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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 271 records · Page 15
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2021

Multilane Automated Driving With Optimal Control and Mixed-Integer Programming

Road vehicle lane changes often initiate traffic disturbances and can therefore impact road networks’ energy and time efficiency. Furthermore, unexpected changes in traffic conditions may also render lane changes counterproductive for the lane-changing vehicle. Vehicle-to-vehicle connectivity combined with anticipative control could address these challenges via improved lane change decisions by automated vehicles. In a move toward this objective, receding horizon control cast as a mixed-integer quadratic program is used to plan lane changing and acceleration in a coupled optimization. A long-term pacing module, based on Pontryagin’s minimum principle from optimal control theory, sets terminal and input references for receding horizon control to target a user’s expected travel time. To remove nonlinear vehicle dynamics from the receding horizon controller, lane change commands are passed to a pure pursuit steering module whose response is approximated by a second-order linear model. Here, comparison against a rule-based reactive algorithm in arterial and highway scenarios shows an 8.9%–13.7% reduction in energy consumption and a 5.2%–10.3% reduction in the travel time, along with navigational improvements.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Improving Residential Building Simulations Through Large-Scale Empirical Validation

Residential building energy simulations are increasingly used for energy-efficient building design, codes and standards analysis, home certifications and ratings, utility programs, and technology assessments. Various software tools exist to perform residential building simulations, and these tools often use different models, inputs, and assumptions. This leads to inconsistencies that can undermine confidence in the predicted results. Validation of these tools can increase confidence by ensuring their accuracy and consistency. One way to validate simulation tools is through empirical testing, which compares predicted energy usage to measured utility billing data. This paper describes the process of data collection, data standardization, and empirical validation, and illustrates its use with our residential EnergyPlus (R)-based software. The data and process can be extended to other simulation tools and contribute to improving residential building simulations more broadly.

empirical validation↗
DOE OSTI2026

Ductless Heat Pump Program

The Verde Ductless Heat Pump (DHP) Program expanded access to high-efficiency electric heating and cooling technologies for households in priority communities within the Portland Metro area. Funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Building Technologies Office (DE-EE0010132), the program combined residential ductless heat pump deployment with community-based outreach, participant support, contractor partnerships, and system development to improve program delivery.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2023

Complete Evaluation of ION Cost Reduction Opportunities for LWRS Pathways

The Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), plays a pivotal role in enhancing the sustainability, safety, and economic viability of the nation's fleet of nuclear power plants. This program collaborates extensively with industry, vendors, suppliers, regulatory agencies, and research and development organizations within the nuclear energy sector. The overarching goals of the LWRS program are twofold: to provide innovative science and technology-based solutions to the nuclear industry, surpassing current performance models, and to manage the aging of systems, structures, and components (SSCs) to extend the operational lifetimes of nuclear power plants safely, efficiently, and economically. The program focuses on five research and development pathways: Plant Modernization: This pathway seeks to enhance the economic viability of nuclear power plants in evolving energy markets through innovation, efficiency improvements, and digital transformation. The integration of digital technologies into plant operations is a central theme, aiming to create a seamless digital environment that improves plant economics and safety. Flexible Plant Operation and Generation: Research efforts in this pathway explore opportunities for light-water reactors (LWRs) to directly supply energy to industrial processes, diversifying revenue generation approaches and improving economic sustainability.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2020

Developing Equivalent Surface Heat Transfer Input Parameters for Updated Standard 140/BESTEST Thermal Fabric Test Cases

ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 140, Standard Method of Test for the Evaluation of Building Energy Analysis Computer Programs, is widely cited for evaluating software for use with performance-path energy efficiency analysis in conjunction with well-known energy-efficiency standards, including: ASHRAE Standard 90.1, the International Energy Conservation Code, and other international standards. This paper summarizes recent work to develop improved equivalent surface heat transfer input parameters for the building thermal fabric comparative test cases that comprise a portion of Standard 140. The software-to-software comparative test method allows comparison of simulation results from a wide variety of building energy simulation programs to each other. In this type of test method, it is of great importance to specify inputs that are as well-equivalenced as possible to accommodate a wide variety of input schemes for the tested programs, and thereby reduce the potential for disagreements among them in the tests. Results include new alternative constant surface coefficients that are appropriate to the test cases and demonstrate their ability to approximate the more detailed surface heat transfer models from which they are derived.

BESTEST↗
DOE OSTI2023

AI-Driven Smart Community Control for Accelerating PV Adoption and Enhancing Grid Resilience

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has launched a Connected Communities program that supports projects that expand DOE's network of grid-interactive, efficient building communities nationwide. As an early pilot of Connected Communities, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and its partners have developed and demonstrated a community-scale, hierarchical control solution to address the potential grid issues arising from high penetration of solar photovoltaics (PV) as well as to improve grid reliability and resilience in this residential community. A field pilot study has been performed at an affordable housing development called the Basalt Vista Community, which was built for school teachers and other professionals in the local workforce and represents an autonomous energy grid with all-electric, energy-efficient homes. With no natural gas line in the community, this is the first all-electric net-zero community in rural Colorado. In the field pilot study, NREL has validated the performance of the hierarchical control solution, which consists of NREL's foresee home energy management systems (HEMS) and community aggregators, in increasing demand flexibility and self-consuming PV, reducing potential over-voltages, and supporting critical loads during emergency events. In this presentation, we will present the methodology, simulation and field pilot results, and lessons learned from the project.

all-electric community↗
DOE OSTI2022

The Essential Role of Nuclear Energy in Achieving Economy-wide Net-Zero Solutions

Governments and private industry around the world have established aggressive goals to achieve net-zero emissions for the power, industrial, and transportation sectors by 2050. These aggressive goals demand immediate action if we are to be successful, and they require us to think more holistically about our clean energy options. Programs within the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) are addressing these holistic solutions. Traditionally, electricity generation and management and meeting energy demands for industry and transportation are considered independently. As we seek to achieve net-zero, we need to reassess energy demands. When we consider overall energy use, only one-third is in the form of electricity. Additional energy demands are in the form of heat or steam for industrial processes, as well as transportation. These sectors are much harder to abate, and electrification may not be the best option. Reducing environmental emissions at an affordable cost, while maintaining grid reliability and resilience, will require us to use all of the clean energy resources that we have available. That means coordinating the use of nuclear, renewables, and fossil fuels with carbon capture to meet growing demands for electricity, industrial applications, and mobility. The DOE Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE) program on Integrated Energy Systems (IES) is led by researchers at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and work is conducted in partnership with an array of other DOE laboratories, industry, and academia. The primary focus of IES research is to assess the technical and economic potential of IES to enhance the flexibility and utilization of nuclear reactors working alongside renewable generators to meet an array of energy demands—thereby maximizing the utilization of clean energy resources across all energy sectors. Various energy applications and product streams beyond electricity are being evaluated, ranging from generation of potable water to production of hydrogen, fertilizers, synthetic fuels, and chemicals. The DOE-NE program additionally partners with the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office under the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy to jointly fund the development of analysis tools, technologies, and nuclear-integrated hydrogen demonstration projects. This presentation highlights the wide array of R&D being conducted across multiple DOE-funded programs to develop and deploy nuclear-based IES that will be key to achieving our net-zero goals. By working with key collaborators in the nuclear industry, analytical studies are now becoming a reality in demonstration projects.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Advancing Nuclear Energy to Support Economy-wide Net-zero Solutions: Challenges and Opportunities

Governments and private industry around the world have established aggressive goals to achieve net-zero emissions for the power, industrial, and transportation sectors by 2050. These aggressive goals demand immediate action if we are to be successful, and they require us to think more holistically about our clean energy options. Programs within the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) are addressing these holistic solutions. Traditionally, electricity generation and management and meeting energy demands for industry and transportation are considered independently. As we seek to achieve net-zero, we need to reassess energy demands. When we consider overall energy use, only one-third is in the form of electricity. Additional energy demands are in the form of heat or steam for industrial processes, as well as transportation. These sectors are much harder to abate, and electrification may not be the best option. Reducing environmental emissions at an affordable cost, while maintaining grid reliability and resilience, will require us to use all of the clean energy resources that we have available. That means coordinating the use of nuclear, renewables, and fossil fuels with carbon capture to meet growing demands for electricity, industrial applications, and mobility. The DOE Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE) program on Integrated Energy Systems (IES) is led by researchers at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and work is conducted in partnership with an array of other DOE laboratories, industry, and academia. The primary focus of IES research is to assess the technical and economic potential of IES to enhance the flexibility and utilization of nuclear reactors working alongside renewable generators to meet an array of energy demands—thereby maximizing the utilization of clean energy resources across all energy sectors. Various energy applications and product streams beyond electricity are being evaluated, ranging from generation of potable water to production of hydrogen, fertilizers, synthetic fuels, and chemicals. The DOE-NE program additionally partners with the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office under the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy to jointly fund the development of analysis tools, technologies, and nuclear-integrated hydrogen demonstration projects. This presentation highlights the wide array of R&D being conducted across multiple DOE-funded programs to develop and deploy nuclear-based IES that will be key to achieving our net-zero goals. By working with key collaborators in the nuclear industry, analytical studies are now becoming a reality in demonstration projects. The presentation specifically focuses on motivations for the paradigm shift in how nuclear energy is deployed and used, opportunities for nuclear energy to support an array of non-electric application, integration options, computational tools and experimental systems to support evaluation and to accelerate deployment, and industry partnerships.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2020

ENERGY STAR for Tenants: An Online Energy Estimation Tool for Commercial Office Building Tenants

The commercial building sector consumes over 18% of the total energy in the United States. According to the 2012 Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS), office buildings comprise nearly 16 billion square feet of floor space and consume 253 billion kWh of energy annually. Office buildings represent nearly one-fifth of the energy consumed by commercial buildings, more than any other building type. Therefore, monitoring and reducing energy consumption in office buildings has become an increasingly important focus across the United States. The goal of the ENERGY STAR for Tenants program is to recognize office building tenants who demonstrate commitment to energy efficiency and environmental stewardship. Tenants seeking recognition must complete five major steps: estimate energy use, meter energy use, use efficient lighting, use efficient equipment, and share data. NREL is responsible for the underlying analysis performed for step one, estimating energy use. An online survey was developed for tenants to input information about their office space and its internal loads. NREL performed a parametric analysis across a large parameter space of office buildings. The analysis results were processed to map the user inputs to output energy ranges. The mappings enable the web tool to provide users with instant energy usage estimates based on a limited number of inputs.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2022

Industrial Assessment Center – integration of education and practice. Final progress report

The goal of the DOE’s Industrial Assessment Center (IAC) program is twofold: first, to help US manufacturing competitiveness by providing assessments and recommendations for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) on energy efficiency, productivity, sustainability and competitiveness – including measuring the impacts of these recommendations on reducing greenhouse gas emissions; and second, to address a growing shortage of engineering professionals with applied energy and manufacturing-related skills by training a diverse cross-section of engineering students through hands-on involvement in these assessments. IUPUI has an IAC, which was established in 2011, in the Department of Mechanical and Energy Engineering, Purdue School of Engineering and Technology, IUPUI. The IAC has won the awards twice. We have built the center that has the expertise and infrastructure for quality energy assessments to manufactures and commercial building owners and aligned our current research and teaching activities to the DOE’ training mission with programs to train the next generation of industrial energy efficiency experts, with theory and hands-on experience in conducting energy assessment for small and median manufacturing enterprises. We have made recommendations that have the potential to save about $20M annually. We also initiated research projects to meet DOE priorities, specifically in the areas of smart manufacturing and cybersecurity. On the energy assessment side, the Center has provided energy assessments to 144 qualified companies, primarily located in Indiana. On the training side, the center has trained students in various programs, such as the department’s Bachelor of Science (BS) programs in Mechanical Engineering (ME) and BS in Energy Engineering (EEN), both are ABET accredited engineering programs, as well as a graduate level Energy Management and Assessment certificate program. At the present, the center has trained 95 students, 43 or them received the DOE issued certificates. Research projects were developed within the center to advance energy efficiency related technologies, which provided excellent opportunities for our trainees. The center has also been building a professional network with utilities, Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), government agencies, and manufacturing companies, to increase our client base and promote collaborations. The center received the 2019 Center of Excellence of the Year Award and three students received the “Outstanding Achievement in Energy Engineering by an IAC Student” awards in the past five years.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2024

Transforming Energy Through Computational Excellence: NREL HPC Resources for High Performance Computing for Energy Innovation (HPC4EI) Program

NREL hosts computing facilities for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). In 2024, NREL introduced Kestrel, the 3rd generation, EERE-sponsored supercomputer dedicated to renewable energy and energy efficiency research. Kestrel has already been used for hundreds of research projects by NREL, other national laboratories, and university partners. This includes HPC4EI-sponsored industrial partnerships.

high-performance computing↗
DOE OSTI2024

Achieving a Net-Zero Future: The Role of Nuclear Energy

Governments and private industry around the world have established aggressive goals to achieve net-zero emissions for the power, industrial, and transportation sectors by 2050. These aggressive goals demand immediate action if we are to be successful, and they require us to think more holistically about our clean energy options. Programs within the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) are addressing these holistic solutions. Traditionally, electricity generation and management are considered independently from meeting energy demands for industry and transportation. As we seek to eliminate emissions across all energy use sectors we need to reassess how energy demands are met. When we consider overall energy use, only one-third is in the form of electricity. Additional energy demands are in the form of heat or steam for industrial processes, in addition to direct fuel use for transportation. These sectors are much harder to abate, and electrification may not be the best option. Reducing environmental emissions at an affordable cost, while maintaining grid reliability and resilience, will require us to leverage all of the clean energy resources available. The DOE Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE) program on Integrated Energy Systems (IES) is led by researchers at Idaho National Laboratory (INL), and work is conducted in partnership with an array of other DOE laboratories, industry, and academia. The primary focus of IES research is to assess the technical and economic potential of nuclear-driven IES to enhance the flexibility and utilization of nuclear reactors working alongside renewable generators to meet an array of energy demands—thereby maximizing the utilization of clean energy resources across all energy sectors. Various energy applications and product streams beyond electricity are being evaluated, ranging from generation of potable water to production of hydrogen, fertilizers, synthetic fuels, and various chemicals. The DOE-NE program additionally partners with the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office under the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy to jointly fund the development of analysis tools, technologies, and nuclear-integrated hydrogen demonstration projects. This presentation will highlight the wide array of R&D being conducted across multiple DOE-funded programs to develop and deploy nuclear-based IES that will be key to achieving our net-zero goals. By working with key collaborators in the nuclear industry, analytical studies are now becoming a reality in demonstration projects.

08 HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2022

Enhanced Control, Optimization, and Integration of Distributed Energy Applications (ECO-IDEA)

With support from the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) partnered with Xcel Energy, Schneider Electric, Varentec, and Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) to meet the goals of the Enabling Extreme Real-Time Grid Integration of Solar Energy (ENERGISE) program. This project developed and validated an innovative data-enhanced hierarchical control architecture that enables the efficient, reliable, resilient, and secure operation of future distribution systems with a high penetration of distributed energy resources like solar energy. The architecture enables a hybrid control approach where a centralized control layer is complemented by distributed control algorithms for solar inverters and autonomous control of grid edge devices. It is fully interoperable and includes all the cybersecurity aspects necessary for reliable and secure system operation. The hybrid approach can seamlessly integrate multiple voltage-regulation technologies, both at central and grid-edge levels, which enables reliable and efficient system operation in the face of unpredictable conditions. The overarching goal of the Eco-Idea project is to develop, validate, and deploy a unique and innovative Data-Enhanced Hierarchical Control (DEHC) architecture that comprehensively addresses the formidable challenges associated with proliferation of high penetration of distributed PV such as reverse power flows, transients from variability of PV systems, feeder load balancing, and voltage stability. These issues are exposing the weaknesses of existing grid operations and controls - including, but not limited to, lack of grid situational awareness, heuristic and slow-acting control actions, latency of control for emergency situations, and points of failure in communications. The proposed architecture will comprehensively resolve the deficiencies of current operational settings - where monitoring and control solutions proposed across industry and academia may not be interoperable and may not coexist in the same system - and will enable an efficient, reliable, resilient, and secure operation of future distribution systems with penetration of solar energy well beyond current limits. The DEHC architecture was developed and validated rigorously through hardware-in-loop simulations in the laboratory environment and deployed on the field.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2024

Web-Based Weatherization Assistant Getting Started Guide

This guide provides introductory information on how to get started in using the web-based Weatherization Assistant audit tool and running the National Energy Audit Tool, Manufactured Home Energy Audit, Multifamily Tool for Energy Audits, and Health and Safety Audit. For new users, this guideline also outlines how you can create a client and start an audit for that client. The Weatherization Assistant is a family of advanced audit tools designed specifically to help states and local weatherization agencies implement the US Department of Energy (DOE) Weatherization Assistance Program. The Weatherization Assistant is developed and maintained by DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). It applies engineering and economic calculations to assist states and agencies in selecting energy-efficient retrofit measures that meet government criteria for cost effectiveness and that can be installed in homes of low-income families enrolled in the program. The Weatherization Assistant can be used to select and rank measures for individual houses, or to establish a priority list of weatherization measures for nearly identical housing types.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2024

Challenges and Opportunities for Basic Efficiency Measures in Low-Income Homes: A Southeast Alaska Case Study

Juneau, Alaska is the state's capital city and has a renewable energy goal to reach 80% renewable energy for the space heating and transportation sectors by 2045. In practical terms, this indicates a need to electrify both sectors, to take advantage of the inexpensive hydropower available from the local electric utility, Alaska Energy Light & Power. In an effort to complement and enable electrification, researchers examined the feasibility to deploy storm windows via a case study of installing storm windows in two local low-income homes. Newer models of storm windows provide an extra layer of insulation over existing windows, while preserving operability and views. They can also improve comfort and reduce noise. Researchers worked with the regional housing authority and a local builder to install the storm windows and replace inoperable windows in the two houses in 2021, in addition to conducting pre- and post-installation air leakage tests, energy monitoring, and occupant interviews. The team encountered several challenges, including a lack of egress windows, energy data from a wide variety of heating systems, extremely leaky homes, and installation issues such as windows that were not square. These results point to several barriers to widespread deployment of storm windows in the area, but also open the door to opportunities to design deployment programs that improve safety as well as efficiency.

cold climate↗
DOE OSTI2024

Nanomanufacturing of Nanophononic Devices: Ultra-high ZT Thermoelectrics for Efficient Conversion of Waste Heat

Fabrication and Characterization Summary: For this program, the team fabricated and tested silicon thermoelectric test structures that experimentally demonstrated record thermal conductivity reduction (> 85 %) without changes in electrical properties (conductivity and Seebeck coefficient). We also demonstrated the highest ever reported energy conversion efficiency for silicon thermoelectric devices. The team developed a design for 1 cm 2 die with thousands of nanophononic metamaterial structures in the form of nanowalled membranes but were unable to solve all fabrication challenges before the end of the program. Multiple aspects of the design were submitted for patent protection. Primary challenges were related to silicon-on-insulator material quality and high-aspect-ratio etching.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗
DOE OSTI2025

Key insights from US Department of Energy Better Plants workforce development bootcamps (2022–2025)

This study examines the effectiveness of the US Department of Energy’s Better Plants Program Bootcamps, which are designed to enhance participants’ technical skills in improving energy efficiency and optimizing operations in manufacturing facilities. Through the analysis of survey data collected from 529 participants across 9 bootcamps, the research investigates the motivations, benefits, and demographic trends of attendees. The findings reveal that skill acquisition and improvement are primary drivers for participation, with key benefits including hands-on training on diagnostic equipment and software tools, networking opportunities, and access to technical resources. The analysis shows strong participation from sectors characterized by high energy consumption and employment, such as chemical and transportation equipment manufacturing. Over 50% of participants have job titles that include “EHS” or “Energy” showing their key roles in leading energy efficiency and energy management efforts in manufacturing. Furthermore, the analysis highlights the distribution of participants across managerial, engineering, and technical roles, revealing a higher representation of managers and engineers. This observation suggests a need for targeted outreach to engage technicians, equipment operators, maintenance staff, and floor workers to ensure comprehensive workforce development. The post-bootcamp survey showed that the participants highly valued the opportunities for peer learning and idea exchange, and the benefits they gained from them. This research contributes to the advancement of manufacturing education by demonstrating the efficacy of specialized training in addressing critical industry challenges and fostering a more competent and empowered workforce.

Energy efficiency↗
DOE OSTI2021

Development of in-use engine speed/torque heat maps across multiple heavy-duty commercial vehicle vocations

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) established the SuperTruck program with the goal of achieving brake thermal efficiency (BTE) greater than or equal to 55% as demonstrated in an operational heavy-duty (HD) diesel engine at a 65-miles-per-hour (mph) cruise point. Beyond the line-haul application, HD engines operate in a wide range of speed and torque conditions that are unlikely to yield the same efficiency under real-world operation. Thereby, the in-use engine heat maps described in this paper are a valuable tool to illustrate whether the engine-efficiency “sweet spot” matches the most frequent operating conditions. In this study, NREL developed engine heat maps to quantify the important operating points for various vocations using our Fleet DNA database of commercial fleet vehicle operations data. These heat maps clearly show that high-frequency operating points vary significantly according to vehicle vocation, while only a few of them match the sweet spot. Beyond the illustration, engine in-use heat maps can also be leveraged to build up reduced-order engine-efficiency models, needed by many rapid powertrain simulations. As case studies, nine reduced-order models – including line-haul truck, transfer truck, transit bus, transit bus with compressed natural gas (CNG) engine, drayage, refuse pickup, local delivery, utility truck, and school bus with CNG engine – using a trust-region reflective algorithm to fit the on-road data extracted based on the engine in-use heat maps.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗