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All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

DOE OSTI2025

High‐Performance Low‐Emissivity Paints Enabled by N‐Doped Poly(benzodifurandione) (n‐PBDF) for Energy‐Efficient Buildings

Abstract Low‐emissivity (low‐e) paints reduce radiative heat exchange between buildings and the environment, stabilizing indoor climates and lowering air conditioning demand. However, low‐cost, durable, and colored low‐e paints have yet to be demonstrated. Here, an approach is proposed using n‐doped poly(benzodifurandione) (n‐PBDF), a transparent organic conducting polymer, coated over colored commercial paints. This achieves a low thermal emissivity of 0.19 in the mid‐infrared spectrum, attributed to the efficient charge transport of delocalized π‐electrons in n‐PBDF structure. The reduction in thermal emissivity aids in regulating building temperatures by minimizing heat transfer between buildings and their surroundings across diverse climate zones and seasons. The n‐PBDF coating preserves the underlying paint's color due to its high visible transparency, meeting aesthetic requirements. It also shows strong stability in accelerated indoor weathering tests, ensuring long‐term performance. Simulations estimate annual HVAC energy savings of over 10,800 kWh in San Francisco and 5,500 kWh in Chicago for the typical mid‐rise apartments. The paint's versatility, scalability, and durability make it suitable for buildings, vehicles, and greenhouses, aiding urban heat island mitigation.

Liu, Xiaojie [School of Mechanical Engineering and↗

DOE OSTI2022

Paintable Heat-Reflective Coatings for Low-Cost Energy Efficient Windows

The major objective of this effort is to manufacture a paintable coating to inexpensively retrofit energy-inefficient windows with a heat-reflective, visibly transparent film. This coating will drastically reduce cooling costs for millions of homes and buildings and lower the Nation’s greenhouse gas emissions. Widespread implementation could reduce the national consumption of electricity for cooling by billions of kWh, saving billions of dollars per year. This improved energy efficiency would decrease CO2 emissions by billions kg per year, the equivalent to removing millions of cars from the road. Although near-IR reflective adhesive films are commercially available products and have demonstrated significant energy efficiency enhancement, high upfront costs largely deter potential consumers across all sectors. The technology developed under this award was proposed to disrupt the building envelope market, by providing an inexpensive coating that can be directly applied by consumers to improve the energy efficiency of virtually all window types. The proof of concept for a paintable, DIY applicable, visibly transparent, and infrared reflective coating was achieved, laying the foundation for future technology development in this area.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2025

Investigation of ventilation-coupled high energy density sensible thermal energy storage

Low-cost energy storage will play an important role in supporting the decarbonization of the energy sector. Here, a novel approach to thermal energy storage for buildings is proposed, in which a tank of antifreeze liquid can be used to heat outdoor air in mechanical ventilation systems. If heated to a high enough temperature, the fluid can potentially undergo temperature swings of nearly 100°C during discharge in cold climates. Because the energy density of sensible storage systems scales proportionally to the system temperature change, this concept has the potential to offer higher energy densities than other liquid-based sensible storage devices used in building applications. A one-dimensional numerical model of the storage system was developed and experimentally validated using 30 wt% (wt%) potassium acetate as an aqueous antifreeze solution. Using a commercial hot water tank, energy densities of 47.0 kW-hour per cubic meter (kWh/m 3 ) were demonstrated in a laboratory setting. Material energy densities of approximately 74.7 (kWh/m 3 ) were measured. Design improvements may boost this energy storage density even further. Because of the system's relative simplicity, ventilation-coupled sensible storage has the potential to be an easily deployable, low-cost energy storage solution for building systems.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

DOE OSTI2024

A Three-in-One Hybrid Strategy for High-Performance Semiconducting Polymers Processed from Anisole

The development of semiconducting polymers with good processability in green solvents and competitive electrical performance is essential for realizing sustainable large-scale manufacturing and commercialization of organic electronics. A major obstacle is the processability-performance dichotomy that is dictated by the lack of ideal building blocks with balanced polarity, solubility, electronic structures, and molecular conformation. Herein, through the integration of donor, quinoid and acceptor units, an unprecedented building block, namely TQBT, is introduced for constructing a serial of conjugated polymers. The TQBT, distinct in non-symmetric structure and high dipole moment, imparts enhanced solubility in anisole—a green solvent—to the polymer TQBT-T. Furthermore, PTQBT-T possess a highly rigid and planar backbone owing to the nearly coplanar geometry and quinoidal nature of TQBT, resulting in strong aggregation in solution and localized aggregates in film. Remarkably, PTQBT-T films spuncast from anisole exhibit a hole mobility of 2.30 cm 2 V -1 s -1 , which is record high for green solvent-processable semiconducting polymers via spin-coating, together with commendable operational and storage stability. The hybrid building block emerges as a pioneering electroactive unit, shedding light on future design strategies in high-performance semiconducting polymers compatible with green processing and marking a significant stride towards ecofriendly organic electronics.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2020

Specifying Calibration of Energy-Measuring Equipment

Instruments and standards need to be calibrated periodically to ensure that their use yields accurate measurements. Calibration needs, however, vary in sophistication, based on user expectations. This white paper reviews calibration terminology and standards, and describes best practices that have been developed for a) calibrating measurement equipment to ensure some known level of accuracy, and b) accrediting calibration service providers. Calibration is discussed in the context of metrological traceability, and excerpts from laboratory scopes of accreditation are shared to reveal the diversity of terminology and format among them. In an effort to aid those who currently calibrate measuring equipment or who have new or changing needs for calibrating measuring equipment, rationale is provided for why a specification might be used to request calibration services that meet specific test needs. Given the growing interest in using data to manage the energy consumption of systems, and the increasing number and variety of systems (e.g., building, computing) that can report such information, use cases requiring energy data are used to facilitate further discussion and provide examples. Commercially available service providers who are accredited for energy-measuring equipment calibration are compared and contrasted, and a specification template that might be used for requesting this calibration is presented. The specification template should be tailored to meet each user’s needs. To illustrate, an example set of energy-measuring-equipment test conditions (reflecting the planned usage of the device to be calibrated) is used to develop a customized calibration specification, and commercially available service providers are assessed in terms of their qualifications for calibration to that particular implementation of the specification template.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

DOE OSTI2024

High-Efficiency and Low-Carbon Energy Storage and Power Generation System for Electric Aviation

This report summarizes the work performed by University of California San Diego (UCSD) – Honeywell Aerospace (Honeywell) team for the U.S. Department of Energy/Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (DOE/ARPA-E) under Phase 1 (April 2021 – October 2023) project, Cooperative Agreement DE-AR0001347 entitled “High-Efficiency and Low-Carbon Energy Storage and Power Generation System for Electric Aviation”. The main objective of this project is to develop and demonstrate an energy storage and power generation (ESPG) system operating on bio liquid natural gas (LNG) for electric aviation applications. The ESPG system concept in this project is a fuel cell, battery, and gas turbine hybrid system that incorporates an innovative solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology. This SOFC technology has two main novel elements: (i) a lightweight and compact stack architecture that consists of cells and cell modules in electrical parallel and series connections (the module design) and (ii) exceptionally high performance, direct methane thin-film cells on porous substrate made by sputtering deposition process. This fuel cell has the specific power and volumetric power density suitable for electric aviation applications. Based on the current status of the SOFC technology, the Phase 1 work focused on the following activities: (i) ESPG System Modeling – to design and optimize an aircraft SOFC-based ESPG system concept that met the performance, weight and cost targets; (ii) Cell Material Development and Scaleup – to demonstrate scalability of the sputtering process for manufacture of thin-film SOFC cells of practical sizes, confirm the exceptional performance of sputtered cells, improve cell stability and durability for operation with hydrogen and methane fuel, and develop a suitable electrically conducting porous substrate to replace the current non-conducting ceramic substrate; (iii) Stack Development – to design and manufacture stack components for the stack architecture, evaluate and select a suitable sealant, and build and operate multi-cell stacks to demonstrate stack operation, and (iv) Technology to Market – to develop business models and commercialization plans, conduct various market and technology analysis and estimate SOFC and ESPG system costs.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

DOE OSTI2024

Methane Pyrolysis for CO2-free H2 and Carbon Nanomaterials - CRADA 576 (Final Report)

In this CRADA project we continued to develop the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) patent-pending Regenerable Catalytic Pyrolysis (ReCaP) process technology for producing CO 2 -free hydrogen (H 2 ) from inexpensive and domestically-abundant natural gas (NG), while simultaneously reducing H 2 ’s net production cost to $\$$1.0/kg through the sale of valuable crystalline solid carbon co-product. Producing clean hydrogen at this price is a DOE Hydrogen Energy Earthshot goal. This effort builds on our prior catalyst and processing advances made thermocatalytic decomposition of methane (TCD). The additional scope performed here accelerated the commercial deployment of TCD for CO 2 -free H 2 and valuable solid carbon nanotubes (CNT) co-product, by i) scaling up the production of CNT co-product using a fluidized bed reactor (25 g catalyst scale versus the 1 g catalyst scale demonstrated prior), ii) producing approximately 1 kg of CNT byproduct, produced via multiple cycles of TCD, carbon-catalyst separation, and catalyst re-synthesis, to enable the production of sufficient quantities of solid carbon so as to explore its market potential, iii) understanding the quality of the co-product CNTs, produced at larger scale, using advanced characterization, and iv) beginning to explore multiple promising high volume carbon product applications (e.g., aluminum and polymer composites, steel additive, and cement reinforcement applications). We are in discussions with Department of Energy and potential commercial partners to continue funding of this effort with the goal to facilitate eventual commercial deployment.

08 HYDROGEN↗

DOE OSTI2025

Si-Cr-Al-Mn Alloy for High Specific Resistivity

Laboratory material produced in budget period one met the target resistivity, mechanical and magnetic requirements for the Go/No-Go decision to move to industrial trials. The chosen chemistry settled on a high Cr strategy, with moderate Mn and Al additions, providing a good comprise on core loss and induction with minimal impact on mechanical properties, important to successful downstream processing. Industrial trials began in budget period two with the chosen chemistry, referred to as Alloy X. Difficulties occurred during initial hot rolling trials. Reheating the material using the standard NOES practice caused slab cracking from high thermal gradients in areas exposed to the roof burners, this was solved using a modified reheat practice. High Cr caused poor dynamic recrystallization during hot rolling, which was solved using a modified hot rolling practice. The high Cr content of the steel also caused poor decarburization during final annealing, which necessitated lowering the melt carbon aim for the final heat, together with a modified decarburization practice. Steel was finished to final thicknesses of 0.20 – 0.50 mm and evaluated for magnetic and mechanical properties. Although the target core loss for the 0.25 and 0.35 mm material was not achieved, significant reductions in high frequency core loss were measured, compared to equivalent commercially available material. Alloy X at 0.35 mm showed a 26 % and 23 % improvement at 400 HZ and 1000 Hz respectively, over Cliffs’ M-19 (0.35 mm) commercially available NOES. At 0.25 mm, Alloy X showed a 23 % and a 26 % improvement at 400 HZ and 1000 Hz respectively, over Cliffs’ HF-10 (0.25 mm) commercially available NOES. The 0.25 mm product was chosen for motor efficiency evaluation. ORNL collaborated with Cleveland-Cliffs (CC) to build, assemble, and test two 5HP motors: a baseline motor with M19 steel and a motor made with high efficiency steel (Alloy X) developed for the project. Overall, results were as expected with comparable performance at low speeds, and with more than 8% efficiency improvement for high speeds. Increased motor steel efficiency at high frequencies not only results in direct efficiency improvements but can yield reductions in motor size and cost by facilitating higher operation speeds, or by increasing the number of poles in the machine. This allows the production of more power-dense motors which are sometimes avoided with conventional material due to increased core losses. The material developed on this project provides more viable options for achieving improved motor efficiency or reduced motor size and cost.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

DOE OSTI2026

DISSPATCH H2: Assessing Subsurface Storage Potential for Hydrogen

This project evaluates the technical feasibility of long-term underground hydrogen storage in the Anadarko Basin, integrating subsurface science, reservoir engineering, and system-level analysis to build a cohesive understanding of how hydrogen may be stored and recovered in porous media. Although salt caverns currently dominate commercial-scale hydrogen storage, their limited geographic availability necessitates alternative options that can support a more resilient energy system. Depleted oil and gas reservoirs offer a widely distributed and potentially high-capacity solution, but their suitability depends on formation-specific geologic, petrophysical, microbial, and operational factors. This study provides the first coordinated assessment of these factors within the Simpson Group of Oklahoma.

03 NATURAL GAS↗

DOE OSTI2024

A Modeling-Based Flammable Risk Treatment of Refrigerant Leakage from a Commercial R-290 Refrigeration Machine

Because of serious concerns about global warming, manufacturers have started phasing out high global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants in commercial refrigeration equipment (e.g., R-134a). As a potential replacement, propane (R-290) is an environmentally friendly refrigerant for commercial refrigeration equipment because its GWP is only three. However, propane is flammable and is therefore classified as a Class A3 refrigerant per ASHRAE Standards, so safety is a very important consideration when propane-based equipment is designed and deployed in buildings. In the event of a refrigerant leak, flammability of the refrigerant depends on the refrigerant’s local concentration, which is highly affected by the indoor air environment, including temperature and air flow. In this study, a ventilation system attached to a commercial R-290 refrigeration device was designed to eliminate the flammability risk. Moreover, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was developed to investigate the refrigerant leak, thereby evaluating effects of the ventilation system. The CFD model can visualize the flammable zones owing to the leak.

42 ENGINEERING↗

NASA NTRS1994

Advanced End-to-end Simulation for On-board Processing (AESOP)

Developers of data compression algorithms typically use their own software together with commercial packages to implement, evaluate and demonstrate their work. While convenient for an individual developer, this approach makes it difficult to build on or use another's work without intimate knowledge of each component. When several people or groups work on different parts of the same problem, the larger view can be lost. What's needed is a simple piece of software to stand in the gap and link together the efforts of different people, enabling them to build on each other's work, and providing a base for engineers and scientists to evaluate the parts as a cohesive whole and make design decisions. AESOP (Advanced End-to-end Simulation for On-board Processing) attempts to meet this need by providing a graphical interface to a developer-selected set of algorithms, interfacing with compiled code and standalone programs, as well as procedures written in the IDL and PV-Wave command languages. As a proof of concept, AESOP is outfitted with several data compression algorithms integrating previous work on different processors (AT&T DSP32C, TI TMS320C30, SPARC). The user can specify at run-time the processor on which individual parts of the compression should run. Compressed data is then fed through simulated transmission and uncompression to evaluate the effects of compression parameters, noise and error correction algorithms. The following sections describe AESOP in detail. Section 2 describes fundamental goals for usability. Section 3 describes the implementation. Sections 4 through 5 describe how to add new functionality to the system and present the existing data compression algorithms. Sections 6 and 7 discuss portability and future work.

Mazer, Alan S.↗

NASA NTRS2002

High-Power, High-Frequency Si-Based (SiGe) Transistors Developed

Future NASA, DOD, and commercial products will require electronic circuits that have greater functionality and versatility but occupy less space and cost less money to build and integrate than current products. System on a Chip (SOAC), a single semiconductor substrate containing circuits that perform many functions or containing an entire system, is widely recognized as the best technology for achieving low-cost, small-sized systems. Thus, a circuit technology is required that can gather, process, store, and transmit data or communications. Since silicon-integrated circuits are already used for data processing and storage and the infrastructure that supports silicon circuit fabrication is very large, it is sensible to develop communication circuits on silicon so that all the system functions can be integrated onto a single wafer. Until recently, silicon integrated circuits did not function well at the frequencies required for wireless or microwave communications, but with the introduction of small amounts of germanium into the silicon to make silicon-germanium (SiGe) transistors, silicon-based communication circuits are possible. Although microwavefrequency SiGe circuits have been demonstrated, there has been difficulty in obtaining the high power from their transistors that is required for the amplifiers of a transmitter, and many researchers have thought that this could not be done. The NASA Glenn Research Center and collaborators at the University of Michigan have developed SiGe transistors and amplifiers with state-of-the-art output power at microwave frequencies from 8 to 20 GHz. These transistors are fabricated using standard silicon processing and may be integrated with CMOS integrated circuits on a single chip. A scanning electron microscope image of a typical SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistor is shown in the preceding photomicrograph. This transistor achieved a record output power of 550 mW and an associated power-added efficiency of 33 percent at 8.4 GHz, as shown. Record performance was also demonstrated at 12.6 and 18 GHz. Developers have combined these state-of-the-art transistors with transmission lines and micromachined passive circuit components, such as inductors and capacitors, to build multistage amplifiers. Currently, a 1-W, 8.4-GHz power amplifier is being built for NASA deep space communication architectures.

Ponchak, George E.↗

NASA NTRS2000

An Integrated Exploration Strategy

Many new scientific findings in planetary science (potential life in a Mars meteorite, possible frozen water at the Lunar Poles, permanently lit region at the lunar south pole, recent water flow on Mars) provide a compelling case for humans to once again leave low earth orbit and explore. Robotic missions are capable of conducting science, but only humans can explore and discover. The challenge is to build an affordable exploration program. This can be done by aggressively evolving our current systems, developing high payoff technologies, leveraging off commercial and other agencies' programs, and developing a set of core capabilities to be used to explore a variety of destinations. NASA has a Strategic Roadmap based on detailed mission studies to develop these core technologies and capabilities to allow human space exploration. Advances in human support, launch vehicle. improvements, development of in-space transportation systems, efficient power generation and distribution, and In-Situ Resource Utilization are all required to meet the exploration challenge. The groundwork today will provide the technology and tools needed to conduct safe, affordable, and efficient exploration to the moon, asteroids, deep space observatories and Mars.

Conley, Mike↗

NASA NTRS2010

Design of a Mechanical NaK Pump for Fission Space Power Systems

Alkali liquid metal cooled fission reactor concepts are under development for mid-range spaceflight power requirements. One such concept utilizes a sodium-potassium eutectic (NaK) as the primary loop working fluid. Traditionally, linear induction pumps have been used to provide the required flow and head conditions for liquid metal systems but can be limited in performance. This paper details the design, build, and check-out test of a mechanical NaK pump. The pump was designed to meet reactor cooling requirements using commercially available components modified for high temperature NaK service.

Mireles, Omar R.↗

NASA NTRS1994

Advanced End-To-End Simulation For On-Board Processing (AESOP)

interface↗

DOE OSTI2022

Field Validation of a Building Operating System Platform

The U.S General Services Administration's (GSA's) Green Proving Ground program, in partnership with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. completed a large pilot study of an Energy Management Information Systems (EMIS) with Automated System Optimization (ASO). Four test bed facilities, each with different building characteristics and systems, were chosen for the implementation of cloud-based EMIS with ASO. Depending on functionality, this tool can be extremely effective in energy management and energy optimization in buildings. The capabilities evaluated in the pilot ranged from energy savings and energy consumption predictions to evaluations of user acceptance, operability, and ease of installation. This report presents the methodology, lessons learned and best practices, and deployment recommendations for the GSA's portfolio of commercial office space, comprising more than 8,500 properties.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2024

Hidden in Plain Sight: How Interior Furnishings Management Can Help Los Alamos National Laboratory Meet the United States Department of Energy's Sustainability Goals [Capstone Project]

In the last three years, LANL has purchased over $50 million in new interior products with a focus on sustainable building and high-quality interior furnishings, carpet, and paint. Purchasing interior products that focus on sustainable manufacturing, however, is only the beginning of properly operating and maintaining an interior space over its useable life. Sustainable commercial furniture, if well maintained and warrantied, can last well beyond the accounting depreciation of the asset, ultimately saving taxpayer dollars. Given DOE’s recently announced built environment sustainability goals, now is the time to look at interior products as an important part of the overall sustainability plan for LANL’s green building initiatives. The scope of this thesis provides an environmentally sustainable O&M process for the procurement, use, and proper decommissioning of interior products. The thesis also provides environmental and financial data to assist with LANL’s overall DOE Matrix milestones, currently due in 2030.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

NASA NTRS1998

The Successful Transfer of Space Derived Convergent Spray: An Application for Industrial Roof Coatings and Interstate Bridge Repair

A partnership was formed between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and United Technologies USBI Company to develop, demonstrate, and evaluate a technology that uses a solventless spray process for depositing a lightweight, highly filled roof coating on low-sloped commercial roofs. Although the levels of volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions from industrial roof coating's and paint operations have been reduced in recent years, this partnership,was an effort to further reduce VOC emission levels and to also demonstrate the use of reclaimed automobile tire rubber as a filler material in roof coating systems. Different materials and coatings were evaluated and tested before the final selection used to coat the roofs of two small buildings at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center during fiscal year 1997. The project successfully leveraged the investment of EPA, NASA and private sector resources to demonstrate a pre-commercial roofing coating process. This process utilizes the Convergent Spray Technologies process, which was initially developed by USBI to apply highly-filled, thermal protection coatings to the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters. A second partnership between the NASA, Federal Highway Administration, Alabama Department of Transportation and USBI Company was formed to develop and demonstrate the Convergent Spray Technology as a method of applying a skid resistant coating to interstate roads and concrete bridge decking's. Again, different materials and coatings were evaluated and tested before the final selection of ground flint and resin. Two field demonstrations were performed during fiscal year 1997 for the purpose of evaluating the coating system under actual highway conditions. These coatings were applied on Interstate 65 near Huntsville Alabama, and in the Mobile Bankhead tunnel. The system performed this task without the use of harmful solvents, and accomplished the process in a single application. This project successfully leveraged the investment of NASA, Federal Highway Administration, the Alabama Department of Transportation, and private sector funding.

McMillan, Vernotto C.↗