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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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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Smart Building Technology Training Modules for Academic and Professional Education

Smart building technologies are a new suite of resources that improve building energy efficiency and resilience, reduce carbon emissions, and provide load flexibility to the grid. However, in both college curricula and building professionals’ continuing education, there is a lack of systematic instruction on smart building technologies–topics that include smart building concepts, key components, smart building controls, “Internet of Things” (IoT) devices, and how to integrate multiple energy systems including distributed energy resources (DER). This major gap in smart building education prevents stakeholders from understanding and adopting smart building technologies in building design and operations. Slipstream leads a DOE-funded project developing a semester-long smart building curriculum for college students and adapting the contents into 16 training videos for building professionals and the general public. The education and training cover the drivers and benefits of smart building technologies, key building energy systems, the latest sensor technologies and IoT devices, and focus on topics related to smart building controls (i.e., energy management information systems, smart building control platforms, cybersecurity, grid-interactive-efficient buildings (GEBs), smart building control methods, and occupant-centric control. This paper describes the project approach, provides outlines of the training materials, and identifies lessons learned in creating the content. We also suggest ways to scale the instruction of smart building concepts to empower the workforce to accelerate the adoption of smart building technologies in the real world.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Piezoelectric domain walls in van der Waals antiferroelectric CuInP2Se6

Polar van der Waals chalcogenophosphates exhibit unique properties, such as negative electrostriction and multi-well ferrielectricity, and enable combining dielectric and 2D electronic materials. Using low temperature piezoresponse force microscopy, we revealed coexistence of piezoelectric and non-piezoelectric phases in CuInP2Se6, forming unusual domain walls with enhanced piezoelectric response. From systematic imaging experiments we have inferred the formation of a partially polarized antiferroelectric state, with inclusions of structurally distinct ferrielectric domains enclosed by the corresponding phase boundaries. The assignment is strongly supported by optical spectroscopies and density-functional-theory calculations. Enhanced piezoresponse at the ferrielectric/antiferroelectric phase boundary and the ability to manipulate this entity with electric field on the nanoscale expand the existing phenomenology of functional domain walls. At the same time, phase-coexistence in chalcogenophosphates may lead to rational strategies for incorporation of ferroic functionality into van der Waals heterostructures, with stronger resilience toward detrimental size-effects.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Tools And Methods to Analyze Plant Outage Schedule and Assist Schedulers in Improving Outage Resilience

Refueling outages of nuclear power plants (NPPs) are considered one of the most critical phases throughout the plant lifetime. In such instances, tens of thousands of activities (e.g., maintenance, surveillance) are performed in a short amount of time (typically 2-3 weeks unless major backfitting or modernization projects are carried out) by a large number of crews (e.g., electricians, mechanics) that are hired as contractors. As a consequence, a plant outage can be expensive not only in terms of costs (e.g., contractor labor, material), but also in terms of loss generation since the plant is taken off the grid during the full outage duration (an indicative metric is about 1.2M$/day of loss of revenue). Thus, there is a continuous need to decrease the economic impact of outages on plant finances. This can be done by: decreasing the frequency of plant outages (e.g., from 18 to 24 months), reducing the time to complete the outage, and reducing the risk of outage delays. The Optimization of Outage Activities project under the Risk Informed Systems Analysis Pathway (RISA) sponsored by Department of Energy (DOE) Light Water Reactor Sustainability (LWRS) Program focuses on developing tools and methods to support NPPs with outage schedule optimization. The developed tools and methods are designed to analyze plant outage schedule with the goal of identify critical elements in the schedule that might pose a high risk of delays. These methods and tools can be considered resource-centric in the sense that they address outage challenges as a resource optimization problem. In this context, resources are either time and crews; outage delays occurs when either (or both) resources are insufficient to complete the set of tasks assigned at a specific time instant of the outage. This report provides details on how plant resources (time and crews) can be allocated in such a way that delays are minimized. In this respect, two classes of methods have been developed: the first one focuses on the time resource and how variability of the time to complete outage tasks may impact outage delays. The second one integrates available resources to assess when dailies activities should be performed such that the risk of outage delays are minimized.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2026

A chemical bonding based descriptor for predicting the role of anharmonicity induced by quantum nuclear effects in hydride superconductors

Quantum nuclear effects (QNEs) can significantly alter a material’s crystal structure and phonon spectra, impacting properties such as thermal conductivity and superconductivity. However, predicting a priori whether these effects will enhance or suppress superconductivity, or destabilize a structure, remains a grand challenge. Herein, we address this unresolved problem by introducing two possible descriptors, based upon the integrated crystal orbital bonding index (iCOBI) or the bond valence function, to predict the influence of QNEs on a crystal lattice’s dynamic stability, phonon spectra and superconducting properties. We find that structures with atoms in symmetric chemical bonding environments exhibit greater resilience to structural perturbations induced by QNEs, while those with atoms in asymmetric bonding environments are more susceptible to structural alterations, resulting in enhanced superconducting critical temperatures.

Physical chemistry↗
DOE OSTI2023

Roadmap on exsolution for energy applications

Over the last decade, exsolution has emerged as a powerful new method for decorating oxide supports with uniformly dispersed nanoparticles for energy and catalytic applications. Due to their exceptional anchorage, resilience to various degradation mechanisms, as well as numerous ways in which they can be produced, transformed and applied, exsolved nanoparticles have set new standards for nanoparticles in terms of activity, durability and functionality. In conjunction with multifunctional supports such as perovskite oxides, exsolution becomes a powerful platform for the design of advanced energy materials. In the following sections, we review the current status of the exsolution approach, seeking to facilitate transfer of ideas between different fields of application. We also explore future directions of research, particularly noting the multi-scale development required to take the concept forward, from fundamentals through operando studies to pilot scale demonstrations.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Translating Material-Level Characterization of Carbon-Nanotube-Reinforced Composite Gridlines to Module-Level Degradation

Cell cracks in PV modules caused by poor handling during shipping and installation as well as from extreme weather events can lead to gradual or immediate power degradation. To directly address cell-crack-induced degradation, we have formulated a carbon nanotube additive for commercial screen printed silver pastes. We have shown in previous work that these metal matrix composites have little to no effect on the cell's efficiency while enhancing the metallization's fracture toughness and electrical gap-bridging capability. In this work, we focus on translating materials level characterization techniques to module level degradation. We found that we get conflicting results from two different methods of measuring the metallization's ability to electrically bridge gaps in cracked solar cells. Mini-module stress testing is currently underway to determine which materials characterization correlates well with the min-module degradation characteristics.

carbon nanotubes↗
DOE OSTI2024

Advanced Offshore Hazard Forecasting to Enable Resilient Offshore Operations

Presentation for the Offshore Technology Conference 2024 manuscript, "Advanced Offshore Hazard Forecasting to Enable Resilient Offshore Operations." This presentation describes the use of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) tools to assess offshore hazards and their impact to vulnerable infrastructure, in this case, pipelines. The results show the potential intersection of seafloor instability and pipelines with potentially lower integrity, then compares them to metocean pathways that could attract hazardous materials such as oil in the event that the pipelines are compromised.

Mark-Moser, Mackenzie K.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Organizational Influence on Supply Chain for Digital Energy Infrastructure: Business Models, and Policy Landscape

Significant investment is driving the essential modernization and digitization of U.S. energy infrastructure, but the United States faces a key challenge in this grid transformation: our renewable and clean energy supply chains have limited capacity to source necessary digital assets through U.S. or allied sources. Batteries and their associated power electronic interfaces are key components to delivering clean and more resilient energy delivery, providing much-needed fast ramping, emergency discharge, generation, and operations support to the electric grid. These services have grown to be invaluable over the past 10 years and will soon be an irreplaceable component of energy delivery. While there have been significant strides to move supply chains for raw and critical materials to U.S. and allied nations, the control and power electronic industry has lagged, in part because of lower cost margins. For example, the United States now has growing capacity to manufacture solar photovoltaic (PV) panels, but 90% of the inverters—which are essential to the conversion of DC to AC for grid connection and controls—are made in or source parts from the People’s Republic of China (PRC). While a global supply chain is beneficial for many economic and supply diversification reasons, presence of foreign entities of concern (FEOC) in a dominant role in this supply chain brings additional concerns for national security of infrastructure. The BESS relationship and new clean energy have features that warrant discussions and additional focus on impact for technology security, given their critical role. This review considers the impact and solutions for complex business and policy landscapes in clean energy supply chain, and the benefit trade-offs, focusing on the Battery Energy Storage System case study, and its complex organizational relationships across both the US, Allied countries and Foreign Entities of Concern. While many examples in this paper are presented on PRC focused manufacture, this could apply to any potentially adversarial relationship

25 - ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Chloride Molten Salt Electrolysis Enables Integrated and Energy-Efficient Process for NdFeB Magnet Fabrication

Rare-earth elements (REEs) have been identified by NATO, the USDOE, and USGS as critical materials, i.e., materials which have significant demand yet pose supply-chain risks. Many of the existing processes for separations, metallization, and final parts production used across the REE supply chain involve energy intensive steps. For example, neodymium (Nd or NdPr) is produced using oxyfluoride electrolysis of Nd 2 O 3 , which requires hydrofluoric acid to produce a key electrolyte component (NdF 3 ) and generates undesired perfluorocarbon (PFC) gases. Such challenges make securing a resilient supply chain for NdFeB permanent magnets in countries like the United States prohibitively difficult. Here, we propose a chloride-based MSE process that circumvents these challenges, delivering high-purity NdPr from a (NdPr)Cl 3 feed from upstream REE separations. This eliminates environmentally-damaging steps of oxalate or carbonate precipitation and calcination, and enables superior production rates due to greater solubility of (NdPr)Cl 3 in chloride melts compared to Nd 2 O 3 . We show that CMSE generates high-purity NdPr (99.4 wt.%) while being energy-efficient (~ 6 kWh/kg-Nd). NdPr from CMSE was used to fabricate a NdFeB magnet with an excellent maximum energy product (> 40 MGOe), comparable to commercially available NdFeB magnets. This establishes CMSE as a leading approach for integrated, energy-efficient NdFeB magnet production.

Materials science↗
DOE OSTI2023

Investigating the mechanical stability of flexible metal–organic frameworks

As we continue to develop metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) for potential industrial applications, it becomes increasingly imperative to understand their mechanical stability. Notably, amongst flexible MOFs, structure-property relationships regarding their compressibility under pressure remain unclear. In this work, we conducted in situ variable pressure powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) measurements up to moderate pressures (<1 GPa) using a synchrotron source on two families of flexible MOFs: (i) NU-1400 and NU-1401, and (ii) MIL-88B, MIL-88B-(CH 3 ) 2 , and MIL-88B-(CH 3 ) 4 . In this project scope, we found a positive correlation between bulk moduli and degree of flexibility, where increased rigidity (e.g., smaller swelling or breathing amplitude) arising from steric hindrance was deleterious, and observed reversibility in the unit cell compression of these MOFs. This study serves as a primer for the community to begin to untangle the factors that engender flexible frameworks with mechanical resilience.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2022

Multi‐objective optimization for cost‐efficient and resilient machining under tool wear

Abstract With the onset and rapid growth of smart manufacturing, there is a constant increase in the demand for automation technologies to enhance productivity while providing uninterrupted, cost‐efficient, and resilient machining. Traditional manufacturing systems, however, suffer from several losses due to machine faults and degradation. Specifically, tool wear directly impacts the precision and quality of the milled parts, which causes an increase in the scrap production. Hence, more attempts are required to meet the desired quota of successful parts, which in turn results in wasted material, longer delays, further tool degradation, and higher energy, machining, and labor costs. As such, this paper develops a multi‐objective optimization framework to generate the optimal control set points (e.g., feed rate and width of cut) that minimize the total cost of machining operations resulting from multiple contradictory cost functions (e.g., material, energy, tardiness, machining, labor, and tool) in the presence of tool wear. Notably, we estimate the total expected cost in dollars, which provides automatic and intuitive weighting in this multi‐objective formulation. The optimization framework is tested on a high‐fidelity face milling model that has been validated on real data from industry. Results show significant dollar savings of up to as compared to the default control scheme.

Wilson, James P.↗
NASA NTRS2006

Fabrication and Evaluation of Titanium and Zirconium based Wires for use during Extended, Deep Space, Missions

Novel materials and designs are necessary for transport vessels and propulsion systems to fulfill NASA's vision of easier access to space and the expansion of human exploration beyond low-earth orbit. Spacecraft components must necessarily be lighter and stronger than their predecessors and will likely be required to serve new purposes. Furthermore, they must be resilient to the thermal, vacuum, and radiation environment of space for extended periods of time and may need to perform in the near proximity of a nuclear fuel source. To this end research has been initiated to fabricate novel, composite, wires based on titanium and zirconium pearlitic alloys. It is expected that the fabricated wire will well endure in the space environment with application as tethers, sail components, fasteners, and a myriad of other (including earth-based) uses. A background on pearlitic wire, novel alloy development, microstructural characterization, and initial mechanical testing results will be presented and discussed.

Grugel, Richard N.↗
DOE OSTI2024

A techno-economic survey of energy storage media for long-duration energy storage applications

Energy storage technologies that can economically store and provide electricity over multi-day and seasonal timescales are likely to be a critical component of a sustainable and resilient energy system. In this analysis, we perform a broad survey of energy storage technologies to find storage media (SM) that are promising for these long-duration energy storage (LDES) applications. The energy capital cost of the SM is identified as a key figure of merit for LDES. We develop a data collection framework to collect material price and physical property data, which are used to calculate the energy capital cost floor for 376 SM. These costs are then compared with cost targets for the LDES applications. The results show a multitude of thermal and chemical SM are economically promising, including some synthetic fuels, sensible thermal, latent thermal, thermochemical, and batteries based on low-cost materials. In contrast, currently deployed energy storage systems such as lithium-ion batteries and pumped hydro storage do not appear to be promising systems for LDES applications.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2026

Material efficiency technologies in the food and beverage industry

The U.S. food and beverage (F&B) sector is a major contributor to manufacturing gross domestic product and supports substantial employment and economic activity, while exerting significant pressures on land and water resources. At the same time, the industry faces growing expectations to balance its resource-intensive operations without compromising cost competitiveness. Material inefficiencies across the F&B value chain, particularly in raw material use and product loss/waste, lead to substantial financial losses and resource depletion. Thus, the F&B sector requires adoption of solutions and measures to avoid food wastage, reduce raw material consumption and valorize waste to high-value added products. This work presents a comprehensive understanding of the various technology solutions available for the F&B sector. The following two research questions are addressed: “What are the mid-to-high Technology Readiness Level technologies or measures to reduce material use and enable waste valorization in the F&B sector? What are the barriers to their commercial deployment? Additionally, what targeted research and development efforts are needed to overcome these barriers and accelerate their scale-up?” The findings are intended to support evidence-based decision-making, guide strategic investment, and help stakeholders strengthen resilience and competitiveness across the F&B sector.

Nain, Preeti [ORNL] (ORCID:0000000258358959)↗
DOE OSTI2025

Special Issue: Thermal Energy Storage for Buildings

This special issue (SI) of the ASME Journal of Engineering for Sustainable Buildings and Cities (JESBC) features peer-reviewed papers specific to technologies and applications of thermal energy storage (TES) for buildings. TES systems store energy in materials as a heat source or a cold sink and then discharge the stored energy hours or weeks later to enhance thermal comfort or reduce utility bills [1]. As buildings and cities are facing increasing energy consumption and extreme weather events, TES offers a powerful solution to balance supply and demand, reduce operational energy costs, and strengthen energy resilience during power outages.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Circular economy as a climate strategy: current knowledge and calls-to-action

Existing pledges and NDC targets, even if fully achieved, are still not sufficient to meet the Paris climate goals. Considerable additional strategies and actions are urgently needed to close the emission gap. Built environment, transport, food system, and clean energy are the most relevant sectors for circular economy strategies to deliver climate change mitigation benefits. Circular economy strategies can complement decarbonization measures to further reduce GHG emissions from material production, help lower emissions from operational energy use in the built environment and transport, and cut emissions from waste management. The largest potential GHG emissions reductions through circularity come from consumption side measures and product design measures. Circular economy strategies can support a sustainable clean energy transition, by helping relieve the mineral supply pressure, increasing supply chain resilience, preventing new waste challenges, accelerating the adoption of clean energy technologies, as well as maximizing their climate benefits. Furthermore, circular economy strategies can help enhance adaptation to climate change. Nine calls-to-action are put forward, for government, business, and civil society leaders to accelerate circular economy strategies with the highest potential for climate benefits, and for the research community to close critical knowledge gaps.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗