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DOE OSTI2024

Hydrogen, Methane, Brine Flow Behavior, and Saturation in Sandstone Cores During H 2 and CH 4 Injection and Displacement

Large-scale underground hydrogen storage (UHS) is a critical component in the emerging hydrogen economy. Knowledge of multiphase flow behavior involving hydrogen in storage reservoir formations is crucial to characterizing hydrogen transport properties and essential for the deliverability and storage operations of UHS. There are still many gaps in fully understanding hydrogen–methane–brine multiphase phase flow that require further investigation. In this work, H 2 and CH 4 were injected through brine-saturated sandstone cores using a tri-axial core holder system fitted with flow rate meters and pressure transducers, while the effluent gas concentrations were analyzed using an online micro gas chromatograph. Brine displacement, permeability, and gas breakthrough curves were measured. We studied the flow behavior of hydrogen and methane in sandstone cores through testing brine displacement by gas injection and comparing the hydrogen displacement of methane with the methane displacement of hydrogen. We also tested the differences between horizontal and vertical flow in brine displacement. The results showed that brine displacement was more efficient in a core with higher permeability and porosity, resulting in a higher initial gas saturation. A higher gas injection rate brought about faster gas breakthrough measured by pore volume and sharper concentration curves. Hydrogen did not exhibit abnormal flow in the sandstone when the flow was horizontal and downward vertical. Gas overriding was observed in brine displacements when the flow was horizontal, with hydrogen showing this behavior more profoundly compared to methane. Downward vertical gas injection induced higher efficiency brine displacement compared to horizontal displacement and resulted in a higher initial gas saturation in the sandstone cores. These findings address critical knowledge gaps regarding gas flow patterns and displacement behaviors during hydrogen injection and recovery phases in UHS facilities using methane as the cushion gas. The insights from this research offer valuable guidance for optimizing UHS systems, ensuring operational efficiency, and advancing sustainable energy solutions in alignment with decarbonization goals.

08 HYDROGEN↗

DOE OSTI2025

Implementing Large-Scale CCS in Complex Geologic Reservoirs: Insights from Three Appalachian Basin Case Studies

This paper presents three design case studies for implementing large-scale geologic carbon storage in the Appalachian Basin region of the midwestern United States. While the Appalachian Basin has a challenging setting for carbon storage, the three case studies detailed in this article demonstrate that there are realistic options for implementing carbon storage in the basin. Carbonate rock formations, depleted hydrocarbon reservoirs, and moderate-porosity sandstones can be utilized as carbon-storage reservoirs in the Appalachian Basin. While these are not typical concepts for CO2 storage, the storage zones have advantages such as defined trapping mechanisms, multiple caprocks, and defined boundaries that are not always present in thick, permeable sandstones being targeted for many carbon-storage projects. The geologic setting, geotechnical parameters, and hydrologic setting for the three case studies are provided, along with the results of reservoir simulations of the CO2 injection-deployment strategies. The geological rock formations available for CO2 storage in the Appalachian Basin are more localized reservoirs with defined boundaries and finite storage capacities. Simulation results showed that accessing carbon-storage resources in these fields may require wellfields with 2–10 injection wells. However, these fields would have the capacity to inject 1–3 million metric tons of CO2 per year and up to 90 million metric tons of CO2 in total. The CO2 storage resources would fulfill decarbonization goals for many of the natural-gas power plants, cement plants, hydrogen plants, and refineries in the Appalachian Basin region.

Sminchak, Joel↗

DOE OSTI2026

Defining Infrastructure Feasibility for Hub-Scale Offshore Atlantic Carbon Storage in the Northeastern United States

In the Northeast U.S., deep rock formations along the Atlantic outer continental shelf may have the potential to sequester 150–1136 million metric tons of CO2. However, the design and infrastructure necessary to develop offshore carbon storage in this region is not well defined because there has been little oil and gas exploration and no commercial production. Consequently, an infrastructure feasibility design was completed for a hub-scale offshore CO2 storage system along the Northeast U.S. Atlantic. The design included development of a detailed, site-specific geological model for a location near the Great Stone Dome geological structure in the Baltimore Canyon Trough off the coast of Delaware, Maryland, and New Jersey. A field injection system topology design was completed to portray a design with eight wells in two clusters connected by central manifolds. Reservoir simulations were completed for the injection system that showed the hub may be able to inject 17 million metric tons (MMT) of CO2 per year for thirty years, but injection rates varied substantially across the eight wells. A CO2 pipeline design determined feasible routes from the east coast shoreline to the injection field. Finally, the CO2 injection system design included subsea injection trees, manifolds, and power umbilicals. This is the first study to define large-scale carbon storage design and infrastructure options for the offshore Atlantic, which can help to progress this region towards field characterization and early-mover deployment for future decarbonization in the region.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

DOE OSTI2025

Novel Tools for Analyzing Life Cycle Energy Use, Carbon Emissions, and Cost of Additive Manufacturing

Decarbonizing industrial manufacturing is a significant challenge in the effort to limit the impacts of global climate change. Additive manufacturing (AM) is one pathway for reducing the impacts of manufacturing as it creates parts layer-by-layer rather than by removing (i.e., subtracting) material from solid stock as with conventional techniques. This reduces material inputs and generates less waste, which can substantially lower life cycle energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. However, AM adoption in the manufacturing sector has been slow, partly due to challenges in making a strong business case compared with more traditional and widely available techniques. This paper highlights the need for the development of simple screening analysis tools to speed the adoption of AM in the manufacturing sector by providing decision-makers easy access to important production life cycle emissions, and cost information. Details on the development of two Microsoft Excel software tools are provided: upgrades to an existing tool on the energy and carbon impacts of AM and a new tool for analyzing the major cost components of AM. A case study applies these two tools to the production of a lightweight aerospace bracket, showing how the tools can be used to estimate the environmental benefits and production costs of AM.

GHG emissions↗

DOE OSTI2023

Pretreatment of Bituminous Coal By-Products for the Hydrometallurgical Extraction of Rare Earth Elements

Low-temperature plasma (LTP) oxidation has been widely used to study the mineralogy of the mineral matter existing in coal sources. The current study investigated the potential of LTP oxidation as a pre-treatment method to improve rare earth element (REE) leachability from coal and its by-products. Representative density-fractionated samples of Baker and Fire Clay coarse refuse seam materials were ground to a top size of 180 µm and subjected to low-temperature plasma oxidation. Subsequently, the treated samples were leached at 1% w/v solids concentration and 75 °C for 5 h using (i) de-ionized (DI) water, (ii) 0.1 mol/L of ammonium sulfate, and (iii) 1.2 mol/L of sulfuric acid. It was determined that LTP treatment improved REE leaching characteristics, especially the leaching of heavy REEs (HREE), existing in the lighter density fractions of the Baker seam coarse refuse material. For instance, the HREE recovery for the 1.6 specific gravity (SG) float fraction increased from 8% to 33% using 0.1 mol/L of ammonium sulfate solution after 32 h of LTP treatment. This finding indicated that HREEs associated with the organic matter were released by the LTP treatment and adsorbed onto the surfaces of highly negative charged mineral matter and was exchanged with ammonium to allow their recovery. Similarly, when using 1.2 mol/L of sulfuric acid, the HREE recovery increased from 23% to 53% for the 1.6 SG float fraction. Interestingly, LTP oxidation did not provide significant improvement in REE recovery from the 2.2 sink density fractions, which was likely due to its lower organic content. No significant benefits were observed when treating the Fire Clay coarse refuse material, which was likely due to the lack of organic affinity and the difficult-to-leach REE minerals associated with the coal source such as monazite, xenotime, and zircon. Conversely, high-temperature oxidation within a temperature range of 600–750 °C significantly improved REE leaching characteristics for both coal sources. Improvement in REE recovery was due to decarbonization of the material, clay dehydroxylation and subsequent conversion of liberated REE-bearing minerals into a more leachable form. However, increasing the temperature above 800 °C decreased REE recovery due to the conversion of meta-kaolinite into mullite, which is chemically stable.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2023

Prediction of Long-Term Geochemical Change in Bentonite Based on the Interpretative THMC Model of the FEBEX In Situ Test

Since nuclear energy is crucial in the decarbonization of the energy supply, one hurdle to remove is the handling of high-level radioactive waste (HLW). Disposal of HLW in a deep geological repository has long been deemed a viable permanent option. In the design of a deep geological repository, compacted bentonite is the most commonly proposed buffer material. Predicting the long-term chemical evolution in bentonite, which is important for the safety assessment of a repository, has been challenging because of the complex coupled processes. Models for large-scale tests and predictions based on such models have been some of the best practices for such purposes. An 18-year-long in situ test with two dismantling events provided a unique set of chemical data that allowed for studying chemical changes in bentonite. In this paper, we first developed coupled thermal, hydrological, mechanical, and chemical (THMC) models to interpret the geochemical data collected in the in situ test and then extended the THMC model to 200 years to make long-term prediction of the geochemical evolution of bentonite. The interpretive coupled THMC model shows that the geochemical profiles were strongly affected by THM processes such as evaporation/condensation, porosity change caused by swelling, permeability change, and the shape of concentration profiles for major cations were largely controlled by transport processes, but concentration levels were regulated by chemical reactions, and the profiles of some species such as pH, bicarbonate, and sulfate were dominated by these reactions. The long-term THMC model showed that heating prolongs the time that bentonite becomes fully saturated in the area close to the heater/canister; however, once the bentonite becomes fully saturated, high concentrations of ions in bentonite near the heater, which was observed in the field test, will disappear; illitization continues for 50 years but will not proceed further.

Zheng, Liange↗

DOE OSTI2022

Effect of Carboxylic Acids on Corrosion of Type 410 Stainless Steel in Pyrolysis Bio-Oil

Biomass-derived oils are renewable fuel sources and commodity products and are proposed to partially or entirely replace fossil fuels in sectors generally considered difficult to decarbonize such as aviation and maritime propulsion. Bio-oils contain a range of organic compounds with varying functional groups which can lead to polarity-driven phase separation and corrosion of containment materials during processing and storage. Polar compounds, such as organic acids and other oxygenates, are abundant in bio-oils and are considered corrosive to structural alloys, particularly to those with a low-Cr content. To study the corrosion effects of small carboxylic acids present in pyrolysis bio-oils, type 410 stainless steel (SS410) specimens were exposed in bio-oils with varying formic, acetic, propionic and hexanoic acid contents at 50 °C during 48 h exposures. The specific mass change data show a linear increase in mass loss with increasing formic acid concentration. Interestingly, a mild corrosion inhibition effect on the corrosion of SS410 specimens was observed with the addition of acetic, propionic and hexanoic acids in the bio-oil.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

DOE OSTI2024

Pulse Electrodeposition for Carbonate-Rich Deposits from Seawater

Seawater electrodeposition is gaining renewed interest in the context of sustainable development, both to build climate-resilient coastal infrastructure and for ocean-based decarbonization applications. Most of the applications benefit from CaCO 3 -rich deposits, but constant-voltage electrodeposition results in a mixture of CaCO 3 and Mg(OH) 2 , especially at higher voltages where precipitation rates are more desirable. The use of pulse voltages can help control interfacial pH that dictates the precipitation reactions. Here, we explore the use of pulse electrodeposition as a function of pulse frequency and duty cycle to control deposit composition. The most CaCO 3 -rich deposits were obtained under 10 Hz frequency and 10% duty cycle conditions for the voltage window investigated (-0.8 V to -1.2 V vs. SCE). While pulsing the voltage increases the amount of CaCO 3 deposited, the energy required per gram of CaCO 3 is significantly higher (14.5×) when compared to the base case of applying a constant voltage of -0.8 V vs. SCE. Further optimization of pulse conditions, electrode materials, and system configuration could lead to finding parameters that result in exclusively carbonate deposits without compromising precipitation rates, which may prove to be more useful for corrosion protection, coastal infrastructure, and other applications in sustainable development.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2021

Biological Parts for Plant Biodesign to Enhance Land-Based Carbon Dioxide Removal

A grand challenge facing society is climate change caused mainly by rising CO 2 concentration in Earth’s atmosphere. Terrestrial plants are linchpins in global carbon cycling, with a unique capability of capturing CO 2 via photosynthesis and translocating captured carbon to stems, roots, and soils for long-term storage. However, many researchers postulate that existing land plants cannot meet the ambitious requirement for CO 2 removal to mitigate climate change in the future due to low photosynthetic efficiency, limited carbon allocation for long-term storage, and low suitability for the bioeconomy. To address these limitations, there is an urgent need for genetic improvement of existing plants or construction of novel plant systems through biosystems design (or biodesign). Here, we summarize validated biological parts (e.g., protein-encoding genes and noncoding RNAs) for biological engineering of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) traits in terrestrial plants to accelerate land-based decarbonization in bioenergy plantations and agricultural settings and promote a vibrant bioeconomy. Specifically, we first summarize the framework of plant-based CDR (e.g., CO 2 capture, translocation, storage, and conversion to value-added products). Then, we highlight some representative biological parts, with experimental evidence, in this framework. Finally, we discuss challenges and strategies for the identification and curation of biological parts for CDR engineering in plants.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2020

Foreward: Advancing the U.S. Offshore Renewable Energy Industry through Marine Renewable and Offshore Wind Energy Development

Foreward to special issue of MTSJ Journal: Energy security … it’s what everyone is talking about, and for good reason. Against the backdrop of a changing climate in which nearly two-thirds of electricity generation is credited to fossil fuels (IEA, 2019a), countries around the world are diversifying their energy portfolios, suppliers, and energy routes to reduce vulnerabilities to energy security risks (U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 2020). Energy security concerns are related to fuel supply chains, electricity generation, transmission, distribution, energy market functionality, and energy system resiliency (DOE, 2017). These concerns demonstrate the need for well-functioning and competitive energy markets and diverse sources and routes of energy supply (DOE, 2017). In addition, environmental protection, efficiency and infrastructure improvements, energy innovation, emergency response, and resilience are also needed (DOE, 2017). Renewable energy generation is, and will continue to be, a major contributor in energy portfolio diversification, which will reduce reliance on foreign energy sources (IEA, 2019b; Aslantürk & Kiprizli, 2020) and support global decarbonization (Sims, 2004; Rockström et al., 2017; Arabzadeh et al., 2020).

marine renewable energy (MRE), offshore wind energ↗

DOE OSTI2022

Results of Application Demonstration of Autonomous Offshore Power System Supporting Multiple Mobile and Static Assets

Over the last decade, several technology trends have dominated the innovation cycle within the terrestrial economy. Electrification, cloud computing, decarbonization, digitization, and autonomy are representative examples of macro trends that have had a rapid and fundamental impact; an impact felt not only in user-facing technologies, such as electric vehicles and software-as-a-service, but also in the infrastructure required to deliver those technologies. However, the scale of the impact and rollout has not been felt equally between the terrestrial and ocean economies. Here, the innovation cycle in the ocean economy is significantly slower. What accounts for the difference and are there solutions to this issue?

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗

DOE OSTI2023

How an Autonomous Offshore Power System Can Transform the Ocean Economy - A Hypothetical Case Study Utilizing an Autonomous Offshore Power System in Northern Lights Carbon Capture and Storage Project

An Autonomous Offshore Power System (AOPS) provides in-situ power, energy storage, real-time data and communications support, asset management, and other capabilities at sea. It has applications for all offshore industries: energy, defense and security, aquaculture, science and research, and communications. Furthermore, this paper highlights how an AOPS can reduce cost, complexity, and carbon-intensity for existing offshore operations and enable new capabilities for offshore industry leaders. This new AOPS technology has two primary advantages. First, it unlocks the autonomous, electric future of the ocean economy via ‘local’ power generation and energy storage, in addition to real-time connection to the data cloud. Second, it helps enable a material change in the global energy mix through cost-effective, reliable generation and storage technology for use cases including mobile/static data-gathering and reporting systems, operating equipment, and charging networks for uncrewed surface vessels. AOPS technology will help transform the ocean economy, and thus has implications for offshore industry leaders as they push to reduce costs today and make an autonomous and decarbonized future possible.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗

DOE OSTI2024

Advanced Offshore Hazard Forecasting to Enable Resilient Offshore Operations

Paper prepared for the Offshore Technology Conference, 2024. Hazards in the offshore environment can imperil successful energy operations, whether those operations are conventional, renewable, or for decarbonization. The expanding accessibility of data science and the advanced applications of machine learning (ML) models creates an opportunity to assess potential hazards and the infrastructure they impact. We present a use case demonstrating the combined application of published ML tools to U.S. federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico, an actively explored region for offshore energy that is affected by variable metocean conditions and geologic processes contributing to potential hazards.

Mark-Moser, Mackenzie K.↗

DOE OSTI2024

Enabling the Electrification of Offshore Activities – Co-Demonstration of Next-Generation Autonomous Offshore Power System and Resident, Uncrewed Mobile and Static Assets at PacWave Wave Energy Test Site

Oceans cover two-thirds of the earth's surface and form the world's biggest and best – yet largely untapped – battery. Ocean waves have more energy density than other renewables, including wind, solar, and biomass, and have the potential to supply 4x the world's annual energy consumption (Masterson, 2022; Zic, 2020). In addition to the impact wave energy can have on decarbonizing and diversifying the electric grid, it offers a significant value proposition in the emerging blue economy sector (LiVecchi et al, 2019). The blue economy consists of industries operating offshore, including shipping, oil and gas, defense and security, aquaculture, and research. These industries require bringing people and energy on site to perform daily work, but current energy costs in the blue economy are extremely high. Here, the prevailing processes are complex, including shore dependencies and fuel transportation logistics. Few alternatives for reliable power generation exist, with the most prominent being high cost and high carbon emissions diesel generation. Because of this lack of affordable, reliable power, the trends of electrification, digitization, and automation that have led to substantial innovation and improvements in the terrestrial economy over the last two decades are slow to come to the blue economy.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗

DOE OSTI2022

Understanding Subsidies to Achieve Diesel Powertrain Financial Parity for Heavy-Duty Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles

The development of a long-term sustainable hydrogen energy economy for commercial vehicle transportation will need to overcome key critical technical and logistics considerations in the near term. As compared to zero-emission powertrains, fossil-fuel-based powertrains provide mission flexibility and high uptime at a comparatively low total cost of ownership (TCO). While the incumbent carbon-intensive powertrains suffer from poor efficiency and are not sustainable to support global climate change initiatives in transportation decarbonization, techno-economic challenges continue to create complex barriers to the large-scale displacement of these with highly electrified powertrains architectures. Here, this article specifically addresses opportunities that well-targeted subsidies would afford in achieving fuel cell electric powertrain financial parity with diesel powertrains in heavy-duty trucks (HDTs). It shows that a rigorous assessment of system TCO factors will be critical in designing a viable subsidy strategy. Based on powertrain component and fuel price points, subsidy variations (for both capital expenses and operating fuel expenses) are assessed and quantified to determine where and how much subsidies should be leveraged to accelerate achieving diesel system financial parity. It shows that subsidies on hydrogen fuel expenses (and associated constituents) will play an important role in achieving this goal while subsidies on capital expenses (the more typical subsidy formulation) may not always be the preferred subsidy strategy. The results provide subsidy agencies with clear guidance and a database approach to characterize and implement viable HDT hydrogen powertrain system subsidy strategies. The approach may be readily tailored for other applications and system architectures.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

DOE OSTI2023

Quantifying the Sensitive Parameters of the New Energy Vehicles in China

To achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, the Chinese government has put effort into decarbonizing the transportation sector. Consequently, China elaborated a new energy vehicle strategy promoting the production of electric vehicles and expanding into hydrogen (H2) vehicle technologies including fuel cell electric vehicles and H2 internal combustion engine vehicles. The Transportation Energy Analysis Model (TEAM) projects the market penetration as well as energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions in China up to 2050. By integrating the Monte Carlo simulation, this study tests the robustness of TEAM and investigates the key parameters that will shape passenger vehicle sales and emissions in the future. The results show that fuel cell cost, H2 price, and battery cost are the most sensitive parameters for H2 vehicle technologies.

Saafi, Mohamed Ali↗

DOE OSTI2023

Light-duty Plug-in Electric Vehicles in China: Evolution, Competition, and Outlook

China's plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) market with stocks at 7.8 million is the world's largest in 2021, and it accounts for half of the global PEV growth in 2021. The PEV market in China has dramatically evolved since the pandemic in 2020: over 20% of all new PEV sales are from China by mid-2022. Recent features of PEV market dynamics, consumer acceptance, policies, and infrastructure have important implications for both the global energy market and manufacturing stakeholders. From the perspective of demand pull-supply push, this study analyzes China's PEV industry with a market dynamics framework by reviewing sales, product and brand, infrastructure, and government policies from the last few years and outlooking the development of the new government’s 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025). From the demand side, small-sized sedans and compact sport utility vehicles with increased electric ranges are both popular for PEVs, and the electric range of over 60% of new battery electric vehicles in 2021 has been longer than 400 km. From the supply side, although foreign brands like Tesla are still competitive, the products by Chinese domestic automakers like BYD are becoming more attractive and cannibalizing the high-end market. However, the production capacity and cost of PEVs may be limited by the upstream of the supply chain – the battery manufacturing and supply chain inflation. In addition, it is also uncertain how much sales demand impacts will be caused by the potential global economic recession. The government firmly supports electrification and decarbonization of the vehicle industry by emphasizing the importance of the vehicle industry for promoting the greenhouse gas net zero by 2060. The dual-credit policy is regarded as the most critical regulation in a bid to restrain fuel consumption and promote PEV share. Still, the market is facing some technological obstacles, such as battery safety and driving range anxiety, before real prosperity. In addition, the Chinese electric vehicle market is seeing a trend toward the development of new technologies such as vehicle-to-X, autonomous driving, and connected vehicles.

Hao, Xu↗

DOE OSTI2024

Exploring Class 8 Long-Haul Truck Electrification: Key Technology Evaluation and Potential Challenges

The phenomena of global warming and climate change are encouraging more and more countries, local communities, and companies to establish carbon neutrality targets, which has very significant implications for the US trucking industry. Truck electrification helps fleets to achieve zero tailpipe emissions and macro-scale decarbonization while allowing continued business growth in response to the rapid expansion of e-commerce and shipping related to increased globalization. Here, this paper presents an analysis of Class 8 long-haul truck electrification using a commercial vehicle electrification evaluation tool and Fleet DNA drive data. The study provides new insight into the impacts of streamlined chassis, battery energy density, and superfast charging on battery capacity needs as well as implications for payload, energy consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions for electric long-haul trucks. The study also identifies a pathway for achieving optimal long-haul truck electrification. The results show that no single technology can simultaneously achieve significant improvements in all these key areas and that a cost-effective approach requires a deliberate combination of all of these technologies. Moreover, the analysis highlights the strong evolution of vehicle and battery technologies and the excellent potential for long-haul truck electrification to achieve 100% year-round service coverage with continued technology advancement.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗