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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 343 records · Page 19
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2023

Overcoming the Entropy Penalty of Direct Air Capture for Efficient Gigatonne Removal of Carbon Dioxide

Atmospheric carbon poses an existential threat to civilization via global climate change. Hundreds of gigatonnes of carbon dioxide must be removed from earth’s atmosphere in the next three decades, necessitating a low-cost, energy-efficient process to extract low concentrations of carbon dioxide for conversion to a stable material permanently stored for thousands of years. In this work, the challenge of removing gigatonnes of CO 2 is described via the scale of effort and the thermodynamics of collecting and reducing this diffuse chemical, the accumulation of which imparts a substantial entropy penalty on any atmospheric carbon capture process. The methods of CO 2 reduction combined with upstream direct air capture (DAC) including absorption, membrane separation, and adsorption are compared with biomass torrefaction and permanent burial (BTB). A Monte Carlo model assesses the mass, energy, and economics of the full process of biomass torrefaction from biomass collection and transport to stable carbon burial to determine that 95% of scenarios could remove carbon for less than $200 per CO 2 -tonne-equivalent. Torrefied carbon is further discussed for its long-term stability and availability at the scale required to substantially mitigate the threat of climate change.

biomass↗
DOE OSTI2025

Surface Chemistry and Particle Morphology Changes in Pine Biomass under Indirect Thermal Gradients: Implications for Feed Screw Design

The conversion of biomass feedstocks into fuels and chemicals using fast pyrolysis is a promising approach to renewable energy. Feed screws that convey biomass to pyrolysis reactors, however, often encounter plugging. Indirect heating of the feed screw occurs due to contact with the pyrolysis chamber, resulting in a heating gradient ranging from ambient temperature (22 °C) to reactor temperature (500 °C). Given that major cell wall macromolecules, such as lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose, begin to produce bio-oils and volatile resin acid compounds within this temperature gradient, we hypothesized that indirect heating during feed screw conveyance is sufficient to cause premature degradation of biomass. We characterized this degradation by observing increases in surface roughness, changes in overall particle morphology, and the production and deposition of bio-oils on biomass particle surfaces. Correlative analysis between optical in situ hot-stage microscopy, confocal Raman spectroscopy, and SEM analysis revealed that heating at temperatures as low as 375 °C caused significant increases in surface roughness, with large fissures forming between and within cell walls. Additionally, droplets of bio-oil were observed on particles, especially in the bark and cambium samples. This work suggests that these phenomena contribute to particle agglomeration, leading to feed screw plugging, and that engineering a solution to cool the feed screw could prevent particle agglomeration and reduce plugging incidents, thereby increasing biomass processing efficiency.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Paramagnetic Properties of Rare Earth Hydroxides, Oxalates, and Dibutyl Phosphates

Magnetic separations present a promising approach for the recovery of rare earth (RE) elements from mixtures, particularly when coupled with precipitation techniques that enhance process efficiency and selectivity. However, the magnetic properties of RE materials typically encountered in the separations industry are not well characterized. Here, we synthesized a series of RE materials, combining four REs – praseodymium (Pr), neodymium (Nd), terbium (Tb), and dysprosium (Dy) – with three precipitating agents – hydroxide, oxalate, and dibutyl phosphate. All materials showed typical paramagnetic behavior consistent with the Curie-Weiss law. At low temperatures, we observed weak antiferromagnetic correlations, which were more pronounced for the lighter RE ions (Pr, Nd). Particle morphology and crystallography analyses showed that the dibutyl phosphates were well-ordered metal-organic frameworks, the oxalates were crystals with mixed hydration states, and the hydroxides were mostly amorphous. Regardless of the degree of crystallinity, the effective magnetic moments aligned well with theoretical estimates based on Hund's rules and 4f electron configurations of the corresponding RE ions. For a given RE ion, the magnetophoretic response was thus determined by the size of the particles rather than specific metal-ligand coupling, with dibutyl phosphate promoting the formation of larger crystals that were the most strongly attracted to magnets.

Wang, Qingpu (ORCID:0000000156041571)↗
DOE OSTI2019

Imaging Changes in Cell Walls of Engineered Poplar by Stimulated Raman Scattering and Atomic Force Microscopy

Lignin is a major impediment in the deconstruction of plant biomass to its soluble monomeric constituents. Modification of the lignin biosynthetic pathway has proven to be an effective means of reducing biomass recalcitrance but can often result in impaired growth. As one of the successful instances of “designer” biomass, “Zip-lignin” has been generated in poplar to introduce ester linkages into the lignin backbone. The resulting plants grow normally and have improved biomass deconstructability, especially under mild alkaline conditions that can effectively cleave the uniquely introduced ester bonds. In order to further understand the structural and chemical features that may be associated with the observed improved processing efficiency, we used hyperspectral stimulated Raman scattering (hsSRS) to map the Zip-lignin in planta using lignin conjugated α–β carbon double bonds as the proxy. Such double bonds are introduced in all types of lignin, but unique structures in Zip-lignins experience a ~20 cm –1 shift from 1650 to 1630 cm –1 in their Raman spectra due to the conjugation between the double bond and an associated ester carbonyl group. Analysis of the hsSRS images has revealed that the Raman signal specifically representing Zip-lignin can be estimated. Moreover, it exhibits a distribution pattern in cell wall layers similar to that of the native lignin, but its intensity varies in different transgenic poplar lines. In addition, when the cell walls are imaged by atomic force microscopy and Simons’ staining, we found that the poplar containing the Zip-lignin had increased accessible areas, which may be beneficial to the chemical penetration during pretreatment and substrate accessibility during enzymatic hydrolysis. Our work indicates that both physical and chemical modification of cell wall in Zip-lignin poplar could contribute to the observed improvements in sugar yields.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Recent advances in hydrotreating of pyrolysis bio-oil and its oxygen-containing model compounds

There is considerable world-wide interest in discovering renewable sources of energy that can substitute for fossil fuels. Lignocellulosic biomass, which is the most abundant and inexpensive renewable feedstock on the planet, has a great potential for sustainable production of fuels, chemicals, and carbon-based materials. Fast pyrolysis integrated with hydrotreating is one of the simplest, most cost-effective and most efficient processes to convert lignocellulosic biomass to liquid hydrocarbon fuels for transportation, which has attracted significant attention in recent decades. However, effective hydrotreating of pyrolysis bio-oil presents a daunting challenge to the commercialization of biomass conversion via pyrolysis-hydrotreating. Specifically, development of active, selective, and stable hydrotreating catalysts is the bottleneck due to the poor quality of pyrolysis bio-oil feedstock (high oxygen content, molecular complexity, coking propensity, and corrosiveness). Significant research has been conducted to address the practical issues and provide the fundamental understanding of the hydrotreating/hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of bio-oils and their oxygen-containing model compounds, including phenolics, furans, and carboxylic acids. A wide range of catalysts have been studied, including conventional Mo-based sulfide catalysts and noble metal catalysts, with the latter being the primary focus of the recent research because of their excellent catalytic performances and no requirement of environmentally unfriendly sulfur. The reaction mechanisms of HDO of model compounds on noble metal catalysts as well as their efficacy for hydrotreating or stabilization of bio-oil have been recently reported. This review provides a survey of the relevant literatures of recent 10 years about the advances in the understanding of the HDO chemistry of bio-oils and their model compounds mainly on noble metal catalysts.

biomass, lignocellulose, pyrolysis bio-oil, hydrod↗
DOE OSTI2013

Adsorption on Fe-MOF-74 for C1–C3 Hydrocarbon Separation

An increase in demand for energy efficient processes for the separation of a mixture of hydrocarbons drives the need for understanding metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) that can provide better noncryogenic alternatives for the fractionation of hydrocarbon mixtures. Here we study the structure and properties of a metal–organic framework, Fe-MOF-74, and its effectiveness to separate C1–C3 hydrocarbon mixtures. The binding of these hydrocarbons to the open metal sites of Fe-MOF-74 has been investigated using a meta-generalized gradient approximation density functional, M06-L, which has previously been validated for systems containing transition metals. For interpretive purposes, charge model 5 (CM5) is used to determine the partial atomic charges on the metal cations and the oxygen atoms of the ligands surrounding these metal centers. Our computations show preferential binding to the metal center of Fe-MOF-74 of unsaturated hydrocarbons over saturated ones in agreement with experimental results, and the calculated binding energies are in semiquantitative agreement with experiment. The results are analyzed in terms of various factors contributing to the binding, including structural distortion, electrostatics, damped dispersion, charge transfer, back bonding, and ligand field effects on the d orbitals. The CM5 charges are not sensitive to small differences in structure.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2012

Photovoltaics: Separating Multiple Excitons

Scientists have demonstrated an efficient process for generating multiple excitons in adjacent silicon nanocrystals from a single high-energy photon. Their findings could prove useful for a wide range of photovoltaic applications.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2019

Manifold learning of four-dimensional scanning transmission electron microscopy

Four-dimensional scanning transmission electron microscopy (4D-STEM) of local atomic diffraction patterns is emerging as a powerful technique for probing intricate details of atomic structure and atomic electric fields. However, efficient processing and interpretation of large volumes of data remain challenging, especially for two-dimensional or light materials because the diffraction signal recorded on the pixelated arrays is weak. Here we employ data-driven manifold leaning approaches for straightforward visualization and exploration analysis of 4D-STEM datasets, distilling real-space neighboring effects on atomically resolved deflection patterns from single-layer graphene, with single dopant atoms, as recorded on a pixelated detector. These extracted patterns relate to both individual atom sites and sublattice structures, effectively discriminating single dopant anomalies via multi-mode views. We believe manifold learning analysis will accelerate physics discoveries coupled between data-rich imaging mechanisms and materials such as ferroelectric, topological spin, and van der Waals heterostructures.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2021

High-temperature high-pressure microfluidic system for rapid screening of supercritical CO 2 foaming agents

CO 2 foam helps to increase the viscosity of CO 2 flood fluid and thus improve the process efficiency of the anthropogenic greenhouse gas’s subsurface utilization and sequestration. Successful CO 2 foam formation mandates the development of high-performance chemicals at close to reservoir conditions, which in turn requires extensive laboratory tests and evaluations. This work demonstrates the utilization of a microfluidic reservoir analogue for rapid evaluation and screening of commercial surfactants (i.e., Cocamidopropyl Hydroxysultaine, Lauramidopropyl Betaine, Tallow Amine Ethoxylate, N,N,N' Trimethyl-N'-Tallow-1,3-diaminopropane, and Sodium Alpha Olefin Sulfonate) based on their performance to produce supercritical CO 2 foam at high salinity, temperature, and pressure conditions. The microfluidic analogue was designed to represent the pore sizes of the geologic reservoir rock and to operate at 100 °C and 13.8 MPa. Values of the pressure drop across the microfluidic analogue during flow of the CO 2 foam through its pore network was used to evaluate the strength of the generated foam and utilized only milliliters of liquid. The transparent microfluidic pore network allows in-situ quantitative visualization of CO 2 foam to calculate its half-life under static conditions while observing if there is any damage to the pore network due to precipitation and blockage. The microfluidic mobility reduction results agree with those of foam loop rheometer measurements, however, the microfluidic approach provided more accurate foam stability data to differentiate the foaming agent as compared with conventional balk testing. The results obtained here supports the utility of microfluidic systems for rapid screening of chemicals for carbon sequestration or enhanced oil recovery operations.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2025

Controlled electrochemical nutrient delivery to enhance marine primary productivity

Oceanic photosynthesis contributes to approximately half of the Earth’s net annual primary productivity. Marine photosynthetic productivity has a high degree of heterogeneity due to spatial and temporal co-limitations of light, temperature, and/or nutrients. Across coastal, near-shore, and open ocean regions, insufficient concentrations of key nutrients (e.g., N, P, Fe) can limit primary productivity. Although studies have shown a significant increase in primary productivity with the addition of low doses of trace nutrients, a sustainable approach to reliably deliver and maintain low doses of nutrients and ensure their bioavailability, remains a challenge. Chemical nutrient addition has relied on the use of chelating agents to ensure nutrient bioavailability, but synthetic chelators are persistent environmental pollutants. In this study, we demonstrate for the first time the use of a controlled electrochemical nutrient delivery (CEND) approach to accelerate the growth of phytoplankton without the need for such chelators. Our study uses commercial stainless-steel electrodes to deliver low concentrations of iron to enhance growth rates in the microalga Picochlorum celeri TG2. To demonstrate the process control offered by the CEND method, we evaluate iron delivery as a function of pulse time, pulse frequency, and rest time between pulses. Our data show that at the same total Fe dose of 163 ppb, electrochemical iron delivery can achieve 9.54 ± 0.58 mg biomass/µg Fe, which is comparable to 9.14 ± 0.17 mg biomass/µg Fe achieved with chemical iron additions that include the synthetic chelating agent ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA). Further, when different total iron doses (163 ppb, 325 ppb, and 650 ppb) were delivered over 72 h using CEND, biomass yield per iron dose was higher at lower doses: 9.54 ± 0.58 mg biomass/µg Fe at 163 ppb vs. 4.32 ± 0.32 mg biomass/µg Fe at 650 ppb. This highlights the benefits of CEND in delivering frequent and low doses of nutrients for improved process efficiency. Preliminary assessments show both lower cost and reduced greenhouse gas emissions from electrochemical over chemical iron additions with EDTA. The CEND approach opens new pathways to enhance marine primary productivity, without the unintended environmental impacts of synthetic chelators.

analytical chemistry↗
DOE OSTI2018

BaCe 0.25 Mn 0.75 O 3–δ —a promising perovskite-type oxide for solar thermochemical hydrogen production

Solar-thermal based hydrogen production technologies employing two-step metal oxide water-splitting cycles are emerging as a viable approach to renewable and sustainable solar fuels. However, materials innovations that overcome thermodynamic constraints native to the current class of solar-thermal water splitting oxides are required to increase solar utilization and process efficiency. Lowering oxide thermal reduction temperature while maintaining high water-splitting favorability are important ways to enhance such performance metrics. Recent attention to perovskite-type oxides as an alternative to ceria, which is widely viewed as the state-of-the art redox material, is driven by demonstrated thermodynamic and structural tuning derived through engineered composition. Here we discuss the unique properties of BaCe 0.25 Mn 0.75 O 3 (BCM) within the context of thermochemical water splitting materials. Firstly, BCM is a novel example of a line compound with B-site substitution of Mn by Ce. It also exhibits a polymorph phase transition during thermal reduction and yields nearly 3× more H 2 than ceria when reduced at lower temperature (1350 °C). More importantly, BCM exhibits faster oxidation kinetics and higher water-splitting favorability than Sr x La 1–x Mn y Al 1–y O 3 (x, y = 0.4, 0.6), which is a well-studied and popular Mn-based perovskite formulation. Furthermore, the unique properties manifested by BCM through engineered composition offer new pathways towards unlocking higher performing materials for solar thermochemical water splitting.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2018

Biosynthesis of the RiPP trojan horse nucleotide antibiotic microcin C is directed by the N -formyl of the peptide precursor

Microcin C7 (McC) is a peptide antibiotic modified by a linkage of the terminal isoAsn amide to AMP via a phosphoramidate bond. Post-translational modification on this ribosomally produced heptapeptide precursor is carried out by MccB, which consumes two equivalents of ATP to generate the N–P linkage. We demonstrate that MccB only efficiently processes the precursor heptapeptide that retains the Nformylated initiator Met (fMet). Binding studies and kinetic measurements evidence the role of the N-formyl moiety. Structural data show that the N-formyl peptide binding results in an ordering of residues in the MccB “crossover loop”, which dictates specificity in homologous ubiquitin activating enzymes. The N-formyl peptide exhibits substrate inhibition, and cannot be displaced from MccB by the desformyl counterpart. Such substrate inhibition may be a strategy to avert unwanted McC buildup and avert toxicity in the cytoplasm of producing organisms.

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

HOLISMOKES IX. Neural network inference of strong-lens parameters and uncertainties from ground-based images

Modeling of strong gravitational lenses is a necessity for further applications in astrophysics and cosmology. With the large number of detections in current and upcoming surveys, such as the Rubin Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), it is pertinent to investigate automated and fast analysis techniques beyond the traditional and time-consuming Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling methods. Building upon our (simple) convolutional neural network (CNN), we present here another CNN, specifically a residual neural network (ResNet), that predicts the five mass parameters of a singular isothermal ellipsoid (SIE) profile (lens center x and y, ellipticity e x and e y , Einstein radius θ E ) and the external shear (γ ext, 1 , γ ext, 2 ) from ground-based imaging data. In contrast to our previous CNN, this ResNet further predicts the 1σ uncertainty for each parameter. To train our network, we use our improved pipeline to simulate lens images using real images of galaxies from the Hyper Suprime-Cam Survey (HSC) and from the Hubble Ultra Deep Field as lens galaxies and background sources, respectively. We find very good recoveries overall for the SIE parameters, especially for the lens center in comparison to our previous CNN, while significant differences remain in predicting the external shear. From our multiple tests, it appears that most likely the low ground-based image resolution is the limiting factor in predicting the external shear. Given the run time of milli-seconds per system, our network is perfectly suited to quickly predict the next appearing image and time delays of lensed transients. Therefore, we use the network-predicted mass model to estimate these quantities and compare to those values obtained from our simulations. Unfortunately, the achieved precision allows only a first-order estimate of time delays on real lens systems and requires further refinement through follow-up modeling. Nonetheless, our ResNet is able to predict the SIE and shear parameter values in fractions of a second on a single CPU, meaning that we are able to efficiently process the huge amount of galaxy-scale lenses expected in the near future.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Modeling of column apparatuses: A review

This paper presents a review of the modeling method on the base of the physical approximations of the mechanics of continua, which have been developed for processes in column apparatuses. This method includes diffusion type of model for modeling of mass transfer with chemical reaction in column apparatuses with and without circulation zones. The diffusion type of model is used for modeling of scale effect in column apparatuses too. The study concluded that the proposal method is possibility for investigation the influence of radial non uniformity of the velocity distribution on the process efficiency, influence of zones breadths on the mass transfer efficiency in the column. The method of the column apparatuses modeling can be used for modeling of physical and chemical absorption, chemical adsorption, homogeneous and heterogeneous (catalytic) chemical reactions, airlift reactors for chemical and photochemical reactions.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2014

Inspection design using 2D phased array, TFM and cueMAP software

A simulation suite, cueMAP, has been developed to facilitate the design of inspection processes and sparse 2D array configurations. At the core of cueMAP is a Total Focusing Method (TFM) imaging algorithm that enables computer assisted design of ultrasonic inspection scenarios, including the design of bespoke array configurations to match the inspection criteria. This in-house developed TFM code allows for interactive evaluation of image quality indicators of ultrasonic imaging performance when utilizing a 2D phased array working in FMC/TFM mode. The cueMAP software uses a series of TFM images to build a map of resolution, contrast and sensitivity of imaging performance of a simulated reflector, swept across the inspection volume. The software takes into account probe properties, wedge or water standoff, and effects of specimen curvature. In the validation process of this new software package, two 2D arrays have been evaluated on 304n stainless steel samples, typical of the primary circuit in nuclear plants. Thick section samples have been inspected using a 1MHz 2D matrix array. Due to the processing efficiency of the software, the data collected from these array configurations has been used to investigate the influence sub-aperture operation on inspection performance.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Plasmonic photocatalytic reactions enhanced by hot electrons in a one-dimensional quantum well

The plasmonic endothermic oxidation of ammonium ions in a spinning disk reactor resulted in light energy transformation through quantum hot charge carriers (QHC), or quantum hot electrons, during a chemical reaction. It is demonstrated with a simple model that light of various intensities enhance the chemical oxidization of ammonium ions in water. It was further observed that light illumination, which induces the formation of plasmons on a platinum (Pt) thin film, provided higher processing efficiency compared with the reaction on a bare glass disk. These induced plasmons generate quantum hot electrons with increasing momentum and energy in the one-dimensional quantum well of a Pt thin film. The energy carried by the quantum hot electrons provided the energy needed to catalyze the chemical reaction. The results indicate that one-dimensional confinement in spherical coordinates (i.e., nanoparticles) is not necessary to provide an extra excited state for QHC generation; an 8 nm Pt thin film for one-dimensional confinement in Cartesian coordinates can also provide the extra excited state for the generation of QHC.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗