SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “VALUE”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

SourceResearch connectionFrom yearThrough year

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

At least 1,315 records · Page 73

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

DOE OSTI2020

Navigation and Meteorological Data from Multiple Sensors on Airborne Platform (NAVMET-AIR) Value-Added Product Report

The Navigation and Meteorological Data from Multiple Sensors on Airborne Platform (NAVMET-AIR) value-added product encompasses the aafnaviwg data set in the ARM Data Center (ADC), known as the IWG file, named for the Inter-Agency Working Group for Airborne Data and Telemetry Systems (IWGADTS). Its purpose is to produce a suite of tools to promote standardization of instrument interface, data format, and data processing. This data set’s contents are navigational and meteorological state variables at 1 Hz. It also contains higher-order data flags created by ARM Aerial Facility (AAF) scientists to aid analysis such as periods when the aircraft is flying level, operating in maneuvers, or flying through cloud. Due to the nature of research flights, the payload of the aircraft consists of many duplicate and overlapping instruments to ensure, in case of instrument failure, there is a backup to record the data. Measurements from multiple instruments are consolidated into a single file. Each variable of this data set is carefully chosen from the onboard instrumentation and quality checked by AAF scientists to create this wholistic and most accurate data set for airborne research. This document is intended to be a hub towards the individual “read me” files produced for each campaign. For reference about what instrument was used for calculations on specific days, the read me files are located in the ARM IOP archive at the addresses listed, or access the IOP (intensive operational period) database at https://www.archive.arm.gov/.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2019

Western USA Assessment of High Value Materials in Geothermal Fluids and Produced Fluids

This report documents the results of investigations dealing with the concentrations and availabilities of strategic, critical and valuable materials (SCVM) in produced waters from geothermal and hydrocarbon reservoirs (50-250° C) in Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, and Utah. Analytical results were obtained for water samples from 47 production wells in 12 geothermal fields. Results were also obtained for samples from 25 oil/gas production wells in the Uinta and Paradox Basins and Covenant oil field, from 14 groundwater wells in the Tularosa play fairway (New Mexico), and from 20 groundwater wells and hot springs in the Sevier Thermal Belt (southwestern Utah). Most SCVM concentrations in produced waters range from <0.1 to 100 ug/kg. Lithium is the only element, which has much higher concentrations and which ranges from 10 to 26,000 ug/kg. Relatively high concentrations of gallium (10-80 ug/kg geothermal; 10-10,000 ug/kg Uinta Basin), germanium (1-70 ug/kg geothermal; 10-500 ug/kg Uinta and Paradox Basins), scandium (0.1-2.0 ug/kg geothermal; 5-10 ug/kg Paradox Basin), selenium (1-100 ug/kg geothermal; 10-20,000 ug/kg Uinta and Paradox Basins), and tellurium (0.1-10 ug/kg geothermal; 1-500 ug/kg Uinta and Paradox Basins) are measured too. Geothermal production waters contain very low concentrations of REEs, below analytical detections limits of 0.01 ug/kg, but the concentrations of some REEs (lanthanum, cerium, and europium) range from 0.05 to 5 ug/kg in Uinta Basin waters. Among the geothermal fields, the Roosevelt Hot Spring reservoir appears to have the largest endowments of germanium (20,000 kg) and lithium (7 million kg), the Patua reservoir appears to have the largest endowments of gallium (25,000 kg), selenium (47,000 kg), and tellurium (2500 kg), and the Raft River reservoir appears to have the large endowment of scandium (700 kg). By comparison, the Uinta Basin has larger inventories of gallium (>100,000 kg). These estimates are provisional, and they were calculated using geologically reasonable values for reservoir volumes and porosities. The concentrations of gallium, germanium, lithium, scandium, selenium, and tellurium in produced waters appear to be partly controlled by reservoir temperature and concentrations of total dissolved salts. The relatively high concentration and large endowment of lithium occurring at Roosevelt Hot Springs appears to be related to hot water interaction with crystalline granitic rocks, which host the reservoir and the hydrothermal system, and elevated concentrations of TDS. Analyses of calcite scales from Dixie Valley show that cobalt, gallium, gold, palladium, selenium and tellurium are depositing at deep levels in production wells due to boiling. Comparisons with SCVM mineral deposits suggest that brines in sedimentary basins or derived from lacustrine evaporites enable aqueous transport of gallium, germanium, and lithium.

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2018

Demonstrating the Value of Human Factors for Process Design in a Controlled Experiment

A controlled between-groups experiment was conducted to demonstrate the value of human factors for process design. Most evidence to convey the benefits of human factors is derived from reactive studies of existing flawed systems designed with little or no human factors involvement. Controlled experiments conducted explicitly to demonstrate the benefits of human factors have been scarce since the 1990s. Further, most previous research focused on product or interface design as opposed to process design. The present study was designed to fill these research gaps. Toward that end, 24 Sandia National Laboratories employees completed a simple visual inspection task simulating receipt inspection. The experimental group process was designed to conform to human factors and visual inspection principles, whereas the control group process was designed without consideration of such principles. Results indicated the experimental group exhibited superior performance accuracy, lower workload, and more favorable usability ratings as compared to the control group. Given the differences observed in the simple task used in the present study, the author concluded that incorporating human factors should have even greater benefits for complex products and processes. The study provides evidence to help human factors practitioners revitalize the critical message regarding the benefits of human factors involvement for a new generation of designers.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2016

Beyond Benchmarking : Unlocking the Value for Utilities

This document provides guidance to help utilities identify new, untapped datasets related to the energy performance of buildings, and how this information can be applied to expand market intelligence and create business value.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

DOE OSTI2021

Solar-to-Grid: Trends in System Impacts, Reliability, and Market Value in the United States with Data Through 2019

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2014

Identification of RESNET HERS Index Values Corresponding to Minimal Compliance with the IECC Performance Path

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory analyzed the relationship between the Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET) Home Energy Rating System (HERS) Index and the traditional simulation-based Performance Path used in the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC). The analysis evaluates, for a single-family residence with various characteristics, the ranges of HERS Index values that would imply compliance with the 2012 IECC Performance Path. Several building characteristics considered likely to result in quantifiable differences in the outcomes of the two approaches, or otherwise believed to be of interest to code developers and policy makers, are considered in the analysis.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

DOE OSTI2021

Machine Learning for a-posteriori model-observed data fusion to enhance predictive value of ESM output

The proposed research is consistent with focal areas 2 and 3: when successful, this effort will enhance the predictive value of Earth System Model (ESM) output by identifying and quantifying its systematic deviations from available observations and by correcting and recalibrating to existing data. The product is a hybrid process & data-driven modeling tool whose estimation can also bring insights through pattern discovery recognition on model deficiencies on the one hand and data gaps on the other.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2020

Building Blocks from Biocrude: High-Value Methoxyphenols (Final Scientific/Technical Report)

Integrating biofuels production with bioproducts presents an opportunity to explore options for recovering high-value chemicals as additional revenue-generating products from biofuel conversion pathways. Thus, the overall objective of this project was to develop a comprehensive separation strategy to economically recover valuable methoxyphenols (MPs) consisting of guaiacol, 4-methylguaiacol, 4-ethylguaiacol, 4-propylguaiacol, eugenol, and isoeugenol from biocrude as building blocks to demonstrate that bioproducts could enable cost-effective production of biofuels via integrated catalytic pyrolysis and hydroprocessing. The upgradability of the remaining biocrude fraction to biofuel after separation of the products was evaluated by hydrotreating. Finally, techno-economic analysis (TEA) was performed to examine the economic potential of recovering select MPs from biocrude in parallel with biofuels production.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

DOE OSTI2019

Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer Optimal Estimation (AERIoe) Value-Added Product Report

The Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (AERI) Optimal Estimation (AERIoe) algorithm (Turner and Löhnert 2014, Turner and Blumberg 2019) retrieves boundary-layer profiles of temperature and water vapor mixing ratio, together with cloud properties for a single-layer cloud (i.e., LWP, effective radius), from AERI-observed infrared radiance spectra and other measurements. The current AERIoe Value-Added Product (VAP) uses version 2.8 of David Turner's code, which uses additional inputs to constrain the retrieval including surface meteorology, microwave radiometer brightness temperatures at any number of frequencies (the U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement [ARM] user facility typically used observations at 23.8 and 30.0 GHz), and Rapid Refresh numerical weather prediction model output. The method is a physical iterative retrieval that uses the optimal estimation framework (Rodgers 2000), so a full error covariance of the solution and the information content (in the form of degrees of freedom for signal) is provided for each retrieval.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2020

Laser Disdrometer Quantities (LDQUANTS) and Video Disdrometer Quantities (VDISQUANTS) Value-Added Products Report

Disdrometers are useful instruments that measure the distribution of raindrop sizes (drop size distribution: DSD) and the associated rainfall rates/accumulation as those raindrops fall to the ground. These DSDs are a quantity of interest to members of the modeler and observational communities. However, use of disdrometer data for model evaluation, radar monitoring, or other activities requires careful quality control and processing for key DSD properties of interest (e.g., the number concentration of drops) to ensure appropriate physical (scattering, fall speed) assumptions. The U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Laser Disdrometer Quantities and Video Disdrometer Quantities Value-Added Product (LDQUANTS/VDISQUANTS VAP) uses standard methods from Tokay et al. (e.g., 2013, 2014) to filter drops with unrealistic fall speeds. Further, it estimates several microphysical/geophysical quantities of parameterized DSDs (gamma or exponential assumption type fitting methods) as in previous disdrometer studies and ARM long-term efforts (e.g., Testud et al. 2001, Giangrande et al. 2014, Thompson et al. 2015). Disdrometers are also beneficial for cross-checks with other instrumentation, including rain gauges and radars. To support research interests and related radar monitoring activities, this product calculates radar equivalent quantities, including dual polarization radar quantities (e.g., Z, Differential Reflectivity ZDR, etc.), using T-Matrix scattering and additional wavelength, temperature, and drop shape assumptions (e.g., Thurai et al. 2007). All of these efforts allow disdrometer data sets to become more useful and easily handled by modeling and observational studies, or routine instrumentation checks.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

DOE OSTI2020

Mapped Moments to a Cartesian Grid (MMCG) Value-Added Product Report

Objective analysis (OA) is a method of mapping unstructured data to a structured grid. In the context of scanning radar data, OA is used to interpolate data in antenna coordinates (range, azimuth, and elevation) onto a regularly spaced Cartesian grid (Trapp and Doswell 2000). The U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility’s Mapped Moments to a Cartesian Grid (MMCG) Value-Added Product (VAP) uses the Python ARM Radar Toolkit (Py-ART), a data model-driven interactive architecture for working with weather radar data, to map the data to a Cartesian grid (Helmus and Collis 2016). MMCG, with Py-ART built in, has the ability to take radar data in antenna coordinates and map the gates to a Cartesian grid using inverse distance weight functions such as Cressman (square) and Barnes (exponential), but also can filter the data during the interpolation. MMCG also allows arbitrary formulations for the radius of influence, which are matched to particular radar scanning strategies. This creates a complex parameter space for optimizing the retention of storm structure detail while minimizing artifacts. MMCG takes data processed with ARM’s Corrected Precipitation Radar Moments in Antenna Coordinates (CMAC) VAP and maps it to a Cartesian grid as the output product. A variety of fields that have been mapped to the Cartesian grid are then saved to plots to complement each grid file.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2011

MWRRET Value-Added Product: The Retrieval of Liquid Water Path and Precipitable Water Vapor from Microwave Radiometer (MWR) Data Sets

This report provides a short description of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility microwave radiometer (MWR) Retrieval (MWRRET) value-added product (VAP) algorithm. This algorithm utilizes a complementary physical retrieval method and applies brightness temperature offsets to reduce spurious liquid water path (LWP) bias in clear skies resulting in significantly improved precipitable water vapor (PWV) and LWP retrievals. We present a general overview of the technique, input parameters, output products, and describe data quality checks. A more complete discussion of the theory and results is given in Turner et al. (2007b).

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2020

MWRRETV2 Value-Added Product Report: The Retrieval of Liquid Water Path and Precipitable Water Vapor from Microwave Radiometer – 3-Channel (MWR3C) Data Sets

This report provides a short description of the U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility Microwave Radiometer – 3-Channel (MWR3C) Retrieval (MWRRETV2) Value-Added Product (VAP) algorithm. MWRRETV2 is an updated version of MWRRET, which extends the physical-iterative retrieval of liquid water path (LWP) and precipitable water vapor PWV) to 3-channel microwave radiometers beyond ARM's original standard 2-channel (23-and 31-GHz) systems. The 89-GHz channel in the 3-channel microwave radiometers has approximately three times the sensitivity to liquid water as the 31-GHz channel, thus improving LWP retrieval accuracy when LWP is less than 100 g/m2. We present a general overview of the technique, input parameters, and output products, and describe data quality checks.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

DOE OSTI2019

Oklahoma Mesonet Soil Moisture (OKMSOIL) Value-Added Product Report

Land surface and subsurface state characteristics (e.g., soil moisture) are critical measurements for ongoing weather and climate analyses of land-atmospheric interactions and processes. Knowledge of the variation in soil moisture across the U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility’s Southern Great Plains (SGP) observatory domain is anticipated as a key quantity for assessing the potential impact of these interactions. This Oklahoma Mesonet Soil Moisture (OKMSOIL) value-added product (VAP) has been developed in response to growing demand for delivering a long-term measurement record of soil moisture (over an extended area) for such land-atmospheric studies. The Oklahoma Mesonet (OKM) started as a joint project between Oklahoma State University and the University of Oklahoma (Brock 1995). The OKM currently operates over 100 surface Mesonet stations across the state of Oklahoma, with an operational data record that extends into the early 1990s. This dense network of atmospheric and surface state instrumentation enables representation of land surface/subsurface conditions over this region and extended record. Algorithms introduced by previous Oklahoma Mesonet activities (e.g., Scott et al. 2013) are implemented in this documented OKMSOIL VAP to derive a key soil moisture quantity, the volumetric water content (volume of water per volume of soil in units, cm 3 /cm 3 ), from measurements of soil matric potential. These algorithms use a soil hydraulic parameter database (Meso-Soil Database) provided by the Oklahoma Mesonet scientists to estimate this quantity and several additional Mesonet station/sample details.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2023

Retrieving Point Cloud of Cloud Points (PCCP) Value-Added Product from Stereo Cameras

In this report, we refer to a pair of cameras that capture synchronized pictures with overlapping fields of view (FOV) as a stereo pair. Each stereo pair independently performs a stereo reconstruction of cloud points. Currently, there are three U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility stereo pairs (six cameras in total) positioned around the Southern Great Plains (SGP) observatory’s Central Facility (CF; Romps and Oktem 2017). Time-synchronized pictures from the two cameras in a stereo pair can be paired together to obtain a three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of feature points by triangulation. This document explains how we use ARM stereo cameras and stereophotogrammetric principles to generate the Point Cloud of Cloud Points (PCCP) Value-Added Product (VAP). The PCCP VAP is essentially a set of 3D positions representing the locations of cloud features in the sky. Thousands of cloud features can be reconstructed instantly in each stereo pair's FOV, which covers an area of tens of square kilometers. Cloud base and cloud top heights can be extracted from the PCCP product.

42 ENGINEERING↗

DOE OSTI2021

Aerosol Chemical Speciation Monitor (ACSM) Composition-Dependent Collection Efficiency (CDCE) Value-Added Product Report

Aerosol particles influence the Earth’s radiation balance directly by absorbing and scattering light and indirectly by influencing cloud formation, properties, and lifetimes. Measurements of aerosol particle optical properties, mass loading, size distributions, microphysical properties, cloud formation properties, and chemical composition are important for understanding the aerosol life cycle and for validating earth system models that predict these quantities. The U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility’s Aerosol Observing System (AOS) is a highly instrumented platform that measures many of these aerosol properties in situ. The Aerodyne aerosol chemical speciation monitor (ACSM) is a baseline instrument deployed in the AOS. The ACSM provides a quantitative measurement of aerosol particle chemical composition for non-refractory (operationally defined as components that evaporate on the 600ºC vaporizer) aerosol components in real time. Standard output is the mass concentration of particulate organics, nitrate, sulfate, chloride, and ammonium. One well-known limitation to the accuracy of the ACSM data is in evaluating the fraction of the ambient aerosol particles that are detected by the instrument. This quantity is referred to as the collection efficiency (CE) and is often less than unity. This is attributed to particles rebounding after impaction onto the heated vaporizer rather than being trapped, volatilized rapidly, and detected. Other factors, such as divergence of the aerosol particle beam, may also impact CE, but the particle rebound effect is the dominant factor. Scientists will sometimes assume CE = 0.5 (i.e., one half of sampled particles are detected) for ambient particles collected during field missions. However, parameterizations have been developed that express CE as a function of the measured chemical composition, referred to as the composition-dependent collection efficiency (CDCE). The physical explanation for a CDCE, supported by laboratory studies, is that rebound from the vaporizer is a function of the particle phase, with liquid-like particles “sticking” to the vaporizer and solid-like or crystalline particles “bouncing” from the vaporizer. Thus, particles with compositions are liquids-like under the measurement conditions (e.g., certain organics, acidic particles, particles enriched in nitrate) have CE close to unity while crystalline or solid particles (e.g., deliquesced ammonium sulfate) have lower CE. This value-added product (VAP) implements the procedure described by Middlebrook et al. (2012) to correct the ACSM data for the composition-dependent collection efficiency. Applying this parameterization improves the accuracy of the ACSM data and brings them into better agreement with other co-located aerosol measurements.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2021

Value and Role of Pumped Storage Hydro under High Variable Renewables

A project team, led by GE Research, was tasked by the U.S Department of Energy (DOE) to study the value and role of pumped storage hydro (PSH) under high variable renewables. The study was majority funded by DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) through a program managed by EERE’s Water Power Technologies Office. The project team for the study consists of three organizations – GE Research, GE Energy Consulting, and GE Renewables.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2021

Solar-to-Grid: Trends in System Impacts, Reliability, and Market Value in the United States with Data Through 2020

With continued deployment of solar across the United States, assessing the interactions of solar with the power system is an increasingly important complement to studies tracking the cost and performance of solar plants. This project focuses on the historical contribution to reliability, trends in market value, and impacts on the bulk power system of solar deployed in the U.S. through the end of 2020. The scope of this analysis includes the seven organized U.S. wholesale power markets and is based on historical hourly solar generation profiles for each individual plant larger than 1 MW or county-level aggregate profiles for smaller solar. In addition, we present a limited set of results for ten utilities that are outside of the independent system operator (ISO)/regional transmission organization (RTO) markets.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗