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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
NASA NTRS2004

Scale-Free Networks and Commercial Air Carrier Transportation in the United States

Network science, or the art of describing system structure, may be useful for the analysis and control of large, complex systems. For example, networks exhibiting scale-free structure have been found to be particularly well suited to deal with environmental uncertainty and large demand growth. The National Airspace System may be, at least in part, a scalable network. In fact, the hub-and-spoke structure of the commercial segment of the NAS is an often-cited example of an existing scale-free network After reviewing the nature and attributes of scale-free networks, this assertion is put to the test: is commercial air carrier transportation in the United States well explained by this model? If so, are the positive attributes of these networks, e.g. those of efficiency, flexibility and robustness, fully realized, or could we effect substantial improvement? This paper first outlines attributes of various network types, then looks more closely at the common carrier air transportation network from perspectives of the traveler, the airlines, and Air Traffic Control (ATC). Network models are applied within each paradigm, including discussion of implied strengths and weaknesses of each model. Finally, known limitations of scalable networks are discussed. With an eye towards NAS operations, utilizing the strengths and avoiding the weaknesses of scale-free networks are addressed.

Conway, Sheila R.↗
NASA NTRS2006

Journal of Air Transportation, Volume 11, No. 2

The following topics were covered: How Do Airlines Perceive That Strategic Alliances Affect Their Individual Branding?; Airline Choice for Domestic Flights in Sao Paulo Metropolitan Area: An Application of the Conditional Logit Model; Consequences of Feeder Delays for the Success of A380 Operations; Inside the Mechanics of Network Development: How Competition and Strategy Reorganize European Air Traffic; The Opportunities and Threats of Turning Airports into Hubs; Another Approach to Enhance Airline Safety: Using System Safety Tools; A Simulation Based Approach for Contingency Planning for Aircraft Turnaround Activities in Airline Hubs; and The Council on Aviation Accreditation: Part One- Historical Foundation.

Bowen, Brent↗
DOE OSTI2025

Roughrider Carbon Storage Hub (Final Report)

The Roughrider Carbon Storage Hub was a 2-year project (October 2023 – September 2025) conducted by the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) focused on advancing the feasibility of a commercial-scale carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) geologic storage hub in McKenzie County, North Dakota. The project’s objective was to investigate the potential that stacked storage complexes (multiple deep saline formations) can safely and economically store at least 50 million tonnes of CO 2 within 30 years. The captured CO 2 would be sourced from industrial emitters including project partner ONEOK, Inc.’s gas-processing plants and a planned gas-to-liquids facility. Drilling of the Roughrider 1 stratigraphic test well (14,979-ft total depth) was completed in November 2024. The wellbore intersected four candidate storage formations: Inyan Kara, Broom Creek, Mission Canyon, and Black Island–Deadwood. Operational challenges, including a stuck drill string, were resolved without long-term impact. A comprehensive logging and coring program was conducted, followed by successful well abandonment and site reclamation. Over 660 ft of 4-in. whole core was retrieved. Core plug samples were processed and analyzed for petrophysical and geochemical properties. Results confirmed promising porosity and permeability in the Inyan Kara and Broom Creek Formations and removal of the Mission Canyon and Black Island–Deadwood horizons from further investigation. Data derived from the logging and coring program were used to improve initial geologic models built from legacy data. CO 2 injection simulations showed that the Inyan Kara alone can feasibly store the target mass of CO 2 . Because of subtle differences in geologic structure and porosity trends between the formations, a stacked storage scenario using the Broom Creek and Inyan Kara Formations resulted in a larger overall plume area than using the Inyan Kara alone. Preliminary CO 2 pipeline routes from the industrial sources were mapped utilizing existing rights of way and evaluated for capacity and cost using U.S. Department of Energy Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management/National Energy Technology Laboratory models and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency emissions data. Integrating capture, transport, and storage cost estimates with policy incentives (e.g., 45Q credits) provided a total cost-per-ton analysis. Results indicate that the small scale of the volumes to be transported over the cumulative large distances does not support the project’s financial viability. However, the groundwork laid during this project from geological, regulatory, and social perspectives positions the Roughrider hub site as a promising candidate for commercial carbon storage in North Dakota, especially if the economy of scale is introduced for CO 2 transportation to the hub site.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
DOE OSTI2022

Evaluation of coupled wind-wave model simulations of offshore winds in the Mid-Atlantic Bight using lidar-equipped buoys.

From 2014 to 2017, two Department of Energy buoys equipped with Doppler lidar were deployed off the U.S. East Coast to provide long term measurements of hub-height wind speed in the marine environment. In this study, we performed simulations of selected cases from the deployment using a 5-km configuration of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, to see if simulated hub height speeds could produce closer agreement with the observations than existing reanalysis products. For each case we performed two additional simulations: one in which marine surface roughness height was one-way coupled to forecast wave parameters from a standalone WaveWatch III (WW3) simulation, and another in which WRF and WW3 were two-way coupled using the Coupled-Ocean-Atmosphere-Wave-Sediment-Transport (COAWST) framework. It was found that all the 5-km WRF simulations improved 90-m wind speed statistics for the tropical cyclone case of 08 May 2015 and the cold frontal case of 25 Mar 2016, but not the nor-easter of 18 Jan 2016. The impact of wave coupling on buoy-level (4 m) wind speed was modest and case dependent, but when present, the impact was typically seen at 90 m as well, being as large as 10% in stable conditions. One-way wave coupling consistently reduced wind speeds, improving biases for 25 Mar 2016 but worsening them for 08 May 2015. Two-way wave coupling mitigated these negative biases, improved wave field representation and statistics, and mostly improved 4-m wind field correlation coefficients, at least at the VA buoy, largely due to greater self-consistency between wind and wave fields.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
NASA NTRS1992

HSCT noise reduction technology development at GE Aircraft Engines

The topics covered include the following: High Speed Civil Transport (HSCT) exhaust nozzle design approaches; GE aircraft engine (GEAE) HSCT acoustics research; 2DCD non-IVP suppressor ejector; key sensitivities from reference aircraft; acoustic experiments; aero-mixing experimental set-up; fluid shield nozzle; HSCT Mach 2.4 flade nozzle; noise prediction; nozzle concept for GE/Boeing joint test; scale model hot core flow path modified to prevent hub-choking CFL3-D solution; HSCT exhaust nozzle status; and key acoustic technology issues for HSCT's.

Majjigi, Rudramuni K.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Multi-modal Energy-optimal Trip Scheduling in Real-time (METS-R) for Transportation Hubs (Final Report)

This report summarizes the work performed under the award number EE0008524. The project develops the Multi-modal Energy-optimal Trip Scheduling in Real-time (METS-R) platform as the next-generation transportation solution based on autonomous electric vehicles (AEV) serving passenger trips from and to urban transportation hubs, to substantially reduce transportation energy consumption. Extensive data collection and analyses were first conducted to understand the demand patterns and energy consumption of hub-based on-road trips. Then, a data-driven framework that consists of an analytical module and a simulation module was proposed. For the analytical module, five planning + operation tools were developed to support the planning and energy-efficient operations of urban AEV services: the charging station planning that robotically allocates charging supplies based on the stationary charging demand distribution; the transit planning and demand adaptive scheduling model that efficiently generates\ candidate transit routes from hubs to other places and dynamically adjusts the transit time table to fit the current demand; the online energy-efficient routing that learns the energy-optimal paths from observations of link-level energy consumption in real-time; the hub-based ridesharing that matches trip requests together with account for the uncertainty of future trip demand and vehicle supply; and finally, the integrated demand prediction and anomaly detection pipeline that leverages the flight/train time table and support other planning/operation tools. To demonstrate the performance of these tools, a scalable high-performance agent-based simulator was built. We divided the urban space into multiple service zones where each zone was considered as an agent for passenger generation and vehicle charging. Two types of AEV agents were coded to model two types of mobility services: AEV taxi and AEV transit. For the AEV taxi, the team implemented the functions of pickup/drop-off passengers, energy-efficient routing, ridesharing, fleet rebalancing, and recharging. For the AEV bus, the team implemented the functions of demand-adaptive route scheduling, passenger boarding, and recharging. A high-performance computing framework was introduced to receive various profiling information (such as link energy updates, vehicle speed) from the simulator instances and communicate the operational commands back to the instances. The numerical experiments show that each of the proposed operational algorithms can reduce energy consumption and improve system efficiency. Furthermore, there exists the need to collectively consider multiple planning + operational strategies as multiple strategies can influence each other in terms of performance impacts. Recommendations for future work related to AEV planning and simulation are discussed.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
NASA NTRS2003

The Impact of Total Liberalization of Domestic Air Transport on the Social Welfare and on the Dynamic of Competition: Comparison Between the United States and the European Union

Since the lst of April 1997 date of the implementation of the third package of the liberalization, air transport, within the european Union has become totally liberalized. In the United States the deregulation of domestic air traffic was earlier and faster since it took place in October 1978 after the adoption of the only act of deregulation. This paper, in its first part, deals with the liberalization of the industry of air traffic in the european union. After a comparison with US system based on market demand, fare policy and network restrictions, we present our descriptive results coming from treatments on the OAG data. These results present several aspects such as the evolution of the competitive structure of the intra-european routes, the level of airport dominance and the growth of hub structure. The second part of the paper presents models of entry in the airline industry. As profitability" of route flown explains correctly decisions taken by airlines to serve or not a route, the paper focuses on the specification and the estimation of the determinants of city, pair profitability in the european union. Treatments done on the OAG data show a rapid development of leasing space agreement (partial and total) and code sharing practices between 1995 and 2000 in Europe that's why we differentiate first between the two type of competitive strategy of entry(direct entry and leasing space agreement) and second between the competitive strategy of entry and the alliance strategy of code sharing. So the estimation of model will be able to answer the question if the european air transport market is contestable and in case not to see if the decision of entry is more directed by the level of airport dominance (as in the domestic United States market)or essentially by the competitive structure of the routes. We try to explain the nature of entry(directleasing or code sharing) by the different levels of these two determinants.

Zbidi, Karim↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Unveiling Urban Pollution Patterns from a Bird’s-Eye View

Low-earth orbiting satellites have been observing the global distribution of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) since the 1990s and these observations have been used to identify pollution source regions, temporal trends, and links to health effects and community disparities. However, historically, space-based NO2 observations have been coarse in spatial and temporal resolution resulting in challenges in data interpretation and product validation; therefore, NASA developed airborne capabilities and measurements strategies to observe ultraviolet-visible (UV-VIS) trace gases at high temporal and spatial resolutions to unveiling never before seen spatiotemporal patterns over major urban hubs during recent air quality field studies. In this talk, Dr. Judd will share the story of these field studies with datasets collected from NASA’s airborne spectrometers, GeoTASO and GCAS, and how they integrate in with other space- and ground-based instrumentation to illustrate the conceptual model of air quality episodes in coastal urban environments, contribute to satellite validation and regional chemical transport model evaluation. These imagers have the capability to observe UV-VIS absorbing species, typically NO2 and HCHO, at spatial resolutions as fine as 250 m when observing from the upper-troposphere. Flight strategies allowed for the collection of repeated raster samples over urban areas multiple times per flight day in cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City, capturing never before seen pictures of the diurnal evolution of emissions, chemistry, and meteorology associated with NO2 heterogeneity. These airborne efforts help local air quality management better understand their air quality challenges as well as benefit the larger air quality community in preparation for geostationary air quality observations and the development of the global air quality observing system.

Laura Judd↗
DOE OSTI2022

Controlled Environment Agriculture - Farming and Food Access for Healthy Diets

Fruits and vegetables are critical for a healthy diet and USDA guidelines recommend increasing fruit and vegetable consumption for almost all Americans. However, most food system lifecycle assessments do not capture the importance of these food groups in the food system. Moreover, long supply chains and limited access to fresh produce are particularly prevalent in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Many of these communities are food deserts or food swamps characterized by a lack of full-scale groceries, and a prevalence of convenience stores and fast-food restaurants. Stocking of fresh produce is difficult and often unprofitable for small stores. Convenience stores are usually space-limited, unable to achieve economies-of-scale in purchasing and have difficulty managing the short shelf-life of fresh produce. Controlled-Environment (CE) farming, including greenhouses and fully indoor vertical farms, have the potential to address persistent food access issues for disadvantaged communities. CE farming offers several potential advantages for food desert and food swamp neighborhoods, including shorter or non-existent transport distances and fewer middlemen, which could reduce costs. CE farming can be integrated into existing buildings at virtually any scale, providing local jobs and revitalization of community hubs such as shopping malls, or larger-scale farms located in close-in warehouse or industrial areas. Rainwater harvesting and recovery of nutrients from wastewater could further improve food system resilience and circularity. Geospatial modeling of CE farming in case study cities of various sizes and densities will help to quantify the benefits of CE farming. Geospatial modeling can help to answer questions such as whether sufficient collection area is available for rainwater harvesting for a CE farm, and what size of farm would be required to serve the community living within walking distance of the farm. This paper reports on progress in geospatial modeling of CE farming integration into several case study cities.

controlled environment agriculture↗
NASA NTRS2003

Route Monopolie and Optimal Nonlinear Pricing

To cope with air traffic growth and congested airports, two solutions are apparent on the supply side: 1) use larger aircraft in the hub and spoke system; or 2) develop new routes through secondary airports. An enlarged route system through secondary airports may increase the proportion of route monopolies in the air transport market.The monopoly optimal non linear pricing policy is well known in the case of one dimension (one instrument, one characteristic) but not in the case of several dimensions. This paper explores the robustness of the one dimensional screening model with respect to increasing the number of instruments and the number of characteristics. The objective of this paper is then to link and fill the gap in both literatures. One of the merits of the screening model has been to show that a great varieD" of economic questions (non linear pricing, product line choice, auction design, income taxation, regulation...) could be handled within the same framework.VCe study a case of non linear pricing (2 instruments (2 routes on which the airline pro_ddes customers with services), 2 characteristics (demand of services on these routes) and two values per characteristic (low and high demand of services on these routes)) and we show that none of the conclusions of the one dimensional analysis remain valid. In particular, upward incentive compatibility constraint may be binding at the optimum. As a consequence, they may be distortion at the top of the distribution. In addition to this, we show that the optimal solution often requires a kind of form of bundling, we explain explicitly distortions and show that it is sometimes optimal for the monopolist to only produce one good (instead of two) or to exclude some buyers from the market. Actually, this means that the monopolist cannot fully apply his monopoly power and is better off selling both goods independently.We then define all the possible solutions in the case of a quadratic cost function for a uniform distribution of agent types and explain the implications for airlines in terms of service differentiation.

Tournut, Jacques↗
DOE OSTI2025

A High-Fidelity Model of the Peach Bottom 2 Turbine-Trip Benchmark Using VERA

This work presents a high-fidelity simulation of the Peach Bottom turbine trip (PBTT) benchmark using the Virtual Environment for Reactor Applications (VERA), a multiphysics reactor modeling tool developed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors energy innovation hub. The PBTT benchmark, based on a 1977 transient event at the end of cycle 2 in a General Electric Type-4 boiling water reactor (BWR), is a critical test case for validating core physics models with thermal feedback during rapid reactivity events. VERA was employed to perform end-to-end, pin-resolved simulations from conditions at the beginning of cycle 1 through the turbine-trip transient, incorporating detailed neutron transport, fuel depletion, and subchannel thermal hydraulics. The simulation reproduced key benchmark observables with high accuracy: the peak power excursion occurred at 0.75 s, matching the scram time and closely aligning with the benchmark average of 0.742 s; the simulated maximum power spike was approximately 7600 MW, which is within 3% of the benchmark average of 7400 MW; and void-collapse dynamics were consistent with benchmark expectations. Reactivity predictions during cycles 1 and 2 remained within 1500 pcm and 400 pcm of criticality, respectively. These results confirm VERA’s ability to model complex coupled neutronic and thermal hydraulic behavior in a BWR turbine-trip transient, which will support its use in future studies of modeling dryout, fuel performance, and uncertainty quantification for transients of this type.

BWR↗
NASA NTRS1976

Single stage, low noise, advanced technology fan. Volume 1: Aerodynamic design

The aerodynamic design for a half-scale fan vehicle, which would have application on an advanced transport aircraft, is described. The single stage advanced technology fan was designed to a pressure ratio of 1.8 at a tip speed of 503 m/sec 11,650 ft/sec). The fan and booster components are designed in a scale model flow size convenient for testing with existing facility and vehicle hardware. The design corrected flow per unit annulus area at the fan face is 215 kg/sec sq m (44.0 lb m/sec sq ft) with a hub-tip ratio of 0.38 at the leading edge of the fan rotor. This results in an inlet corrected airflow of 117.9 kg/sec (259.9 lb m/sec) for the selected rotor tip diameter if 90.37 cm (35.58 in.). The variable geometry inlet is designed utilizing a combination of high throat Mach number and acoustic treatment in the inlet diffuser for noise suppression (hybrid inlet). A variable fan exhaust nozzle was assumed in conjunction with the variable inlet throat area to limit the required area change of the inlet throat at approach and hence limit the overall diffusion and inlet length. The fan exit duct design was primarily influenced by acoustic requirements, including length of suppressor wall treatment; length, thickness and position on a duct splitter for additional suppressor treatment; and duct surface Mach numbers.

Sullivan, T. J.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Integration of Advanced Concepts and Vehicles Into the Next Generation Air Transportation System: Introduction, Key Messages, and Vehicle Attributes - Volume 1

Raytheon, in partnership with NASA, is leading the way in ensuring that the future air transportation continues to be a key driver of economic growth and stability and that this system provides an environmentally friendly, safe, and effective means of moving people and goods. A Raytheon-led team of industry and academic experts, under NASA contract NNA08BA47C, looked at the potential issues and impact of introducing four new classes of advanced aircraft into the next generation air transportation system -- known as NextGen. The study will help determine where NASA should further invest in research to support the safe introduction of these new air vehicles. Small uncrewed or unmanned aerial systems (SUAS), super heavy transports (SHT) including hybrid wing body versions (HWB), very light jets (VLJ), and supersonic business jets (SSBJ) are the four classes of aircraft that we studied. Understanding each vehicle's business purpose and strategy is critical to assessing the feasibility of new aircraft operations and their impact on NextGen's architecture. The Raytheon team used scenarios created by aviation experts that depict vehicles in year 2025 operations along with scripts or use cases to understand the issues presented by these new types of vehicles. The information was then mapped into the Joint Planning and Development Office's (JPDO s) Enterprise Architecture to show how the vehicles will fit into NextGen's Concept of Operations. The team also identified significant changes to the JPDO's Integrated Work Plan (IWP) to optimize the NextGen vision for these vehicles. Using a proven enterprise architecture approach and the JPDO s Joint Planning Environment (JPE) web site helped make the leap from architecture to planning efficient, manageable and achievable. Very Light Jets flying into busy hub airports -- Supersonic Business Jets needing to climb and descend rapidly to achieve the necessary altitude Super-heavy cargo planes requiring the shortest common flight path -- are just a few of the potential new operations in the future National Airspace System. To assess the impact of these new scenarios on overall national airspace operations, the Raytheon team used the capabilities of a suite of tools such as NASA's Airspace Concepts Evaluation System (ACES), the Flight Optimization System (FLOPS), FAA's Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT), Intelligent Automations Kinematic Trajectory Generator (KTG) and the Aviation Safety Risk Model (ASRM). Detailed metroplex modeling, surface delay models for super heavy transports, prioritized routing and corridors for supersonics business jets, and VLJ demand models are some of the models developed by the Raytheon team to study the effect of operating these new vehicles in the future NAS. Using this suite of models, several trade studies were conducted to evaluate these effects in terms of delays, equity in access, safety, and the environment. Looking at the impact of each vehicle, a number of critical issues were identified. The Raytheon team concluded that strict compliance to NextGen's 4-dimensional trajectory (4DT) management will be required to accommodate these vehicles unique operations and increased number of flights in the future air space system. The next section provides a discussion of this and the other key findings from our study.

Zellweger, Andres↗
DOE OSTI2021

ADDS-EVS: An agent-based deployment decision-support system for electric vehicle services

Rapid and sustainable development of the electric vehicle (EV) industry places the requirement for the plan of EV deployment. For public EV, existing models mainly focus on the charging facility design and fail to capture the multi-modal scenarios. In this work, we develop an agent-based decision-support system for multi-modal electric transits to locate the optimal combinations of key parameters, including the fleet size, the transit schedule, the charging facility design, and the routing strategy. We demonstrate the utilities of our system by simulating public EV services deployed to serve travel needs related to a transportation hub in New York City. To support the decision of the fleet size, we summarize system-level performances including the total satisfied demand, passengers' waiting time, vehicle idling time. The spatial and temporal patterns are extracted to serve a deeper understanding of system dynamics and service quality. Finally, we investigate the interaction between the fleet size design and the routing strategy. The results suggest a necessity of integrating the operation strategies into the planning phase.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2022

Abstract for CRADA between NETL and Equinor U.S. Holdings Inc.

The focus of this collaboration is to offer narrative and analysis across life cycle GHG emissions of the proposed hydrogen hub, techno-economic and market factor analyses informed insights on transportation and storage for hydrogen, and the development of social justice and workforce readiness plans to introduce the hydrogen economy to Appalachia. The proposed work also includes supporting narrative and analysis to achieve market adoption of hydrogen and follow-on investments to build out a national clean hydrogen network. The outcome of this collaboration will enable Equinor to respond to the Region Clean Hydrogen Hub FOA 2779 most effectively and to decarbonize and effectively develop a hydrogen market in Appalachia, while enhancing NETL’s modeling through direct industry collaboration. Learnings and improvements will be incorporated into future updates of NETL’s mechanisms, tools, and insights.

08 HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2024

Analysis of Automated Transit Network Systems with Battery-Electric Vehicles in Automated Mobility Districts: Preprint

The paper provides an overview of the insights and findings of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL) ongoing research on the implementation of automated mobility districts (AMDs). AMD is a term coined by NREL to describe a geographically defined district or major activity center located in a dense urban setting with mobility applications provided by automated/autonomous vehicle (AV) systems spanning internal circulation and first-mile/last-mile connections to regional transportation hubs. Research over the past five years has focused on understanding the evolution of AMDs, beginning with demonstrations of automated shuttles prior to the pandemic, to more integrated on-demand mobility systems currently in initial stages of deployment. Initial insights and findings from earlier studies include the need for designation of a "jurisdiction having authority," a clear vision of a complete system to provide end-to-end mobility services, and the requisite intelligent infrastructure to complement AV technology. NREL's most recent Phase III research investigates station boarding/alighting (curb) issues, the full electrification of fleets, and the need for a systems engineering methodology (SEM) to properly analyze the complexities resulting from the convergence of automation, on-demand mobility, and electrification of the transit systems within the AMD. The paper reviews the findings of AMD research conducted during Phase I, II, and III, with special emphasis on Phase III results with respect to a descriptive example of the proposed SEM when a "digital twin" analytical model is used to simulate the transport fleet's battery-electric vehicle miles of travel and associated duty cycles through a rigorous analytical assessment with a comprehensive modeling process.

ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Wyoming CarbonSAFE Phase III: Site Characterization and Permitting Commercial-Scale Carbon Storage Complex Feasibility Study at Dry Fork Station, Wyoming

This report presents the findings of the technical and non-technical site characterization and permitting activities (“Phase III”) conducted under the Wyoming CarbonSAFE: Accelerating CCUS Commercialization and Deployment at Dry Fork Power Station (DFS) and the Wyoming Integrated Test Center project (“Wyoming CarbonSAFE”). Wyoming CarbonSAFE is part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) Carbon Storage Assurance Facility Enterprise (“CarbonSAFE”) Initiative. The results of Phase III demonstrate that the Wyoming CarbonSAFE project - referred to as the Northern Powder River Basin Carbon Sequestration Hub (NPRB-CSH) - meets the technical, regulatory, and commercial feasibility requirements necessary to advance toward commercial development and construction. The activities completed under this project Phase make the NPRB-CSH one of the region’s most commercially ready carbon storage sites. Completion of this Phase included the finalization of all site surface and subsurface characterization activities, completion and testing of two Class VI standard wells, 10 draft Class VI permits-to construct to address the future needs of a storage complex, finalized NEPA assessments, transportation and capture FEED studies, and a full commercialization strategy with economic modeling, operation and site closure strategies. The NPRB-CSH meets all requirements to progress to a CarbonSAFE Phase IV program or advance to full commercial operations under the development of a business partner.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
DOE OSTI2021

Urban cells: Extending the energy hub concept to facilitate sector and spatial coupling

The rapid growth of urban areas and concerns over climate change make it vital to improve the energy sustainability of cities. Understanding the complex interactions within different sectors (sectoral) and localities (spatial) of cities plays a crucial role in improving efficiency and sustainability, which is extremely challenging due to the complex urban morphology. State-of-the-art energy concepts do not facilitate a detailed consideration of both sectoral and spatial coupling that energy infrastructure maintains at the urban scale. This has become a significant challenge when designing interconnected urban energy infrastructure. The Urban Cell concept is introduced to address this bottleneck. A novel computational model using a modular approach is introduced to create an interconnected urban infrastructure, including the energy, building, and transportation sectors. Optimal sizing of the distributed energy system (including renewables, energy storage, and dispatchable sources) and optimal urban morphology is determined within a modular unit. A game-theoretic approach is used to model the interactions between urban cells (modular units). The study revealed that the urban cell concept can reduce the net present value of the interconnected energy infrastructure by 37% while increasing the installed renewable energy capacity by 25%. This demonstrates the benefit potential of urban cells and the importance of considering interactions between different sectors and different parts within a city. The Urban Cell concept can be used to present the complex interactions maintained within a city.

Perera, ATD↗