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Cortright, Randy

Publications and source records attributed to Cortright, Randy.

8 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Effects of Water Vapor on the Reactivity of Aluminosilicates in Vapor-Phase Propanal Aldol Condensation

Aluminosilicate materials have been extensively studied as efficient aldol catalysts for C-C coupling reactions due to their acidic nature, high surface area, thermal stability, and porous structure. This work investigated the impact of water vapor pressure on the catalytic reactivity of aluminosilicates for the aldol condensation of propanal to 2-methyl-2-pentenal (MP). The catalytic performance of amorphous SiO2-Al2O3 (A-Si-Al) and aluminated MCM-41 (Al-MCM-41) for the vapor-phase aldol condensation of propanal was evaluated at 200 degrees C as a function of vapor-phase water content at atmospheric pressure. Our findings demonstrate that co-feeding low water vapor pressures (1-18 kPa) with propanal enhances the rates of MP production at 200 degrees C on A-Si-Al. Conversely, water vapor pressures of 25 kPa result in a decrease in aldol dimer formation rates. The rate of MP production evaluated on Al-MCM-41 also increased in the presence of 5 kPa water compared to anhydrous conditions. Propylamine temperature-programmed desorption analyses revealed an increase in Bronsted acid site density when both catalysts were exposed to water, which likely accounts for the observed enhancement in aldol condensation reactivity under hydrous conditions. Reversibility testing of the water vapor effect under reaction conditions, combined with X-ray diffraction analysis of fresh, spent, and regenerated catalysts, revealed no structural changes in either aluminosilicate upon exposure to water or reaction conditions. The rates of aldol condensation and the impact of water vapor were highly consistent across both materials, suggesting that zeolite crystallinity has minimal influence on the catalytic performance.

acid catalysts↗
DOE OSTI2024

The Challenge Ahead: A Critical Perspective on Meeting U.S. Growth Targets for Sustainable Aviation Fuel

With demand for jet fuel expected to more than double by 2050 and triple by 2070, continued and accelerated efforts to decarbonize the global aviation sector are needed to curtail rising emissions and avert the worst outcomes of climate change. In response to this call-to-action, the United States has unveiled the Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Grand Challenge, which seeks to expedite the development of alternative fuel pathways that offer a minimum of a 50% reduction in life cycle greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional jet fuel. However, there is growing concern on whether sufficient biomass will be readily available to satisfy the projected sharp rise in demand for SAF. Carbon dioxide point-source emissions combined with rising supply from direct air capture efforts have the potential to complement and offset any supply gaps for biomass-derived SAF and other use cases. Independent of the chosen feedstock and conversion technology, numerous challenges persist across SAF production in seeking to drive down fuel cost and carbon intensity. To hit the 2030 target of 3 billion gal/yr, this means about a 100% compound annual growth rate in volumetric SAF production (about 130 times scale-up) will need to be realized. To achieve the stretch goal of 35 billion gallons of SAF per year by 2050, volumetric production must increase by a factor of 12 from the 3-billion-gal/year 2030 target of SAF Grand Challenge. The comparatively longer runway for 2050 combined with significant production volume growth suggests a more inclusive "all-hands-on-deck"-style approach will likely play a role. A key component in success lies in the coordinated research, development, demonstration, and deployment efforts by multiple federal agencies and industry partnerships.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Pathways for Agricultural Decarbonization in the United States

In the United States, agricultural production is both a significant source of greenhouse gases (GHGs) (Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 2022) and uniquely susceptible to climate change impacts (Vermeulen et al., 2012). Decarbonization solutions have been proposed for addressing agricultural GHGs; however, research has been limited in synthesizing qualitative and quantitative analysis of potential GHG mitigation solutions in the United States. In this report, we review U.S. agricultural GHG sources by activity and quantify potential mitigation solutions based on a comprehensive data and literature analysis. We also discuss agricultural carbon sequestration options to offset GHG emissions. In our analysis, we identified two significant and hard-to-abate GHG sources (N 2 O from soil management, and CH 4 from enteric fermentation from livestock) as well as high-impact GHG mitigation solutions (e.g. agroforestry, reforestation, and biochar application) and cross-cutting GHG mitigation solutions (renewable energy production, precision agriculture, no-till, integrated nutrient management, and biochar). This report is meant to provide initial analysis and establish a foundation for future agricultural decarbonization research - it is not an exhaustive analysis of all available studies. However, to our knowledge this report is the most comprehensive assessment of agricultural GHG emissions and associated mitigation opportunities in the United States to date. Future empirical research is recommended to close research gaps in different climates, soils, and agricultural systems. Meta-analyses for all mitigation solutions would increase confidence in the estimated GHG mitigation potentials. To conclude this report, we discuss short-term and long-term pathways for agricultural decarbonization in the United States, the importance of accounting for total GHG fluxes, potential co-benefits of agricultural decarbonization, analysis of study data confidence, and research gaps.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2023

Formate as an Energy Source to Allow Sugar Fermentation with No Net CO2 Generation: Integration of Electrochemistry with Fermentation

This poster summarizes at a high-level the scope of various groups' work on Formate as an Energy Source to Allow Sugar Fermentation with No Net CO2 Generation: Integration of Electrochemistry with Fermentation. The goals of this research are to develop and demonstrate an integrated process that electrochemically generates formate from CO2 and use the formate as an energy source for the fermentation of sugars to fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) without net CO2 generation wherein formate provides reducing equivalents for sugar fermentation and a chemical looping reactor system takes advantage of intermittent low-cost electricity from wind and solar resources.

BIOMASS FUELS,INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND AN↗
DOE OSTI2022

Challenges and Opportunities in Decarbonizing the U.S. Energy System

The United States has pledged to develop a 100% carbon-free electric power system by 2035 and a net-zero-emissions economy by 2050. While important advancements have been made in the scale, performance, and economics of clean energy technologies, meeting the nation's ambitious goals will not only require their deployment at scale, but also additional innovation and effective integration of different solutions. Technological developments across the broad suite of low-carbon energy solutions are advancing rapidly, with ongoing innovations in renewable electricity generation, industrial processes, and energy-saving technologies and services, including LED lighting, induction heating, electric vehicles, energy storage solutions, and mobility as a service, plus smart devices, controls, and more efficient and smart buildings. Combining renewable electricity with biotic and abiotic pathways to produce chemicals, fuels, and materials promises to deliver new solutions. Grid-interactive buildings and communities, integrating transportation infrastructure and vehicles, are likely to be significant components of any zero-carbon energy strategy. Low-carbon industrial manufacturing will also make strong contributions to a net-zero economy. While the technical prospects appear promising, variations in the state of infrastructure, jurisdictional and social equity, pollution, economic and socio-cultural constraints, energy resource availability, and supply chain dynamics found in different locations present a range of challenges and demand customized solutions. This paper provides a critical review and offers new insights into the technical, infrastructure, analytic, political, and economic challenges faced in translating the nation's ambitious net-zero-emissions goals into feasible and reliable implementation action plans.

circular economy↗
DOE OSTI2022

An economic analysis of the role of materials, system engineering, and performance in electrochemical carbon dioxide conversion to formate

The development of technologies that utilize carbon dioxide is important to mitigating climate change. The electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide is one technology that can utilize greenhouse gasses that would be otherwise be emitted to the atmosphere by producing chemicals and fuels from carbon dioxide and electricity. Significant progress has been made in the experimental performance of carbon dioxide reduction systems with novel catalyst designs, new materials, and systems engineering; however, no work has linked such changes in stack design and materials to capital costs for the stack itself. In this study, we present an analysis that accounts for and analyzes the impacts of alternative materials and system architectures on manufactured costs of carbon dioxide reduction stacks, thus providing a framework to understand exactly how these advances impact the at-scale capital costs of these systems. Specifically, we consider the impact that the addition of a catholyte buffer layer has on an electrolyzer reducing carbon dioxide to formate, finding that the cost of manufacturing this part only increases stack costs by about $30/m 2 at high manufacturing rates, while previous work finds that this part improves system performance. This work shows that the links between system performance, materials, and costs are nonlinear, and that achieving low-cost scalability requires optimization of not just performance parameters but also the use of low-cost and highly scalable materials. These results bridge experimental and techno-economic analysis of processes for carbon dioxide reduction, informing researchers by providing a quantifiable estimate of the impact of advances in electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction technology on manufactured stack capital costs.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Materials Challenges and Opportunities for Energy Generation, Conversion, Delivery, and Storage (Applied Energy Tri-Laboratory Consortium Workshop Report)

This report documents the outcomes of the Tri-Laboratory Materials Workshop that was held July 31 and August 1, 2019 to begin addressing the needs, opportunities, and challenges associated with the development, fabrication, and testing of the needed materials and components for integrated hybrid energy systems (i.e., incorporating nuclear, fossil, and renewables for electric and thermal applications). This was accomplished by assembling the research program leads and principal investigators at Idaho National Laboratory (INL), National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), and National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), who support the research and development of new technology and system integration. The team then identified and prioritized key materials development needs. This effort was intended to enhance communications and synergy among the Tri-Lab partners. Advanced functional and structural materials are central to transformative energy technologies for energy generation, conversion, delivery, and storage. With that in mind, the workshop focused on identifying and assessing the foundational materials research needs at both the basic and applied levels. Materials challenges include the ability to withstand harsh environments, such as high temperatures and pressures, corrosion, oxidation, or irradiation while maintaining flexible mission profiles and long service lifespans. Advanced energy system material challenges and needs range from materials for the capture, upgrading/concentration, storage, and delivery of low-grade heat to materials for high temperature environments that involve liquid metals, molten salt, and very high temperature gas heat delivery and storage systems. Material improvements are needed for hybrid energy systems due to accelerated corrosion and stress-fatigue failure of materials and equipment, which results from increased frequency and amplitude of thermal, mechanical, and electrical cycling of systems components. Multifunctional materials are needed for high temperature solid-oxide fuel cells, advanced electrochemical reactors, and in-process separation. Relative to materials manufacturing, application of advanced additive and subtractive methods need to be understood to develop both thin-layer homogenous materials and materials of graded composition. Materials modeling and machine learning will be critical to accelerate the design and production of power electronics, and nuclear reactor materials and fuel, as well as to gain an understanding of beneficial materials phenomena or deleterious microstructure evolution. There is also a need for standardized models, computational structures, data reporting protocols and modeling tools across the three laboratories. This would allow consistent results, analysis, and data sharing. Combining computational capabilities between the three laboratories (e.g., hardware, software) would greatly increase computational capabilities and throughput. The workshop identified the need for laboratories to anticipate and address problems that will occur during scale-up. Laboratory work must connect with industry to ensure that research focuses on processes that are scalable and marketable. Industry input and perspective are essential to guide laboratory research to meet these requirements and deploy new technology in industrial demonstrations. Another aspect of scale-up is the integration of multiple systems since new challenges often arise at the subsystem interfaces. Establishing a scale-up manufacturing demonstration/pilot plant, potentially as an industrial user facility, would be beneficial to the laboratories and industry. That modular scale-up manufacturing demonstration/pilot plant would allow researchers to find and resolve interface problems that cannot be identified by focusing only on individual parts. Communication exchanges among the organizers, attendees, and workshop survey responses indicate that the workshop was successful in achieving its goal to identify key technology gaps and research needs. Strong positive feedback was received on the sharing of ideas, capabilities, talent, and passion to move forward on the materials-related action items.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗