Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “Increased Industry Coordination”

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.

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

At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Workshop on Integrated Sensor Systems for Manufacturing Applications (Workshop Report)

On January 25th and 26th, the Department of Energy’s Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO) held the first in a series of workshops on different topics related to semiconductor research and development (R&D). This workshop focused on integrated sensor system R&D for manufacturing applications. As AMO is housed within the office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), the workshop addressed not only industry needs and R&D opportunities, but also the impacts that improvements in sensor systems can have on energy efficiency and greenhouse gas production. The output of this workshop will inform AMO’s future portfolio of R&D investments, provide perspectives on trends, drivers, and challenges for next generation semiconductor sensor systems, and help the stakeholder community understand the opportunities on the horizon.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2026

Challenges for Megawatt-Scale Artificial Intelligence Rack Infrastructure

As artificial intelligence (AI) computing densities continue to increase, industry is pursuing megawatt-scale rack architectures that require tightly coordinated advances in electrical power delivery, thermal management, operations, and infrastructure integration. This document summarizes the primary technical challenges for achieving this target.

Nawaz, Kashif [ORNL] (ORCID:0000000251612491)↗
DOE OSTI2022

Scaling Sustainable Biochar Research & Commercialization for Agriculture & Conservation: A Summary from a Stakeholder Convening

Biochar is a carbon-rich substance with the potential to increase soil carbon sequestration, reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and improve soil health. When used as part of soil health management systems, biochar can provide multiple synergistic benefits for the agricultural sector and society, while also supporting the production of renewable, climate-neutral biofuels. Establishing a pyrolysis biochar bioenergy industry (PBBI) is necessary to harness the environmental benefits of biochar. To galvanize the necessary coordination to support a PBBI, the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR), the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT), and American Farmland Trust (AFT) co-hosted a virtual convening event on biochar research and commercialization in March 2022. Participants represented a diverse set of stakeholders, including biochar producers, agricultural producers, and members of nonprofit, industry and government agencies. This whitepaper offers a summary of the convening, as well as insights from subsequent stakeholder engagement. Sustainably sourced, fit-for-purpose biochar can be a powerful tool in the soil health management systems and climate-smart toolbox, with decades of research supporting the soil, environment, production, and climate benefits. However, because biochar represents a range of feedstocks, processes and products, there is a critical need to: • Coordinate efforts to characterize and test the application of biochar types across locations with diverse soil and management conditions • Address research and decision-support gaps • Support the growing industry These objectives can be addressed or advanced through a coordinated strategy. To support establishment of this strategy, the convening participants identified key gaps in implementation and research. The experiences of foresters, ranchers, and farmers already using biochar, some of whom participated in the convening, helped inform priorities. Key gaps include: • Practical, applied on-farm research • Supporting management for agricultural productivity • Maximum benefits for conservation • Decision support • Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) • Quantification of climate mitigation potential Existing research gaps include: • Potential synergies among biochar, soil organic matter, and enhanced rock weathering • Development of new storage reservoirs for biochar in industrial products Convening participants further provided next steps for rapidly developing a PBBI to produce sustainable, fit-for-purpose biochars that increase soil health and mitigate climate change. Participants also stressed the need for actionable, coordinated, large-scale research relevant to commercial production in the next five years. To have a chance to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we need an array of tools that would aid in mitigation; a coordinated strategy to enable biochar to be an effective tool in the climate-smart toolbox must be created; We cannot wait 50 years.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Enhancing the activity of Pd ensembles on graphene by manipulating coordination environment

Atomic dispersion of metal catalysts on a substrate accounts for the increased atomic efficiency of single-atom catalysts (SACs) in various catalytic schemes compared to the nanoparticle counterparts. However, lacking neighboring metal sites has been shown to deteriorate the catalytic performance of SACs in a few industrially important reactions, such as dehalogenation, CO oxidation, and hydrogenation. Metal ensemble catalysts (M n ), an extended concept to SACs, have emerged as a promising alternative to overcome such limitation. Inspired by the fact that the performance of fully isolated SACs can be enhanced by tailoring their coordination environment (CE), we here evaluate whether the CE of M n can also be manipulated in order to enhance their catalytic activity. We synthesized a set of Pd ensembles (Pd n ) on doped graphene supports (Pd n /X-graphene where X = O, S, B, and N). We found that introducing S and N onto oxidized graphene modifies the first shell of Pd n converting Pd–O to Pd–S and Pd–N, respectively. Also, we further found that the B dopant significantly affected the electronic structure of Pd n by serving as an electron donor in the second shell. We examined the performance of Pd n /X-graphene toward selective reductive catalysis, such as bromate reduction, brominated organic hydrogenation, and aqueous-phase CO 2 reduction. We observed that Pd n /N-graphene exhibited superior performance by lowering the activation energy of the rate-limiting step, i.e., H 2 dissociation into atomic hydrogen. The results collectively suggest controlling the CE of SACs in an ensemble configuration is a viable strategy to optimize and enhance their catalytic performance.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Technical Impacts of Light-Duty and Heavy-Duty Transportation Electrification on a Coordinated Transmission and Distribution System

In this study, we propose a strategy to model the required spatiotemporal charging demand from light-duty (LD) and medium- and heavy-duty (MHD) electric vehicles (EVs) using actual transportation data by mapping the demand for the required EV charging to a realistic and coordinated distribution and transmission electric grid at the predicted times of the day to study their impact on the power system in a variety of load, weather, and EV penetration scenarios. This work is the first study that includes the actual weather data and transportation data with realistic and coordinated distribution and transmission grid data in a large industry-scale level study. The main goal of this study is to identify possible issues and required upgrades in the electric grid, caused by an increase in EV integration. The transmission case study is a large grid with 6717 buses over a Texas footprint, and the distribution grid is over Houston, a city in Texas, covering over three million customers. The resulting overloads and voltage violations experienced in the system are discussed, and required planning upgrades to avoid these issues are suggested.

AC optimal power flow (AC-OPF)↗
DOE OSTI2025

Source Analysis of Ozone Pollution in Liaoyuan City’s Atmosphere Based on Machine Learning Models and HYSPLIT Clustering Method

Firstly, this study investigates the spatiotemporal distribution characteristics of the ozone (O 3 ) pollution in Liaoyuan City using monitoring data from 2015 to 2024. Then, three machine learning models (ML)—random forest (RF), support vector machine (SVM), and artificial neural network (ANN)—are employed to quantify the influence of meteorological and non-meteorological factors on O 3 concentrations. Finally, the HYSPLIT clustering method and CMAQ model are utilized to analyze inter-regional transport characteristics, identifying the causes of O 3 pollution. The results indicate that O 3 pollution in Liaoyuan exhibits a distinct seasonal pattern, with the highest concentrations found in spring and summer, peaking in the afternoon. Among the three ML models, the random forest model demonstrates the best predictive performance (R 2 = 0.9043). Feature importance identifies NO 2 as the primary driving factor, followed by meteorological conditions in the second quarter and land surface characteristics. Furthermore, regional transport significantly contributes to O 3 pollution, with approximately 80% of air mass trajectories in heavily polluted episodes originating from adjacent industrial areas and the sea. The combined effects of transboundary precursors and O 3 transport with local emissions and meteorological conditions further increase the O 3 pollution level. This study highlights the need to strengthen coordinated NO X and VOCs emission reductions and enhance regional joint prevention and control strategies in China.

HYSPLIT clustering↗
DOE OSTI2025

Controlled environment agriculture: An opportunity to strengthen interagency research collaboration in the US government

Challenges facing food production and agricultural systems are increasingly interconnected with economic, security, health, and equity issues, among others. Threats such as extreme weather, economic volatility, and shrinking water resources and arable land, influence our ability to maintain a safe and resilient food supply. One promising solution to these threats is controlled environment agriculture (CEA). In many cases, CEA can drastically reduce the amount of water and land used in crop production while increasing productivity. Operations may be established in nearly any environment and harvests can take place year-round, supporting food system resiliency and sustainability. CEA sits at the nexus of a number of disciplines and industries, making it well suited for transdisciplinary and multi-institutional research coordination. Herein, authors from multiple US government agencies present CEA as a case study in improving cross-agency research collaboration. The federal government houses a range of scientific expertise and research capabilities, positioning scientists to lead national and global efforts in transdisciplinary, interagency approaches to complex challenges. Navigating cross-agency collaboration can be a challenge, especially coordinating across different scientific disciplines, geographic locations, and funding mechanisms. To enhance multiagency efforts, collaborators could prioritize (i) organizing personnel and resources, (ii) enhancing existing multiagency collaborations, and (iii) focusing on further opportunities for coordination. Adopting these approaches could enable federal researchers to reinforce and advance academic and industry efforts to address current CEA challenges while solidifying the United States as a leader in this arena.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Sustainable Aviation Fuel Grand Challenge: Tracking Metrics and Mid-2024 Dashboard

The Sustainable Aviation Fuel Grand Challenge is the result of the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Transportation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and other federal government agencies working together to develop a comprehensive strategy for scaling up new technologies to produce sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) on a commercial scale. The SAF Grand Challenge Roadmap outlines a whole-of-government approach with coordinated policies and specific activities that should be undertaken to achieve the SAF Grand Challenge goals. Progress made supporting the SAF Grand Challenge occurs when federal agencies release new funding opportunities and initiatives aligned with the SAF Grand Challenge Roadmap; provide expertise and technical assistance to industry; increase interagency collaboration; and provide data, modeling, and analysis to decision makers. To track progress on achieving the SAF Grand Challenge goals, the following four metrics have been developed: Estimated total U.S. SAF production. Estimated life cycle CO2 equivalent reductions achieved with U.S. SAF production and use. Planned production potential of SAF in the United States. Applicable research, development, demonstration, and deployment projects. SAF Grand Challenge Goal Progress

Aviation↗
DOE OSTI2022

Optimizing power system restoration with damaged communications

Utility procedures for power system blackstart and restoration typically assume that energization decisions can be reliably communicated across the grid. In reality, the communications and control network would likely also be affected in power outages, such as those caused by extreme weather events or cyber-attacks. This paper studies the effect of damage to the power system communications and control infrastructure on restoration operations following a blackout. We model the communications infrastructure as a graph, overlaying the power grid, and imposing the requirement that every energized element in the power grid be observable from a control center. We expand on a specialized branch-and-bound algorithm from the literature to optimize the restoration process and devise an initialization heuristic and a rounding heuristic to improve solution speed. We perform numerical experiments on synthetic systems for Illinois and Texas with outages based on a solar flare or hurricane. We compare the results of our specialized branch-and-bound algorithm to the results from (i) the initialization heuristic alone, (ii) a variation of this heuristic that we use as a baseline, and (iii) the restoration optimization for the power system without communications constraints. Here, we find that damage to the communications infrastructure significantly increases the time required to re-energize the grid. Moreover, by simultaneously optimizing communications repairs and grid energization decisions, we are able to re-energize the grid significantly faster than if communications repairs and energization decisions were made independently or with partial coordination, motivating improvements to current industry practice.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2022

Distribution Capacity Expansion Planning: Current Practice, Opportunities, and Decision Support

The distribution utility industry and its engineers are experiencing monumental shifts in consumer needs and expectations. Characterizing future native loads as compared to net load demand for long-term capacity planning is especially difficult, as consumers are increasingly adopting prosumer technologies. This paper is the culmination of 5 months of utility interviews coordinated by the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) and Kevala, Inc. (Kevala) to better understand distribution capacity planning challenges. The interviews covered all aspects of capacity planning including load and DER forecasting, criteria for assessing system constraints, solution types, and organizational and decision-making structures. Our intent is to provide insight into distribution capacity planning decision support needs for utilities and the increasing number of stakeholders involved, from state and regulatory agencies to community and solution providers with interest in increasing their understanding in the distribution capacity planning process.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Technical and Community Foundations for High-Integrity CDR MRV Standards (Final Report)

The goal of this project (hereafter referred to as the “umbrella project”) was to establish cross-cutting technical foundations for carbon dioxide removal (CDR) accounting decisions. These cross-cutting and science driven technical foundations are necessary to increase trust in standards-setting and protocol development. According to key stakeholders in the industry, establishment of trusted standards is necessary to unlock and catalyze investment in the CDR industry as well as commercialization and deployment of verified, accepted high quality CDR technologies. Additionally, our umbrella project served as the lead coordinator of the cohort of three additional CDR pathway-focused projects funded under this award. In this role, we brought together the project teams to share insights, industry feedback, and approaches to CDR accounting standards development.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Enhancing Security and Resiliency in Operational Technology Environments Through Network Slicing and Federated Learning

The growing convergence of Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) within Industry 4.0 environments has introduced new demands on industrial network infrastructure. As cyber-physical systems become increasingly interconnected, ensuring the secure, timely, and efficient exchange of critical data is essential. This thesis explores how network slicing, a method of creating isolated virtual network segments, can be applied within OT environments to address challenges such as latency, security, and resource allocation. The first research question addressed in this thesis is: How can OT networks take advantage of NFV and SDN technology to become cyber resilient? This study examines the operational, security, and architectural implications of introducing network slicing into traditionally static OT infrastructures such as Industrial Control Systems (ICS) and SCADA. Through simulated deployments and case studies, the research demonstrates how slicing enables better isolation between critical and non-critical services, thereby improving response time, throughput, and security in sensitive environments. The second question considers: How to dynamically implement network slicing and take advantage of network resources towards integrating decentralized machine learning? In response, this thesis proposes a framework that combines Software-Defined Networking (SDN), Network Function Virtualization (NFV), and Federated Learning (FL) to enable real-time analytics while maintaining data locality. The proposed approach reduces the burden on centralized infrastructure and minimizes privacy risks by supporting on-site training of models across distributed OT nodes, coordinated through dynamically allocated network slices. The third focus explores: How slicing helps to increase the resiliency of OT networks through the orchestration of a dynamic DMZ? To answer this, the thesis presents a method for creating and managing Dynamic Demilitarized Zones (DMZs) using network slicing. This enables flexible and automated isolation of sensitive subsystems during threat scenarios or high-risk operations. Coupled with intelligent orchestration and containerized security services, the dynamic DMZ significantly enhances the system's ability to respond to cyber incidents without halting production. Ultimately, this thesis contributes a comprehensive architecture that blends network slicing with machine learning, secure segmentation, and automation, paving the way for resilient, adaptive, and intelligent OT environments. Performance evaluations across multiple scenarios show improvements in system reliability, threat response time, model accuracy, and resource utilization, providing a strong foundation for future industrial automation systems.

Rodiles Delgado, Brian G↗
DOE OSTI2023

Pathways to Carbon Neutrality 2050 in Malaysia and Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia has recently set an ambitious target of achieving carbon neutrality as early as 2050. To accomplish this, the country will need to strategically reduce its emissions across all sectors. In 2020, Malaysia emitted approximately 368 MtCO2e, with the largest sources of emissions including electricity (36% of total emissions), transportation (17%), and industry (15%)1. We find that the greatest reductions in emissions can therefore come from decarbonizing power generation and electrifying end-use sectors. Digitalization, smart technologies, and improved energy efficiency will significantly reduce economy-wide energy consumption. By leveraging efficient technologies, both Malaysia and Kuala Lumpur can address the challenges posed by rapid urbanization and climate change. Digitalization is a broad category that includes a variety of measures; for example, the wide adoption of high-efficiency appliances and lighting or improved building energy codes in the buildings sector. Similarly, technological improvements can advance industrial energy efficiency, and for transportation, smart technologies cover a shift from private to public transportation and the greater use of electric vehicles. While renewable energy (RE) will play a crucial role in decarbonization, achieving carbon neutrality in certain sectors will be difficult without emerging technologies like carbon capture and storage (CCS) and innovative fuel sources such as hydrogen. In order for Malaysia to rely on CCS as a mitigation option, early investment and incentives to the private sector will be critical. This holds for the use of hydrogen as well: investing in the necessary technology, infrastructure, and human capital will allow Malaysia to position itself as an innovator in the region and leverage these advanced technologies as a key part of its climate strategy. Another possible carbon removal option other than CCS would be a land-use sink; however, given that Malaysia is still developing and may deforest in the near-term, this report does not focus on the mitigation potential of land-use change. With its innovative and bold climate plans, Kuala Lumpur is primed to be a leader in regional climate change efforts. Kuala Lumpur is also engaged in several international collaborations to ensure sustainable city development such as the C40 network and the ASEAN Smart Cities Partnership. As such, the city will play a critical role in contributing to Malaysia’s overall climate goals and as a policy trendsetter through ambitious, scalable plans. One key factor in these emissions reductions is that Kuala Lumpur has full control over its building guidelines, allowing for ambitious policies resulting in significant emissions reductions. However, in other sectors, Kuala Lumpur has less direct control over regulations; for example, power generation and integration of RE are largely in the hands of the Malaysian government. With limited and primarily light industry, Kuala Lumpur’s contributions to emissions reductions here are curbed. And, while Kuala Lumpur has control over local transportation policies like increasing access to and quality of public transportation, broad shifts in transportation will stem from national-level policies. As such, multi-level governance is an integral component of Malaysia’s climate strategy and coordination between local and national governments will be essential in reducing emissions and achieving other climate goals. This report addresses these and other key challenges and opportunities Malaysia faces on the road to carbon neutrality.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2024

Assessment and Coordination of DER Cybersecurity Standards

Distributed energy resources (DERs) are becoming increasingly important to the electric grid, including solar energy systems. However, DERs also introduce new cybersecurity risks, including those posed by cloud computing. Standards harmonization is essential for ensuring that DERs are secure and can be safely integrated into the grid. This panel will discuss cyber standards harmonization for solar security. The panel will feature experts from the S2G Program, National Labs and Industry.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Vapor–Fed Electrolyzers for Carbon Dioxide Reduction Using Tandem Electrocatalysts: Cuprous Oxide Coupled with Nickel–Coordinated Nitrogen–Doped Carbon

We report ethylene is particularly attractive due to its major importance as a feedstock for various applications including the polymer industry. As such, catalyst and electrolyzer developments are crucial to achieve industrially relevant ethylene production and efficiency levels. In this work, a tandem electrocatalyst composed of copper nanocubes and nickel-coordinated nitrogen-doped carbon (NiNC) is presented, which is integrated into gas diffusion electrodes (GDEs) for direct conversion of vapor-fed CO 2 into ethylene. Evaluation of tandem GDEs in the vapor-fed flow electrolyzer shows significantly increased ethylene selectivity in terms of faradaic efficiency and C 2 H 4 /CO ratio compared to a non-tandem copper GDE. The enhancements are attributed to the increased local CO availability near the copper surface via effective CO 2 to CO conversion on neighboring NiNC. The experimental results are validated by 3D resolved continuum simulations, which show increased flux of higher-order prod-ucts with the added CO flux from NiNC. The practical viability of Cu/NiNC catalyst is further evaluated in a membrane electrode assembly electrolyzer, achieving 40% FE toward ethylene at 150 mA cm -2 and 3.2 V. These find-ings highlight the high selectivity and formation rate of ethylene achieved by successful device integration of the Cu/NiNC catalyst, demonstrating the potential for implementation in large-scale sustainable CO 2 electrolyzers.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

NSTTF Voucher Program RPPR-1 (Final Report)

Sandia issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) to solicit proposals from industry, academia, research laboratories, government agencies, and individuals on the use of the National Solar Thermal Test Facility (NSTTF) to increase CSP technology market adoption across the United States. The voucher funds will be used to cover the cost of NSTTF test facilities usage and technical staff support for analysis, design and test planning and execution. Sandia will collect submitted proposals, coordinate their review through DOE SETO, and work in partnership or under contract with the applicants to complete the funded research. Through this program, participants will be supported in their use of the world class facilities and expertise available at the NSTTF at Sandia in Albuquerque, NM to accelerate the advancement of CST technologies toward meeting 2030 SETO goals for CSP. The goals of this semi-annual reporting period were to complete all administrative tasks and contracting, begin testing on three of the vouchers, and report on initial findings. The fourth voucher (University of Michigan) is predicated on the results of an ongoing heat exchanger test that is expected to conclude by the end of FY22.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Voltage Control Strategy for Energy Storage System in Sustainable Distribution System Operation

Due to the increasing penetration of distributed energy resources (DERs) required for the sustainable distribution system, new voltage control strategy is needed by utilities. Traditional voltage control strategy can not support the increasing number of DERs in a coordinated and scalable manner to meet the operational voltage regulation requirement. Supported by the power electronics converter, the energy storage system can provide fast, smooth, and flexible voltage control services. In this paper, an effective and easy to implement sensitivity-based voltage control strategy is developed for the energy storage system. The developed control strategy is validated using an industrial feeder data in Northwest Washington. The proposed strategy can mitigate the voltage unbalance issue, improve the voltage profile, and correct power factors while supporting sustainable distribution system operation.

Zhang, Yue (ORCID:0000000241469716)↗