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DOE OSTI2022

Scout Benchmark Scenarios for U.S. Building Energy and CO2 Emissions to 2050

Overview and Intended Use Cases: These scenarios establish a range of futures for U.S. buildings sector energy use and CO2 emissions to 2050 using Scout (scout.energy.gov), a reproducible and granular model of U.S. building energy use, emissions, and consumer costs developed by the U.S. national labs for the U.S. Department of Energy's Building Technologies Office (BTO). Scout benchmark scenario data are suitable for the following example use cases: setting high-level policy goals for the U.S. buildings sector to 2050 (e.g., X% building CO2 emissions reductions vs. 2005 levels by 2030, Y% reductions vs. 2005 levels by 2050); exploring the effects of key dynamics driving U.S. buildings sector energy and CO2 emissions to 2050 that could be affected by policy levers (e.g., raising minimum technology performance levels; accelerating electrification and/or retrofit rates; introducing breakthrough technologies to the market); determining priority segments (regions, building types, and end use/technology types) and sequencing of U.S. buildings sector energy and CO2 emissions reductions to 2050 under a given set of assumptions; and/or identifying the energy and emissions impacts or cost effectiveness of specific technologies or operational approaches of interest—in isolation or after considering competition with other measures in a scenario portfolio. Scenario Summary: A total of 8 scenarios explore the effects of changes across both the demand- and supply-side of building energy use on annual U.S. building energy use and CO2 emissions from 2022–2050. Scenarios are organized into three groups representing low, moderate, and best-case potentials for building decarbonization, respectively.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

DOE OSTI2022

Design of a Compact Dry Cooler With an Aluminum Heat Exchanger Core for a Supercritical CO2 Power Cycle Is Evaluated for a Concentrating Solar Power Application

Abstract As the supercritical CO2 power cycle develops and the component technologies mature, there is still a need to reduce the associated capital and operating costs to maintain a competitive levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) in order to enter the market. When considering concentrating solar power (CSP) coupled with an sCO2 power block and sensible thermal storage, the technology presents a clean source for utility-scale power generation to support baseload or peak-load electrical demand. However, the LCOE of the technology is still considered higher than the competing technologies and should be reduced to better compete in the market; 2030 targets for dispatchable solar plants are 5¢/kWh for baseload CSP and 10¢/kWh for peaker plants, as set by the United States Department of Energy. In response to this need, this study is targeting improvements in the power cycle precooler to reduce power block contribution to LCOE. This study considers a dry cooler, as CSP plants are sensitive to water consumption because many installations are slated for remote or arid locations where solar irradiance is very high, but water is scarce. Furthermore, the power block footprint for an sCO2 system is quite compact, especially as compared to a steam cycle. Therefore, there is interest in installing a more compact dry cooler that is proportional to the reduced footprint sCO2 power block, while conventional dry coolers are an order of magnitude larger. The competing goals of size, performance, and cost were considered in this study to develop a compact dry cooler that can easily be packaged with the power block, significantly reducing the installation and transport cost compared to the current state of the art, while maintaining or improving upon the heat transfer performance and impact on plant LCOE. This paper details the high-level findings of a large dry cooler sensitivity study for design point selection, design of the compact dry cooler, expected year-round performance for the dry cooler and the power cycle, and the predicted LCOE for a 30-year plant life. It was found that an aluminum heat exchanger core can be suitably designed to meet the pressure and temperature requirements for a precooler in an sCO2 recompression Brayton cycle. The dry cooler assembly was found to have improved heat transfer performance, allowing for increased cycle efficiencies and a reduced plant LCOE. When coupled with a centrifugal blower and compact transition duct, the dry cooler assembly was able to reduce the installation footprint by over 50%.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2023

Genomic characterization of rare earth binding by Shewanella oneidensis

Abstract Rare earth elements (REE) are essential ingredients of sustainable energy technologies, but separation of individual REE is one of the hardest problems in chemistry today. Biosorption, where molecules adsorb to the surface of biological materials, offers a sustainable alternative to environmentally harmful solvent extractions currently used for separation of rare earth elements (REE). The REE-biosorption capability of some microorganisms allows for REE separations that, under specialized conditions, are already competitive with solvent extractions, suggesting that genetic engineering could allow it to leapfrog existing technologies. To identify targets for genomic improvement we screened 3,373 mutants from the whole genome knockout collection of the known REE-biosorbing microorganism Shewanella oneidensis MR-1. We found 130 genes that increased biosorption of the middle REE europium, and 112 that reduced it. We verified biosorption changes from the screen for a mixed solution of three REE (La, Eu, Yb) using Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) in solution conditions with a range of ionic strengths and REE concentrations. We identified 18 gene ontologies and 13 gene operons that make up key systems that affect biosorption. We found, among other things, that disruptions of a key regulatory component of the arc system ( hptA ), which regulates cellular response to anoxic environments and polysaccharide biosynthesis related genes ( wbpQ , wbnJ , SO_3183 ) consistently increase biosorption across all our solution conditions. Our largest total biosorption change comes from our SO_4685 , a capsular polysaccharide (CPS) synthesis gene, disruption of which results in an up to 79% increase in biosorption; and nusA, a transcriptional termination/anti-termination protein, disruption of which results in an up to 35% decrease in biosorption. Knockouts of glnA , pyrD , and SO_3183 produce small but significant increases (≈ 1%) in relative biosorption affinity for ytterbium over lanthanum in multiple solution conditions tested, while many other genes we explored have more complex binding affinity changes. Modeling suggests that while these changes to lanthanide biosorption selectivity are small, they could already reduce the length of repeated enrichment process by up to 27%. This broad exploratory study begins to elucidate how genetics affect REE-biosorption by S. oneidensis , suggests new areas of investigation for better mechanistic understanding of the membrane chemistry involved in REE binding, and offer potential targets for improving biosorption and separation of REE by genetic engineering.

Medin, Sean↗

DOE OSTI2022

Collegiate Competitions Spark Curiosity and Careers in Water Power

Hydropower is the oldest renewable energy source, powering U.S. lives and livelihoods for more than a century, and marine energy may be the youngest. But old or young, both forms of water power will play a significant, vital role in helping the United States transition to a carbon-pollution -free energy sector by 2035. And to do that, these growing technologies need a workforce to match.

HYDRO ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2023

Electrochemical Reduction of Flue Gas Carbon Dioxide to Commercially Viable C2-C4 Products (Final Report)

This is the final scientific/technical report for a DOE project focused on the electrochemical conversion of CO 2 in non-aqueous solvents to novel products. Electrochemical reduction of CO 2 provides an attractive route to produce valuable fuels and chemicals that can simultaneously lower greenhouse gas emissions when powered by renewable electricity. While recent technological advances have shown the feasibility of industrial CO 2 electroreduction, many challenges remain to improve this technology and expand the list of economically viable products. The vast majority of electrochemical CO 2 reduction research has been conducted in aqueous media under neutral to alkaline conditions, leading to commonly reported products including carbon monoxide, formic acid, methane, methanol, ethylene, acetic acid, and ethanol. In comparison, non-aqueous media for CO 2 reduction has been underexplored but represents a possible avenue to yield new products and improved operating conditions. The aim of the project was to convert waste CO 2 in the form of flue gas to a multicarbon C2 - C4 chemical product in a reactor designed to achieve economically competitive values of current density and selectivity. The project strived to advance the technology readiness of an electrochemical CO 2 reduction process in alcohol solvents from the proof-of-concept stage to a device capable of meeting performance metrics for commercial viability. In the initial plan, the University of Louisville researchers were to focus on investigating the electrochemical process and improving the faradaic efficiency for novel C2 – C4 species, while also working on a parallel effort to build a practical electrolysis reactor to markedly increase the CO 2 reduction current density. The reactor development effort also aimed to engineer a dual-electrolyte feed strategy with non-aqueous catholyte and aqueous anolyte to promote water oxidation as the coupling anodic half-reaction to enable a sustainable and economical overall process. At the outset, the University of North Dakota was to investigate the feasibility of operating directly from coal-derived flue gas without separate capture and purification. The research team sought to determine impurity effects and test mitigation strategies, as well as engineer the gaseous feed system for high reactor tolerance to lower CO 2 concentration. In the last half year of the project, the focus was planned to shift to integrating the advances in the catalysis, electrochemical conditions, reactor design, and flue gas compatibility into a fully functional device and improve it for maximum current density and faradaic efficiency for C2 – C4 species. Knowledge of the full system components, constraints, and maximum performance was then to be used as the basis for a thorough technoeconomic analysis (TEA) and life cycle analysis (LCA) at the end of the project.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗

DOE OSTI2021

Final Report on Aerosol Pretreatment Technology Performance and Benchmarking

Solvent-based post-combustion CO 2 capture (PCC) technology remains one of the leading methods to combat global CO 2 emissions produced from large-scale coal-fired power production. Advanced solventbased PCC technology has made significant improvements in design and performance that reduce capital and operating costs to enable its commercial use. Key to low cost, manageable logistics, and environmentally safe operation of solvent-based PCC technology are minimal solvent losses from the process through the treated gas stream exiting PCC plant absorbers. High flue gas aerosol particle concentrations (>10 5 particles/cm 3 ) for particles in the range of 70-200 nm have been shown to cause significant amine solvent losses for solvent-based PCC processes through several mechanisms including absorption of solvent and water into growing aerosol particles. Flue gas aerosol pretreatment technology is the only realistic and economically attractive method to reduce very high aerosol particle concentrations (>10 7 particles/cm 3 ) to enable solvent-based PCC for existing power plants lacking sufficient particle removal systems, such as baghouses. The overall goal of this project was to design, construct, independently test, and evaluate three flue gas aerosol pretreatment technologies identified to significantly reduce high aerosol particle concentrations (>10 7 particles/cm 3 ) in the 70-200 nm particle size range: (1) a novel, high-velocity water injection spray concept developed by RWE and tested by Linde, (2) an innovative electrostatic precipitator (ESP) device with optimized operating conditions developed by Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL), and (3) a non-regenerative sorbent-based filter technology developed by InnoSepra for SO x and NO x removal from coal-fired power plant flue gas. Each technology has been validated with tests on 500-1000 scfm of actual coal-fired flue gas and evaluated in terms of particle removal efficiency (%), cost competitiveness, and environmental impact. Aerosol measurements were performed upstream and downstream of each aerosol reduction unit during independent testing of each technology using advanced instrumentation and analytical methods provided by WUSTL. To perform aerosol measurements, isokinetic probes were inserted into flanged pipes attached to the flue gas piping, and a small suction pump was used to sample gas containing aerosol particles. Aerosol particle number concentrations (# particles/cm 3 ) and size distributions were then measured using a scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS, TSI Inc.) for very fine particles (<1,000 nm) and a particle counter manufactured by GRIMM for particles larger than 1,000 nm. This report summarizes the aerosol removal performance results from pilot scale testing of each technology. Performance results have been benchmarked against pre-defined targets and other flue gas aerosol pretreatment technologies with documented performance. Linde Gas North America LLC has been the prime contractor to DOE responsible for overall project management and provided the design for the high-velocity water spray-based aerosol removal technology based on a design concept developed by the German utility company RWE.

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗

DOE OSTI2023

Sustainable bioleaching of lithium-ion batteries for critical metal recovery: Process optimization through design of experiments and thermodynamic modeling

Recycling spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) could alleviate supply risks for critical metals and be less harmful to the environment compared to new production of metals from mining. Developing a cost-effective LIB bioleaching process could be a promising alternative to traditional energy-intensive recycling technologies. Here, this study aimed to optimize bioleaching conditions for maximum economic competitiveness through design of experiments using iterative response surface methodology (RSM), assisted by thermodynamic modeling. The optimal condition was identified as 2.5% pulp density in 75 mM gluconic acid biolixiviant at 55°C for 30 h which could recover 57%–84% of nickel, 71%–86% of cobalt, and 100% of lithium and manganese, yielding a 17%–26% net profit margin. The recommended pulp density and acid concentrations, together with the observed metal solubilization, were supported by thermodynamic modeling predictions. Our study demonstrated that combining RSM with thermodynamic simulations could be a powerful tool for optimizing bioleaching conditions.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2024

Sub-Ambient Performance of Potassium Sarcosinate for Direct Air Capture Applications: CO 2 Flux and Viscosity Measurements

Absorption based direct air capture (DAC) technologies have garnered significant interest in recent years due to their scalability, competitive regeneration energy requirements, and low susceptibility to degradation. One of the key advantages of DAC lies in its flexible siting options and the potential to utilize low-value land. However, most of the research in this field has been focused on ambient climate zones (T > 20 °C), overlooking sub-ambient (–30 °C < T < 20 °C) regions, which comprise approximately 70 % of the Earth’s surface. To fully realize the potential of DAC, it is essential to understand how DAC solvents perform in these sub-ambient conditions before any large-scale deployment can be considered. Among DAC solvents of interest, potassium sarcosinate (K-SAR) has emerged as a promising candidate due to its high CO 2 capacity, fast uptake kinetics, compatibility with contactor packing materials, low volatility, good thermal and oxidative stability, and competitive regeneration energy requirements compared to current industry standards. This paper characterizes the CO 2 flux and viscosity of K-SAR at sub-ambient conditions and explores the potential of using ethylene glycol and triethylene glycol as additives to prevent solvent freezing in DAC applications. For 1 M K-SAR, the CO 2 flux ranges between 1.3 × 10 -5 and 8.0 × 10 -5 mol m –2 s –1 across a temperature range of –5 °C to 45 °C. Ethylene glycol is shown to effectively suppress the freezing point of K-SAR below –30 °C with volumetric loadings of the additive as low as 0.1. Here, a reaction model was developed to predict the CO 2 flux for 1 M K-SAR at different temperatures, demonstrating good agreement between experimental and theoretical fluxes.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

DOE OSTI2024

Education and Workforce Development for Critical Minerals and Materials Supply Chains (Workshop Report)

The Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO) aims to improve the efficiency, productivity, environmental impact, and competitiveness of the manufacturing sector. Education and workforce development (EWD) efforts are essential for AMMTO to achieve these goals, and for this reason the current and future EWD landscape in the critical minerals and materials (CMM) sector requires renewed attention.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

DOE OSTI2023

A Review of Sociotechnical Approaches for Nuclear Power Plant Modernization

The current United States nuclear power plant fleet is in need of transforming the way work is performed to remain competitive with other electricity-generating sources. The use of new digital technologies can be applied to significantly reduce operating and maintenance costs. Recent research by the United States Department of Energy Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program has identified new opportunities to leverage advanced digital technologies to transform the way work is performed at existing plants. However, to ensure that the capabilities of people and advanced digital technologies are jointly optimized, a sociotechnical approach should be considered. This work explores recently introduced sociotechnical approaches to address the function allocation and data visualization considerations in the integration of new digital technologies to ensure safety, reliability, and maximizing the capabilities of proposed technological solutions that ensure the economic viability of the existing United States nuclear power plant fleet.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

DOE OSTI2026

Change Agent: Energy Storage as a Driver of Regulatory Evolution

Purpose of Review Dividing the electric grid into the functions of generation, transmission, anddistribution enabled the drawing of jurisdictional lines and the application of the U.S.Constitution’s federalist system to energy regulation. Energy storage technologies,which can be placed throughout the grid to increase flexibility, can provide serviceacross all three of those functions. But the jurisdictional boundaries that have beendrawn around those functions have created barriers that restrict energy storagetechnologies from achieving their full potential. This review analyzes regulatory changes made to reduce barriers to storage deployment and their broader impacts on energy regulation in the U.S. Recent Findings Major energy regulations promulgated at the state and federal levels have generally focused on liberalizing the U.S. electric system through deregulation and increased competition. Paradoxically, however, these efforts have erected strict regulatory barriers that prevent energy storage technologies from providing service across multiple functions. A new wave of regulations in recent years has endeavored to reduce and remove those barriers. Summary Energy regulations adopted in recent years to reduce barriers to energy storage functionality in recent years have had deep and far-reaching impacts on U.S. electric regulation. These impacts go beyond storage and affect all energy technologies. This paper traces the development of energy regulation in U.S., the functional barriers that they created that impede energy storage functionality, recent efforts to remove those barriers, and the broader effects of those efforts. It concludes with a brief discussion of remaining barriers that prevent energy storage from reaching their full potential on the U.S. electric grid.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗

DOE OSTI2024

ARPA-E Grid Optimization (GO) Competition Challenge 2

The ARPA-E Grid Optimization (GO) Competition Challenge 2, from 2020 to 2021, expanded upon the problem posed in Challenge 1 by adding adjustable transformer tap ratios, phase shifting transformers, switchable shunts, price-responsive demand, ramp rate constrained generators and loads, and fast-start unit commitment. Furthermore, Challenge 2 was a maximization problem while Challenge 1 was a minimization problem. Specifically, the economic surplus, defined as the benefit of serving load minus the cost of generation, is being maximized. It was expected that the objective value of a given solution should be positive, representing economic gain, but negative objectives from poor solutions were possible. The two code submission feature of Challenge 1 was maintained. Additionally, Divisions 3 and 4 within the competition permitted on/off switching of transmission lines (Divisions 1 and 2 did not). After the initial release of the Problem Formulation on 7/20/2020, ARPA-E Director Lane Genatowski announced Challenge 2 on 9/12/2020. The final May 31, 2021, version of the Problem Formulation was 97 pages long with 299 equations. The Challenge proceeded with 2 non-prize Events and 2 prize Events. Teams receiving Challenge 1 FOA awards and prize money were required to use the prize money to fund their Challenge 2 efforts (Georgia Institute of Technology, Global Optimal Technology, Inc., Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Lehigh University, Northwestern University, Artelys, Columbia, Pearl Street Technologies, Pennsylvania State University, and University of Colorado Boulder). For more information on the competition and challenge 2 see the "GO Competition Challenge 2 Information" resource below. Challenge 1 and Challenge 3 information can be found in the resources linked below.

ACOPF↗

DOE OSTI2023

Final Scientific/Technical Report: Real Time Particle Size and Settling Velocity for In-Situ Monitoring of Deep-Sea Polymetallic Nodule Mining

In the coming decade, it is anticipated that deep-sea mining activities will commence throughout the deep ocean, at depths around 4000-6000m where vast deposits of baseball-sized rocks called polymetallic nodules lay on the seabed. These nodules contain resources such as cobalt, copper and nickel which are needed to produce batteries for electric vehicles. Collector machines driving on the seabed and gathering these nodules will stir up clouds of sediment, and there is concern about how the resulting concentration of sediment in the near-bottom ocean water will affect deep and mid-ocean biology. There is currently no technology capable of comprehensively monitoring the concentrations and properties of stirred up sediment in the deep. This project addressed this critical gap by developing a deep-sea particle measurement system (Real-Time Size and Settling Velocity, RTSSV) that uses a multi-camera high-resolution video imaging system, with accompanying image processing, to measure the concentration, size distribution and settling speed of sediment. Importantly, these measurements are made in-situ, so that delicate sediment aggregates will not be disturbed, as is the case when collecting samples at depth to be measured in the lab. The instrument can be mounted on a variety of established deep-sea platforms such as moorings, AUVs and ROVs, providing data in near real time, where the key measurements need to be made—from the source of the sediment disturbance and throughout the resulting plume—vital for determining if deep-sea mining can be done in an environmentally responsible manner. The developed system (RTSSV) will possess the only such capability worldwide, giving a US-based group a substantial competitive advantage as this newly evolving global industry develops. As added value, the technology will also have widespread application to the offshore oil and gas industry, dredging industry, and to sediment science research.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗

DOE OSTI2019

Performance Analysis and Tank Test Validation of a Hybrid Wave-Current Energy Converter with a Single Power Takeoff

Marine and hydrokinetic (MHK) energy, including ocean waves, tidal current, ocean current and river current, has been recognized as a promising power source due to its full-day availability and high energy potential. At this stage, ocean current energy, tidal energy and ocean wave energy are currently the most competitive sourves among all the categories of MHK. The state of art MHK energy harvesting technology mainly focus on harvesting either ocean wave energy or current energy, but not both. However, a significant amount of ocean waves and tidal/ ocean current coexist in many sites and traditional devices that harvest from a single form of MHK energy, cannot make full use of the coexisting ocean energy. Furthermore, MHK energy harvesting devices need to advance to be cost-effective and competitive with other energy sources. This is difficult to achieve. Ocean wave excitation is irregular, which means that ocean wave height and wave periods are unpredictable and excitation forces on energy harvesting devices can have large variance in amplitude and frequency. Such problems/ restrictions can be possibly addressed by the concept of a hybrid energy converter. In this sense, a hybrid wave-current ocean energy conveter (HWCEC) that simutaneously harvests energy from current and wave with one single power takeoff (PTO) is designed.The wave energy is extracted through relative heaving motion between a floating buoy and a submerged second body, while the current energy is extracted using a marine current turbine (MCT). Energy from both sources are integrated by a hybrid PTO whose concept is based on a mechanical motion rectifier (MMR). In this study, different working modes are investigated together with switching criteria.Simulations were conducted with hydrodynamic coefficients obtained from computational fluid dynamics analysis and boundary element method. Tank tests were conducted for a HWCEC under coexisting wave and current inputs. For comparison, separate baseline tests of a turbine and a two-body point absorber, each acting in isolation, are conducted. Experimental results validate the dynamic modeling and show that a HWCEC can increase the output power with a range between 29-87 percent over either current turbine and wave energy converter acting individually, and it can reduce by up to 70 percent the peak-to-average power ratio compared with the wave energy converter on the tested conditions.Such results demonstrate the potential of the HWCEC as an efficient and cost-effective design.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗

DOE OSTI2021

Hydrogen from Sunlight and Water: A Side-by-Side Comparison between Photoelectrochemical and Solar Thermochemical Water-Splitting

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) and solar thermochemical (STCH) water-splitting represent two promising pathways for direct solar hydrogen generation. PEC water-splitting integrates multiple functional materials and utilizes energetic electrons and holes generated from sunlight to produce hydrogen and oxygen in two half-reactions, while STCH water-splitting couples a series of consecutive chemical reactions and uses absorbed heat from sunlight to generate hydrogen and oxygen in two full reactions. In this Focus Review, the basic operating principles, sunlight utilization, device architecture, reactor design, instantaneous and annually averaged solar-to-hydrogen (STH) conversion efficiency, and the operating conditions and constraints of both pathways are compared. A side-by-side comparison addresses some common sources of confusion and misinterpretation, especially in the evaluation of STH conversion efficiencies, and reveals distinct features and challenges in both PEC and STCH technologies. Furthermore, this Focus Review also addresses materials and device challenges in PEC and STCH for cost-competitive hydrogen generation.

08 HYDROGEN↗

DOE OSTI2023

Abstract for CRADA between National Energy Technology Laboratory and Mattiq, Inc.

To decarbonize the chemicals and fuels industry, we require new and innovative technologies that can leverage renewable feedstocks including renewable electricity and renewable carbon sources, such as CO 2 . State-of-the-art (SOTA) CO 2 utilization technologies that can produce renewable chemicals and fuels, such as the electrochemical reduction of CO 2 , are still significantly lacking in efficiency, and are therefore not cost-competitive with existing infrastructure. The key bottleneck to cost-competitive chemicals and fuels sourced from CO 2 and renewable electricity is the lack of any efficient catalyst material. The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) and Mattiq will collaborate in the development of an efficient catalyst material that can effectively convert CO 2 into products of interest. Specifically, NETL will utilize high-performance computing to greatly reduce the number of potential materials to be investigated by Mattiq ultrahigh-throughput experimental catalyst discovery framework. This work is poised to rapidly accelerate the development of novel and efficient CO 2 reduction electrocatalysts that can bring CO 2 utilization closer to commercial viability.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

DOE OSTI2024

2022 Small Turbine Certification Awardee: Eocycle America Corporation

Eocycle's Competitiveness Improvement Project (CIP) award will fund certification testing of the company's EOX S-16 25-kW turbine to make sure it meets UL electrical safety standards. In addition to validating the turbine's reliability and anticipated reduced maintenance requirements, UL certification will also boost consumer confidence in the technology, with the potential to increase the market for the entire small-wind industry.

Competitiveness Improvement Project↗

DOE OSTI2022

Demonstration and Evaluation of the Human-Technology Integration Guidance for Plant Modernization

The significance of nuclear power in its role producing carbon-free electricity to the U.S. cannot be overstated. However, with changes in the energy market coupled with changes in incentives given to certain resources like solar and wind, the operating and maintenance costs for these sources have seen a significant reduction, which has consequently negatively impacted the economic viability of the existing U.S. nuclear power plant fleet. Digital instrumentation and control (I&C) and control room modernization is a major critical work domain to reduce operating and maintenance costs. Existing nuclear power plants are commonly configured with mostly legacy analog I&C as well as isolated pockets of digital I&C (a plant process computer, digital recorders, etc.). One challenge with this analog I&C is that replacement parts are becoming prohibitively more expensive and difficult to obtain. Moreover, a significant challenge with the existing analog I&C is that the way in which plants are currently operated and maintained is no longer competitive with other electricity generating sources, like natural gas, where advanced digital I&C technologies are commonplace. This gap between the waynuclear power plants are operated compared to other electricity generating sources significantly challenges the economic viability of the nuclear industry. Indeed, digital I&C systems can fundamentally change the way the plant is operated (i.e., the concept of operation). The introduction of digital I&C technologies offers a wealth of benefits to the nuclear industry. However, it is important to emphasize that, to realize these benefits, a careful understanding of how to integrate technology in a collaborative way that leverages the capabilities of people and technologies is necessary. Human-technology integration applies human factors engineering methods and tools to ensure the safe and reliable use of these technologies while ensuring that the inherent features of the technologies that provide economic value are not missed. The scope of this work documents the demonstration of the recently developed human and technology integration methodology, as applied to developing a new vision and concept of operations for a major U.S. nuclear power plant fleet. This report focuses on the methodological aspects of developing a vision and concept of operations. This report shares the tools, activities, and lessons learned during a modernization currently underway for industry as a whole to consider when planning any significant digital modification and developing a new vision and concept of operations.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗