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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 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Establishing In-House Titration Capabilities: Part I. Hydroxyl Group Titration through Acetic Anhydride Acetylation

This lessons learned document provides a detailed analysis of the hydroxy termination titration methods employed for determining hydroxyl group content in various chemical samples. The primary focus is on the evaluation of techniques such as ASTM E222 and their practical applications in laboratory settings. Through examination of method selection, sample preparation, and titration execution, key insights have been identified that enhance the accuracy and reliability of results. Notable findings include the advantages of using pressure bottle methods for improved heating uniformity and reduced solvent loss, as well as the challenges associated with endpoint detection in dark-colored solutions. Recommendations for alternative sampling and titration techniques are proposed to address these challenges. This document serves as a valuable resource for enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of hydroxy termination titration methods in chemical analysis.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2021

Datasets for IWG Report on Energy Communities

Datasets associated with figures in the Initial Report to the President on Empowering Workers Through Revitalizing Energy Communities (available at: https://netl.doe.gov/sites/default/files/2021-04/Initial%20Report%20on%20Energy%20Communities_Apr2021.pdf) from the Interagency Working Group for Coal and Power Plant Communities. These data align to the White House’s The Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic Revitalization, https://energycommunities.gov/

Coal,Fossil Energy,Jobs and Employment,United Stat↗
DOE OSTI2025

Simulating Alpha Particles Incident on MKID Chips for Quantum Sensitivity Analysis

• Background noise from ionizing decay poses challenges for MKIDs due to their sensitivity to small energy depositions. • Our group bakes the MKID housing lid in radon to study effects of alphas from daughter isotopes in the decay chain. • The impact of alpha particles on the chip depends on their energy, making their distribution key to characterizing and reducing noise in superconducting quantum devices.

Hall, Matthew [Southern California U.]↗
DOE OSTI2020

Cryocooler conduction-cooled SRF cavities for compact particle accelerators

Cryocooler conduction cooling offers simple, reliable cryogenics for developing industrial SRF e-beam accelerators. Conduction-cooled SRF R&D at Fermilab: first demonstration >6.5 MV/m cw on a 650 MHz Nb 3 Sn coated cavity; prototype development and high power accelerators designs in progress. Cryocooler conduction cooling can greatly expand access to SRF: university groups, industries can embark on in house SRF R&D without needing full stack helium cryogenic systems

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Overview of Diverse Methyl/Alkyl-Coenzyme M Reductases and Considerations for Their Potential Heterologous Expression

Methyl-coenzyme M reductase (MCR) is an archaeal enzyme that catalyzes the final step of methanogenesis and the first step in the anaerobic oxidation of methane, the energy metabolisms of methanogens and anaerobic methanotrophs (ANME), respectively. Variants of MCR, known as alkyl-coenzyme M reductases, are involved in the anaerobic oxidation of short-chain alkanes including ethane, propane, and butane as well as the catabolism of long-chain alkanes from oil reservoirs. MCR is a dimer of heterotrimers (encoded by mcrABG) and requires the nickel-containing tetrapyrrole prosthetic group known as coenzyme F430. MCR houses a series of unusual post-translational modifications within its active site whose identities vary depending on the organism and whose functions remain unclear. Methanogenic MCRs are encoded in a highly conserved mcrBDCGA gene cluster, which encodes two accessory proteins, McrD and McrC, that are believed to be involved in the assembly and activation of MCR, respectively. The requirement of a unique and complex coenzyme, various unusual post-translational modifications, and many remaining questions surrounding assembly and activation of MCR largely limit in vitro experiments to native enzymes with recombinant methods only recently appearing. Production of MCRs in a heterologous host is an important step toward developing optimized biocatalytic systems for methane production as well as for bioconversion of methane and other alkanes into value-added compounds. This review will first summarize MCR catalysis and structure, followed by a discussion of advances and challenges related to the production of diverse MCRs in a heterologous host.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2026

Barriers and Opportunities for Energy Technology Adoption in Juneau, Alaska

This report presents findings from a qualitative study examining barriers and opportunities for air source heat pump (ASHP) and electric vehicle (EV) adoption in Juneau, Alaska, with a particular focus on manufactured and multifamily housing. The analysis draws on community insights from end users and middle actors to better understand how technology adoption unfolds in contexts with distinct logistical, infrastructural, and housing constraints. The report is organized according to key barriers and opportunities identified through stakeholder input, providing a structured understanding of adoption dynamics across technologies and housing types. These insights are intended to inform program design and support more effective electrification strategies tailored to local conditions. The study team employed qualitative methods to capture both in-depth and high-level perspectives on technology adoption. Data collection included: 1) two 2-hour focus groups with a total of five end users and seven middle actors, enabling detailed and structured discussion and 2) ten semistructured interviews with manufactured home owners, multifamily landlords, and one tenant, providing complementary insights across housing contexts. Focus groups captured accounts of shared challenges and opportunities while interviews offered more concise reflections on individual experiences. Together, these methods enabled a more comprehensive understanding of both systemic barriers and lived experiences with ASHPs and EVs. The findings reveal that adoption of electrification technologies is shaped by a combination of economic, logistical, and informational factors that vary across housing types, technology characteristics, user groups, and other demographic factors. Addressing these factors requires tailored strategies that reflect local conditions and user experiences. The insights in this report can provide a foundation for organizations such as AEL&P to refine program design, support more effective outreach, and anticipate shifts in energy demand associated with increased electrification. More broadly, the study highlights the importance of incorporating community perspectives when developing electrification initiatives to ensure they are both practical and responsive to real-world constraints.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2025

Tropical Forest Soil Microbiome Modulates Leaf Heat Tolerance More Strongly Under Warming Than Ambient Conditions

ABSTRACT It is unclear how plants respond to increasing temperatures. Leaf heat tolerance (LHT) is often at its upper limit in tropical forests, suggesting that climate change might negatively impact these forests. We hypothesized that intraspecific variation in LHT might be associated with changes in the soil microbiome, which might also respond to climate. We hypothesized that warming would increase LHT through changes in the soil microbiome: we combined an in situ tropical warming experiment with a shade house experiment in Puerto Rico. The shade house experiment consisted of growing seedlings of Guarea guidonia , a dominant forest species, under different soil microbiome treatments (reduced arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, reduced plant pathogens, reduced microbes, and unaltered) and soil inoculum from the field experiment. Heat tolerance was determined using chlorophyll fluorescence ( F V /F m ) on individual seedlings in the field and on groups of seedlings (per pot) in the shade house. We sequenced soil fungal DNA to analyze the impacts of the treatments on the soil microbiome. In the field, seedlings from ambient temperature plots showed higher F V /F m values under high temperatures (0.648 at 46°C and 0.067 at 52°C) than seedlings from the warming plots (0.535 at 46°C and 0.031 at 52°C). In the shade house, the soil microbiome treatments significantly influenced the fungal community composition and LHT ( T crit and F V /F m ). Reduction in fungal pathogen abundance and diversity altered F V /F m before T 50 for seedlings grown with soil inoculum from the warming plots but after T 50 for seedlings grown with soil inoculum from the ambient plots. Our findings emphasize that the soil microbiome plays an important role in modulating the impacts of climate change on plants. Understanding and harnessing this relationship might be vital for mitigating the effects of warming on forests, emphasizing the need for further research on microbial responses to climate change.

Hernandes Villani, Gabriela [Department of Plant B↗
DOE OSTI2020

Test Plan to Investigate the Optimal Cure Schedule of an Epoxy Resin for Its Application as an Adhesive in Optocouplers

Epoxy resins are polymeric materials that are known for their versatility, low cost, and strong thermal and mechanical properties. They can be used as coatings, adhesives, automotive primers, and have become staples in electronics, aerospace composites and semiconductor encapsulates. Recently, LANL has experienced a decline in the quality of a specialized electronic device, called an optocoupler, which is normally acquired from commercial suppliers. Because of this, a group at LANL is exploring the feasibility of in-house manufacturing of an optocoupler that is better suited for their application. The current prototype has resulted in adhesive failure after being exposed to several thermal cycles. There is a need to investigate the possible reasons for this failure, particularly how the cure schedule of the epoxy might affect its adhesive strength over time and in cycled temperatures. To assist in this investigation, a test plan has been developed involving multiple experiments using thermomechanical analysis (TMA), dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC).

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Alaska's First Thermalize Campaign: An Effort to Reduce Fuel Reliance in Juneau, AK

In 2018, the Bureau and City of Juneau set the goal of reaching 80% renewable energy in the sectors of transportation and space heating by 2045. This effort will minimize their reliance on fossil fuels, reduce their carbon footprint and increase their resilience in the event of a natural disaster as fuel oil reaches Juneau by boat and such shipments may be disrupted in a disaster. The community's resilience in the face of a disaster and lower carbon footprint goes hand-in-hand with public safety and health. The Cold Climate Housing and Research Center (CCHRC) partnered with several local and statewide groups, including Alaska Heat Smart and Information Insights, Inc, to lead Alaska's first thermalize campaign. Thermalize Juneau 2021 is an energy campaign working to lower the cost of heating homes in Juneau through beneficial electrification and increased energy efficiency. The goal of the campaign was to offer homeowners a streamlined and more affordable way to install heat pumps and energy efficiency improvements into their homes. Converting household heating from fuel to electricity also helps improve indoor and outdoor air quality and reduces maintenance requirements. The campaign had over 160 participants. As of Fall 2021, it is in its final stages of heat pump installations and energy efficiency improvements. In addition to tracking the energy savings and carbon reduction attributed to the campaign, the social equity was an important aspect. Thermalize Juneau attempted to include all the demographics present in Juneau in the campaign. The presentation will cover the goals and implementation of the campaign, current data on how it is improving community and household resilience, lessons learned, and next steps.

clean energy↗
DOE OSTI2022

Achieving 50% Energy Savings in Chicago Homes: A Case Study for Advancing Equity and Climate Goals

Since 2019, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Elevate have collaborated to identify pathways to deep energy retrofits in Chicago's housing stock, document equity implications and co-benefits of this transition, and validate the findings by implementing retrofits in real Chicago homes. This document summarizes our analysis process to model advanced retrofit packages that lead to greater than 50% energy savings in Chicago homes. Based on these findings, we have also developed a roadmap with the City to guide implementation, and are deploying the recommended retrofit packages in real Chicago homes to realize these energy savings. This work was developed in collaboration with two key stakeholders - the City of Chicago and Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) - and funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). NREL's Residential Buildings team maintains the best-in-class ResStock™ energy model of the U.S. residential building stock. For this work, we calibrated ResStock to Chicago's unique local housing stock to accurately simulate energy use in Chicago homes both for current conditions and with various retrofit scenarios. We simulated a wide range of potential building retrofits covering all aspects of residential energy use and then grouped these into packages based on energy and utility bill savings. ResStock can model diverse building types and housing characteristics, so we're able to observe the range of outcomes that might occur when these upgrades are deployed across the entire housing stock. We can then estimate potential energy savings from an advanced retrofit program on Chicago's housing stock by comparing the modeled energy use before versus after a retrofit. This novel version of ResStock, calibrated to Chicago with data from Elevate, can help City officials, ComEd, and other partners plan for community-scale decarbonization via residential retrofits. Specifically, this work contributes the following project goals: Develop a building retrofit prioritization strategy for Chicago single-family and 2- to 4-unit buildings; Identify neighborhoods and home types that have the highest potential for savings from electrification; and Assess the impact of advanced building retrofits on energy use, utility bills, and CO2 emissions at the city and building level. Although this study is specific to Chicago, its methods and learnings are applicable across the United States. These findings are especially notable for heat pumps and electrification retrofits in cold climates.

building energy modeling↗
DOE OSTI2023

Volume 9: Critical Facility with Add-On Ion Beam

Completion of the originally planned critical facility has been considered as part of the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) Sustaining and Enhancing Neutron Science Initiative at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). A working group of ORNL staff members was formed to develop the idea and to recommend one or more configurations to best support future HFIR operations and scientific capacities. HFIR was designed with a critical pool in the reactor bay that was projected to be outfitted as a critical facility. The primary purpose of the planned critical facility was to measure the subcritical worth of fresh fuel elements to support startup requirements. However, the Y-12 National Security Complex already housed a critical facility that was used for this purpose. This report presents the working group’s efforts, including determination of the proposed critical facility’s high-impact benefits. A generic low-power critical facility would be employed for reactor physics measurements, code and data validation, reactor operator and staff training, and education. This facility would be instrumental in supporting current HFIR operations, conversion of HFIR to low-enriched uranium, existing light water reactor operations, and advanced reactor development and deployment.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Use of Systems Engineering in Repurposing Coal-Fired Power Plants with Malta Pumped Thermal Energy Storage System

he electric sector across North America is facing a transition. Both economics and policy decisions have pointed towards a broad retirement of fossil assets across markets. Owners are facing the problem of how to evolve the base of the electric sector from fossil asset to greener alternative. Coal-fired power plants built the modern electricity grid. Their rotating machinery are the beating heart of the grid, providing essential resiliency and reliability services. Power plant retirements are disruptive to plant workforces and cause outsized impacts on surrounding communities. The transition from thermal power plants that use rotating machinery to generate electricity (e.g., coal- and gas-fired plants) to variable, inverter-based generation (e.g., solar and wind) is affecting the reliability of the electric grid. Grid operators and national regulators have issued warnings about known and anticipated risk. In 2021, Malta Inc. was awarded a Department of Energy (DOE) grant to study how to integrate a Malta 100MW Pumped Heat Energy Storage (PHES) system with a retiring coal-fired power plant to meet emissions requirements, retain plant workforces, preserve communities, and maintain grid reliability. This presentation provides a summary of this study, focusing on how systems engineering approach was used to arrive at a proposed design concept that met multiple objectives and requirements. There will be three main parts for this presentation. The first part of the presentation will focus on how different systems engineering was applied for this work. In particular, the following areas: stakeholder engagement, site selection process, developing requirements and use cases for the integrated system, defining the system and its boundary, coming up with different system architecture/option, performing a techno-economic analysis to compare the different options and down selection of the preferred option, will be discusses. For these areas, discussion on the decisions on how much breadth and depth to go into each area will be provided. These discussions provide good insights into how to apply systems engineering. The second part of the presentation will provide a deeper dive into the two recommended integration options that repurpose coal-fired power plants with Malta PHES system. The comparison of the two options and general guidance of how to choose an option will be provided. This is particularly useful for utilities who are facing coal-plant retirements. The two options will be compared based on its performance (such as power output, efficiency), complexity, and cost. The social impact on local communities of the two options will also be discussed. The final part of the presentation will discuss the impact that this work has had, including Malta Inc. being invited to the White House to discuss progress and outcomes of this work with the Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic Revitalization. In summary, this presentation aims to provide a showcase of how sy

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Community Solar Resources for Multifamily Affordable Housing Providers [Slides]

As part of an initiative to support Multifamily Affordable Housing (MFAH) providers in their efforts to accelerate deployment of community solar, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s National Community Solar Partnership (NCSP) convened a group of MFAH providers from across the United States to understand and address barriers. DOE and project partners the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Urban Ingenuity, and Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future facilitated peer exchange, provided technical assistance, and developed resources to support the sector more broadly. During this one-hour webinar NREL, Urban Ingenuity, and SAHF introduced these resources. The webinar was attended by MFAH providers, state and local agencies, and others working to advance equitable access to solar for residents of affordable housing.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Massively parallel quantum chemical density matrix renormalization group method

Here, we present, to the best of our knowledge, the first attempt to exploit the supercomputer platform for quantum chemical density matrix renormalization group (QCDMRG) calculations. We have developed the parallel scheme based on the in-house MPI global memory library, which combines operator and symmetry sector parallelisms, and tested its performance on three different molecules, all typical candidates for QC-DMRG calculations. In case of the largest calculation, which is the nitrogenase FeMo cofactor cluster with the active space comprising 113 electrons in 76 orbitals and bond dimension equal to 6000, our parallel approach scales up to approximately 2000 CPU cores.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2023

New insights into the natural history of bronchopulmonary dysplasia from proteomics and multiplexed immunohistochemistry

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is a disease of prematurity related to the arrest of normal lung development. The objective of this study was to better understand how proteome modulation and cell-type shifts are noted in BPD pathology. Pediatric human donors aged 1–3 yr were classified based on history of prematurity and histopathology consistent with “healed” BPD (hBPD, n = 3) and “established” BPD (eBPD, n = 3) compared with respective full-term born (n = 6) age-matched term controls. Proteins were quantified by tandem mass spectroscopy with selected Western blot validations. Multiplexed immunofluorescence (MxIF) microscopy was performed on lung sections to enumerate cell types. Protein abundances and MxIF cell frequencies were compared among groups using ANOVA. Cell type and ontology enrichment were performed using an in-house tool and/or EnrichR. Proteomics detected 5,746 unique proteins, 186 upregulated and 534 downregulated, in eBPD versus control with fewer proteins differentially abundant in hBPD as compared with age-matched term controls. Cell-type enrichment suggested a loss of alveolar type I, alveolar type II, endothelial/capillary, and lymphatics, and an increase in smooth muscle and fibroblasts consistent with MxIF. Histochemistry and Western analysis also supported predictions of upregulated ferroptosis in eBPD versus control. Finally, several extracellular matrix components mapping to angiogenesis signaling pathways were altered in eBPD. Despite clear parsing by protein abundance, comparative MxIF analysis confirms phenotypic variability in BPD. This work provides the first demonstration of tandem mass spectrometry and multiplexed molecular analysis of human lung tissue for critical elucidation of BPD trajectory-defining factors into early childhood.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

Hydrogen Permeation Analysis Tool

There is a rising need for the measurement and understanding of hydrogen transport properties in materials for the energy and transportation industries. The Hydrogen Permeation Analysis Tool (HyPAT) provides a user friendly interface for batch analysis of dynamic hydrogen permeation data to calculate the transport properties permeability, solubility, and diffusivity. A built in literature database provides an easy comparison to known values. A common method for measuring these hydrogen transport properties is dynamic pressure rise permeation experiments, for example, those done in the Static Gas Absorption and Permeation (SGAP) experiment at INL. Most laboratories develop individual, in-house codes for data analysis. HyPAT provides a platform that can be adopted by other user groups for such experimental analysis and significantly reduce personnel time spent performing data analysis.

Fuerst, ThomasF↗