirs elsewhere, the study has significance beyond the boundaries of our field area.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS1987

Large capacity cryopropellant orbital storage facility

A comprehensive study was performed to develop the major features of a large capacity orbital propellant storage facility for the space-based cryogenic orbital transfer vehicle. Projected propellant usage and delivery schedules can be accommodated by two orbital tank sets of 100,000 lb storage capacity, with advanced missions expected to require increased capacity. Information is given on tank pressurization schemes, propellant transfer configurations, pump specifications, the refrigeration system, and flight tests.

Schuster, J. R.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Development of Low-Cost, High-Performance, Easy-To-Apply, Non-Flammable, Inorganic Phase Change Material (PCM) Technology (Project Final Report)

This report describes a 45-months long research program focused on the development of novel, easy-to-apply, non-flammable, and high-performance inorganic phase change materials (PCMs) for building and industrial applications. The University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML) formed a world-class team consisting of researchers form InsolCorp (only N. American manufacturer of inorganic PCM systems for building applications), and a group of industrial advisors, to develop a universal/multipurpose, simple-to-manufacture and cost-effective PCM technology. The project team expects that the results of this work will spur in the future the adoption of thermal storage materials – a key building energy saving technology as identified by DOE BTO – for a variety of building envelope applications. The main goal of this project was to demonstrate a suite of low-cost, multipurpose, and durable inorganic PCM formulations with phase transition temperatures encompassing typical building applications (between +5 o C and +55 o C). The first objective was to design, fabricate, and experimentally validate a performance of inexpensive, durable, highly efficient, non-flammable, and easy to manufacture PCMs. To allow a variety of building applications, the project team focused on formulations that exhibit repeatable phase transitions between +5 o C and +55 o C. To follow the DOE BTO cost efficiency target without compromising thermal performance, our work was based on inorganic compounds (mostly salt hydrates) and their blends, which represent a fraction of the cost of most of organic PCMs with about twice as high density as well as significantly higher thermal conductivity and phase change enthalpy. The second objective was to develop easy-to-manufacture and -install packaging/encapsulation designs that are 1) a superior barrier to current state-of-the-art macro-packaging, which significantly reduces the risk of loss of hydration water and PCM leak, and 2) optimal in enhancing the heat exchange rates with the surroundings and within the PCM core to ensure complete charging/discharging of the entire PCM within the product. Finally, the project’s intend was to scale-up the fabrication process to demonstrate installation on system-scale applications, and to validate the performance under field conditions. This work aimed at developing low-cost, high-energy storage, and reliable latent heat storage technology for building applications. This development was realized by formulating and integrating the following two technology components: 1) inorganic salt hydrate based PCMs that have high latent enthalpies and are low-cost and durable, and 2) PCM encapsulation (packaging) technology that maximizes PCM concentration and enhances heat transport characteristics in the product and with the external environment/materials. High thermal storage capacity, low cost and fire resistance are key to the building market entry for PCM technology. Therefore, the project’s focus was on salt-hydrate-based formulations which satisfy all these criteria. Packaging and/or encapsulation of PCM is a key processing step. The project team recognized that a low-cost and simple-to-manufacture salt hydrate-based PCM technology holds the best chance to be successful in the building construction market, a market which is traditionally extremely sensitive to cost and where commodity thermal insulations are the benchmark for envelope-related energy saving measures. That is why, in this project, the main intention was to minimize the production cost and maximize the product energy storage density without sacrificing the PCM performance. It was achieved through: 1. Minimizing the non-PCM components (plastics, additives, packaging/encapsulation materials, etc.) because they are significantly more expensive than salt hydrates, 2. Using highly thermally conductive and lightweight PCM carrier (packaging material) to facilitate more complete phase cycling, and 3. Optimizing the thickness and minimizing air spaces in product design (such as in pouched PCM). For this purpose, our approach was to enable an easy system design, including selection of the PCM operating temperatures, optimizing the necessary heat storage capacity (by stacking together several layers of PCM products), and if needed, a synchronized usage of PCM products of different temperatures. A specially designed, robust, highly thermally conducting and highly impermeable packaging (to retain salt hydrate water during phase transition cycles) was designed and tested to increase the overall system thermal performance and durability. All PCM products developed during this project were tested in both lab scale and in full scale field conditions. It is expected that, after further developments and commercialization, the developed PCM technologies may be also applied in space conditioning, energy storage technologies, and heat transfer applications.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
NASA NTRS2007

Characterization and Evaluation of a Mass Efficient Heat Storage Device.

The heat sponge is a device for mass-efficient storage of heat. It was developed to be incorporated in the substructure of a reentry or hypersonic vehicle to reduce thermal protection system requirements. The heat sponge consists of a liquid-vapor mixture contained within a number of miniature pressure vessels that can be embedded within a variety of different types of structures. As temperature is increased, pressure in the miniature pressure vessels also increases so that heat absorbed through vaporization of the liquid is spread over a relatively large temperature range. Using water as a working fluid, the heat storage capacity of the liquid-vapor mixture is many times higher than that of typical structural materials and is well above that of common phase change materials over the temperature range of 660oR to 1160oR. Prototype heat sponges were fabricated and characterized. These heat sponges consisted of 1.0 inch diameter hollow stainless steel spheres with a wall thickness of 0.020 inches which had varying percentages of their interior volumes filled with water. An apparatus to measure the heat stored in these prototype heat sponges was designed, fabricated, and verified. The heat storage capacity calculated from measured temperature histories is compared to numerical predictions.

Splinter, Scott C.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Buffering the impacts of extreme climate variability in the highly engineered Tigris Euphrates river system

More extreme and prolonged floods and droughts, commonly attributed to global warming, are affecting the livelihood of major sectors of the world’s population in many basins worldwide. While these events could introduce devastating socioeconomic impacts, highly engineered systems are better prepared for modulating these extreme climatic variabilities. Herein, we provide methodologies to assess the effectiveness of reservoirs in managing extreme floods and droughts and modulating their impacts in data-scarce river basins. Our analysis of multiple satellite missions and global land surface models over the Tigris-Euphrates Watershed (TEW; 30 dams; storage capacity: 250 km 3 ), showed a prolonged (2007–2018) and intense drought (Average Annual Precipitation [AAP]: < 400 km 3 ) with no parallels in the past 100 years (AAP during 1920–2020: 538 km 3 ) followed by 1-in-100-year extensive precipitation event (726 km 3 ) and an impressive recovery (113 ± 11 km 3 ) in 2019 amounting to 50% of losses endured during drought years. Dam reservoirs captured water equivalent to 40% of those losses in that year. Additional studies are required to investigate whether similar highly engineered watersheds with multi-year, high storage capacity can potentially modulate the impact of projected global warming-related increases in the frequency and intensity of extreme rainfall and drought events in the twenty-first century.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS1977

Development of a low temperature phase change material package

Test data obtained for a low temperature phase change material (PCM) canisters are presented. The canister was designed to provide up to 30 w-hrs of storage capacity at approximately -90 C with an overall thermal conductance which is greater than 8 w/deg C. N-heptane which is an n-paraffin and has a -90.6 C freezing point was used as the working fluid. The canister was fabricated from aluminum and has an aluminum honeycomb core. Its void volume permits service temperatures up to 70 C. Results obtained from component and system's tests indicate well defined melting and freezing points which are repeatable and within 1 C of each other. Subcooling effects are less than 0.5 C and are essentially negligible. Measured storage capacities are within 94 to 88% the theoretical.

Brennan, P. J.↗
DOE OSTI2026

Reservoir Sediment Management and Monitoring Database

Overview This dataset compiles dam sediment management and monitoring information from surveys, case studies, and journal articles. Additionally, features described by the National Inventory of Dams (i.e., presence of sluice gates) are included to indicate known infrastructure features that may address sediment releases. The location and description of records from downstream monitoring gages are catalogued in order to help with tracking conditions over time (e.g., before and after management actions, as operations change, etc.). The data help address national scale understanding of challenges and solutions related to the accumulation of sediment behind a dam as well as downstream passage. Sediment trapping causes problems as it reduces storage capacity, disrupts dam and reservoir function, impedes access for recreation, alters water quality/habitat conditions, and contributes to riverbank and coastal erosion within the reservoir. Data compilation from a variety of sources is a first step towards assessing system-wide efficacy of management solutions. This dataset was developed under the Water Power Technologies Office funded effort which began as a Seedling on Reservoir Sedimentation Data, and was supported by the Reservoir Sedimentation Modeling Framework and Data Analysis project. These projects have addressed challenges in describing sediment transport, trapping, and management at dams throughout the US. Methodology An outer join on dams/reservoirs with surveys and survey reports (documented in the RESSED database, USBR or USACE databases, project websites, etc.) with the National Inventory of Dams, based on the NIDID to determine dams with documented management and/or sluice gates. Additional dams with documented management activity were identified through review of technical articles from the past 25 years in Journal of Hydrology, Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, Geomorphology, Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, Water, Journal of Cleaner Production, International Journal of Sediment Research, Nature Scientific Reports, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, and Environmental Science and Pollution Research. Individual records were created for each survey or management activity documented. To evaluate downstream sediment monitoring records, the nhdPlusTools and dataRetrieval packages in R were used to find gages within 10km of each dam in the management database. Length of record and location of matched gages were retrieved for those parameters relevant to sediment concentration or total sediment discharge.

Hansen, Carly [ORNL] (ORCID:0000000193280838)↗
NASA NTRS2008

Heat Sponge: A Concept for Mass-Efficient Heat Storage

The heat sponge is a device for mass-efficient storage of heat. It was developed to be incorporated in the substructure of a re-entry vehicle to reduce thermal- protection-system requirements. The heat sponge consists of a liquid/vapor mixture contained within a number of miniature pressure vessels that can be embedded within a variety of different types of structures. As temperature is increased, pressure in the miniature pressure vessels also increases so that heat absorbed through vaporization of the liquid is spread over a relatively large temperature range. Using water as a working fluid, the heat-storage capacity of the liquid/vapor mixture is many times higher than that of typical structural materials and is well above that of common phase change materials over a temperature range of 200 F to 700 F. The use of pure ammonia as the working fluid provides a range of application between 432 deg R and 730 deg R, or the use of the more practical water-ammonia solution provides a range of application between 432 deg R and 1160 deg R or in between that of water and pure ammonia. Prototype heat sponges were fabricated and characterized. These heat sponges consisted of 1.0-inch-diameter, hollow, stainless-steel spheres with a wall thickness of 0.020 inches which had varying percentages of their interior volumes filled with water and a water-ammonia solution. An apparatus to measure the heat stored in these prototype heat sponges was designed, fabricated, and verified. The heat-storage capacity calculated from measured temperature histories is compared to numerical predictions.

Splinter, Scott C.↗
DOE OSTI2021

A simulation study of carbon storage with active reservoir management

As part of the Integrated Midcontinent Stacked Carbon Storage Hub (IMSCS-Hub) project led by Battelle Memorial Institute, a study was conducted to determine the feasibility of storing carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) in the stacked saline rock formations of the Sleepy Hollow Field (SHF), located in Red Willow County, southern Nebraska. A series of CO 2 injection simulation scenarios, with and without active reservoir management (ARM; brine extraction), were evaluated to investigate the feasibility of storing 50+ million tonnes (Mt) of CO 2 . The results indicated CO 2 injection combined with ARM may enable permanent storage of 50+ Mt of CO 2 . The area of review (AOR), the area in which underground sources of drinking water (USDWs) might be endangered during CO 2 injection, was assessed for the simulation scenarios. In comparison to a case without ARM, brine extraction resulted in a much smaller AOR, covering an area of 42 square miles (108.8 km 2 ), roughly one-fourth the size of an AOR resulting from CO 2 injection without ARM. Our findings, presented in this paper, indicate that CO 2 injection with ARM can improve the CO 2 storage capacity of a geologic storage complex up to 100% while also reduce the rate of pressure buildup in the subsurface, resulting in a 75% reduction in AOR. This may help in lowering carbon capture and storage project costs, risks, and effort needed to meet monitoring requirements for a storage project.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS1984

Advanced onboard storage concepts for natural gas-fueled automotive vehicles

The evaluation of several advanced concepts for storing natural gas at reduced pressure is presented. The advanced concepts include adsorption on high surface area carbon, adsorption in high porosity zeolite, storage in clathration compounds, and storage by dissolution in liquid solvents. High surface area carbons with high packing density are the best low pressure storage mediums. A simple mathematical model is used to compare adsorption storage on a state of the art carbon with compression storage. The model indicates that a vehicle using adsorption storage of natural gas at 3.6 MPa will have 36 percent of the range, on the EPA city cycle, of a vehicle operating on a compression storage system having the same physical size and a peak storage pressure of 21 MPa. Preliminary experiments and current literature suggest that the storage capacity of state of the art carbons could be improved by as much as 50 percent, and that adsorption systems having a capacity equal to compression storage at 14 MPa are possible without exceeding a maximum pressure of 3.6 MPa.

Remick, R. J.↗
NASA NTRS1992

An open, parallel I/O computer as the platform for high-performance, high-capacity mass storage systems

APTEC Computer Systems is a Portland, Oregon based manufacturer of I/O computers. APTEC's work in the context of high density storage media is on programs requiring real-time data capture with low latency processing and storage requirements. An example of APTEC's work in this area is the Loral/Space Telescope-Data Archival and Distribution System. This is an existing Loral AeroSys designed system, which utilizes an APTEC I/O computer. The key attributes of a system architecture that is suitable for this environment are as follows: (1) data acquisition alternatives; (2) a wide range of supported mass storage devices; (3) data processing options; (4) data availability through standard network connections; and (5) an overall system architecture (hardware and software designed for high bandwidth and low latency). APTEC's approach is outlined in this document.

Abineri, Adrian↗