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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Status of Research Activities on LVDTs: Modeling and Simulation Development and Performance Characterization of Commercial LVDTs

FY-22 research focused on two major areas. The first area was modeling and simulation with linked testing that will advance the Linear Variable Differential Transformers (LVDT) technology for use by stakeholders requiring LVDTs in upcoming irradiation tests. The second area focused on testing LVDTs purchased from U.S. suppliers that were investigated in FY-21. These cross-cutting development activities will ensure stakeholders have the current state-of-the-art LVDT-based technologies for deployment in future irradiation tests. Two stand-alone reports are included in the appendixes. The purpose of this report is to provide a convenient body of work to access the reports and to evaluate the data and conclusions provided. Appendix A, “Testing of the RDP Translation Transducer,” contains a complete evaluation of an RDP Electrosense linear transducer that has the capability of replicating the form, fit, and function of LVDTs currently being used at Idaho National Laboratory (INL). Appendix B is an extract from the report, “Advanced Sensors and Instrumentation Program at Boise State University (BSU), August 2022, Linear Variable Differential Transformers.” This report contains modeling and testing results conducted at BSU and INL.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2023

Radiometric Testing of Germicidal UV Products, Round 1: UV-C Towers and Whole-Room Luminaires (CALiPER Full Report)

This report analyzes the independently tested performance of 13 germicidal ultraviolet (GUV) products purchased between February and July 2022. The products were of three different types: • Seven portable, consumer-oriented GUV towers designed to be placed on the floor or a desk of an unoccupied room to disinfect air and surfaces. Five of these products used LED sources and two products used low-pressure mercury (LPM) sources. • One non-portable GUV whole-room luminaire designed to be installed on a ceiling to disinfect air when a room is occupied. This product used an LED source. • Five non-portable GUV troffer or high-bay style whole-room luminaires designed to be installed in or suspended from a ceiling to disinfect air and surfaces when a room is unoccupied. All five used LPM sources. Radiometric and electrical performance was evaluated for all 13 products. Photobiological safety was also assessed for two of the products because their documentation included testable claims. The test results were compared across products and to manufacturer or vendor claims. The testing identified many issues related to the accuracy of reported GUV product performance. Claims were often untestable, contradictory, ambiguous, or used incorrect units and/or terminology. And when claims were testable, they often did not match test results. For example, three products that claimed to emit UV-C emitted only UV-A. These product claim issues were more numerous with consumer-oriented tower products, but problems with accurate performance claims were found across all products. The UV-C radiant efficiency of the products varied widely, even among similar products using the same source technologies. For example, the UV-C radiant efficiency of LPM products varied by greater than a factor of three for the same product type, indicating a large potential energy savings opportunity for products that are better designed for efficiency. LED products had orders-of-magnitude lower UV-C radiant efficiency than LPM products. Several testing challenges and limitations were identified. Most significant among these is the capability to accurately test and report the performance of larger GUV products. Integrating spheres require a specialized and costly coating to test UV, and the testing laboratory for this round of products had only a 20-inch diameter hemisphere with this capability. Only 2 of the 10 UV-C emitting products could be tested in this sphere. Goniometer testing had a different size limitation in that mirrors typically used to increase goniometer test distance to the far field are not reflective of UV and therefore could not be used to increase test distance. As a result, 7 of 13 products could not be tested far field. The implication is that electronic files of UV-C intensity data typically imported into design software for designing GUV applications may not be reliable for predicting irradiance at arbitrary far-field distances. It is currently unclear if these are industry-wide testing laboratory limitations, and what solutions may exist to address them. Specifiers and buyers of GUV products will need accurate performance claims and data to safely and effectively deploy GUV technology to reduce the transmission of diseases in buildings. This CALiPER GUV Round 1 report demonstrates the significant education and training that is needed for manufacturers and vendors to accurately test and report the performance of their GUV products. Further standards and guidelines are needed to improve test methods, address testing limitations, and improve reporting of product performance. Additionally, the wide range in UV-C radiant efficiency of GUV products means there is a large energy-savings opportunity for more energy efficient GUV products.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2023

Radiometric Testing of Germicidal UV Products, Round 1: UV-C Towers and Whole-Room Luminaires (CALiPER Summary Report)

This summary report analyzes the independently tested performance of 13 germicidal ultraviolet (GUV) products purchased between February and July 2022. A companion full report provides additional information and discussion of the tested products, test methods, and results. The products were of three different types: • Seven portable, consumer-oriented GUV towers designed to be placed on the floor or a desk of an unoccupied room to disinfect air and surfaces. Five of these products used LED sources and two products used low-pressure mercury (LPM) sources. • One non-portable GUV whole-room luminaire designed to be installed on a ceiling to disinfect air when a room is occupied. This product used an LED source. • Five non-portable GUV troffer or high-bay style whole-room luminaires designed to be installed in or suspended from a ceiling to disinfect air and surfaces when a room is unoccupied. All five used LPM sources. Radiometric and electrical performance was evaluated for all 13 products. Photobiological safety was also assessed for two of the products because their documentation included testable claims. The test results were compared across products and to manufacturer or vendor claims. The testing identified many issues related to the accuracy of reported GUV product performance. Claims were often untestable, contradictory, ambiguous, or used incorrect units and/or terminology. And when claims were testable, they often did not match test results. For example, three products that claimed to emit UV-C emitted only UV-A. These product claim issues were more numerous with consumer-oriented tower products, but problems with accurate performance claims were found across all products. The UV-C radiant efficiency of the products varied widely, even among similar products using the same source technologies. For example, the UV-C radiant efficiency of LPM products varied by greater than a factor of three for the same product type, indicating a large potential energy savings opportunity for products that are better designed for efficiency. LED products had orders-of-magnitude lower UV-C radiant efficiency than LPM products. Several testing challenges and limitations were identified. Most significant among these is the capability to accurately test and report the performance of larger GUV products. Integrating spheres require a specialized and costly coating to test UV, and the testing laboratory for this round of products had only a 20-inch diameter hemisphere with this capability. Only 2 of the 10 UV-C emitting products could be tested in this sphere. Goniometer testing had a different size limitation in that mirrors typically used to increase goniometer test distance to the far field are not reflective of UV and therefore could not be used to increase test distance. As a result, 7 of 13 products could not be tested far field. The implication is that electronic files of UV-C intensity data typically imported into design software for designing GUV applications may not be reliable for predicting irradiance at arbitrary far-field distances. It is currently unclear if these are industry-wide testing laboratory limitations, and what solutions may exist to address them. Specifiers and buyers of GUV products will need accurate performance claims and data to safely and effectively deploy GUV technology to reduce the transmission of diseases in buildings. This CALiPER GUV Round 1 report demonstrates the significant education and training that is needed for manufacturers and vendors to accurately test and report the performance of their GUV products. Further standards and guidelines are needed to improve test methods, address testing limitations, and improve reporting of product performance. Additionally, the wide range in UV-C radiant efficiency of GUV products means there is a large energy-savings opportunity for more energy efficient GUV products.

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

Radiometric Testing of Germicidal UV Products, Round 1: UV-C Towers and Whole-Room Luminaires (CALiPER Summary Report)

This summary report analyzes the independently tested performance of 13 germicidal ultraviolet (GUV) products purchased between February and July 2022. A companion full report (DOE 2023) provides additional information and discussion of the tested products, test methods, and results. The products were of three different types: • Seven portable, consumer-oriented GUV towers designed to be placed on the floor or a desk of an unoccupied room to disinfect air and surfaces. Five of these products used LED sources and two products had low-pressure mercury (LPM) sources. • One GUV whole-room luminaire designed to be installed on a ceiling to disinfect air when a room is occupied. This product had LED sources. • Five GUV troffer or high-bay style whole-room luminaires designed to be installed in or suspended from a ceiling to disinfect air and surfaces when a room is unoccupied. All five had LPM sources. Product testing covered radiometric and electrical performance for all 13 products as well as photobiological safety evaluation if product documentation included testable claims. Measurement results enable comparison between products and against manufacturer or vendor claims. Testing identified numerous issues related to the accuracy of claimed GUV product performance. Claims were often untestable, contradictory, ambiguous, or used incorrect units and/or terminology. When claims were testable, they often did not match test results. For example, three LED products that claimed to emit UV-C emitted only UV-A. Product claim issues were more common among consumer-oriented tower products, but all product types exhibited problems with accurate performance claims. The UV-C radiant efficiency (calculated as UV-C output power divided by electrical input power) of the products varied widely, even among similar products using the same source technologies. For example, the UV-C radiant efficiency of LPM products varied by greater than a factor of three for the same product type, indicating a large potential energy savings opportunity for products that are better designed for efficiency. LED products had orders-of-magnitude lower UV-C radiant efficiency than LPM products. This study also identified several testing challenges and limitations. Most significant among these is the capability to accurately test and report the performance of larger GUV products. Whereas integrating spheres are used to quickly measure total radiant flux (i.e., output power) and spectral distribution, goniometers are used to measure radiant intensity distribution (from which radiant flux can be calculated). Integrating spheres require a specialized and costly coating to test UV, and the testing laboratory for this round of products had only a 20-inch diameter hemisphere with this capability. The integrating sphere accommodated just 2 of the 10 UV-C emitting products. Goniometer testing had a different size limitation in that mirrors typically used to increase goniometer test distance to the far field reflect little to no UV. As a result, the study evaluated only 6 of 13 products in the far field. Electronic files of UV-C intensity data for the other 7 products, which would typically be imported into design software for designing GUV applications, may not be reliable for predicting irradiance at arbitrary far-field distances (IES 2022a; CIE 2020). Specifiers and buyers of GUV products need accurate performance claims and data to deploy GUV technology safely and effectively. This CALiPER GUV Round 1 report demonstrates the significant education and training manufacturers and vendors still require to accurately test and report the performance of their GUV products. Further industry standards and guidelines may address testing limitations and improve test methods, product performance, and the accuracy of performance claims.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2023

Radiometric Testing of Germicidal UV Products, Round 1: UV-C Towers and Whole-Room Luminaires (CALiPER Full Report)

This report analyzes the independently tested performance of 13 germicidal ultraviolet (GUV) products purchased between February and July 2022. The products were of three different types: • Seven portable, consumer-oriented GUV towers designed to be placed on the floor or a desk of an unoccupied room to disinfect air and surfaces. Five of these products used LED sources and two products had low-pressure mercury (LPM) sources. • One GUV whole-room luminaire designed to be installed on a ceiling to disinfect air when a room is occupied. This product had LED sources. • Five GUV troffer or high-bay style whole-room luminaires designed to be installed in or suspended from a ceiling to disinfect air and surfaces when a room is unoccupied. All five had LPM sources. Product testing covered radiometric and electrical performance for all 13 products as well as photobiological safety evaluation if product documentation included testable claims. Measurement results enable comparison between products and against manufacturer or vendor claims. Testing identified numerous issues related to the accuracy of claimed GUV product performance. Claims were often untestable, contradictory, ambiguous, or used incorrect units and/or terminology. When claims were testable, they often did not match test results. For example, three LED products that claimed to emit UV-C emitted only UV-A. Product claim issues were more common among consumer-oriented tower products, but all product types exhibited problems with accurate performance claims. The UV-C radiant efficiency (calculated as UV-C output power divided by electrical input power) of the products varied widely, even among similar products using the same source technologies. For example, the UV-C radiant efficiency of LPM products varied by greater than a factor of three for the same product type, indicating a large potential energy savings opportunity for products that are better designed for efficiency. LED products had orders-of-magnitude lower UV-C radiant efficiency than LPM products. This study also identified several testing challenges and limitations. Most significant among these is the capability to accurately test and report the performance of larger GUV products. Whereas integrating spheres are used to quickly measure total radiant flux (i.e., output power) and spectral distribution, goniometers are used to measure radiant intensity distribution (from which radiant flux can be calculated). Integrating spheres require a specialized and costly coating to test UV, and the testing laboratory for this round of products had only a 20-inch diameter hemisphere with this capability. The integrating sphere accommodated just 2 of the 10 UV-C emitting products. Goniometer testing had a different size limitation in that mirrors typically used to increase goniometer test distance to the far field reflect little to no UV. As a result, the study evaluated only 6 of 13 products in the far field. Electronic files of UV-C intensity data for the other 7 products, which would typically be imported into design software for designing GUV applications, may not be reliable for predicting irradiance at arbitrary far-field distances (IES 2022a; CIE 2020). Specifiers and buyers of GUV products need accurate performance claims and data to deploy GUV technology safely and effectively. This CALiPER GUV Round 1 report demonstrates the significant education and training manufacturers and vendors still require to accurately test and report the performance of their GUV products. Further industry standards and guidelines may address testing limitations and improve test methods, product performance, and the accuracy of performance claims.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
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↗
DOE OSTI2022

Applications and Techniques for Fast Machine Learning in Science

In this community review report, we discuss applications and techniques for fast machine learning (ML) in science—the concept of integrating powerful ML methods into the real-time experimental data processing loop to accelerate scientific discovery. The material for the report builds on two workshops held by the Fast ML for Science community and covers three main areas: applications for fast ML across a number of scientific domains; techniques for training and implementing performant and resource-efficient ML algorithms; and computing architectures, platforms, and technologies for deploying these algorithms. We also present overlapping challenges across the multiple scientific domains where common solutions can be found. This community report is intended to give plenty of examples and inspiration for scientific discovery through integrated and accelerated ML solutions. This is followed by a high-level overview and organization of technical advances, including an abundance of pointers to source material, which can enable these breakthroughs.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2025

A gravity-based mounting approach for large-scale cryogenic calorimeter arrays

Cryogenic calorimeters are among the leading technologies for searching for rare events. The CUPID experiment is exploiting this technology to deploy a tonne-scale detector to search for neutrinoless double-beta decay of 100 Mo. The CUPID collaboration proposed an innovative approach to assembling cryogenic calorimeters in a stacked configuration, held in position solely by gravity. This gravity-based assembly method is unprecedented in the field of cryogenic calorimeters and offers several advantages, including relaxed mechanical tolerances and simplified construction. To assess and optimize its performance, we constructed a medium-scale prototype hosting 28 Li 2 MoO 4 crystals and 30 Ge light detectors, both operated as cryogenic calorimeters at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (Italy). Despite an unexpected excess of noise in the light detectors, the results of this test proved (i) a thermal stability better than ±0.5 mK at 10 mK, (ii) a good energy resolution of Li 2 MoO 4 cryogenic calorimeters, (6.6 ± 2.2) keV FWHM at 2615 keV, and (iii) a Li 2 MoO 4 light yield measured by the closest light detector of 0.36 keV/MeV, sufficient to guarantee the particle identification requested by CUPID.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Monitoring Carbon Storage Sites with Time-Lapse Gravity Surveys

Monitoring technologies are deployed on carbon storage sites to demonstrate that the injected CO2 is contained within the storage complex during and long after the active life of the project and that the CO2 behavior is conforming to expectations. Detection of gravity variations accompanying mass redistributions in the subsurface caused by fluid movements in reservoirs provides a unique means for monitoring the dynamics of a carbon sequestration site. Time-lapse gravity surveys have a long history of effectively monitoring temporal density changes in the subsurface. However, monitoring of carbon storage sites with time-lapse gravity surveys using surface or borehole measurements remains limited, although it gained more attention during the last decade. With the recent progresses in instrument capabilities, and the increased number of fluid storage sites (e.g., wastewater, CO2, natural gas, etc.), the gravity method (with its unique ability to remotely estimate both the mass of an injected fluid and its location) has a promising future in monitoring. This chapter provides background information regarding the gravity method and discusses its modeling and application to various carbon storage sites.

Carbon Sequestration, time-lapse gravity, monitori↗
DOE OSTI2025

Long-Term Photovoltaic System Performance in Cold, Snowy Climates

As countries around the world transition towards renewable energy, there is increasing interest in using photovoltaic (PV) technologies to help decarbonize northern and alpine communities due to their scalability and affordability. However, a barrier to large-scale adoption of PV in cold climates is long-term performance uncertainty under snowfall, freeze-thaw cycles, low temperatures, and high winds. In this work, we provide a comprehensive review of published silicon degradation rates in cold Koppen-Geiger climate classifications of Dfb (humid continental), Dfc (subarctic), and ET (tundra). We first analyze the system degradation rates of three subarctic ground-mounted photovoltaic sites in North America using the RdTools year-on-year method: an Al-BSF double-axis tracking site in Fairbanks, Alaska (65degrees N); a PERC and silicon heterojunction bifacial vertical and south-tilted site in Fairbanks, Alaska; and a PERC south-facing fixed-tilt site in Fort Simpson, Northwest Territories (62degrees N). Degradation rates of these newly analyzed sites vary between -0.4%/year and -1.5%/year. Combining these data with previously reported cold climate degradation rates, we show that the distribution of cold climate degradation peaks at -0.1%/year to -0.2%/year but has a large tail with rates above -0.5%/year. The average reported cold climate degradation rate is -0.45%/year, whereas the median value is -0.33%/year. These results suggest that despite frequent freeze-thaw cycles and potential exposure to high wind and snow loads, PV systems in cold climates tend to degrade slower than PV systems in warmer climates. The limited sample size of reported degradation rates in cold climates (27) motivates the need for further data acquisition and monitoring efforts as new technologies are deployed.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Integrating Solar Energy, Desalination, and Electrolysis

Solar electricity enables the advancement and deployment of technologies that are strongly influenced by clean energy availability and cost. The economics of both desalination and hydrogen production from water electrolysis are dominated by the cost of energy, and the availability of inexpensive solar energy creates markets and offers incentives to the desalination and electrolyzer industries. In this report the production of high-purity water and hydrogen from seawater is focused on. Current electrolyzers require deionized water so they need to be coupled with desalination units. It is shown that such coupling is cost effective in hydrogen generation, and it also offers benefits to thermal desalination, which can utilize waste heat from electrolysis. Furthermore, such coupling can be optimized when electrolyzers operate at high current density, using low-cost solar and/or wind electricity, as such operation increases both hydrogen production and heat generation. Results of technoeconomic modeling of polymer electrolyte membrane electrolyzers define thresholds of electricity pricing, current density, and operating temperature that make clean electrolytic hydrogen cost competitive with hydrogen from steam methane reforming (SMR). By using 2020 hourly electricity pricing in California and Texas, it is estimated that hydrogen can be produced from seawater in coupled desalination-electrolyzer systems at prices near $2 kg -1 H 2 , reaching cost parity with hydrogen produced from SMR.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Mochi: Composing Data Services for High-Performance Computing Environments

Technology enhancements and the growing breadth of application workflows running on high-performance computing (HPC) platforms drive the development of new data services that provide high performance on these new platforms, provide capable and productive interfaces and abstractions for a variety of applications, and are readily adapted when new technologies are deployed. The Mochi framework enables composition of specialized distributed data services from a collection of connectable modules and subservices. Rather than forcing all applications to use a one-size-fits-all data staging and I/O software configuration, Mochi allows each application to use a data service specialized to its needs and access patterns. This paper introduces the Mochi framework and methodology. The Mochi core components and microservices are described. Examples of the application of the Mochi methodology to the development of four specialized services are detailed. Finally, a performance evaluation of a Mochi core component, a Mochi microservice, and a composed service providing an object model is performed. The paper concludes by positioning Mochi relative to related work in the HPC space and indicating directions for future work.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2025

Cement and concrete as carbon sinks: Transforming a climate challenge into a carbon storage opportunity

Cement and concrete, while traditionally recognized as the main contributors to anthropogenic CO 2 emissions, also have untapped capacity to serve as substantial and scalable carbon sinks. This perspective examines how engineered mineral carbonation can transform cement-based materials into functional carbon storage systems, generating both environmental and economic value. We review the fundamental mechanisms of CO 2 uptake in cementitious systems, highlighting current limitations in reaction kinetics, phase control, and durability under varying environmental conditions. Emphasis is placed on the utilization of alkaline industrial residues and emerging magnesium-based cements, which offer synergistic pathways for carbon sequestration and circular resource use. We further assess the performance trade-offs associated with CO 2 uptake and the feasibility of deploying these technologies on industrial scales. A strategic roadmap is proposed that integrates scientific innovation, regulatory alignment, and carbon accounting in the life cycle to accelerate the adoption of carbon-storing concrete. This perspective provides a comprehensive framework to advance cement and concrete as engineered carbon sinks and supports the transition to a climate-positive construction industry.

Carbon storage↗
DOE OSTI2023

Geophysical signatures of soil AFFF contamination from spectral induced polarization and low field nuclear magnetic resonance methods

Few field methods are available for characterizing source zones contaminated with aqueous film forming foam (AFFF). Non-invasive geophysical characterization of AFFF source zone contamination in situ could assist with the delineation and characterization of these sites, allowing for more informed sampling regimes aimed at quantifying subsurface poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination. In this study, we present initial results from the investigation of the sensitivity of two existing surface and borehole-deployable geophysical technologies, spectral induced polarization (SIP), and low field nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), to soils impacted with AFFF. To investigate the sensitivity of these methods to AFFF-impacted soil, bench-scale column experiments were conducted on samples consisting of natural and synthetic soils and groundwater. While our findings do not show strong evidence of NMR sensitivity to soil PFAS contamination, we do find evidence that SIP has sufficient sensitivity to detect PFAS sorption to soils. This finding is based on evidence that AFFF constituents associated with the pore surface produce a measurable polarization response in both freshly contaminated synthetic soils and in soils historically impacted with AFFF.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2020

Truck platooning in the U.S. national road network: A system-level modeling approach

Truck platooning enables a group of trucks to move close together, which helps reduce truck fuel use and increase effective road capacity. In this paper, a system-level equilibrium model is developed to characterize spontaneous truck platooning with coexistence of non-platooning vehicles in a network, by explicitly accounting for the interlocking relationship among platoon formation time, truck fuel saving, and increase in effective road capacity. To equilibrate the relationships, an algorithm is proposed which involves a diagonalization approach and a bush based algorithm to solve decomposed subproblems. The condition of proportionality is imposed to obtain unique traffic flows for each class of vehicles on road links. In addition, a spatially constrained multivariate clustering technique is employed to construct origin/destination zones that are smaller than the coarse Freight Analysis Framework (FAF) zones, while maintaining reasonable computational burden for network traffic assignment. Model implementation in the U.S. shows that platooning could lead to 7.9% fuel saving among platoonable trucks in 2025 and a comparable increase in effective capacity of platoonable road links, which would account for 60% of rural interstate roads. The fuel saving and road capacity improvement translate into an annual cost reduction of $\$$868 million for the U.S. intercity trucking sector and reduced road infrastructure investment needs worth $\$$4.8 billion. Extensive sensitivity analysis further reveals that fuel saving of platoonable trucks increases with platoon size but decreases with inter-truck distance in a platoon. Fuel saving potential suggests that priority should be given to rural rather than urban roads in deploying platooning technologies. As we expected, greater market penetration of platooning technologies means higher fuel saving and greater increase in effective road capacity.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Metal Oxynitrides for the Electrocatalytic Reduction of Nitrogen to Ammonia

The successful deployment of technologies for the electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction reaction (e-NRR) to synthesize ammonia would enable distributed ammonia production with lower greenhouse gas emissions compared to the Haber–Bosch process. However, electrocatalysts that can readily activate N 2 , promote selective ammonia formation over the competing hydrogen evolution reaction, and maintain stability under reaction conditions are needed to enable this technology. Herein, we give our perspective on metal oxynitrides (A x B y O w N z ) as an emerging and underexplored materials class for e-NRR. Furthermore, we contrast the activity, selectivity, and stability of metal oxynitrides with those of their metal nitride and metal oxide counterparts. We discuss the different possible e-NRR reaction mechanisms on metal oxynitrides, emphasize challenges related to using metal oxynitrides for e-NRR, and provide an outlook for future research. Ultimately, the huge design space of metal oxynitrides is ripe for exploration to find catalyst formulations that overcome some of the limitations of traditional metal oxides and metal nitrides for e-NRR.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2024

Acid–base concentration swing for direct air capture of carbon dioxide

This work demonstrates the first experimental evidence of the acid–base concentration swing (ABCS) for direct air capture of CO 2 . This process is based on the effect that concentrating particular acid–base chemical reactants will strongly acidify solution, through Le Chatelier's principle, and result in outgassing absorbed CO 2 . After collecting the outgassed CO 2 , diluting the solution will result in a reversal of the acid–base reaction, basifying the solution and allowing for atmospheric CO 2 absorption. The experimental study examines a system that includes sodium cation as the alkalinity carrier, boric acid, and a polyol complexing agent that reversibly reacts with boric acid to strongly acidify solution upon concentration. Though the tested experimental system faces absorption rate and water capacity limitations, the ABCS process described here provides a basis for further process optimization. A generalized theoretical ABCS reaction framework is developed and different reaction orders and conditions are studied mathematically. Higher order reactions yield favorable cycle output results, reaching volumetric cycle capacity above 50 mM for third-order and 80 mM for fourth-order reactions. Optimal equilibrium constants are determined in order to guide alternative chemical searches and synthetic chemistry design targets. There is a substantial energetic benefit for reaction orders above the first, with second- and third-order ABCS cycles exhibiting a thermodynamic minimum work for the concentrating and outgassing steps around 150 kJ per mole of CO 2 . A significant advantage of the ABCS is that it can be driven through well-developed and widely-deployed desalination technologies, such as reverse osmosis, with opportunities for energy recovery when recombining the concentrated and diluted streams, and extraction can occur directly from the liquid phase upon vacuum application.

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

Neutron time of flight (nToF) detectors for inertial fusion experiments

Neutrons generated in Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) experiments provide valuable information to interpret the conditions reached in the plasma. The neutron time-of-flight (nToF) technique is well suited for measuring the neutron energy spectrum due to the short time (100 ps) over which neutrons are typically emitted in ICF experiments. By locating detectors 10s of meters from the source, the neutron energy spectrum can be measured to high precision. Here, we present a contextual review of the current state of the art in nToF detectors at ICF facilities in the United States, outlining the physics that can be measured, the detector technologies currently deployed and analysis techniques used.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗