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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.

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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2020

Density Tailored Capillary Discharge (Final Technical Report)

This final report describes efforts to validate a novel way to drive capillary discharges in order to achieve true matched guiding of a focused laser beam traveling along the capillary. Achieving such matched guiding is important for laser plasma accelerators, such as ones based upon laser wakefield acceleration. During this Phase II program, a computer model, which was specifically designed to predict the time-dependent behavior of the capillary discharge, was exercised to determine whether unconventional ways to drive the discharge may yield matched guiding. A custom power supply was built to drive the capillary discharge in the unconventional manner specified by the model. Experiments performed at STI Optronics seemed to support the predictions of this model; however, subsequent more accurate measurements performed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory did not agree with the model predictions.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2016

FutureGen 2.0 Oxy-combustion Large Scale Test – Final Report

The primary objectives of the FutureGen 2.0 CO 2 Oxy-Combustion Large Scale Test Project were to site, permit, design, construct, and commission, an oxy-combustion boiler, gas quality control system, air separation unit, and CO 2 compression and purification unit, together with the necessary supporting and interconnection utilities. The project was to demonstrate at commercial scale (168MWe gross) the capability to cleanly produce electricity through coal combustion at a retrofitted, existing coal-fired power plant; thereby, resulting in near-zeroemissions of all commonly regulated air emissions, as well as 90% CO 2 capture in steady-state operations. The project was to be fully integrated in terms of project management, capacity, capabilities, technical scope, cost, and schedule with the companion FutureGen 2.0 CO 2 Pipeline and Storage Project, a separate but complementary project whose objective was to safely transport, permanently store and monitor the CO 2 captured by the Oxy-combustion Power Plant Project. The FutureGen 2.0 Oxy-Combustion Large Scale Test Project successfully achieved all technical objectives inclusive of front-end-engineering and design, and advanced design required to accurately estimate and contract for the construction, commissioning, and start-up of a commercial-scale "ready to build" power plant using oxy-combustion technology, including full integration with the companion CO 2 Pipeline and Storage project. Ultimately the project did not proceed to construction due to insufficient time to complete necessary EPC contract negotiations and commercial financing prior to expiration of federal co-funding, which triggered a DOE decision to closeout its participation in the project. Through the work that was completed, valuable technical, commercial, and programmatic lessons were learned. This project has significantly advanced the development of near-zero emission technology and will be helpful to plotting the course of, and successfully executing future large demonstration projects. This Final Scientific and Technical Report describes the technology and engineering basis of the project, inclusive of process systems, performance, effluents and emissions, and controls. Further, the project cost estimate, schedule, and permitting requirements are presented, along with a project risk and opportunity assessment. Lessons-learned related to these elements are summarized in this report. Companion reports Oxy-combustion further document the accomplishments and learnings of the project, including: A.01 Project Management Report which describes what was done to coordinate the various participants, and to track their performance with regard to schedule and budget B.02 Lessons Learned - Technology Integration, Value Improvements, and Program Management, which describes the innovations and conclusions that we arrived upon during the development of the project, and makes recommendations for improvement of future projects of a similar nature . B.03 Project Economics, which details the capital and operation costs and their basis, and also illustrates the cost of power produced by the plant with certain sensitivities. B.04 Power Plant, Pipeline, and Injection Site Interfaces, which details the interfaces between the two FutureGen projects B.05 Contractual Mechanisms for Design, Construction, and Operation, which describes the major EPC, and Operations Contracts required to execute the project.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2022

Exceedance Response Action (ERA) Level 2 (Technical Report)

The Sandia National Laboratories, California (SNL/CA) site comprises approximately 410 acres and is located in the eastern portion of Livermore, Alameda County, California. The property is owned by the United States Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA) and is being managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC (NTESS). Operations at the SNL/CA facility consist of DOE statutory responsibilities for nuclear weapon research and design, development of energy technologies, and basic scientific research. Specific industrial activities occur in discrete buildings and include electroplating or anodizing, machine shop, permitted hazardous waste treatment, storage and disposal facility (TSDF), and a scrap yard.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Dielectrics Under Extreme Electric Fields: In Situ Studies on Nanoscale Mechanisms (Final Technical Report)

The lack of materials that can function reliably under extreme electric fields is a critical roadblock to achieving higher energy efficiency and extended service lifetime of devices in electricity generation, transmission, and consumption. Materials typically fail at two or three orders of magnitude below their theoretical dielectric breakdown strength. Identifying the origins of premature dielectric breakdown using state-of-the-art characterization tools will, therefore, enable the design and discovery of transformational materials capable of approaching their intrinsic limits. The vast improvement in the resolution power of imaging tools, combined with the recently developed in situ electric biasing technique, has made high resolution observations of dielectric breakdown as it happens possible. The overall goal of the project is to directly image the dynamic processes of defect formation, accumulation, and interaction with preexisting defects (e.g., dislocations, domain walls, and grain boundaries in crystalline dielectric films) under electric fields up to 1,000 MV/m with a temporal resolution better than 5 microseconds. Using the newly acquired, custom-made Hysitron PI95 transmission electron microscopy (TEM) specimen holder, in situ TEM observations of breakdown at the sub nanometer resolution will be made on representative dielectric compounds with progressive complexities: the linear dielectric SiO 2 , CuO, and TiO 2 , the ferroelectric BaTiO 3 nanocrystals and nanocubes. Through direct observation of the breakdown event at high spatial and temporal resolutions, the nanoscale mechanisms for the failure of dielectrics under intense electric fields will be identified. The results of the project will be applied to the design and processing of new dielectric materials with higher efficiency, improved reliability, and a prolonged lifetime. Such new dielectrics are urgently needed for modernizing energy infrastructures.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2024

Accelerating polyketide synthase engineering for high TRY production of biofuels and bioproducts (Final Technical Report)

Polyketide synthase (PKS) enzymes have a modular, deterministic logic that holds the potential to act as a flexible chemical factory for the biological production of a huge diversity of valuable small molecule compounds. However, engineering a custom PKS to produce a specific desired product currently requires years of trial and error, for reasons that remain poorly understood. In this project, we have developed a rapid, high throughput, Design-Build-Test-Learn (DBTL) cycle for polyketide synthases (PKSs) and demonstrate its utility for production of materials precursors. The objectives are 1) to develop a rapid, high-throughput (HT) DBTL cycle for PKSs that will enable production of a large number of unnatural, organic molecules on demand at high titer, rate, and yield (TRY); 2) to demonstrate the utility of the PKS DBTL cycle to produce three molecules: one commodity chemical (caprolactam or valerolactam) and two novel materials precursors (caprolactam or valerolactam derivatives); and 3) to demonstrate the utility of the PKS DBTL cycle to increase the TRY of one molecule (caprolactam or valerolactam). In this project, we have successfully demonstrated our high throughput PKS DBTL pipeline, and have biologically produced valerolactam and several other novel nylon monomers.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Nanoporous Materials Genome Center Final Technical Report

Nanoporous materials (NPMs), including zeolites/zeotypes, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), covalent organic frameworks, polymers with intrinsic microporosity, and molecular cages, possess enormous potential in diverse areas relevant to the DOE Office of Science Basic Energy Sciences (BES) mission and objectives. The Nanoporous Materials Genome Center (NMGC) has developed exascale-ready software, computational/theoretical chemistry methods, and data-driven science approaches that enable (i) the de-novo design of functional NPMs for chemical separation and catalysis tasks of increasing complexity, (ii) the discovery of the most promising functional NPMs from databases of synthesized and hypothetical adsorbent structures and the optimization of process conditions for specific applications, and (iii) the microscopic-level understanding of the fundamental interactions underlying the function of NPMs including hierarchical architectures, composite materials, responsive frameworks that may undergo phase transitions or post-synthetic modifications, and materials containing defects, partial disorder, or interfaces. A pivotal part of the NMGC project has been a tight collaboration between leading experimental groups for synthesis and characterization of NPMs and of computational groups that allowed for iterative feedback. The NMGC project has resulted in the publication of more than 290 research and review articles including more than 60 publications in high-impact journals and more than 15 journal covers. NMGC publications have already received more than 20,000 citations (with more than 3,000 citations per year in 2021, 2022, and 2023) and contribute to an h-index of more than 72. The NMGC award has supported collaborative research involving 28 research groups and contributed to the training of more than 40 postdocs, more than 60 graduate students, and more than 20 undergraduate students with broad expertise in data-driven science approaches, computational chemistry methods, and high-performance computing, in addition to the skills to thrive in an integrated experimental and computational research environment.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2014

Deep Geothermal Drilling Using Millimeter Wave Technology (Final Technical Research Report)

Conventional drilling methods are very mature, but still have difficulty drilling through very deep,very hard and hot rocks for geothermal, nuclear waste entombment and oil and gas applications.This project demonstrated the capabilities of utilizing only high energy beams to drill such rocks,commonly called ‘Direct Energy Drilling’, which has been the dream of industry since the invention of the laser in the 1960s. A new region of the electromagnetic spectrum, millimeter wave (MMW) wavelengths at 30-300 giga-hertz (GHz) frequency was used to accomplish this feat. To demonstrate MMW beam drilling capabilities a lab bench waveguide delivery, monitoring and instrument system was designed, built and tested around an existing (but non-optimal) 28 GHz frequency, 10 kilowatt (kW) gyrotron. Low waveguide efficiency, plasma generation and reflected power challenges were overcome. Real-time monitoring of the drilling process was also demonstrated. Then the technical capability of using only high power intense millimeter waves to melt (with some vaporization) four different rock types (granite, basalt, sandstone, limestone) was demonstrated through 36 bench tests. Full bore drilling up to 2” diameter (size limited by the available MMW power) was demonstrated through granite and basalt samples. The project also demonstrated that MMW beam transmission losses through high temperature (260°C, 500oF), high pressure (34.5 MPa, 5000 psi) nitrogen gas was below the error range of the meter long path length test equipment and instruments utilized. To refine those transmission losses closer, to allow extrapolation to very great distances, will require a new test cell design and higher sensitivity instruments. All rock samples subjected to high peak temperature by MMW beams developed fractures due to thermal stresses, although the peak temperature was thermodynamically limited by radiative losses. Therefore, this limited drill rate and rock strength data were not able to be determined experimentally. New methods to encapsulate larger rock specimens must be developed and higher power intensities are needed to overcome these limitations. It was demonstrated that rock properties are affected (weakening then strengthened) by exposure to high temperatures. Since only MMW beams can economically reach rock temperatures of over 1650°C, even exceeding 3000°C, that can cause low viscosity melts or vaporization of rocks. Future encapsulated rock specimens must provide sufficiently large sizes of thermally impacted material to provide for the necessary rock strength, permeability and other analyzes required. Multiple MMW field systems, tools and methods for drilling and lining were identified. It was concluded that forcing a managed over-pressure drilling operation would overcome water influx and hot rock particulates handling problems, while simultaneously forming the conditions necessary to create a strong, sealing rock melt liner. Materials that contact hot rock surfaces were identified for further study. High power windows and gases for beam transmission under high pressures are critical paths for some of the MMW drilling systems. Straightness/ alignment can be a great benefit or a problem, especially if a MMW beam is transmitted through an existing, conventionally drilled bore.

04 OIL SHALES AND TAR SANDS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Institute for Clean Energy Technology Mississippi State University NSR&D Aged HEPA Filter Study Final Report

Data have demonstrated that filter media lose tensile strength and the ability to resist the effects of moisture as a function of age. Testing of new and aged filters needs to be conducted to correlate reduction of physical strength of HEPA media to the ability of filters to withstand upset conditions. Appendix C of the Nuclear Air Cleaning Handbook provides the basis for DOE’s HEPA filter service life guidance. However, this appendix also points out the variability of data, and it does not correlate performance of aged filters to degradation of media due to age. Funding awarded by NSR&D to initiate full-scale testing of aged HEPA filters addresses the issue of correlating media degradation due to age with testing of new and aged HEPA filters under a generic design basis event set of conditions. This funding has accelerated the process of describing this study via: (1) establishment of a Technical Working Group of all stakeholders, (2) development and approval of a test plan, (3) development of testing and autopsy procedures, (4) acquiring an initial set of aged filters, (5) testing the initial set of aged filters, and (6) developing the filter test report content for each filter tested. This funding was very timely and has moved the project forward by at least three years. Activities have been correlated with testing conducted under DOE-EM funding for evaluating performance envelopes for AG-1 Section FC Separator and Separatorless filters. This coordination allows correlation of results from the NSR&D Aged Filter Study with results from testing new filters of the Separator and Separatorless Filter Study. DOE-EM efforts have identified approximately 100 more filters of various ages that have been stored under Level B conditions. NSR&D funded work allows a time for rigorous review among subject matter experts before moving forward with development of the testing matrix that will be used for additional filters. The NSR&D data sets are extremely valuable in as much as establishing a selfimproving, NQA-1 program capable of advancing the service lifetime study of HEPA filters. The data and reports are available for careful and critical review by subject matter experts before the next set of filters is tested and can be found in the appendices of this final report. NSR&D funds have not only initiated the Aged HEPA Filter Study alluded to in Appendix C of the NACH, but have also enhanced the technical integrity and effectiveness of all of the follow-on testing for this long-term study.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2018

Digital X-Ray Imager Final Report CRADA No. TSB-1161-95

The global objective of this cooperation was to lower the cost and improve the quality of breast health care in the United States. We planned to achieve it by designing a very high performance digital radiography unit for breast surgical specimen radiography in the operating room. These technical goals needed to be achieved at reasonable manufacturing costs to enable MedOptics to achieve high market penetration at a profit.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2018

Development of a Solar Heat and Power Co-Generation System Final Report CRADA No. TC02152.0

This was a collaborative effort between Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC as manager and operator of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Tassajara Technologies, Inc. (TTI), to develop, fabricate and demonstrate a Solar Heat and Power Co-generation System. The technical objectives of this CRADA were to engineer, design and build a prototype Solar Thermal Process Heat and Power Demonstration System that would be suitable for use at the Arc of Hilo food processing facility. This would be accomplished in two phases. The first phase would entail the building of a prototype at Tassajara facilities. Base design parameters, including the subsystem interactions that would produce reliable performance at the lowest cost per watt of energy generated with the desired balance of power and heat to meet the requirements of the designated food processing applications from Arc of Hilo, would be provided by LLNL. The data and design development would be integrated into the second phase engine prototype and solar thermal system that would be built and delivered, with interface requirements to the Miko Building.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2019

Underground Test Area Activity Preemptive Review Guidance Nevada National Security Site, Nevada

This report is a revision to the preemptive review (PER) guidance originally released as U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Field Office (NNSA/NFO) document DOE/NV--1552 in 2016 (NNSA/NFO, 2016). PER committees review various products, including data, documents, software/codes, analyses, and models. PER committees provide technical recommendations to support regulatory decisions that are the responsibility of the DOE Environmental Management (EM) Nevada Program and NDEP. PERs are designed to be adaptable to the varying requirements of individual CAU studies. Their goals include the following: Maintaining high technical standards; ensuring work is technically adequate, competently performed, and documented consistent with other programmatic documents; and verifying that established quality requirements are satisfied. Helping focus CAU studies on UGTA Activity objectives identified in the FFACO by implementing Section 3 of Appendix VI, which includes the UGTA Strategy Flowchart (Figure 3-2) and Process Flow Diagram Dictionary for the UGTA CAUs (Table 3-1). Providing a mechanism for early identification of technical and/or strategy issues that could affect successfully implementing the UGTA strategy. Providing assurance to NDEP that work in progress and final reports are technically sound. Providing independent reviews that allow for a better understanding of the technical work, and result in products that are transparent and sufficient to allow the DOE EM Nevada Program to meet regulatory objectives.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2015

OCGen Module Mooring Project

Ocean Renewable Power Company's OCGen Module Mooring Project provided an extensive research, design, development, testing and data collection effort and analysis conducted with respect to a positively buoyant, submerged MHK device secured to the seabed using a tensioned mooring system. Different analytic tools were evaluated for their utility in the design of submerged systems and their moorings. Deployment and testing of a prototype OCGen® system provided significant data related to mooring line loads and system attitude and station keeping. Mooring line loads were measured in situ and reported against flow speeds. The Project made a significant step in the development of designs, methodologies and practices related to floating and mooring of marine hydrokinetic (MHK) devices. Importantly for Ocean Renewable Power Company, the Project provided a sound basis for advancing a technically and commercially viable OCGen® Power System. The OCGen® Power System is unique in the MHK industry and, in itself, offers distinct advantages of MHK devices that are secured to the seabed using fixed structural frames. Foremost among these advantages are capital and operating cost reductions and increased power extraction by allowing the device to be placed at the most energetic level of the water column.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗
DOE OSTI2019

Expanding the computational frontier of multi-scale atmospheric simulation to advance understanding of low cloud / climate feedbacks: Final Technical Report

Marine boundary layer clouds are a challenge for climate models. They cover much of the oceans, but they are driven by small-scale turbulent eddies only a few hundred meters across, which in turn respond to the cloud formation. Global climate models have a grid spacing that is far too large to simulate such fluid motions, so they parameterize these cloud formation processes. Different climate modeling groups have designed different parameterizations in which the clouds turn out to be differently sensitive to a warming climate. This drives uncertainties in our best guess at the sensitivity of global warming to greenhouse gas increases. If these cloud-forming eddies could be directly simulated using the well-known equations of fluid motion, they would no longer need to be parameterized, removing a major source of climate modeling uncertainty. In this project, we overcame software engineering challenges to successfully implemented ‘ultraparameterization’ (UP), the first global model that does this, and we tested how well it works. We simulated five-year periods with present-day temperatures and with a warmer climate, and we investigated how the UP-simulated clouds responded to climate – the ‘cloud feedback’ problem. We found little response of clouds at all latitudes to the imposed climate change, which is within the range of predictions of conventional global climate models. UP is a variation on superparameterization, in which small cloud-resolving models (CRMs) are embedded in each column of the global model. In UP, the CRM grid is fine enough (250 m horizontal × 20 m vertical) to explicitly capture boundary-layer turbulent eddies and associated clouds. Because only one small columnar patch is simulated within each climate model grid cell, this is a million-fold more efficient than simulating the entire globe on this same CRM grid., but achieves much of the same effect for the cloud properties. It doesn’t work perfectly. For instance, like conventional climate models, UP simulates too little subtropical stratocumulus cloud, a bias that we are continuing to work to reduce. However, because it directly simulates the turbulent cloud-forming processes, UP is inherently more plausible for simulating how clouds will change in a perturbed climate. In future, we hope to apply UP to another key climate modeling issue: cloud-aerosol interaction and the effect of human-produced aerosols on the climate change we have already experienced and that which is likely to come.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

NSTX-U National Research Program: White Paper in Response to Call from FESAC Sub-Committee

Both scientific and technical innovation is needed for the realization of an attractive engineering solution for a timely and cost-effective Pilot Plant, the design and construction of which is the overarching recommendation of the FESAC Long Range Plan, and the 2021 NASEM Pilot Plant reports, which underpin the Bold Decadal Vision. The two most significant plasma physics gaps to close for a Compact Pilot Plant (CPP) are core confinement improvement and heat flux mitigation, neither of which have been closed in an integrated fashion for any planned fusion power production device. High core confinement and stability are essential for producing majority self-driven plasmas in CPPs with reduced size and auxiliary heating power requirements, with an improvement in confinement being the major driver for cost reduction of a CPP. The National Spherical Tokamak Experiment - Upgrade (NSTX-U) is a unique low aspect ratio research facility that will address the fundamental challenge of developing the science and technology basis for a CPP design that integrates high core and edge confinement with the ability to mitigate very high incident heat fluxes. NSTX-U capabilities will enable the high performance, already achieved on NSTX, to extend into physics regimes much closer to those anticipated in Spherical Tokamak (ST)-based CPPs. These confinement and stability properties will be assessed by a full complement of diagnostics and analysis tools, which will also aid in the development of the underlying theory and predictive models needed for further optimization. Both conventional and transformative heat flux mitigation methods, such as liquid lithium plasma-facing components, will be developed and tested in-situ in NSTX-U at incident heat fluxes of ~100 MW/m 2 , and will inform plans and reduce risk for a subsequent major upgrade to the device to fully heated, high-Z wall and full liquid lithium divertor capability, a technology that potentially could then be implemented on any magnetic confinement device at any aspect ratio. NSTX-U research is fully complementary to programs performed on other STs, nationally and internationally. Furthermore, NSTX-U research has a direct connection to the private sector by informing design choices for future power production facilities being developed by these companies. The NSTX-U program will operate as a national User Facility, with collaborating researchers, engineers, and graduate students from 19 outside institutions, and open to participation and experiments led by researchers from both public and private entities. The research program will advance workforce development through training of young scientists, engineers, and technicians, and it will also serve for further diagnostic innovation, especially for high heat flux and high-Z wall environments, and implementation of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) for plasma and heat flux control.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Woody Feedstock 2022 State of Technology Report

The U.S. Department of Energy promotes production of advanced liquid transportation fuels from lignocellulosic biomass by funding fundamental and applied research that advances the state of technology (SOT). As part of its involvement in this mission, Idaho National Laboratory completes an annual SOT report for n th -plant and 1 st -plant woody biomass feedstock logistics. The purpose of the SOT is to provide the status of feedstock supply system technology development for woody biomass to biofuels relative to technical targets and cost goals from specific design cases, based on data and experimental results. Conventional feedstock supply systems need to be modified to meet the demands of conversion pathways, specifically to have the ability to adjust the quality of the raw biomass materials. Advanced systems incorporate innovative methods of material handling, preprocessing and supply chain configuration. In advanced designs, variability of the raw biomass can be reduced to produce feedstocks of a uniform format, moving toward biomass commoditization. Against this backdrop, the 2022 Woody SOT for low-ash woody feedstocks utilizes feedstock fractionation by incorporating technologies that can separate the biomass into its anatomical fractions (wood, bark, needle, and extrinsic ash) to reduce impurities and attempt to maximize the retention of usable fractions that satisfy downstream quality considerations. By using a series of air classification steps, this strategy can reduce the extrinsic ash in forest residues, separate out a majority of the incoming needles (which can be supplied to alternate markets), and maximize the retention of whitewood in the usable fraction. The fractionated forest residues are then mixed with clean-pine chips in a 50-50 blend to prepare the feedstock for the desired conversion pathway. The n th -plant analysis estimated the delivered cost for the feedstock at $\$$69.23/dry ton (2016$\$$) which represents a $\$$6.64/dry ton decrease compared to the cost estimate of the 2021 Woody SOT supply system for low-ash woody feedstocks. The quality requirements in the 2022 Woody SOT were identical to those of the 2021 Woody SOT at = 1.00 wt % ash and = 50.51 wt% carbon. The cost savings derive primarily from reductions in dry matter losses during air classification. The GHG emissions for the n th -plant analysis were estimated at 178.39 kg CO2e/dry ton compared to 178.71 kg CO 2 e/dry ton in the 2021 Woody SOT, a decrease of 0.32 kg CO2e/dry ton. The small change stems from an increase in emissions attributed to preprocessing and slightly larger savings in emissions from transportation. In the 1 st -plant analysis of the 2022 Woody SOT system, the average throughput was estimated to be approximately 2,128 dry tons/day or 96.51% of the name plate capacity. During the simulation the daily throughput ranged from 1,090 dry tons/day to 2,200 dry tons/day, or 49.43% to 99.75% of the daily nameplate capacity. After the year of operation 722,403 tons of processed feedstock were produced in total without regard to quality considerations (99.64% of the annual nameplate capacity). The variability in throughput was primarily caused by equipment failures in the system. Regular failures, downtime caused by routine maintenance per manufacturer guidelines, contributed to a majority 62.50% of failures and 62.60% of downtime. Failures due to wear were the other cause of disruption within the system, impacting the rotary shear and orbital screen and accounting for 37.50% of the failures and 37.40% of the total downtime. Ultimately the system was on stream for 87.84% during the simulation period, which is only 2.16 percentage points below the nth-plant assumption for on-stream time. The production cost of the system averaged $\$$71.66/dry ton. The costs ranged from a minimum of $\$$71.23/dry ton to a maximum of $\$$2,115.30/dry ton. When dry matter losses (disposed low-quality fractions as well as other losses such as in grinders) were considered the costs increased to an average of $\$$75.11/dry ton with a minimum of $\$$74.69/dry ton and a maximum of $\$$2,136.86/dry ton...

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2018

A Review on Low-Grade Thermal Energy Harvesting: Materials, Methods and Devices

Combined rejected and naturally available heat constitute an enormous energy resource that remains mostly untapped. Thermal energy harvesting can provide a cost-effective and reliable way to convert available heat into mechanical motion or electricity. This extensive review analyzes the literature covering broad topical areas under solid-state low temperature thermal energy harvesting. These topics include thermoelectricity, pyroelectricity, thermomagneticity, and thermoelasticity. For each topical area, a detailed discussion is provided comprising of basic physics, working principle, performance characteristics, state-of-the-art materials, and current generation devices. Technical advancements reported in the literature are utilized to analyze the performance, identify the challenges, and provide guidance for material and mechanism selection. The review provides a detailed analysis of advantages and disadvantages of each energy harvesting mechanism, which will provide guidance towards designing a hybrid thermal energy harvester that can overcome various limitations of the individual mechanism.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
NASA NTRS1977

The Role of Aerospace Technology in Agriculture. The 1977 Summer Faculty Fellowship Program in Engineering Systems Design

Possibilities were examined for improving agricultural productivity through the application of aerospace technology. An overview of agriculture and of the problems of feeding a growing world population are presented. The present state of agriculture, of plant and animal culture, and agri-business are reviewed. Also analyzed are the various systems for remote sensing, particularly applications to agriculture. The report recommends additional research and technology in the areas of aerial application of chemicals, of remote sensing systems, of weather and climate investigations, and of air vehicle design. Also considered in detail are the social, legal, economic, and political results of intensification of technical applications to agriculture.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1984

Space processing applications rocket project. SPAR 8

The Space Processing Applications Rocket Project (SPAR) VIII Final Report contains the engineering report prepared at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) as well as the three reports from the principal investigators. These reports also describe pertinent portions of ground-based research leading to the ultimate selection of the flight sample composition, including design, fabrication, and testing, all of which are expected to contribute immeasurably to an improved comprehension of materials processing in space. This technical memorandum is directed entirely to the payload manifest flown in the eighth of a series of SPAR flights conducted at the White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) and includes the experiments entitled Glass Formation Experiment SPAR 74-42/1R, Glass Fining Experiment in Low-Gravity SPAR 77-13/1, and Dynamics of Liquid Bubbles SPAR Experiment 77-18/2.

Chassay, R. P.↗