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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 253 records · Page 14
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

Newly identified sex chromosomes in the Sphagnum (peat moss) genome alter carbon sequestration and ecosystem dynamics

Peatlands are crucial sinks for atmospheric carbon but are critically threatened due to warming climates. Sphagnum (peat moss) species are keystone members of peatland communities where they actively engineer hyperacidic conditions, which improves their competitive advantage and accelerates ecosystem-level carbon sequestration. To dissect the molecular and physiological sources of this unique biology, we generated chromosome-scale genomes of two Sphagnum species: S. divinum and S. angustifolium. Sphagnum genomes show no gene colinearity with any other reference genome to date, demonstrating that Sphagnum represents an unsampled lineage of land plant evolution. The genomes also revealed an average recombination rate an order of magnitude higher than vascular land plants and short putative U/V sex chromosomes. These newly described sex chromosomes interact with autosomal loci that significantly impact growth across diverse pH conditions. This discovery demonstrates that the ability of Sphagnum to sequester carbon in acidic peat bogs is mediated by interactions between sex, autosomes and environment.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2025

Counterpart identification and classification for eRASS1 and characterisation of the active galactic nuclei content

Context. Accurately accounting for the Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) phase in galaxy evolution requires a large, clean AGN sample. This is now possible with SRG/eROSITA, which completed its first all-sky X-ray survey (eRASS1) on June 12, 2020. The public Data Release 1 (DR1, Jan 31, 2024) includes 930,203 sources from the western Galactic hemisphere. Aims. The data enable the selection of a large AGN sample and the discovery of rare sources. However, scientific return depends on accurate characterisation of the X-ray emitters, requiring high-quality multi-wavelength data. This paper presents the identification and classification of optical and infrared counterparts to eRASS1 sources. Methods. Counterparts to eRASS1 X-ray point sources were identified using Gaia DR3, CatWISE2020, and Legacy Survey DR10 (LS10) with the Bayesian NWAY algorithm and trained priors. Sources were classified as Galactic or extragalactic via a machine-learning model combining optical/IR and X-ray properties, trained on a reference sample. For extragalactic LS10 sources, photometric redshifts were computed using CIRCLEZ. Results. Within the LS10 footprint, all 656,614 eROSITA/DR1 sources have at least one possible optical counterpart; ∼570 000 are extragalactic and likely AGN. Half are new detections compared to AllWISE, Gaia, and Quaia AGN catalogues. Gaia and CatWISE2020 counterparts are less reliable, due to the survey’s shallowness and the limited amount of features available to assess the probability of being an X-ray emitter. In the Galactic plane, where the overdensity of stellar sources also increases the chance of associations, using conservative reliability cuts, we identified approximately 18 000 Gaia and 55 000 CatWISE2020 extragalactic sources. Conclusions. We have released three high-quality counterpart catalogues – plus the training and validation sets – as a benchmark for the field. These datasets have many applications, but in particular, they empower researchers to build AGN samples tailored for completeness and purity, accelerating the hunt for the Universe’s most energetic engines.

X-rays: general↗
DOE OSTI2021

Stepping on the Gas to a Circular Economy: Accelerating Development of Carbon-Negative Chemical Production from Gas Fermentation

Owing to rising levels of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere and oceans, climate change poses significant environmental, economic, and social challenges globally. Technologies that enable carbon capture and conversion of greenhouse gases into useful products will help mitigate climate change by enabling a new circular carbon economy. Gas fermentation using carbon-fixing microorganisms offers an economically viable and scalable solution with unique feedstock and product flexibility that has been commercialized recently. Here, we review the state of the art of gas fermentation and discuss opportunities to accelerate future development and rollout. We discuss the current commercial process for conversion of waste gases to ethanol, including the underlying biology, challenges in process scale-up, and progress on genetic tool development and metabolic engineering to expand the product spectrum. We emphasize key enabling technologies to accelerate strain development for acetogens and other nonmodel organisms.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Virtual Engineering of Low-Temperature Conversion

In this work, we present the development of an overarching software framework and supporting multiphysics models to simulate the end-to-end process of biomass conversion. This virtual engineering (VE) software is designed with the goal of accelerating research and development and reducing risk for market-relevant biomass conversion processes. We currently support multiple models, computing paradigms, and fidelities representing the steps of feedstock pretreatment, enzymatic hydrolysis, and bioconversion. Although this VE approach was developed to support a biomass workflow, we have designed each component in a way that allows us to easily support new domains, unit models, and feedstocks. We begin by presenting the user-facing aspects of the VE software and highlight how simulated elements are defined and linked by VE functions. We then present an overview of the high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models developed to support our target domain before segueing into our efforts to develop accurate and fast surrogate models, capturing the salient outcomes from the CFD simulations in a significantly less computationally demanding manner. We then present how VE calculations interface with a commercial techno-economic analysis software, Aspen Plus. We conclude by presenting VE case studies that leverage these methods and discuss how our methods can be extended to support a wide variety of accelerated biofuel commercialization pathways in the future.

biofuel↗
DOE OSTI2025

Excited State Covalency, Dynamics, and Photochemistry of Square Planar Ni-Thiolate Complexes Revealed by Ultrafast X-ray Absorption

Highly covalent Ni bis(dithiolene) and related complexes provide an ideal platform for investigating the effects of metal–ligand orbital hybridization on excited state character and dynamics. In particular, we focus on the ligand field excited states that dominate the photophysics of first-row transition metal complexes. Here, we investigate if they can be significantly delocalized off the metal center, possibly yielding photochemical reactivity more similar to charge transfer excited states than metal-centered ligand field excited states. Here [Ni(mpo) 2 ] (mpo = 2-mercaptopyridine- N-oxide) provides a representative example for the larger chemical class and is an active electro- and photo-catalyst for proton reduction. A detailed characterization of the excited state electronic structure, dynamics, and photochemistry of [Ni(mpo) 2 ] is presented based on ultrafast transient X- ray absorption spectroscopy at the Ni and S 1s core absorption K-edges. By comparing the ultrafast Ni K-edge absorption to ab initio calculations, we identify an excited state relaxation mechanism where an initial ligand-to-metal charge transfer excitation results in both excited state electron transfer (generating a catalytically relevant reduced photoproduct [Ni(mpo) 2 ] − ) and relaxation to a pseudo-tetrahedral triplet ligand field excited state. From the ultrafast S K-edge absorption, the ligand field excited state is found to be highly delocalized onto the thiolate ligands and a tetrahedral structural distortion is shown to substantially influence the degree of delocalization. The results identify a significant structural coordinate to target when aiming to control the excited state covalency in square planar complexes.

Lim, Hyeongtaek [SLAC National Accelerator Laborat↗
DOE OSTI2025

Enhancing water and oxygen transport through electrode engineering for AEM water electrolyzers

Anion-exchange membrane water electrolyzers (AEMWEs) can accelerate the deployment of more efficient and affordable hydrogen production solutions. Here, electrode structure is shown to affect water back-diffusion and oxygen transport, which, in return, governs overpotential behaviors in AEMWEs. Measurements indicate that electrode with copious catalytic sites produces water close to the AEM, creating a higher water gradient and driving water back-diffusion, which improves membrane hydration and mass transport. In situ measurement reveals a high pH gradient near the anode surface, which affects anode kinetics. Operando measurement shows reduced oxygen accumulation when decoupling oxygen production and transport on anode. Catalyst ink rheology and stability are tuned with additives to realize scalable fabrication of electrodes with enhanced transport features, allowing AEMWE to operate at 2 A cm−2 for over 1,000+ h at a 2.3 μV h−1 degradation rate. Analysis during and post-durability provides insights into degradation mechanisms. This work demonstrates an electrode design strategy for efficient and durable AEMWEs.

AEM↗
DOE OSTI2019

Pulmo (V.2.0): Miniaturized Artificial, Configurable Human Lung System of Systems for Accelerated Toxicological Studies

The Pulmonary Lung Model (PuLMo) Version 2.0 is a miniaturized, engineered human artificial lung organ, designed to mimic the responses of human lungs to pharmaceuticals, toxins, and other agents. It can be customized in a system of systems implementation to reduce the life-cycle time and cost of pulmonary toxicological studies.

63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTAN↗
DOE OSTI2025

Orientation-dependent enhanced ionization in acetylene revealed by ultrafast cross-polarized pulse pairs

We investigate the orientation dependence of enhanced ionization (EI) during strong-field-driven nuclear motion in acetylene (C 2 ⁢H 2 ). Here, we both initiate and probe molecular dynamics in acetylene with intense 6-fs cross-polarized pulse pairs, separated by a variable delay. Following multiple ionization by the first pulse, acetylene undergoes simultaneous elongation of the carbon-carbon and carbon-hydrogen bonds, enabling further ionization by the second pulse and the formation of a very highly charged state, [C 2 ⁢H 2 ] 6+ . At small interpulse delays (< 20 fs), this enhancement occurs when the molecule is aligned to the probe pulse. Conversely, at large delays (> 40 fs), formation of [C 2 ⁢H 2 ] 6+ occurs when the molecule is aligned to the pump pulse. By analyzing the polarization and time dependence of sequentially ionized [C 2 ⁢H 2 ] 6+ , we resolve two transient alignments that both contribute to a large increase in the multiple ionization yield. In conclusion, this cross-polarized pulse pair scheme uniquely enables selective probing of deeply bound orbitals, providing new insights on orientation-dependent EI in highly charged hydrocarbons.

Atomic & molecular clusters↗
DOE OSTI2020

Modular cell-free expression plasmids to accelerate biological design in cells

Industrial biotechnology aims to produce high-value products from renewable resources. This can be challenging because model microorganisms—organisms that are easy to use like Escherichia coli—often lack the machinery required to utilize desired feedstocks like lignocellulosic biomass or syngas. Non-model organisms, such as Clostridium, are industrially proven and have desirable metabolic features but have several hurdles to mainstream use. Namely, these species grow more slowly than conventional laboratory microbes, and genetic tools for engineering them are far less prevalent. To address these hurdles for accelerating cellular design, cell-free synthetic biology has matured as an approach for characterizing non-model organisms and rapidly testing metabolic pathways in vitro. Unfortunately, cell-free systems can require specialized DNA architectures with minimal regulation that are not compatible with cellular expression. In this work, we develop a modular vector system that allows for T7 expression of desired enzymes for cell-free expression and direct Golden Gate assembly into Clostridium expression vectors. Utilizing the Joint Genome Institute’s DNA Synthesis Community Science Program, we designed and synthesized these plasmids and genes required for our projects allowing us to shuttle DNA easily between our in vitro and in vivo experiments. We next validated that these vectors were sufficient for cell-free expression of functional enzymes, performing on par with the previous state-of-the-art. Lastly, we demonstrated automated six-part DNA assemblies for Clostridium autoethanogenum expression with efficiencies ranging from 68% to 90%. We anticipate this system of plasmids will enable a framework for facile testing of biosynthetic pathways in vitro and in vivo by shortening development cycles.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2026

Medium- and Heavy-Duty Truck Duty Cycles

This dataset provides second-by-second duty cycle data for Class 6 and Class 8 diesel trucks in Texas, including key vehicle metrics, engine-related data, and GPS data (excluding GPS latitude and longitude to ensure confidentiality). The data were collected via tablets installed on the trucks and organized into daily datasets, each associated with a unique vehicle ID and date. There are 12 daily datasets for Class 6 diesel trucks (three unique vehicle IDs) and 43 daily datasets for Class 8 diesel trucks (six unique vehicle IDs). The units associated with each column are included in the name. The engine performance data include columns such as engine speed, engine percent torque, and engine fuel rate. Road grade (%/100) was estimated using the GPS altitude and wheel-based vehicle speed, which is used as an input for FASTSim. Cumulative distance was also calculated using the wheel-based vehicle speed. Additional columns include: - Engine Speed (RPM): Removed inaccurate readings and used to calculate angular velocity (radians/second). - Torque (N·m): Calculated using engine percent torque, nominal friction percent torque, and engine reference torque values (those columns were removed from dataset), then normalized to express as torque (%). - Flywheel Power (%): Calculated using the angular velocity and torque (in kW), then normalized as a percentage of the maximum value. - Engine Fuel Rate (%) and Torque (%): Both metrics were normalized by dividing by their respective maximum values within each dataset to express them as percentages. The datasets were analyzed to assess the energy impact of various driving behaviors, simulate energy efficiency, and recommend optimal routes for diesel trucks using NLR’s tool called RouteE. For driver coaching, factors like speed and acceleration limits were considered, and idle periods were reduced (assuming the engine was off during idling) to adjust each drive cycle. These adjusted drive cycles were then simulated in FASTSim to evaluate their effect on fleet energy consumption and estimate potential energy savings. The original cycles are available for download on this page ![image](CoVaR_Image_for_Data_Page_Kenworth_Truck.jpg)

1Hz↗
DOE OSTI2024

Optimization of Structurally Enhanced Solder Transient Liquid Phase Bonding

High temperature packaging technologies are a necessity for high temperature capable devices. SAC305 solder has an operational limit of 174°C imposed by creep effects which aligns well with current junction temperature limits of 175°C. Wide band gap semiconductor materials have the potential to reach junction temperatures of up to 800°C that are not currently attainable with significant reliability. Capitalizing on this potential will requires substrates and attachments that can operate well beyond the current 175°C standard. Silver sintering pastes have received widespread interest as a high temperature attachment alternative. However, the process requires high pressure bonding in an inert environment to achieve acceptable bond quality. Transient liquid phase (TLP) sintering is capable of good bond quality without pressure requirements but suffers from low thermal conductivity and only slightly reduced cost compared to silver sintering. SAC305 solder contains the same constituent materials for TLP as available copper-tin TLP sintering paste. By introducing engineered surface structures into the bond, intermetallic formation can be accelerated producing a bond similar to TLP sintering but in an ambient environment and for reduced cost. While this process has been demonstrated, it has not yet been optimized. Currently bonds are formed using a 75 μm stencil on substrate surface structures 24 μm tall, covering 19% of the bonding area. The process takes about 4 hours not including the formation of surface structures. Here, this study will center on the effects of stencil thickness and coating methods. Samples will be analyzed by scanning acoustic microscopy, die shear testing and cross sectional scanning acoustic microscopy.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2023

An extensible vector toolkit and parts library for advanced engineering of plant genomes

Abstract Plant biotechnology is rife with new advances in transformation and genome engineering techniques. A common requirement for delivery and coordinated expression in plant cells, however, places the design and assembly of transformation constructs at a crucial juncture as desired reagent suites grow more complex. Modular cloning principles have simplified some aspects of vector design, yet many important components remain unavailable or poorly adapted for rapid implementation in biotechnology research. Here, we describe a universal Golden Gate cloning toolkit for vector construction. The toolkit chassis is compatible with the widely accepted Phytobrick standard for genetic parts, and supports assembly of arbitrarily complex T‐DNAs through improved capacity, positional flexibility, and extensibility in comparison to extant kits. We also provision a substantial library of newly adapted Phytobricks, including regulatory elements for monocot and dicot gene expression, and coding sequences for genes of interest such as reporters, developmental regulators, and site‐specific recombinases. Finally, we use a series of dual‐luciferase assays to measure contributions to expression from promoters, terminators, and from cross‐cassette interactions attributable to enhancer elements in certain promoters. Taken together, these publicly available cloning resources can greatly accelerate the testing and deployment of new tools for plant engineering.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2021

Biological Parts for Plant Biodesign to Enhance Land-Based Carbon Dioxide Removal

A grand challenge facing society is climate change caused mainly by rising CO 2 concentration in Earth’s atmosphere. Terrestrial plants are linchpins in global carbon cycling, with a unique capability of capturing CO 2 via photosynthesis and translocating captured carbon to stems, roots, and soils for long-term storage. However, many researchers postulate that existing land plants cannot meet the ambitious requirement for CO 2 removal to mitigate climate change in the future due to low photosynthetic efficiency, limited carbon allocation for long-term storage, and low suitability for the bioeconomy. To address these limitations, there is an urgent need for genetic improvement of existing plants or construction of novel plant systems through biosystems design (or biodesign). Here, we summarize validated biological parts (e.g., protein-encoding genes and noncoding RNAs) for biological engineering of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) traits in terrestrial plants to accelerate land-based decarbonization in bioenergy plantations and agricultural settings and promote a vibrant bioeconomy. Specifically, we first summarize the framework of plant-based CDR (e.g., CO 2 capture, translocation, storage, and conversion to value-added products). Then, we highlight some representative biological parts, with experimental evidence, in this framework. Finally, we discuss challenges and strategies for the identification and curation of biological parts for CDR engineering in plants.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Self-driving laboratories to autonomously navigate the protein fitness landscape

Abstract Protein engineering has nearly limitless applications across chemistry, energy and medicine, but creating new proteins with improved or novel functions remains slow, labor-intensive and inefficient. Here we present the Self-driving Autonomous Machines for Protein Landscape Exploration (SAMPLE) platform for fully autonomous protein engineering. SAMPLE is driven by an intelligent agent that learns protein sequence–function relationships, designs new proteins and sends designs to a fully automated robotic system that experimentally tests the designed proteins and provides feedback to improve the agent’s understanding of the system. We deploy four SAMPLE agents with the goal of engineering glycoside hydrolase enzymes with enhanced thermal tolerance. Despite showing individual differences in their search behavior, all four agents quickly converge on thermostable enzymes. Self-driving laboratories automate and accelerate the scientific discovery process and hold great potential for the fields of protein engineering and synthetic biology.

Rapp, Jacob T. (ORCID:0000000226835204)↗
DOE OSTI2025

An open-access simulated earthquake ground-motion database for an M7 Hayward Fault earthquake in the San Francisco Bay Region

Comprehensive understanding of earthquake ground motions, particularly in the near-fault region of large-magnitude events, is limited by gaps in strong-motion data. This challenge is prominent in areas with high seismic hazard but infrequent large earthquakes where data is sparse and difficult to interpret. These data limitations lead to uncertainties in the development of site-specific ground motions, which are crucial for engineering risk assessments. To address these challenges, physics-based regional-scale ground-motion simulations have been developed. With the emergence of exaflop-scale computing ecosystems, it is now possible to simulate regional earthquake processes at unprecedented fidelity and generate the large number of fault rupture realizations necessary to characterize both intra- and inter-event ground-motion variability. This article introduces a new database of simulated earthquake ground motions, created for applications in earthquake engineering, earthquake planning, and emergency response. The inaugural version of the database features simulated ground motions for a magnitude 7 Hayward Fault earthquake in the San Francisco Bay Region (SFBR), using the EarthQuake SIMulation (EQSIM) simulation framework and the Graves–Pitarka kinematic rupture model. The aim is to provide high-fidelity, spatially dense, three-component motions generated on the Department of Energy’s (DOE) newest generation of graphics processing unit (GPU)-accelerated supercomputers. These motions are being made openly available to the engineering, scientific, and disaster planning communities. In addition, this work develops protocols for the efficient dissemination of these large data sets and emphasizes community engagement to build confidence in their application. This article discusses the methodology behind the data, underlying software verification and validation, scalable data management, and a user interface for data access. The goal is to facilitate widespread use and elicit expert feedback to maximize the utility and exploitation of simulated motions. While the initial focus is on the San Francisco Region, simulations for additional regions will be added as the DOE program progresses.

Simulated ground-motion database↗
DOE OSTI2025

From bench to biofactory: high-throughput technologies and automated workflows to accelerate biomanufacturing

Microbial production of target molecules has advanced significantly in recent years driven by innovations in enzyme engineering, DNA synthesis, and genomic editing. However, to access the massive potential of microbial production, a vast parametric space remains to be investigated to optimize these biobased processes for a robust bioeconomy. Here, we review the current state of the art, some key challenges and possible solutions. We see a critical role of automation, high-throughput technologies, self-driving and cloud labs, and data management to enable Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning and mechanistic models to overcome the design space challenges and accelerate the development of novel bio-based solutions. Accurate models will expedite the development and scale-up of engineered microbes for a range of final products from many starting materials.

Petzold, Christopher J↗
DOE OSTI2025

Dark-field x-ray microscopy for 2D and 3D imaging of microstructural dynamics at the European x-ray free-electron laser

Dark field x-ray microscopy (DXFM) can visualize microstructural distortions in bulk crystals. Using the femtosecond x-ray pulses generated by x-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs), DFXM can achieve sub-μm spatial resolution and <100 fs time resolution simultaneously. In this paper, we demonstrate ultrafast DFXM measurements at the European XFEL to visualize an optically driven longitudinal strain wave propagating through a diamond single crystal. We also present two DFXM scanning modalities that are new to the XFEL sources: spatial 3D and 2D axial-strain scans with sub-μm spatial resolution. With this progress in XFEL-based DFXM, we discuss new opportunities to study multi-timescale spatiotemporal dynamics of microstructures.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗