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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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At least 163 records · Page 9
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

Engineering Challenges of Solution and Slurry-Phase Chemical Hydrogen Storage Materials for Automotive Fuel Cell Applications

In this work, we present the research findings of the DOE-funded Hydrogen Storage Engineering Center of Excellence (HSECoE) related to liquid-phase and slurry-phase chemical hydrogen storage media and their potential as future hydrogen storage media for automotive applications. Chemical hydrogen storage media other than neat liquid compositions will prove difficult to meet the DOE system level targets. Solid- and slurry-phase chemical hydrogen storage media requiring off-board regeneration are impractical and highly unlikely to be implemented for automotive applications because of the formidable task of developing solid- or slurry-phase transport systems that are commercially reliable and economical throughout the entire life cycle of the fuel. Additionally, the regeneration cost and efficiency of chemical hydrogen storage media is currently the single most prohibitive barrier to implementing chemical hydrogen storage media. Ideally, neat liquid-phase chemical hydrogen storage media with net-usable gravimetric hydrogen capacities of greater than 7.8 wt% are projected to meet the 2017 DOE system level gravimetric and volumetric targets. The research presented herein is a collection of research findings that do not in and of themselves warrant a dedicated manuscript. However, the collection of results do, in fact, highlight the engineering challenges and short-comings in scaling up and demonstrating fluid-phase ammonia borane and alane compositions that all future materials researchers working in hydrogen storage should be aware of.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
NASA NTRS2025

Simulations of Large-Scale Zero Boiloff, Densification, and Solidification of Hydrogen

An Integrated Refrigeration and Storage (IRAS) experimental system called the Ground Operations and Demonstration Unit for Liquid Hydrogen (GODU-LH2) demonstrated the ability store cryogens in a zero boiloff (ZBO) process, and to densify liquid hydrogen by reducing the temperature and pressure down to the triple point resulting in solidification. The incompressible Navier-Stokes was utilized to simulate ZBO, densification, and solidification of liquid hydrogen (LH2) in the IRAS tank. The simulations were performed using a commercially available Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) pressure-based mass and momentum flow model and an enthalpy-porosity energy model. Results demonstrated the simulation’s ability to predict time-dependent flow and temperature fields and solid-liquid phase locations for hydrogen during ZBO, densification, and solidification. The simulations showed good agreement with experimental data, with errors within acceptable ranges for temperature and pressure predictions, provided detailed insights into natural convection and solid-liquid phase change dynamics. These findings are critical for the design of future cryogenic fluid management systems.

Computational Fluid Dynamics↗
DOE OSTI2020

Energy storage using an REP with an engine

An energy storage system includes a power plant configured to generate an exhaust gas comprising carbon dioxide. The energy storage system further includes a first fuel cell configured to operate in reverse as an electrolyzer. The first fuel cell is configured to receive at least a portion of the exhaust gas from the power plant. An anode is configured to receive carbon dioxide via the exhaust gas and methane from a separate feed, and the anode is configured to output a hydrogen-containing gas mixture. The energy storage system further includes a reformer configured to methanate the hydrogen-containing gas mixture to convert substantially all of the carbon monoxide in the hydrogen-containing gas mixture to methane. The energy storage system further includes a second fuel cell operating in reverse as a hydrogen pump, the second fuel cell configured to separate hydrogen from a gas mixture output by the reformer.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Deep reinforcement learning based optimization for a tightly coupled nuclear renewable integrated energy system

New ways to integrate energy systems to maximize efficiency are being sought to meet carbon emissions goals. Nuclear-renewable integrated energy system (NR-IES) concepts are a leading solution that couples a nuclear power plant with renewable energy, hydrogen generation plants, and energy storage systems, such that thermal and electrical power are dispatchable to fulfill grid-flexibility requirements while also producing hydrogen and maximizing revenue. Here, this paper introduces a deep reinforcement learning (DRL)-based framework to address the complex decision-making tasks for NR-IES. The objective is to maximize revenue by generating and selling hydrogen and electricity simultaneously according to their time-varying prices while keeping the energy flow in the subsystems in balance. A Python-based simulator for a NR-IES concept has been developed to integrate with OpenAI Gym and Ray/RLlib to enable an efficient and flexible computational framework for DRL research and development. Three state-of-the-art DRL algorithms have been investigated, including two-delayed deep deterministic policy gradient (TD3), soft-actor critic (SAC), proximal policy optimization (PPO), to illustrate DRL’s superiority for controlling NR-IES by comparing it with a conventional control approach, particle swarm optimization (PSO). In this effort, PPO has shown more-stable performance and also better generalization capability than SAC and TD3. Comparisons with PSO have demonstrated that, on average, PPO can achieve 13.9% more mean episode returns from the training process and 29.4% more mean episode returns from the testing process when different hydrogen-production targets are applied.

08 HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2024

A Review of Coupled Geochemical–Geomechanical Impacts in Subsurface CO 2 , H 2 , and Air Storage Systems

Increased demand for decarbonization and renewable energy has led to increasing interest in engineered subsurface storage systems for large-scale carbon reduction and energy storage. In these applications, a working fluid (CO 2 , H 2 , air, etc.) is injected into a deep formation for permanent sequestration or seasonal energy storage. The heterogeneous nature of the porous formation and the fluid–rock interactions introduce complexity and uncertainty in the fate of the injected component and host formations in these applications. Interactions between the working gas, native brine, and formation mineralogy must be adequately assessed to evaluate the efficiency, risk, and viability of a particular storage site and operational regime. This study reviews the current state of knowledge about coupled geochemical–geomechanical impacts in geologic carbon sequestration (GCS), underground hydrogen storage (UHS), and compressed air energy storage (CAES) systems involving the injection of CO 2 , H 2 , and air. Specific review topics include (1) existing injection induced geochemical reactions in these systems; (2) the impact of these reactions on the porosity and permeability of host formation; (3) the impact of these reactions on the mechanical properties of host formation; and (4) the investigation of geochemical-geomechanical process in pilot scale GCS. This study helps to facilitate an understanding of the potential geochemical–geomechanical risks involved in different subsurface energy storage systems and highlights future research needs.

08 HYDROGEN↗
NASA NTRS1987

High temperature solid oxide regenerative fuel cell for solar photovoltaic energy storage

A hydrogen-oxygen regenerative fuel cell energy storage system based on high temperature solid oxide fuel cell technology is discussed which has application to darkside energy storage for solar photovoltaics. The forward and reverse operating cycles are described, and heat flow, mass, and energy balance data are presented to characterize the system's performance and the variation of performance with changing reactant storage pressure. The present system weighs less than nickel hydrogen battery systems after 0.7 darkside operation, and it maintains a specific weight advantage over radioisotope generators for discharge periods up to 72 hours.

Bents, David J.↗
DOE OSTI2020

A Modular Heat Engine for the Direct Conversion of Natural Gas to Hydrogen and Power using Hydrogen Turbines (Phase I Final Report)

This report describes a novel, modular heat engine comprising of a one-step hydrogen production from natural gas with in-situ CO 2 separation which is amenable for re-use or sequestration. Combining with a hydrogen turbine subsystem, a distributed or central power generation system is conceived. An added hydrogen storage subsystem enables load-following capability. The techno-economics of the overall system compared favorably against current state-of-the-art natural gas combined cycle plants with post-combustion CO 2 capture.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
NASA NTRS2003

Unitized Regenerative Fuel Cell System Model Development

A Unitized Regenerative Fuel Cell (URFC) Energy Storage System is being developed at the NASA Glenn Research Center. This URFC system is unique in that it uses the surface area of the hydrogen and oxygen storage tanks as radiating heat surfaces for overall thermal control of the system. The tank surfaces also play an important role in the temperature control of regenerative gas dryers/humidifiers used to dry the hydrogen and oxygen gases produced by electrolysis during the charging and also used to humidify the hydrogen and oxygen gases used by fuel cell during the discharging of the URFCS. A bi- directional pressure controller is used to control the pressure of the oxygen and hydrogen gas inside the URFC stack during both charging and discharging of the URFC system. A water storage accumulator is used to store water reactant and control water pressure inside the URFC stack.

Burke, Kenneth A.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Lunar-derived titanium alloys for hydrogen storage

Hydrogen gas, which plays an important role in many projected lunar power systems and industrial processes, can be stored in metallic titanium and in certain titanium alloys as an interstitial hydride compound. Storing and retrieving hydrogen with titanium-iron alloy requires substantially less energy investment than storage by liquefaction. Metal hydride storage systems can be designed to operate at a wide range of temperatures and pressures. A few such systems have been developed for terrestrial applications. A drawback of metal hydride storage for lunar applications is the system's large mass per mole of hydrogen stored, which rules out transporting it from earth. The transportation problem can be solved by using native lunar materials, which are rich in titanium and iron.

Love, S.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Solar Thermal Upper Stage Cryogen System Engineering Checkout Test

The Solar Thermal Upper Stage technology (STUSTD) program is a solar thermal propulsion technology program cooperatively sponsored by a Boeing led team and by NASA MSFC. A key element of its technology program is development of a liquid hydrogen (LH2) storage and supply system which employs multi-layer insulation, liquid acquisition devices, active and passive thermodynamic vent systems, and variable 40W tank heaters to reliably provide near constant pressure H2 to a solar thermal engine in the low-gravity of space operation. The LH2 storage and supply system is designed to operate as a passive, pressure fed supply system at a constant pressure of about 45 psia. During operation of the solar thermal engine over a small portion of the orbit the LH2 storage and supply system propulsively vents through the enjoy at a controlled flowrate. During the long coast portion of the orbit, the LH2 tank is locked up (unvented). Thus, all of the vented H2 flow is used in the engine for thrust and none is wastefully vented overboard. The key to managing the tank pressure and therefore the H2 flow to the engine is to manage and balance the energy flow into the LH2 tank with the MLI and tank heaters with the energy flow out of the LH2 tank through the vented H2 flow. A moderate scale (71 cu ft) LH2 storage and supply system was installed and insulated at the NASA MSFC Test Area 300. The operation of the system is described in this paper. The test program for the LH2 system consisted of two parts: 1) a series of engineering tests to characterize the performance of the various components in the system: and 2) a 30-day simulation of a complete LEO and GEO transfer mission. This paper describes the results of the engineering tests, and correlates these results with analytical models used to design future advanced Solar Orbit Transfer Vehicles.

Olsen, A. D↗
NASA NTRS1984

Regenerative Hydrogen-oxygen Fuel Cell-electrolyzer Systems for Orbital Energy Storage

Fuel cells have found application in space since Gemini. Over the years technology advances have been factored into the mainstream hardware programs. Performance levels and service lives have been gradually improving. More recently, the storage application for fuel cell-electrolyzer combinations are receiving considerable emphasis. The regenerative system application described here is part of a NASA Fuel Cell Program which was developed to advance the fuel cell and electrolyzer technology required to satisfy the identified power generation and energy storage need of the Agency for space transportation and orbital applications to the year 2000.

Sheibley, D. W.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Nickel-hydrogen component development

Light weight energy storage systems for future space missions are investigated. One of the systems being studied is the nickel hydrogen battery. This battery is designed to achieve longer life, improve performance, and higher energy densities for space applications. The nickel hydrogen component development is discussed. Test data from polarization measurements of the hydrogen electrode component is presented.

Charleston, J. A.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Electrified Aircraft Propulsion Integration Concepts: Primary Fuel Cells and Cryogenic Hydrogen Storage

This presentation leverages lessons learned from the multiple activities funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) to convey development paths for implementing an Electrified Aircraft Propulsion (EAP) system powered by primary fuel cells systems and fueled by cryogenically stored hydrogen. To reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with all aspects of hydrogen-fueled aviation, this work minimizes required energy and time per payload distance at take-off so as to reduce emissions associated with ground operations and the production, liquefaction, transfer, and storage of hydrogen. The approach targets efficient system integration, maximizing hydrogen utilization efficiency, maximizing power system efficiency, and viable operational concepts for delivered payload distances. The discussion outlines the performance and compliance challenges revealed by analyses of current fuel cell and cryogenic management technologies. The conclusion offers potential mitigation strategies to the identified the performance and compliance challenges.

Fuel Cell↗
DOE OSTI2025

Integrated Systems-to-Atoms (S2A) Framework for Designing Resilient and Efficient Hydrogen Infrastructure Solutions

The success of a future clean hydrogen infrastructure will depend on technology performance, operating conditions, and system configuration, which will be integrated to meet specific end-use requirements. We introduce a Systems-to-Atoms framework to cosimulate material, device, and system design for clean hydrogen storage and transport. Here we present a demonstration scenario in which hydrogen is distributed using a liquid organic hydrogen carrier to 700 bar refueling stations. Cross-scale analysis on hydrogen release at the refueling station reveals that while a high reaction pressure (up to 100 bar) may not enhance the catalyst performance, it can lead to system-level cost savings (up to 5% of total refueling station cost) due to savings in downstream gas compression. Further, a typically low-performing dehydrogenation catalyst material (e.g., copper) may be preferred over a high-performing catalyst (e.g., palladium) at different operating conditions when considering overall system affordability and supply chain resilience.

08 HYDROGEN↗
NASA NTRS2010

Hydrogen Fire in a Storage Vessel

On October 23, 2007, the operations team began a procedure to sample the Liquid Hydrogen (LH2) storage vessels ("tanks"), and associated transfer system. This procedure was being performed to determine the conditions within the system, and if necessary, to purge the system of any excess Gaseous Hydrogen (GH2) in preparation for reactivation of the system. The system had not been used since 2003. The LH2 storage system contains two (2) spherical pressure vessels of 225,000 gallons in volume, with a maximum working pressure (MAWP) of 50 psig. Eight inch transfer piping connects them to the usage point. Operations began with activation of the burnstack for the LH2 storage area. Pneumatic (GN2) systems in the storage area were then activated and checked. Pressurization of storage tank number 1 with gaseous nitrogen (GN2) was initiated, with a target pressure of 10 psig, at which point samples were planned to be taken. At 5 psig, a loud noise was heard in the upper area of tank number 2. Smoke was seen exiting the burnstack and from the insulation on vent lines for both tanks. At this time tank number 1 was vented and the pressurization system was secured. The mishap resulted in physical damage to both storage tanks, as well as to some of the piping for both tanks. Corrective action included repair of the damaged hardware by a qualified contractor. Preventive action included documented organizational policy and procedures for establishing standby and mothball conditions for facilities and equipment, including provisions as detailed in the investigation report recommendations: Recommendation 1: The using organization should define necessary activities in order to place hydrogen systems in long term periods of inactivity. The defined activities should address requirements for rendering inert, isolation (i.e., physical disconnect, double block and bleed, etc.) and periodic monitoring. Recommendation 2: The using organization should develop a process to periodically monitor hazardous systems for proper configuration (i.e., a daily/weekly/monthly check sheet to verify critical purges are active).

Hester, Zena M.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Dynamic Frequency Regulation Improvement in Hydropower-Hybrid System using Variational Mode Decomposition

Providing frequency response, especially fast frequency response such as Red D in the Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland Interconnection (PJM) market, is challenging for many generation plants to deliver on their own. If they have adequate flexibility, hydropower plants are typically able to provide slower regulation support (e.g., Reg A in PJM), but do not respond fast enough to provide Reg D. The ability to provide Reg D would improve their revenue because this service is typically more valuable. This work presents a control approach to use hydropower, battery, and ultracapacitor systems to provide fast regulation in a way that uses the response contribution of each asset. In particular, the proposed control architecture applies a variational mode decomposition (VMD) technique on the incoming Reg D signal to extract multiple dynamic-regulation components with non-overlapping frequencies. With the response-speed dependent alignment, these regulation components are fed to the hydrogenator and hybrid energy storage system (HESS). The paper evaluates the proposed approach on a direct-current (DC)-coupled active system by computing several performance measures and analyzing sensitivity based on HESS component proportional capacities. The results reveal that the proposed VMD-based signal conditioning performs well and that optimizing the sizing of the battery and ultracapacitor components further enhances performance.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Elucidating the Interfacial Effects of Nonmetallic Elements on the Dehydrogenation Behavior of Nanoconfined NaAlH 4 in Zeolite-Templated Carbon

Confining materials within nanoscale volumes alters their physical and chemical properties, with positive consequences for energy storage, conversion, and catalysis. The pore structure and composition of scaffolds are essential variables for optimizing these properties, with carbon-based materials being preferred due to their tunable porous structures and chemical versatility. This study investigates the influence of surface functional groups on the dehydrogenation kinetics of nanoconfined NaAlH4 using zeolite-templated carbons (ZTCs). Here we focus on oxygen functional groups commonly present as intrinsic impurities on carbon scaffolds, analyzing three ZTC scaffolds to determine how their concentrations and configurations affect dehydrogenation behavior. Our findings reveal that carbonyl groups enhance charge transfer and destabilize Al–H bonds more effectively than ether or phenol groups. This indicates that the type of oxygen functional group is more critical than the quantity, highlighting the importance of properly tailoring oxygen defects to improve hydrogen storage performance in nanoconfined systems.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗