Search NASA⌕ Search

Engineering topics

Tao, Ling (ORCID:0000000310631984)

Publications and source records attributed to Tao, Ling (ORCID:0000000310631984).

At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Annual Technology Baseline (ATB): The 2024 Transportation Update

The Transportation Annual Technology Baseline (ATB) provides detailed cost and performance data, estimates, and assumptions for vehicle and fuel technologies in the United States. It includes current and projected estimates for vehicle technologies as well as fuels, and it details the assumptions used to calculate those costs, such as gas and electricity prices, discount rates, and vehicle miles traveled. The 2024 update added more biofuels pathways to align with pathways used in the Biomass Scenario Model.

ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS,DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSI↗
DOE OSTI2024

2024 Annual Technology Baseline (ATB) Cost and Performance Data for Transportation Technologies

The 2024 Transportation Annual Technology Baseline (ATB) provides detailed cost and performance data, estimates, and assumptions for vehicle and fuel technologies in the United States. It includes current and projected estimates: time-series through 2050 for light, medium, and heavy-duty vehicle technologies; scenarios for conventional and alternative fuels. It details the assumptions used to calculate those costs, such as natural gas and electricity prices, discount rates, and vehicle miles traveled. The 2024 Transportation ATB vehicle data are specifically for cars powered by gasoline, diesel, natural gas, gasoline hybrid, plug-in hybrid, battery electric, and fuel-cell powertrains and for trucks powered by diesel, diesel hybrid, plug-in hybrid, battery electric, and fuel cell powertrains. Fuels and blendstocks include gasoline, ethanol, blendstock for oxygenate blending, diesel, diesel from biomass, natural gas, electricity, hydrogen, aviation fuel, and marine fuel. At this time, the ATB does not include other vehicles such as 2- and 3-wheeled motorized vehicles, or non-road vehicles such as aircraft, vessels, locomotives, and those for industry and agriculture. See "Transportation ATB Website" resource below for more project information.

2024↗
DOE OSTI2024

Evaluating Impacts of Sustainable Aviation Fuel Production with CO2-to-Fuels Technologies on High Renewable Share Power Grid

This paper investigates the impact of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) production using CO 2 -to-Fuels technologies on a future power grid with a high share of renewable energy. We focus on understanding the implications of the 2050 SAF production goal on the U.S. power system's long-term planning, encompassing generation, transmission, and cost analysis. Via the Regional Energy Deployment System (ReEDS) model, we developed a detailed SAF electricity demand model based on a low-temperature electrolysis-syngas fermentation-ethanol pathway. Four SAF target scenarios which aim to meet 10%, 15%, 20%, and 27% of SAF demand by 2050. These scenarios are exhaustively simulated to assess their impact on the power grid. Our results reveal that increasing SAF demand will result in higher electricity requirements, as well as expanded generator and transmission capacities, leading to an overall rise in system costs. However, these impacts are manageable within the broader context of U.S. capacity expansion plans. This study provides valuable insights into incorporating the CO 2 -to-Fuels electricity demand model and other carbon capture technologies into power system planning, emphasizing their significance in shaping a sustainable energy future.

capacity expansion model↗
DOE OSTI2024

Evaluating Impacts of Sustainable Aviation Fuel Production with CO2-to-Fuels Technologies on High Renewable Share Power Grid: Preprint

This paper investigates the impact of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) production using CO2-to-Fuels technologies on a future power grid with a high share of renewable energy. We focus on understanding the implications of the 2050 SAF production goal on the U.S. power system's long-term planning, encompassing generation, transmission, and cost analysis. Via the Regional Energy Deployment System (ReEDS) model, we developed a detailed SAF electricity demand model based on a low-temperature electrolysis-syngas fermentation-ethanol pathway. Four SAF target scenarios which aimto meet 10%, 15%, 20%, and 27% of SAF demand by 2050. These scenarios are exhaustively simulated to assess their impact on the power grid. Our results reveal that increasing SAF demand will result in higher electricity requirements, as well as expanded generator and transmission capacities, leading to an overall rise in system costs. However, these impacts are manageable within the broader context of U.S. capacity expansion plans. This study provides valuable insights into incorporating the CO2-to-Fuels electricity demand model and other carbon capture technologies into power system planning, emphasizing their significance in shaping a sustainable energy future.

BIOMASS FUELS,ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2024

A Novel Framework to Evaluate the Costs and Potential of Bioenergy in Decarbonization of the U.S. Economy

The long-term strategy of the United States targets reaching economy-wide net-zero emissions by 2050 and a carbon-neutral electricity grid by 2035 (U.S. Department of State and U.S. Executive Office of the President, 2021). Meeting these targets would require considerable changes to the energy system. Some key characteristics of illustrative net-zero energy systems include increased penetration of renewable energy and carbon sources, use of CO2 capture and storage (CCS) in hard-to-abate sectors, and a greater role for energy carriers such as electricity and hydrogen (Davis et al, 2018). Another common feature of such energy systems is the need for carbon dioxide removal (CDR) approaches (Horowitz et al, 2022). Across all these characteristics of net-zero energy systems, bioenergy and biomass feedstock is anticipated to play an important role. Biomass feedstock serves as a renewable carbon source. This can enable conversion of such feedstock into fuels and energy carriers for hard-to-abate sectors such as aviation. Indeed, the U.S. Government has a target to meet all jet fuel demand by 2050 from sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), where biofuel pathways are likely to have an important role (EERE, 2020). Bioenergy is also highly versatile with the possibility to convert feedstock into electricity, hydrogen, liquid fuels, heat or high-value products, based on biomass type, demand and technology availability (Clarke et al, 2022). Combination of bioenergy with CCS can also nominally deliver CDR (Fuhrman et al, 2023). As such, the share of bioenergy is expected to grow by at least five time across scenarios studied for the long-term strategy of the U.S. between 2020 and 2050 (Horowitz et al, 2022). Notwithstanding the role of bioenergy in the energy systems, its deployment, costs and scalability are influenced by a number of factors. Some of these factors pertain to policy interventions such as imposition of a binding decarbonization target either at an economy-wide level or the sectoral level. Resource availability and type of biomass feedstock also varies considerably across regions. From a technological perspective, the readiness of bioenergy conversion pathways is subject to high variability. This influences the costs of deployment. Moreover, the sourcing of feedstock, grid carbon intensity, and co-product handling approaches all affect the life cycle efficacy of bioenergy. The latter, in turn, is particularly important in determining the extent to which bioenergy with CCS or BECCS can effectively deliver CDR (Fajardy and Mac Dowell, 2017).

air emission↗
DOE OSTI2024

Evaluating Impacts of Sustainable Aviation Fuel Production with CO2-to-Fuels Technologies on High Renewable Share Power Grids

This paper investigates the impact of Sustainable Aviation Fuel production using CO2-to-Fuels technologies on a future power grid with a high share of renewable energy. We focus on understanding the implications of the 2050 SAF production goal on the U.S. power system's long-term planning, encompassing generation, transmission, and cost analysis. Via the Regional Energy Deployment System (ReEDS) model, we developed a detailed SAF electricity demand model based on a low-temperature electrolysis-syngas fermentation-ethanol pathway. Four SAF target scenarios which aims to meet 10%, 15%, 20%, and 27% of SAF demand by 2050. These scenarios are exhaustively simulated to assess their impact on the power grid. Our results reveal that increasing SAF demand will result in higher electricity requirements, as well as expanded generator and transmission capacities, leading to an overall rise in system costs. However, these impacts are manageable within the broader context of U.S. capacity expansion plans. This study provides valuable insights into incorporating the CO2-to-Fuels electricity demand model and other carbon capture technologies in power system planning, emphasizing their significance in shaping a sustainable energy future.

BIOMASS FUELS,POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2024

Biofuels Production and Development in the United States

Addressing transportation emissions will require a combination of policy interventions, technological innovations, and behavioral changes. To decrease transportation-related carbon emissions, we recommend transitioning to cleaner and more efficient transport, expanding public transportation, and promoting sustainable urban planning. Transitioning to biofuels in the U.S. transportation sector presents a host of environmental, economic, and strategic advantages. Environmentally, biofuels offer a promising avenue for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared to conventional fossil fuels. Biofuels produce fewer harmful emissions, such as particulate matter and nitrogen oxides, compared to conventional fuels, thereby improving local air quality, and reducing health risks associated with air pollution. The U.S. government issued a "Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Grand Challenge" to promote the development of SAF and address the decarbonization of commercial aviation. The targets are to expand current domestic SAF production to 3 billion gallons per year by 2030, and then to 35 billion gallons by 2050, while achieving life cycle GHG reduction of at least 50% relative to fossil Jet A. The United States' biofuel production capacity rose to 23.8 billion gallons per year in 2023, a growth of more than 1.7 billion gallons since 2022. Ethanol nameplate capacity has reached 17.8 billion gallons per year since 2023, the ethanol production is 15.6 billion gallons in 2023 as capped by EPA regulation. Biodiesel production capacity stands at 2.1 billion gallons, and renewable diesel capacity is now 3.9 billion gallons. This newsletter keeps you informed on the state of biofuels in the United States, policy and regulations, technology advancements, and environmental and social impacts.

biodiesel↗
DOE OSTI2023

A scalable membrane electrode assembly architecture for efficient electrochemical conversion of CO2 to formic acid

Abstract The electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide to formic acid is a promising pathway to improve CO 2 utilization and has potential applications as a hydrogen storage medium. In this work, a zero-gap membrane electrode assembly architecture is developed for the direct electrochemical synthesis of formic acid from carbon dioxide. The key technological advancement is a perforated cation exchange membrane, which, when utilized in a forward bias bipolar membrane configuration, allows formic acid generated at the membrane interface to exit through the anode flow field at concentrations up to 0.25 M. Having no additional interlayer components between the anode and cathode this concept is positioned to leverage currently available materials and stack designs ubiquitous in fuel cell and H 2 electrolysis, enabling a more rapid transition to scale and commercialization. The perforated cation exchange membrane configuration can achieve >75% Faradaic efficiency to formic acid at <2 V and 300 mA/cm 2 in a 25 cm 2 cell. More critically, a 55-hour stability test at 200 mA/cm 2 shows stable Faradaic efficiency and cell voltage. Technoeconomic analysis is utilized to illustrate a path towards achieving cost parity with current formic acid production methods.

08 HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2023

2022 Annual Technology Baseline (ATB) Cost and Performance Data for Transportation Technologies

The 2022 Transportation Annual Technology Baseline (ATB) provides detailed cost and performance data, estimates, and assumptions for vehicle and fuel technologies in the United States. It includes current and projected estimates: time-series through 2050 for light, medium, and heavy-duty vehicle technologies; scenarios for conventional and alternative fuels. It details the assumptions used to calculate those costs, such as natural gas and electricity prices, discount rates, and vehicle miles traveled. The 2022 Transportation ATB vehicle data are specifically for cars powered by gasoline, diesel, natural gas, gasoline hybrid, plug-in hybrid, battery electric, and fuel-cell powertrains and for trucks powered by diesel, diesel hybrid, plug-in hybrid, battery electric, and fuel cell powertrains. Fuels and blendstocks include gasoline, ethanol, blendstock for oxygenate blending, diesel, diesel from biomass, natural gas, electricity, hydrogen, aviation fuel, and marine fuel. At this time, the ATB does not include other vehicles such as buses, 2- and 3-wheeled motorized vehicles, or non-road vehicles such as aircraft, vessels, locomotives, and those for industry and agriculture. See "ATB Transportation Website" resource below for more project information.

2022↗
DOE OSTI2023

The Feasibility of Direct CO2 Conversion Technologies on Impacting Mid-Century Climate Goals

Recent IPCC modeling suggests that to limit global warming below 2 degrees C, "unprecedented" reductions in CO2 emissions will be required during the 2030-2050 time frame. The direct conversion of CO2 to fuels and chemicals using renewable electricity has garnered interest as one route to draw down emissions with the ability to synthesize products at a significantly lower carbon footprint than conventional methods. However, most direct CO2 conversion pathways are only in the early stages of development and face technical and market hurdles prior to scale-up, bringing into question what role they may play in influencing global CO2 emissions within this critical two-decade window. In this perspective, we highlight low-temperature electrolysis as a promising technology for direct CO2 conversion, including discussion on the products that could most impact global emission levels, and importantly, offer insight into the timeline, required advancements, and specific technical targets needed to successfully scale and deploy these technologies at the commercial level.

chemicals↗
DOE OSTI2022

Evaluation of Performance Variables to Accelerate the Deployment of Sustainable Aviation Fuels at a Regional Scale

An increase in jet fuel consumption and its associated emissions across the world have led to the need for alternative technologies to produce sustainable aviation fuels (SAF). One option to produce SAFs is to utilize waste or biomass-based feedstocks that has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% or more compared to conventional jet fuel. However, there is a lack of understanding of how the synergistic effects of key performance variables could hinder or help the deployment of aviation fuels on a regional scale. Here, we assess the implications of key variables-including type and quantity of waste/biomass feedstock availability near the airport, cost of SAF production, life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, policies, and fuel/infrastructure logistics-on the deployment of SAF at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. We consider three ASTM International-approved SAF technologies (Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids, Fischer-Tropsch, and Alcohol to Jet) that can be blended up to 50% with petroleum-based jet fuel. Results from our analysis show that woody biomass-based Fischer-Tropsch technology has the lowest fuel production costs ($2.31-$2.81/gallon gasoline equivalent) of all pathways, and it reduces life cycle GHG emissions by 86% compared to conventional jet fuel despite the higher availability of crop residues compared to either woody biomass or fats, oils, and greases. Also, infrastructure is available at O'Hare International Airport to blend SAF with Jet A fuel through three terminals directly connected to the airport via pipelines. Our sensitivity analysis shows renewable fuel incentives and feedstock price to be key performance variables affecting the production cost and deployment of SAF.

alcohol-to-jet↗
DOE OSTI2022

Life cycle analysis of polylactic acids from different wet waste feedstocks

Producing a valuable chemical product through diversion of wet wastes can simultaneously resolve the problems associated with increasing wastes and greenhouse gas emissions from conventional chemical production processes. In this work, we investigated the life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions, water, and fossil-fuel consumption for waste-derived polylactic acids (PLA) from three different waste feedstocks, namely wastewater sludge, food waste, and swine manure, using the Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy Use in Technologies (GREET) model. The decarbonization potential of replacing fossil-based resins with the waste-derived polymer was also investigated. The results show that swine manure-to-PLA pathway was the least carbon intensive (—1.4 kgCO 2 e/kg) among the three waste-to-PLA pathways on a cradle-to-grave basis, followed by the food waste case (—1.3 kgCO 2 e/kg) and then by the wastewater sludge case (0.6 kgCO 2 e/kg). In the baseline scenario, all three waste-to-PLA pathways were less carbon intensive than both fossil-based PET and HDPE on a cradle-to-grave basis: 66% (vs. PET) and 56% (vs. HDPE), 171 and 192%, 181 and 205% reduction in GHG emissions for wastewater sludge-, food waste-, and swine manure-to-PLA pathway, respectively. For all sensitivity cases investigated, the food waste- and swine manure-to-PLA pathways were significantly less carbon intensive than their fossil-counterparts. In terms of the annual decarbonization potential of replacing fossil-based PET or HDPE, the wastewater sludge- and food waste-pathway showed higher mitigation potential than the swine manure-pathway: i) 18–28 kilotons CO 2 e-reduction per year for wastewater sludge pathway; ii) 23–26 kTCO 2 e-reduction/yr for food waste pathway; and iii) about 5 kTCO 2 e-reduction/yr for swine manure pathway depending on the type of conventional resin replaced. However, given the abundant availability of the swine manure feedstocks across the United States, the decarbonization potential of swine manure-based pathway can also increase as the plant capacity or the number of plants grow.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2022

Techno-Economic Evaluation of Strategies to Approach Net-Zero Carbon Sustainable Aviation Fuel via Woody Biomass Gasification and Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis

Reducing the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the transportation industry is a key target for achieving global net-zero carbon goals. Wide-spread electrification, efficient engine design, and alternative fuel implementations have been introduced for light-duty vehicles and are projected to significantly reduce light-duty emissions in the near future. Conversely, the aviation sector contributes considerably towards transportation-based carbon emissions, but current projections do not show substantial reductions in carbon emissions over time. Challenges for the aviation sector include low compatibility with electrification, relative inflexibility to variations in fuel properties, and requirement of high energy density fuels. Thus, identifying pathways to decarbonize the aviation sector via liquid low- or net-zero carbon biofuels that are compatible with current aviation infrastructure is crucial. This work investigates the economic feasibility of approaching net-zero carbon sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) from woody biomass via gasification and Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. In doing so, this assessment identifies the economic opportunities and trade-offs of several carbon mitigation strategies coupled with renewable resource interventions required to approach net-zero carbon fuels via biomass. Renewable natural gas and green hydrogen utilization strategies are assessed to examine the impact of fuel yield improvements versus renewable resource cost. Additionally, both carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) and carbon capture and utilization (CCU) are considered in this analysis to help mitigate carbon loss to the atmosphere. Each scenario was assessed on cost, carbon efficiency, energy efficiency, and overall technology-readiness level (TRL). The results of this analysis show that renewable natural gas, green hydrogen, and CCS can be viewed as a low-cost, near-term carbon abatement strategies. However, in the long-term, deployment of more expensive and less technologically mature CCU technologies can make use of point sources of CO2 to boost overall fuel production.

aviation fuel↗
DOE OSTI2022

Chapter 3: Power Conversion Technologies: The Advent of Power-to-Gas, Power-to-Liquid, and Power-to-Heat

Decreasing levelized costs of renewable electricity coupled with expanding deployment are enabling a rapid reduction in the carbon intensity of the electrical grid. However, this transition is occurring more slowly in other sectors, including transportation and manufacturing. Power-to-X technologies provide a means to accelerate this transition in those sectors by converting renewable electricity into chemical energy and heat. In this chapter, we provide an overview of the existing and emerging Power-to-X technologies covering the production of methane (hydrogen is covered in Chapter 5) (i.e. Power-to-Gas), chemicals and fuels (e.g. ammonia, carbon monoxide, ethylene, methanol, ethanol, and formic acid), and heat (e.g. for industrial and building applications); discuss the overarching and technology-specific challenges and opportunities; and highlight the implications of deployment of Power-to-X technologies on power generation. We emphasize that Power-to-X technologies do exist today at various stages of development and commercialization and that a transition to lower carbon intensity for the transportation and manufacturing sectors is possible, but it requires immense growth of the electrical grid and appropriate systems design and operations.

ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Developing reactors for electrifying bio-methanation: a perspective from bio-electrochemistry

The integration of microbial synthesis with renewable electricity is an emerging route for both CO 2 utilization and seasonal energy storage in the form of stored bio-electrofuels. The major benefits of electrifying bioreactors include: using highly selective bio-catalysts for CO 2 conversion under mild reaction conditions; decoupling the production of more facile electrochemical intermediates, such as hydrogen, at the electrode from the production of bio-catalyzed multi-electron and/or carbon products, such as methane or acetate; using microbes as robust and self-regenerating catalysts enabling higher efficiency and durability in CO 2 conversion systems compared to inorganic catalysis. In this Perspective, we propose research aimed at developing electro-bioreactor components that will increase the productivity of the reactor while maintaining high energy efficiency and biocompatible reaction conditions to fully realize the benefits of electrified bioreactors. Furthermore, these developments include: flow reactors with tailored 3D electrodes to optimally use the reactor volume, electrocatalysts designed for peak performance in neutral pH electrolytes, high conductivity microbial media, and new membrane separator materials with high ion conductivity and low gas permeability. Production of methane via a hybrid electrical-biological approach is taken as a case study to motivate these developments. Finally, an iterative design–manufacture–test cycle, enabled by additive manufacturing and 3D printing technologies, is proposed to rapidly prototype components prior to large-scale manufacturing.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗