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DOE OSTI2018

Process for Conducting a Cost Benefit Analysis for New Radiation Portal Monitors

The Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO) has deployed over 1,400 radiation portal monitors (RPMs) around the United States to enhance border security. DNDO is now considering deployment of a newer generation of RPMs, intended to have equal or better sensitivity but a considerably lower nuisance alarm rate due to Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material (NORM) that is common in the stream of commerce. If the nuisance alarm rate is sufficiently reduced at a site, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) may be able to reduce the staffing necessary to respond to nuisance alarms generated by the RPMs. This document provides an overview of some possible processes for conducting a cost benefit analysis to place a reliable dollar amount on the value of these new systems. While there is no hard and fast guide for conducting a cost benefit analysis, an austere method is provided for quick estimating. Two robust methods are also provided, one taking guidance from an Office of Management and Budget circular and the other from the Government Accountability Office.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Economical and Environmentally Benign Extraction of Rare Earth Elements (REES) from Coal & Coal Byproducts

This final report provides a complete summary of the activities, results, analytical discussion, and overall evaluation of the project titled “Economical and Environmentally Benign Extraction of Rare Earth Elements (REES) from Coal & Coal Byproducts” under DOE Award Number DE-FE-0027155 that started in March 2016 and ended December 2017. Fly ash was selected as the coal-byproduct source material due to fact that it is readily available with no need for extensive methods to obtain the material, it is produced in large quantities (>50 million tons per year) and had REE concentrations similar to other coal-byproducts. The selected fly ash used throughout this project was from the Mill Creek power generating facility operated by Louisville Gas and Electric located in Louisville, KY and was subjected to a variety of physical and chemical characterization tests. Results from fusion extractions showed that the selected fly-ash had a TREE+Y concentration of 480 ppm with critical REEs concentration of 200 ppm. The fly ash had an outlook ratio of 1.25 and an estimated value of $16-$18 worth of salable REEs per 1-tonne of fly ash. Additional characterizations by optical evaluation, QEMSCAN, XRD, size fractionation, and SEM analysis showed the fly ash consisted of small glassy spherules with a size range between 1 to 110 µm (ave. diam. of 13 um), was heterogeneous in chemical composition (main crystalline phases: aluminum oxides and iron oxides) and was primarily an amorphous material (75 to 80%). A simple stepped approach was completed to estimate the total REE resource quantity. The approach included REE characterization of the representative samples, evaluation of fly-ash availability, and final determination estimated resource availability with regards to REE grade on a regional and national scale. This data represents the best available information and is based upon the assumptions that the power generating facility where the fly-ash was obtained will use the same coal sources (actual mines were identified), the coal materials will have relatively consistent REE concentrations, and the REE extraction process developed during this project can achieve 42% REE recovery (validated and confirmed). Calculations indicated that the estimated REE resource is approximately 175,000 tonnes with a current estimated value of $3,330MM. The proposed REE extraction and production process developed during this project used four fundamental steps; 1) fly-ash pretreatment to enhance REE extraction, 2) REE extraction by acid digestion, 3) REE separation/concentration by carbon adsorption and column chromatography, and 4) REE oxide production. Secondary processing steps to manage process residuals and additional processing techniques to produce value-added products were incorporated into the process during the project. These secondary steps were not only necessary to manage residuals, but also provided additional revenue streams that offset operational and capital expenditures. The process produces one value product stream (production of zeolite Na-P1), a solids waste stream, and one liquid stream that met RCRA discharge requirements. Based upon final design criteria and operational parameters, the proposed system could produce approximately 200 grams of REOs from 1-tonne of fly-ash, thereby representing a TREE+Y recovery of 42% (project target of > 25%). A detailed economic model was developed to evaluate both CAPEX and OPEX estimates for systems with varying capacities between 100 kg to 200 tonnes of fly ash processed per day. Using a standard system capacity of 10 tonne/day system, capital costs were estimated at $88/kg fly ash while operating costs were estimated at approximately $450/kg fly ash. This operating cost estimate includes a revenue of $495/tonne of fly ash processed from the value-added product produced from the system (zeolite Na-P1). Although operating cost savings due to zeolite production were significant, the capital + operating cost for a 10 tonne system was more expensive than the total dollar value of REEs present in the fly ash material. Specifically, the estimated cost per 1-tonne of fly ash treated is approximately $540 while the estimated value of REEs in the fly ash is $18-$20/tonne. This is an excessive difference showing that the proposed process is not economically feasible strictly on the basis of REE revenue compared to extraction costs. Although the current proposed system does not produce sufficient quantities of REEs or additional revenue sources to offset operational and capital costs, supplementary factors including US strategic concerns, commercial demands, and defense department requirements must be factored. At this time, the process developed during this project provides foundational information for future development of simple processes that require low capital investment and one that will extract a valuable quality and quantity of REE oxides from industrial waste.

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT↗
DOE OSTI2018

Silver-free Metallization Technology for Producing High Efficiency, Industrial Silicon Solar Cells

The goal of this project is to provide a commercially viable Ag-free metallization technology that will both reduce cost and increase efficiency of standard silicon solar cells. By removing silver from the front grid metallization and replacing it with lower cost nickel, copper, and tin metal, the front grid direct materials costs will decrease. This reduction in material costs should provide a path to meeting the Sunshot 2020 goal of 1 dollar / W DC . As of today, plated contacts are not widely implemented in large scale manufacturing. For organizations that wish to implement pilot scale manufacturing, only two equipment choices exist. These equipment manufacturers do not supply plating chemistry. The main goal of this project is to provide a chemistry and equipment solution to the industry that enables reliable manufacturing of plated contacts marked by passing reliability results and higher efficiencies than silver paste front grid contacts. To date, there have been several key findings that point to plated contacts performing equal to or better than the current state of the art silver paste contacts. Poor adhesion and reliability concerns are a few of the hurdles for plated contacts, specifically plated nickel directly on silicon. A key finding of the Phase 1 budget period is that the plated contacts have the same adhesion as the silver paste controls. This is a huge win for plated contacts. With very little optimization work, state of the art electrical results for plated contacts on laser ablated lines have been demonstrated with efficiencies up to 19.1% and fill factors ~80% on grid lines 40-50 um wide. The silver paste controls with similar line widths demonstrate similar electrical results. By optimizing the emitter and grid design for the plated contacts, it is expected that the electrical performance will exceed the silver paste controls. In addition, cells plated using Technic chemistry and equipment pass reliability testing; i.e. 1000 hours damp heat and 200 thermal cycles, with results similar to silver paste control cells. 100 cells have been processed through Technic’s novel demo plating tool built and installed during budget period 2. This plating tool performed consistently from cell to cell, providing gentle handling for the solar cells. An agreement has been signed with a cell manufacturer to process their cells through our plating chemistry and equipment. Their main focus for plated contacts is to reduce the direct materials cost by utilizing nickel, copper, and tin in place of silver paste. Based on current market conditions and cost model calculations, the overall savings offered by plated contacts is only 3.5% dollar/W versus silver paste contacts; however, the direct materials savings depend on the silver market. If silver prices increase, plated contacts may find a wider adoption in the solar industry in order to keep the direct materials costs down for front grid contacts.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2018

Fast Fiber-Coupled Imaging Devices

HyperV Technologies Corp. has successfully designed, built and experimentally demonstrated a full scale 1024 pixel 100 MegaFrames/s fiber coupled camera with 12 or 14 bits, and record lengths of 32K frames, exceeding our original performance objectives. This high-pixel-count, fiber optically-coupled, imaging diagnostic can be used for investigating fast, bright plasma events. In Phase 1 of this effort, a 100 pixel fiber-coupled fast streak camera for imaging plasma jet profiles was constructed and successfully demonstrated. The resulting response from outside plasma physics researchers emphasized development of increased pixel performance as a higher priority over increasing pixel count. In this Phase 2 effort, HyperV therefore focused on increasing the sample rate and bit-depth of the photodiode pixel designed in Phase 1, while still maintaining a long record length and holding the cost per channel to levels which allowed up to 1024 pixels to be constructed. Cost per channel was 53.31 dollars, very close to our original target of $50 per channel. The system consists of an imaging "camera head" coupled to a photodiode bank with an array of optical fibers. The output of these fast photodiodes is then digitized at 100 Megaframes per second and stored in record lengths of 32,768 samples with bit depths of 12 to 14 bits per pixel. Longer record lengths are possible with additional memory. A prototype imaging system with up to 1024 pixels was designed and constructed and used to successfully take movies of very fast moving plasma jets as a demonstration of the camera performance capabilities. Some faulty electrical components on the 64 circuit boards resulted in only 1008 functional channels out of 1024 on this first generation prototype system. We experimentally observed backlit high speed fan blades in initial camera testing and then followed that with full movies and streak images of free flowing high speed plasma jets (at 30-50 km/s). Jet structure and jet collisions onto metal pillars in the path of the plasma jets were recorded in a single shot. This new fast imaging system is an attractive alternative to conventional fast framing cameras for applications and experiments where imaging events using existing techniques are inefficient or impossible. The development of HyperV's new diagnostic was split into two tracks: a next generation camera track, in which HyperV built, tested, and demonstrated a prototype 1024 channel camera at its own facility, and a second plasma community beta test track, where selected plasma physics programs received small systems of a few test pixels to evaluate the expected performance of a full scale camera on their experiments. These evaluations were performed as part of an unfunded collaboration with researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the University of California at Davis. Results from the prototype 1024-pixel camera are discussed, as well as results from the collaborations with test pixel system deployment sites.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2018

Estimating the Value of Improved Distributed Photovoltaic Adoption Forecasts for Utility Resource Planning

Misforecasting the adoption of customer-owned distributed photovoltaics (DPV) can have operational and financial implications for utilities - forecasting capabilities can be improved, but generally at a cost. This paper informs this decision-space by quantifying the costs of misforecasting across a wide range of DPV growth rates and misforecast severities. Using a simplified probabilistic method presented within, an analyst can make a first-order estimate of the financial benefit of improving a utility's forecasting capabilities, and thus be better informed about whether to make such an investment. For example, we show that a utility with 10 TWh per year of retail electric sales who initially estimates that the increase in DPV's contribution to total generation could range from 2 to 7.5 percent over the next 15 years could expect total present-value savings of approximately 4 million dollars if they could keep the severity of successive five-year misforecasts within plus or minus 25 percent. We also have more general discussions about how misforecasting DPV impacts the buildout and operation of the bulk power system - for example, we observed that misforecasting DPV most strongly influenced the amount of utility-scale PV that gets built, due to the similarity in the energy and capacity services offered by the two solar technologies.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2017

Enabling Fast Charging: A Technology Gap Assessment

The transportation sector accounts for the largest percentage of energy use in the United States. Decreasing energy consumption across this sector, especially in commercial light duty transportation, is essential for the U.S. to gain energy independence. Recently, powertrain electrification with plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) have gained traction as an alternative due to their inherent efficiency advantages compared to the traditional internal combustion engine vehicle (ICEV). Accounting for 500,000 vehicle on the road today, these PEVs will reduce oil imported into the U.S. by five billion gallons and save two billion dollars in fuel costs to consumers over their useful life. Though there are many different classes of PEV, the intent of this study is to focus on non-hybrid powertrains, or battery electric vehicles (BEVs). Despite rapid drops in cost within the BEV powertrain of over 4x in the last 10 years, the PEV market still only accounts for approximately 1% of new light duty vehicle sales annually. Though BEV powertrain costs are not quite at parity with the ICEV, another gap to wider adoption of BEVs that have been identified is the ability to refuel quickly, or to fast charge. Though the majority of recharging BEVs is done at home, having access to fast charge stations has a big impact on BEV utility from a consumer perspective. To address the fast charge barrier, charging at 350 kW, or extreme fast charging (XFC), has been proposed and will serve as the basis for discussion in this report. Studies have shown that in areas where drivers have access to 50 kW or 120 kW fast charge stations, annual electric vehicle miles traveled (eVMT) increased by over 25%, even in cases where fast charging was used for 1-5% of total charging events [1, 2]. Having access to these fast charge stations can help alleviate the “range anxiety” that is cited as a common reason for consumers to hesitate to buy a BEV. Though, to be truly competitive to the ICEV refueling experience, even higher power stations are necessary. These extreme fast charge stations (XFC) should be able to recharge a BEV in less than 10 minutes and provide approximately 175 additional miles of driving. However, this introduces a host of new challenges that need to be addressed. As a result, it is expected that packs designed to meet XFC will be significantly more expensive initially than BEVs optimized for range that can reach 140kW with current technology. From the battery cell to the power grid to which these 350 kW chargers are connected, this study will discuss the issues that need to be addressed at each level in order to implement a 350 kW charging network. Although this report is U.S.-focused, the findings should be applicable to other countries with mature automotive infrastructures.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2018

Probabilistic Economic Valuation of Safety Margin Management

The goal of this project was to explore a new methodology for evaluation of potential safety margin upgrades to add a new instrument to the Risk Informed Safety Margin Characterization (RISMC) toolkit. To this end, the RAVEN code developed by the Idaho National Laboratory was used to perform a cost-benefit analysis of several potential power plant safety upgrades to compare the material cost of the upgrades with the probabilistic benefit of avoiding accident scenario consequences to find the most cost-effective safety upgrades. By coupling RAVEN to MELCOR to drive Monte-Carlo method stochastic parameter analysis and using data from existing nuclear codes, as well as MELCOR’s radionuclide relocation tracking capabilities, the radionuclide release source term activity in a severe accident scenario can be estimated. Severe Accident Mitigation upgrades were benchmarked against the Hardened Containment Ventilation upgrade mandated by the USNRC for Mk1 BWRs using dollars spent per Curie of release prevented as a metric by which to evaluate the economic efficacy of the upgrades. Additionally, Fault Tree/Event Tree-based analyses were performed to compare older methods of evaluation to the methodology pioneered in this work, and Monthly Operating Report (MORP) outage data was analyzed for insights into power plant outage optimization and reduction.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗
DOE OSTI2018

In-situ method development to identify radiological contamination in soils

Currently, when sampling soils for radiological contamination, technicians dig holes, remove samples, transport the samples to a laboratory, analyze the samples in the laboratory, and then return the sample to the site or dispose of the sample. Rapid in-situ analysis could eliminate the need for 90% of laboratory analyses, reduce waste, and decrease cost. Increasing the number of sites analyzed per dollar spent would allow for more precisely defined contamination areas. This work builds on a method developed for the Savannah River Nuclear Solutions’ Environmental Compliance group to determine 137 Cs in fauna and technology developed for DOE’s Office of Nuclear Incident Response. The 137 Cs method previously developed is as accurate as the laboratory measurements and provides results in minimal time. We extended this method to other media (soils) and were able to report possible contamination levels within the measured volume.

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗
DOE OSTI2018

Utility-Scale Solar: Empirical Trends in Project Technology, Cost, Performance, and PPA Pricing in the United States – 2018 Edition

The utility-scale solar sector has led the overall U.S. solar market in terms of installed capacity since 2012. In 2017, the utility-scale sector accounted for nearly 60% of all new solar capacity, and is expected to maintain its market-leading position for at least another six years. Two-thirds of all states, representing all regions of the country, are now home to one or more utility-scale solar projects. This report—the sixth in an ongoing annual series—provides in-depth data-driven analysis of the utility-scale solar project fleet in the United States. Drawing on empirical project-level data from a wide range of sources, this report analyzes technology trends, installed project prices, operating costs, capacity factors, power purchase agreement ("PPA") prices, the levelized cost of solar energy (LCOE), and the market value of solar. Given its current preeminence in the market, utility-scale PV also dominates much of this report, though data from CPV and CSP projects are also presented where appropriate. Highlights from this year's edition include: -Installation and Technology Trends: The use of solar trackers dominated 2017 installations with nearly 80% of all new capacity. In a reflection of the ongoing geographic expansion of the market beyond California and the high-insolation Southwest, the median insolation level at newly built project sites declined again in 2017. While new fixed-tilt projects are now seen predominantly in less-sunny regions, tracking projects are increasingly pushing into these same regions. The median inverter loading ratio grew to 1.32 in 2017, allowing the inverters to operate closer to full capacity for a greater percentage of the day. -Installed Prices: Median installed PV project prices have steadily fallen by two-thirds since the 2007-2009 period, to $2.0/WAC (or $1.6/WDC) for projects completed in 2017. The lowest 20th percentile of projects within our 2017 sample were priced at or below $1.8/WAC, with the lowest-priced projects around $0.9/WAC. Overall price dispersion across the entire sample has decreased steadily every year since 2013; similarly, price variation across regions decreased in 2017. -Operation and Maintenance ("O&M") Costs: PV O&M costs were in the neighborhood of $16/kWAC-year, or $8/MWh, in 2017. These numbers include only those costs incurred to directly operate and maintain the generating plant. -Capacity Factors: The cumulative net AC capacity factors of individual projects vary widely, from 14.3% to 35.2%, with a sample median of 26.3%. This project-level variation is based on a number of factors, including the strength of the solar resource at the project site, whether the array is mounted at a fixed tilt or on a tracking mechanism, the inverter loading ratio, degradation, and curtailment. Changes in at least the first three of these factors drove mean capacity factors higher from 2010-vintage to 2013-vintage projects, where they've remained fairly steady among more-recent project vintages as an ongoing increase in the prevalence of tracking has been offset by a build-out of lower resource sites. -PPA Prices and LCOE: Driven by lower installed project prices and improving capacity factors, levelized PPA prices for utility-scale PV have fallen dramatically over time, by $20-$30/MWh per year on average from 2006 through 2012, with a smaller price decline of ~$10/MWh per year evident from 2013 through 2016. Most recent PPAs in our sample—including many outside of California and the Southwest—are priced at or below $40/MWh levelized (in real 2017 dollars), with a few priced as aggressively as ~$20/MWh. The median LCOE among operational PV projects in our sample has followed PPA prices lower, suggesting a relatively competitive market for PPAs. -Solar's Wholesale Energy Market Value: Falling PPA prices have been offset to some degree by a decline in the wholesale energy market value of solar within higher-penetration markets like California, where solar earned just 79% of the average price across all hours within CAISO's real-time wholesale energy market in 2017 (down from 125% back in 2012). In other markets with less solar penetration, however, solar's hourly generation profile still earns more than the average wholesale price (e.g., 127% in ERCOT, 112% in PJM). -Solar+Storage: Adding battery storage is one way to at least partially restore the value of solar, and three recent PV+storage PPAs in Nevada (each using 4-hour batteries sized at 25% of PV nameplate capacity) suggest that the incremental PPA price adder for storage has fallen to ~$5/MWh, down from ~$15/MWh just a year ago for a similarly configured project. As PV plus battery storage becomes more cost-effective, a number of developers are regularly offering it as a viable upgrade to standalone PV. At the end of 2017, there were at least 188.5 GW of utility-scale solar power capacity within the interconnection queues across the nation. The 2017 growth within these queues is widely distributed across all regions of the country, but is most pronounced in the up-and-coming Midwest region, which accounts for 27% of the 99.2 GW of new queue capacity. The widening geographic distribution is as clear of a sign as any that the utility-scale market is maturing and expanding outside of its traditional high-insolation comfort zones.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2018

Distribution System V1G PEV Charging Impacts Report

Plug-in Electric Vehicles (PEVs) are a clean form of transportation that will require a new control paradigm between the energy supply and the transportation sectors as PEV adoption continues to grow. Meeting the projected PEV energy demands will require implementing PEV / grid integration methods beyond charging PEVs at incentivized times. MATLAB was used to simulate the daily vehicle trip demands and charging processes of hundreds of PEVs. The National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) data was used as the source of vehicle travel data, and EV Project provided measured PEV charging data to calibrate the PEV population models. GridLAB-D analyses used a prototypical feeder and PEV population models to evaluate residential PEV V1G (unidirectional) charging in multiple locations, V1G PEV distribution feeder impacts, Time-Of-Use (TOU) rate effects on PEV charging, and charging control methods. The key findings were: optimized charging using California TOU rates could result in savings of over $20 per month for non-TOU program participants; non-TOU participants consume 30-40% of PEV charging energy; about 50% of PEV drivers have their transportation fuel bill reduced by 50 dollars per month; 6.6kW charging will cause distribution transformer power limits to be exceeded on prototypical feeders if the household PEV adoption rate reaches 0.75 PEVs per home; distribution feeder loading is proportional to PEV charging rate; a method was devised to remotely identify when residential transformer overloads occur using changes in PEV charging rate; and the low-cost TOU period is composed of a distribution of PEVs needing small, medium and larger energy needs that can be more effectively shifted as groups to mitigate the TOU peak power and enable a higher PEV adoption rate per household without overloading distribution transformers.

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2018

Ex Situ Catalytic Fast Pyrolysis of Lignocellulosic Biomass to Hydrocarbon Fuels: 2018 State of Technology and Future Research

This report will update modeled costs for a fixed bed ex situ catalytic fast pyrolysis process for the conversion of biomass to liquid hydrocarbon fuels based on recent bench-scale experimental results. It will also update previously published information for this conversion pathway in the DOE Bioenergy Technologies Office 2016 Multi-Year Program Plan with current understanding of research goals achievable by 2022 and associated modeled cost reductions. All costs will be updated to a consistent set of assumptions in 2016 dollars.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2018

High-Octane Gasoline from Lignocellulosic Biomass via Syngas and Methanol/Dimethyl Ether Intermediates: 2018 State of Technology and Future Research

This report will update modeled costs for the production of high-octane gasoline via gasification of biomass followed by syngas cleanup and conversion to methanol/dimethyl ether. The 2018 State of Technology will be based on recent bench-scale experimental results. This report will also update previously published information for this conversion pathway in the DOE Bioenergy Technologies Office 2016 Multi-Year Program Plan with current understanding of research goals achievable by 2022 and associated modeled cost reductions. All costs will be updated to a consistent set of assumptions in 2016 dollars.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Solar Buyer's Markets: Unlocking Lower Photovoltaic and Battery Prices on Online Quote Platforms

In an online quote platform, a solar PV customer provides information about their home and desired system characteristics to a quote 'aggregator,' who conveys this information to a network of installers. Interested installers submit bids to the online quote platform, where the customer can then compare bids in a common format. In this report, we analyze the effects of quote platform use on PV prices using data from the Pick My Solar platform. The results of the our study corroborate results from a previous study based on a different quote platform, indicating that quote platforms are associated with reduced PV prices. By opting to use quote platforms rather than directly soliciting quotes from installers, PV customers might save roughly 20 cents/W - 40 cents/W, which is equivalent to 1,000-2,000 dollars in savings for a typical 5-kW residential PV system. For the first time, we also explore battery prices on quote platforms, and find evidence that quote platforms are associated with reduced battery prices. Despite the savings potential, only about 3 percent of residential PV sales currently occur through online platforms - though many more customers use platforms without adopting PV, and some customers may use platforms to learn about PV prices before accepting a quote received directly from an installer. Continued growth of platform use could yield PV price reductions for at least two reasons. First, it could push the average PV price point toward lower platform prices. Second, it could produce spillover effects by forcing reductions in quotes obtained outside of platforms. For instance, national-scale installers - which have not historically bid on quote platforms - may begin to offer lower prices if greater numbers of prospective customers begin to use the platforms.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2018

2018 FEARCE Development: A Robust and Accurate Engine Modeling Software

Research and development of Fast, Easy, Accurate and Robust Continuum Engineering (FEARCE, formerly KIVA-hpFE) for turbulent reactive and multiphase flow, particularly as related to engine modeling, is relevant to the DOE Vehicle Technologies Office efforts at addressing national energy security. Less dependence on petroleum products leads to greater energy security. By Environmental Protection Agency standards, some vehicles are now reaching 42–50 mpg mark. These are conventional gasoline engines. With continued investment and research into new technical innovations, the potential exists to save more than 4 million barrels of oil per day or approximately 200 to 400 dollars million per day. This would be a significant decrease in emissions and use of petroleum and a very large stimulus to the U.S. economy.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2018

Final Scientific Findings Report- Hydro Research Foundation- Research Awards Program

The Research Awards Program was established in 2014 by the Hydro Research Foundation (Foundation) to support research efforts for the hydropower industry. Using the previously funded Fellowship Program that ran from 2010-2015, the Research Awards Program (RAP or program) captured the lessons learned from the Fellowship program and fine-tuned a nation-wide graduate level research program to support innovation, research and workforce development. The RAP was funded through a $2 million-dollar grant through the Department of Energy’s Water Power Program within the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy office (DOE). This award made possible, 33 research projects by 32 students from 21 universities in 11 states. The grant widely engaged the industry by providing the opportunity to work with 25 organizations as well as 63 students and advisors. The funded research focused on a topic list selected by industry and worked to cover a breadth of research needs across many disciplines, basins and types of hydropower issues. The funded work, answered pressing research needs in the fields of the following disciplines; civil engineering, mechanical engineering, environmental engineering, electrical engineering, geography, fisheries, wildlife, water resources, geology, energy science and materials innovation. The Foundation estimates that 116 individuals benefited from this research through either direct mentorship (42), research (32), overseeing the research (31), partnerships (7) and the day-to-day management of the program (4). This investment by DOE showcases how private-public partnerships can leverage limited funds to create a wide range of research products. The project objective was to build on the successful Fellowship Program to develop and execute the RAP on a national level. The program sought to provide competitively awarded hydropower-related graduate-level research awards. The intent of the RAP was to support beneficial, innovative research related to conventional or pumped-storage hydropower. It also sought to stimulate interest among students and universities in this research arena and provide students with a foundation for productive careers within the hydropower industry. The outcome was 33 research findings with 100% of proposed research completed. In addition, 87% of students chose to either join the hydropower industry or continue their hydropower related research at their universities. These research findings advanced the understanding of pressing research topics within the hydropower industry and met the objective of the funding. An ancillary benefit the program identified through this funding was, not only did 63 students and advisors work on hydropower within the academia space, but now there are more professors and students teaching hydropower at the university level. The program saw an addition of 12 new professors, teaching assistants, and graduate researchers continuing to simulate interest in hydropower. Another interesting outcome is that during this grant funding, the program saw alumni of the predecessor program, who are now professors, applying for the RAP with their students. A unique element of this funding is there was significant cost-share provided by host universities, who did not charge facilities and administration overhead to the student’s research awards. In addition, each university provided laboratories, computing capacity and research facilities to support the research which is extraordinarily unique to grant funding at the university level. The total cost share exceeded 30% of the total grant cost. The funding clearly reached many sectors of the industry to provide helpful work and continue building hydropower’s next generation of innovation and workforce. The Foundation has established a broad network of universities interested and engaged in hydropower. The work was supported by the hydropower industry through donations of meeting space, conference registrations, in-kind contributions, mentorship and support of students. The Foundation would recommend finding a vehicle to further advance programs like the graduate level research through competitions, competitively funded awards and student research. It will take many universities to advance hydropower’s most pressing challenges. To let a program like the RAP dwindle away would incapacitate research at universities.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2018

Continuous Silicon Consolidation and Reduction

The goal of the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Sunshot program is to increase the adaptability of photovoltaic (PV) solar power generation by reducing the cost of power generation. The cost of polysilicon is one of several factors affecting the costs of a solar power module. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) assumes module manufacturing costs (all-in vertically integrated module production) of 0.63 (cents)/Wdc (2015 NREL data). If the NREL polysilicon costs are replaced by the SRI International (SRI) polysilicon costs, the module manufacturing costs are reduced to 0.58 (cents)/Wdc (2015 basis) i.e., reduction of 0.05 (cents)/Wdc. The NREL cost model (System Advisor Module, SAM) is based on $20/kg of blended polysilicon silicon cost. The Continuous Silicon Consolidation and Reduction (CoSiRC) process is estimated to produce polysilicon at 8.06 (dollars)/kg. In addition, SRI’s CoSiRC process introduces a commercially viable path to recycle and reclaim kerf loss silicon fines that would otherwise go to a landfill, thereby reducing a precious resource from going to waste. The results of this project demonstrate that SRI’s silicon production process that uses a reduction reaction can be successfully integrated with a kerf loss reclaiming process. The combined process was first demonstrated at lab scale and then fit to a bench-scale process. Leveraging the industrial expertise of the commercial partners, it is feasible to adapt industrial-scale equipment for SRI’s CoSiRC process.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2018

Automatic Imagery Data Analysis for Proactive Computer-Based Workflow Management during Nuclear Power Plant Outages

This report is being submitted for the task “Final Report” of DOE NEUP Project 15-8121 “Automatic Imagery Data Analysis for Proactive Computer-Based Workflow Management during Nuclear Power Plant Outages.” Typical nuclear power plant (NPP) outages always involve thousands of maintenance and refueling activities and a large number of workers in limited workspaces, while having tight schedules and zero-tolerance for accidents. During an outage, thousands of workers will be working in various workspaces across the NPP. High outage costs and expensive delays (approximately 1.5 million dollars of loss per day of delay) in NPP maintenance demand tight outage schedules. In packed workspaces, an automatic system that monitors human behaviors in real-time and provides insights about current and pending schedule deviations from the plan is critical for ensuring: 1) effective collaboration among workers and worker teams from different trades; 2) less waste of time and resources due to the lack of situational awareness; and 3) proactive outage project control. The overall goal of this project is to test the hypothesis that real-time imagery-based object tracking and spatial analysis, as well as human behavior modeling of outage participants, will significantly improve the efficiency of outage control while lowering the rates of accidents and incidents. Three objectives of this project are: 1) Establish real-time object tracking and spatiotemporal analysis methods that automatically assess the productivity of field activities and detect anomalous spatiotemporal relationships among activities that cause inefficiencies and risks; 2) Establish realtime human tracking and human factor modeling methods for automatically diagnosing unexpected actions of and interactions between outage participants, those which cause inefficient collaborations between Advanced Outage Control Center (AOCC), satellite outage centers, NPP workers, and maintenance service providers; and 3) Test the proposed automated object tracking, human behavior modeling, and spatiotemporal analysis methods in outage control case studies in order to characterize the effectiveness of automated imagery-data-driven methods in proactively improving the efficiency and safety of workflows in outage coordination and risk management. Recent studies of detailed human behavior monitoring on construction sites have examined the potential of applying advanced computer vision algorithms in detecting and tracking anomalous workers (i.e., workers who do not wear hard hats or safety vests) for ensuring job site safety. Some studies of human factor studies revealed the importance of modeling detailed interactions between individuals within and across teams in better understanding the impact of human in proactive project control. Other studies in the construction domain have developed computational simulation frameworks that formalize detailed spatiotemporal interactions between tasks in order to simulate the impacts of individual tasks on the performance of workflows. While integrated analyses that combine human factor assessment, as well as image processing and simulation, are in demand for effective decision-making, limited studies have examined the potential of such integrated analyses in NPP outage control. This research project has examined an automatic outage monitoring and control system that integrates human factor analysis, computer vision techniques, and simulation methods in order to enable engineers to better understand the interactions between humans, resources, and workflows during outage processes. The project aims at providing NPP maintenance agencies insights into more efficient use of limited resources in extending the life of a nuclear plant, as well as reducing waste while ensuring sufficient generation of electricity. This study is significant for the safety of nuclear plants, sustainable electricity generation for livable communities, and cost savings for maintaining electricity infrastructures in the United States.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Versatile D-T Neutron-Generation System for Fast-Neutron Research and Education

In order to stimulate new cutting-edge research and create novel educational tools at the Pennsylvania State University (PSU), the PIs of the project acquired a versatile 14-MeV D-T neutron-generation system. Relatively recent advancements at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) have led to the development of high-neutron-output D-T neutron generators. The resulting technology was subsequently licensed to Adelphi Technology, Inc. and 14-MeV D-T neutron-generation systems are currently available with neutron yields up to 10 10 n/sec. Such neutron output has been available previously; however, the existing D-T generators were traditionally million-dollar systems (an example is D711 from Thermo Scientific), thus beyond reach for many users. The Adelphi neutron generators, on the other hand, now provide access to high neutron outputs for a reasonable price. More importantly, the expected lifetime of the D-T system’s tubes is at least 2,000 hours; a factor of two better when compared to D711, with comparable generator-tube replacement cost. Adelphi Technology, the manufacturer of the dual D-T neutron generation system, delivered one 10 8 neutrons/second and one 10 10 neutrons/second D-T generator with two separate control units to PSU.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗