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At least 127 records · Page 7
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

Sample Identifiers and Metadata to Support Data Management and Reuse in Multidisciplinary Ecosystem Sciences

Physical samples are foundational entities for research across biological, Earth, and environmental sciences. Data generated from sample-based analyses are not only the basis of individual studies, but can also be integrated with other data to answer new and broader-scale questions. Ecosystem studies increasingly rely on multidisciplinary team-science to study climate and environmental changes. While there are widely adopted conventions within certain domains to describe sample data, these have gaps when applied in a multidisciplinary context. In this study, we reviewed existing practices for identifying, characterizing, and linking related environmental samples. We then tested practicalities of assigning persistent identifiers to samples, with standardized metadata, in a pilot field test involving eight United States Department of Energy projects. Participants collected a variety of sample types, with analyses conducted across multiple facilities. We address terminology gaps for multidisciplinary research and make recommendations for assigning identifiers and metadata that supports sample tracking, integration, and reuse. Furthermore, our goal is to provide a practical approach to sample management, geared towards ecosystem scientists who contribute and reuse sample data.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Results of the Analyses of SMECT Mercury Sample Collected During Mercury Pump (MB1) Functional Check

A pump added to remove mercury from the sump of the Slurry Mix Evaporator Condensate Tank (SMECT) in DWPF was successfully tested in 2020, resulting in a sample of contaminated mercury obtained from the Mercury Purification Process (MPP) cell. The mercury in the sump of the SMECT was present as a result of steam stripping of sludge slurry in the Sludge Receipt and Adjustment Tank (SRAT) at DWPF. A schematic of the MPP system provided by DWPF personnel is shown in Appendix A. DWPF personnel supplied the following detailed description of the Hg sampling: “The sample provided is the result of DWPF extraction of mercury by means of the Mercury Pump-Water Cart. The Mercury Pump extracted the sample from the SMECT mercury sump. The pump uses pressurized water to transfer a small amount of mercury to a leachate bucket located at the Lab Mercury cell. The mercury and water were allowed to be self separated, and mercury was gravity decanted from the leachate bucket.” DWPF personnel indicate that the leachate bucket is equipped with both a top stopcock/drain and a lower/bottom stopcock/drain from which the mercury was decanted or drained out, while the separated water layer remained above the mercury during draining. The DWPF customer requested SRNL to analyze the sample for the following: gross alpha/nonvolatile beta analysis and perform a Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) per the Environmental Protection Agency's Test Methods for Evaluating Solid Waste: Physical/Chemical Methods, SW-846. While the TCLP was preferred, a Total Metals analysis of the eight Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) metals was deemed acceptable.2 The analytical data collected on this mercury sample will be used in planning for sample disposition as well to start a profile for future Hg disposition of Hg collected from steam stripping.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2022

DISCOVR strain pipeline screening – Part II: Winter and summer season areal productivities and biomass compositional shifts in climate-simulation photobioreactor cultures

Assessing the seasonal biomass productivity and compositional shift dynamics under simulated outdoor culture conditions of the top 22 algae strains selected during Tier I flask screening is an important step in the further prioritization of strains with regard to outdoor pond cultivation. These top 22 strains were subjected to Tier II testing in the PNNL Laboratory Environmental Algae Pond Simulator (LEAPS) photobioreactors, simulating light and temperature conditions of 20 cm deep outdoor ponds during the Arizona winter and summer season. All strains were grown in two consecutive nutrient-replete batch culture experiments at their particular optimal medium salinity to quantify their respective seasonal linear-phase areal biomass productivities. To determine biomass compositional shifts in response to nutrient-depletion, the LEAPS cultures were allowed to enter a 9-day nutrient depletion phase at the end of the second batch run. The following strains were evaluated in winter-season climate-simulated cultures and are listed in the order from highest (7.9 g m -2 day -1 ) to lowest (2.3 g m -2 day -1 ) areal N-replete biomass productivity: Monoraphidium minutum 26B-AM, Tetraselmis striata LANL1001, Chlorella vulgaris LRB AZ-1201, Micractinium reisseri NREL14-F2, Monoraphidium sp. MONOR1, Chlorella vulgaris NREL4-C12, Scenedesmus obliquus UTEX393, Scenedesmus acutus LRB-AP-0401, Nannochloropsis oceanica CCAP849/10, and Stichococcus minutus CCALA727. The following strains were evaluated in summer-season climate-simulated cultures and are listed in the order from highest (31.8 g m -2 day -1 ) to lowest (14.2 g m -2 day -1 ) areal N-replete biomass productivity: Picochlorum renovo NREL39-A8, Scenedesmus obliquus UTEX393, Porphyridium cruentum CCMP675, Picochlorum celeri TG2-WT-CSM/EMRE, Chlorella sorokiniana DOE1116, Stichococcus minor CCMP819, Picochlorum oklahomensis CCMP2329, Chlorella sorokiniana DOE1412 (UTEXB3016), Scenedesmus rubescens NREL46B-D3, Picochlorum soloecismus DOE101, Tetraselmis striata LANL1001, Scenedesmus obliquus DOE 0152.z, and Agmenellum quadruplicatum UTEX2268. All LEAPS cultures experienced a significant reduction in areal biomass productivity in response to nutrient-depletion, from 7-16% in the winter season simulation and up to 1-60% in the summer season simulation. Finally, for 10 of the strains tested, the carbohydrate content more than doubled upon nutrient depletion, and for 9 strains, the lipid content increased by over 50% of the initial content.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2022

BioTransformer 3.0 – A Web Server for Accurately Predicting Metabolic Transformation Products

BioTransformer 3.0 is a freely available web server that supports accurate, rapid and comprehensive in silico metabolism prediction. It combines machine learning approaches with a rule-based system to predict small-molecule metabolism in human tissues, the human gut as well as the external environment (soil and water microbiota). Simply stated, BioTransformer takes a molecular structure as input (SMILES or SDF) and outputs an interactively viewable/sortable table of the predicted metabolites or transformation products (SMILES, PNG images) along with the enzymes that are predicted to be responsible for those reactions and richly annotated downloadable files (CSV and JSON). The entire process typically takes a few seconds. Previous versions of BioTransformer focused exclusively on predicting the metabolism of xenobiotics (such as plant natural products, drugs, cosmetics and other synthetic compounds) using a limited number of pre-defined steps and somewhat limited rule-based methods. BioTransformer 3.0, uses much more sophisticated methods and incorporates new databases, new constraints and new prediction modules to not only more accurately predict the metabolic transformation products of exogenous xenobiotics but also the transformation products of endogenous metabolites, such as amino acids, peptides, carbohydrates, organic acids, and lipids. BioTransformer 3.0 can also support customized sequential combinations of these transformations along with multiple iterations to simulate multi-step human and/or environmental biotransformation events. Performance tests indicate that BioTransformer 3.0 is 40-50% more accurate, much less prone to combinatorial “explosions” and far more comprehensive in terms of metabolite coverage/capabilities than previous versions of BioTransformer.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Advantages and Limits of Metagenomic Assembly and Binning of a Giant Virus

ABSTRACT Giant viruses have large genomes, often within the size range of cellular organisms. This distinguishes them from most other viruses and demands additional effort for the successful recovery of their genomes from environmental sequence data. Here, we tested the performance of genome-resolved metagenomics on a recently isolated giant virus, Fadolivirus, by spiking it into an environmental sample from which two other giant viruses were isolated. At high spike-in levels, metagenome assembly and binning led to the successful genomic recovery of Fadolivirus from the sample. A complementary survey of the major capsid protein indicated the presence of other giant viruses in the sample matrix but did not detect the two isolated from this sample. Our results indicate that genome-resolved metagenomics is a valid approach for the recovery of near-complete giant virus genomes given that sufficient clonal particles are present. However, our data also underline that a vast majority of giant viruses remain currently undetected, even in an era of terabase-scale metagenomics. IMPORTANCE The discovery of large and giant nucleocytoplasmic large DNA viruses (NCLDV) with genomes in the megabase range and equipped with a wide variety of features typically associated with cellular organisms was one of the most unexpected, intriguing, and spectacular breakthroughs in virology. Recent studies suggest that these viruses are highly abundant in the oceans, freshwater, and soil, impact the biology and ecology of their eukaryotic hosts, and ultimately affect global nutrient cycles. Genome-resolved metagenomics is becoming an increasingly popular tool to assess the diversity and coding potential of giant viruses, but this approach is currently lacking validation.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Simcenter TestLab Error in uploading reference profiles

Our team exports data from Matlab to a Simcenter TestLab formatted .mat file. The .mat file is then uploaded as a reference profile for Environmental Random Control vibration testing. Operations are applied to the data before export that introduce floating point errors. We are experiencing errors uploading the generated reference profiles if the frequency values have a certain level of floating point error (1 Hz vs 1.000000000000001 Hz). I generated some test cases of reference profiles that were giving us trouble, and outlined the errors we were seeing. Two different errors, depending on how the control frequency range is defined. Error is fixed by copy/pasting the frequency column in the Profile Editor.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2024

Triton Initiative: FY 2024 Communications, Outreach, and Engagement End-of-Year Report

The Department of Energy (DOE) Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) Triton Initiative works to reduce barriers to permitting of marine energy testing and installation through environmental monitoring research that can help inform decision-makers on potential environmental effects associated with these systems. Communications, outreach, and engagement efforts are critical to Triton's success, which involves facilitating the effective communication and dissemination of environmental monitoring research information and results to end-users and fostering collaborations between researchers and industry partners to address the most pressing needs of this emerging industry. The Triton Initiative's communications, outreach, and engagement (TCOE) foundational goals are to educate and raise awareness of ME and the role of Triton's environmental monitoring research in supporting the industry, build trust with audiences through transparent communications and outreach, and evaluate and refine TCOE tactics based on feedback and metrics. The TCOE FY 2024-specific objectives were to (1) refine and grow Triton's audience network by reaching new individuals and communities within Triton's target audience base, and (2) improve the strategy and evaluation of TCOE efforts to demonstrate the value of communications and outreach for the ME community. This report presents the results and analysis of communications activities from September 1, 2023 through August 31, 2024. We assess the TCOE target audiences, highlight notable successes and lessons learned from FY2024, and identify the most effective channels and activities used to connect with those audiences to achieve the TCOE goals.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗
DOE OSTI2020

Actions to Evaluate Tritium in ATR Complex Perched Water Well 12

On April 23, 2019, elevated tritium concentrations in monitoring well PW-12 were reported to the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) Complex environmental manager by the Fluor Idaho Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) lead. The monitoring well is one of a series of wells located in and around the ATR Complex that are sampled on an annual basis as part of the CERCLA monitoring program. The Fluor Idaho CERCLA lead indicated the elevated concentrations had been trending upward from Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 through FY 2019. The tritium levels went from 1,880 pCi/L in October 2016 to 7,890 pCi/L in October 2017 and increased to 13,000 pCi/L in October 2018. In order to identify a baseline, the safe drinking water level (e.g. 20,000 pCi/L) can be used as a reference point for comparison only, as PW-12 is a perched water well and does not penetrate the aquifer. Although well below safe drinking water levels, an investigation was initiated to identify the source of tritium.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Methods and compositions for identification of source of microbial contamination in a sample

Herein are described 1058 different bacterial taxa that were unique to either human, grazing mammal, or bird fecal wastes. These identified taxa can serve as specific identifier taxa for these sources in environmental waters. Two field tests in marine waters demonstrate the capacity of phylogenetic microarray analysis to track multiple sources with one test.

Andersen, Gary L.↗
DOE OSTI2026

Enabling In-Core Strain Measurement: Printed Sensors for Advanced Reactors

Advances in nuclear energy systems require an improved understanding of fuels, cladding, and structural materials; however, the extreme environmental conditions at irradiation test facilities often limit mechanical property evaluation to post-irradiation examination. In-situ monitoring techniques can accelerate materials qualification by providing direct insight into real-time material behavior during irradiation testing. Additively manufactured (AM) strain gauges offer a compact, material-compatible alternative to commercial sensors, particularly where space constraints, attachment limitations, or material compatibility requirements complicate conventional sensor use. This poster presents an overview of the development and testing of AM strain gauges in nuclear-relevant environments, demonstrating their potential to enhance structural health monitoring capabilities during irradiation experiments.

36 - MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Open-Loop Control of Adjustable Tuned Mass Dampers for Floating Wind Turbine Platforms: Preprint

Floating offshore wind turbines have several advantages over their land-based counterparts, including access to stronger, more consistent winds and proximity to population centers. However, increased costs from the platform have been a challenge inhibiting their widespread adoption. New damping technologies with tunable target frequencies and damping ratios promise a greater degree of control over platform motions, allowing hulls to be designed smaller and reducing the overall cost of the turbines. In this work, a control strategy is proposed for these adjustable tuned mass dampers (TMDs). A frequency-domain model of the system is developed, from which response amplitude operators (RAOs) for the platform's rigid-body modes can be obtained for different natural frequencies and damping ratios of the dampers. Using these RAOs, and JONSWAP spectrums of operational and extreme sea states, the performance of the various damper settings are compared by evaluating the standard deviation of a rigid-body motion of interest (platform pitch or heave). By finding the optimal damper setting for a range of representative design load cases (DLCs), a lookup function is made to return the damper target frequency given the peak period of the sea state. To determine the current sea state, we propose a simple estimator that uses wave measurements (e.g., from a measurement buoy) to determine the peak period and significant wave height. The significant wave height is determined using the statistics of the past 100 seconds of wave elevation information and the peak period is computed using a frequency locked loop. Initial results show that we can use these estimated values to control the TMD natural frequency with an open loop controller. The controlled system is tested in a range of environmental conditions determined by the International Electrotechnical Commission design load cases (DLCs), which include normal and extreme wind and wave models. In these tests, we compare the performance of 4 cases: (1) no TMD, (2) a constant TMD based on the worst case DLC, (3) a controlled TMD based on known wind and wave environments, and (4) a real-time controlled TMD using estimated wind and wave environments. The effect of hull-based TMD control is also compared to changes in traditional wind turbine control via blade pitch.

control↗
DOE OSTI2025

Identifying rolling resistance and air resistance simultaneously for an electric truck

Accurately estimating rolling and air resistance is essential for predicting the energy consumption of vehicles. This study presents a field-based approach using a rolldown test to simultaneously determine rolling and air resistance coefficients. Unlike prior methods that frequently used simulations or models, we employ a goal programming methodology to improve precision and evaluate the actual vehicle and environmental conditions. Our methodology was tested using a Class 8 Freightliner eCascadia on a surveyed road section, ensuring controlled conditions for data collection. By analyzing the time–velocity relationship across multiple test runs, we derived resistance coefficients for both loaded and unloaded conditions. The study confirms that rolling resistance is largely independent of velocity at low speeds but exhibits a nonlinear dependency at higher speeds. Additionally, road surface conditions, tire condition, axle configuration, aerodynamic properties, and weather conditions significantly impact resistance values, emphasizing the need for real-world testing rather than relying solely on standardized projections. Our results align with existing literature while demonstrating the efficacy of the goal programming approach in refining resistance estimates. This work contributes to improved vehicle energy modeling, offering practical insights for fleet operators and policymakers seeking accurate energy consumption predictions for electric trucks operating under varying environmental conditions.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2022

Improving Ni-Based SOFC Anode Resilience and Durability through Secondary Phase Formation

The project used a multi-disciplinary approach to test test if 2° materials, added to traditional cermet components, enhanced SOFC mechanical strength, anode resilience and durability when subjected to electrochemical and environmental redox cycling. Findings from fracture testing, electrochemical studies and operando Raman spectroscopy measurements demonstrated that aluminum titanate (Al 2 TiO 5 or ALT) mechanically mixed with NiO-YSZ cermets confers superior mechanical strength and slower degradation rates under polarization. No deleterious effects from ALT in conversion efficiency were observed. Specific accomplishments included the following: (1) Refined methods used to fabricate ALT enhanced anodes into bi-layer anode supports to achieve high power densities; (2) Compared the effects of adding ALT mechanically to Ni-YSZ powders prior to anode fabrication with adding ALT through infiltration and co-infiltration of YSZ scaffolds; (3) Tested the resilience of these novel materials to electrochemical and environmental redox cycling and thermal stresses commonly encountered in functioning SOFCs; and (4) Characterized the ability of ALT to improve the carbon tolerance of Ni-YSZ anodes operating with dry methane.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
DOE OSTI2024

Analyses of the Constant Rate Discharge Test for 299-W15-225 (2009) and Ringold Formation Unit A Well Development Tests for 699-43-67B (2012) and 699-45-67B (2013)

This Environmental Calculation File (ECF) documents analyses of hydraulic tests performed in the Ringold Formation member of Wooded Island unit A (Rwia) and Ringold Formation member of Wooded Island unit E (Rwie) in the 200 West Area. Two small-scale tests in the Rwia performed in 2012 and 2013 and one large-scale hydraulic test in the Rwie performed in 2009 were analyzed. Heterogeneity in the Rwie was also examined.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Gripper Test Assembly Status Report (FY2020)

Refueling systems for fast reactors are designed to handle fresh and used core assemblies (fuel, reflector, and shield core assemblies) within the reactor vessel in an opaque coolant environment without visual reference. These refueling machines are designed to work in a sodium (or other fast reactor coolant) and argon vapor space environment and are engineered with the rotatable plug system to allow for the movement of fresh and spent fuel into and out of the reactor core. The refueling machines are a critical component in any reactor and thus need to undergo extensive testing in a prototypic environment to ensure that they will meet all of the system functions and requirements. Argonne has developed an innovative compact refueling system design for the Advanced Fast Reactor-100 that is based upon some mechanisms used in previous reactor designs, such as the U.K.’s Prototype Fast Reactor (PFR) and some mechanisms that have not been used in sodium. This compact refueling machine supports the reduction in size of the AFR-100’s reactor vessel, and if fully developed, would support and inform the development of the in-vessel refueling machines for such commercial reactors as the GEH PRISM reactor plant, the ARC Clean Energy’s ARC-100 reactor, and the Natrium reactor, among others. This refueling system is a vital component of a fast reactor that supports reducing the cost of the reactor and increasing its reliability. During the development of the compact fuel handling machine conceptual design for the AFR-100, a lack of testing data for many mechanical components in sodium under typical in-reactor loads and conditions was discovered. The reduction in lifetime of the various mechanical components in the liquid sodium environment needs to be quantified versus the calculated component lifetimes under normal conditions in the testing while they are subjected to typical loading profiles experienced in the past. The Gripper Test Assembly discussed here includes a full-size gripper device with appropriate mechanical features that will be tested in sodium to provide this testing data. The Gripper Test Assembly is used to test various mechanical fuel handling components submerged in high temperature liquid sodium. These mechanisms are gears, bearings, gripper jaws and head, universal joints and shafts, ball screws, among others. These components will be tested under the typical sodium environmental conditions experienced during refueling operations with appropriate loading conditions that simulate the removal and insertion of core assemblies into a fast reactor grid plate structure. This Gripper Test Assembly is the second in a series of refueling system mechanisms developed for testing in sodium. The first test assembly is the Gear Test Assembly (GTA) which was used to test the performance of gears and bearings operating in sodium. Because of the successful testing conducted with the GTA, it was decided to continue with the development of the Gripper Test Assembly which uses the same gears and bearings tested in GTA. Using the data collected during operation of this gripper test assembly, lifetime reduction factors of the various mechanical components can be calculated for the material combinations selected. These lifetime reduction factors can be used in the design of future mechanical systems which operate in these environments to accurately predict component end of life. In addition, an understanding of the ability of these components and mechanisms to operate under-sodium with the chosen materials will be accomplished. Again, this Gripper Test Assembly is the follow-on test article to the Gear Test Assembly which was testing the ability of gears and bearings operating in a sodium environment. Once fabricated and qualified, it will be tested in the Mechanism Engineering Test Loop (METL) facility located in Building 308 at Argonne National Laboratory.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Development of an Unmanned Mobile Current Turbine Platform: Preprint

The design and development of a prototype unmanned mobile floating platform, equipped with a custom low-flow marine current turbine for autonomously seeking and harnessing tidal/coastal currents is described. The platform is an unmanned surface vehicle in the form of a catamaran with two electric outboard motors and capabilities for autonomous navigation. An undershot water wheel, aided by a custom flow concentrator, has been selected as the basic design for the marine current turbine, which is mounted on the stern of the unmanned surface vehicle platform. The concept of operation is that the platform would navigate to a designated marine current resource, autonomously anchor at the location, align itself in the current and deploy the current turbine using a custom cable-lift deployment mechanism. As the turbine harnesses the local current, an onboard power-take-off device converts the harnessed mechanical energy to electricity which is stored in onboard batteries. Considerations of deployment in tidal and coastal waters required obtaining the necessary environmental permits for conducting in-water testing; developing required mitigation measures in protecting local wildlife and their habitats; and identifying potential in-water test sites and surveying them for their suitability in terms of the current resource, bottom type, water depth, and local boat traffic. The design and development of the turbine and the results of initial in-water testing are discussed. The potential for scaling up the system for extended capacity is presented.

ENGINEERING,TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗
DOE OSTI2026

Full-scale validation gaps and opportunities for low-head hydropower: a review and perspective

Hydropower is undergoing technological innovation as future development increasingly targets low-head sites (<10 m), primarily through retrofits, rehabilitation, and upgrades of existing infrastructure. This shift toward smaller systems creates a timely opportunity: unlike conventional large projects, many emerging low-head technologies may be small enough for direct full-scale validation. Full-scale testing is particularly important for environmental mitigation technologies, including fish passage, sediment continuity, and water-quality improvements, whose performance is difficult to assess reliably using reduced-scale models. Yet adoption remains constrained by the limited risk-bearing capacity of small hydropower owners, discouraging manufacturers from bringing unvalidated technologies to market. This review and perspective paper examines hydropower trends driving innovation, selected emerging technologies, conventional testing methods, and current U.S. testing capabilities as a case study. We then evaluate the gap between existing capabilities and the needs of low-head powertrains and environmental mitigation measures. Many technologies exceed existing facility flow capacities; in the U.S., the highest combined head–flow capability is limited to 5.66 m3/s, compared with median and 90th-percentile low-head turbine-unit flows of 14.3 and 60 m3/s. To mitigate this gap, we advocate repurposing large, retired, or underused hydraulic infrastructure as full-scale testing facilities to reduce first-adoption risk and support sustainable low-head hydropower deployment.

Tseng, Chien-Yung [Colorado State University, Fort↗