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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 505 records · Page 28

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NASA NTRS2015

Micron2 Lab: Microfluidic Microbiology Lab Project

Microbial monitoring during spaceflight is crucial to maintain crew health and ensure water purifications systems are functioning properly. Current protocols for in-flight enumeration of bacteria in potable water systems require culture based methods. In this project, we aim to develop a flight- and microgravity-compatible flow cytometer capable of counting total microbial counts in the water supply and differentiating live from dead bacteria.

Burton, Aaron↗

NASA NTRS2012

Water Treatment Systems for Long Spaceflights

Space exploration will require new life support systems to support the crew on journeys lasting from a few days to several weeks, or longer. These systems should also be designed to reduce the mass required to keep humans alive in space. Water accounts for about 80 percent of the daily mass intake required to keep a person alive. As a result, recycling water offers a high return on investment for space life support. Water recycling can also increase mission safety by providing an emergency supply of drinking water, where another supply is exhausted or contaminated. These technologies also increase safety by providing a lightweight backup to stored supplies, and they allow astronauts to meet daily drinking water requirements by recycling the water contained in their own urine. They also convert urine into concentrated brine that is biologically stable and nonthreatening, and can be safely stored onboard. This approach eliminates the need to have a dedicated vent to dump urine overboard. These needs are met by a system that provides a contaminant treatment pouch, referred to as a urine cell or contaminant cell, that converts urine or another liquid containing contaminants into a fortified drink, engineered to meet human hydration, electrolyte, and caloric requirements, using a variant of forward osmosis (FO) to draw water from a urine container into the concentrated fortified drink as part of a recycling stage. An activated carbon pretreatment removes most organic molecules. Salinity of the initial liquid mix (urine plus other) is synergistically used to enhance the precipitation of organic molecules so that activated carbon can remove most of the organics. A functional osmotic bag is then used to remove inorganic contaminants. If a contaminant is processed for which the saline content is different than optimal for precipitating organic molecules, the saline content of the liquid should be adjusted toward the optimal value for that contaminant. A first urine treatment method converts urine into a fortified sports drink, resembling Gatorade, using a first urine cell.

FLynn, Michael T.↗

NASA NTRS2020

Chapter 5: Food Security

The current food system (production, transport, processing, packaging, storage, retail, consumption, loss and waste) feeds the great majority of world population and supports the livelihoods of over 1 billion people. Since 1961, food supply per capita has increased more than 30%, accompanied by greater use of nitrogen fertilisers (increase of about 800%) and water resources for irrigation (increase of more than 100%). However, an estimated 821 million people are currently undernourished, 151 million children under five are stunted, 613 million women and girls aged 15 to 49 suffer from iron deficiency, and 2 billion adults are overweight or obese. The food system is under pressure from non-climate stressors (e.g., population and income growth, demand for animal-sourced products), and from climate change. These climate and non-climate stresses are impacting the four pillars of food security (availability, access, utilisation, and stability).

Mbow, Cheikh↗

NASA NTRS1981

Design, development, and field demonstration of a remotely deployable water quality monitoring system

A prototype water quality monitoring system is described which offers almost continuous in situ monitoring. The two-man portable system features: (1) a microprocessor controlled central processing unit which allows preprogrammed sampling schedules and reprogramming in situ; (2) a subsurface unit for multiple depth capability and security from vandalism; (3) an acoustic data link for communications between the subsurface unit and the surface control unit; (4) eight water quality parameter sensors; (5) a nonvolatile magnetic bubble memory which prevents data loss in the event of power interruption; (6) a rechargeable power supply sufficient for 2 weeks of unattended operation; (7) a water sampler which can collect samples for laboratory analysis; (8) data output in direct engineering units on printed tape or through a computer compatible link; (9) internal electronic calibration eliminating external sensor adjustment; and (10) acoustic location and recovery systems. Data obtained in Saginaw Bay, Lake Huron are tabulated.

Wallace, J. W.↗

NASA NTRS1980

Electrochemical Orbital Energy Storage (ECOES) technology program

The versatility and flexibility of a regenerative fuel cell power and energy storage system is considered. The principal elements of a Regenerative Fuel Cell System combine the fuel cell and electrolysis cell with a photovoltaic solar cell array, along with fluid storage and transfer equipment. The power output of the array (for LEO) must be roughly triple the load requirements of the vehicle since the electrolyzers must receive about double the fuel cell output power in order to regenerate the reactants (2/3 of the array power) while 1/3 of the array power supplies the vehicle base load. The working fluids are essentially recycled indefinitely. Any resupply requirements necessitated by leakage or inefficient reclamation is water - an ideal material to handle and transport. Any variation in energy storage capacity impacts only the fluid storage portion, and the system is insensitive to use of reserve reactant capacity.

Mcbryar, H.↗

NASA NTRS1974

The economic value of remote sensing of earth resources from space: An ERTS overview and the value of continuity of service. Volume 5: Inland water resources

The economic value of an ERTS system in the area of inland water resources management is investigated. Benefits are attributed to new capabilities for managing inland water resources in the field of power generation, agriculture, and urban water supply. These benefits are obtained in the area of equal capability (cost savings) and increased capability (equal budget), and are estimated by applying conservative assumptions to Federal budgeting information, Congressional appropriation hearings, and ERTS technical capabilities.

Wetzler, E.↗

NASA NTRS1976

AOIPS water resources data management system

A geocoded data management system applicable for hydrological applications was designed to demonstrate the utility of the Atmospheric and Oceanographic Information Processing System (AOIPS) for hydrological applications. Within that context, the geocoded hydrology data management system was designed to take advantage of the interactive capability of the AOIPS hardware. Portions of the Water Resource Data Management System which best demonstrate the interactive nature of the hydrology data management system were implemented on the AOIPS. A hydrological case study was prepared using all data supplied for the Bear River watershed located in northwest Utah, southeast Idaho, and western Wyoming.

Merritt, E. S.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Review of water disinfection techniques

Throughout the history of manned space flight the supply of potable water to the astronauts has presented unique problems. Of particular concern has been the microbiological quality of the potable water. This has required the development of both preflight water system servicing procedures to disinfect the systems and inflight disinfectant addition and monitoring devices to ensure continuing microbiological control. The disinfectants successfully used to date have been aqueous chlorine or iodine. Because of special system limitations the use of iodine has been the most successful for inflight use and promises to be the agent most likely to be used in the future. Future spacecraft potable, hygiene, and experiment water systems will utilize recycled water. This will present special problems for water quality control. NASA is currently conducting research and development to solve these problems.

Colombo, Gerald V.↗

NASA NTRS1983

Oil Recovery System

A Downhole Steam Generation System brings oil up from deep reservoirs. The system, developed by Foster-Miller Associates consists of a steam generator, a "packer" that keeps the steam from leaking up the wellbore, and tube string that supplies air, fuel, water and hydraulics to the generator and packer; all are encased in a standard seven-inch well casing. Downhole means that the steam generator is located far down the well casing rather than on the surface. This design is more efficient than surface generated steam. A COSMIC (Computer Software Management and Information Center) program aided in the design.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS2012

Developments in Atmosphere Revitalization Modeling and Simulation

"NASA's Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) program is pioneering new approaches for rapidly developing prototype systems, demonstrating key capabilities, and validating operational concepts for future human missions beyond Earth orbit" (NASA 2012). These forays beyond the confines of earth's gravity will place unprecedented demands on launch systems. They must not only blast out of earth's gravity well as during the Apollo moon missions, but also launch the supplies needed to sustain a crew over longer periods for exploration missions beyond earth's moon. Thus all spacecraft systems, including those for the separation of metabolic carbon dioxide and water from a crewed vehicle, must be minimized with respect to mass, power, and volume. Emphasis is also placed on system robustness both to minimize replacement parts and ensure crew safety when a quick return to earth is not possible. Current efforts are focused on improving the current state-of-the-art systems utilizing fixed beds of sorbent pellets by evaluating structured sorbents, seeking more robust pelletized sorbents, and examining alternate bed configurations to improve system efficiency and reliability. These development efforts combine testing of sub-scale systems and multi-physics computer simulations to evaluate candidate approaches, select the best performing options, and optimize the configuration of the selected approach, which is then implemented in a full-scale integrated atmosphere revitalization test. This paper describes the development of atmosphere revitalization models and simulations. A companion paper discusses the hardware design and sorbent screening and characterization effort in support of the Atmosphere Revitalization Recovery and Environmental Monitoring (ARREM) project within the AES program.

Knox, James C.↗

NASA NTRS2012

Development of Carbon Dioxide Removal Systems for Advanced Exploration Systems

"NASA's Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) program is pioneering new approaches for rapidly developing prototype systems, demonstrating key capabilities, and validating operational concepts for future human missions beyond Earth orbit" (NASA 2012). These forays beyond the confines of earth's gravity will place unprecedented demands on launch systems. They must not only blast out of earth's gravity well as during the Apollo moon missions, but also launch the supplies needed to sustain a crew over longer periods for exploration missions beyond earth's moon. Thus all spacecraft systems, including those for the separation of metabolic carbon dioxide and water from a crewed vehicle, must be minimized with respect to mass, power, and volume. Emphasis is also placed on system robustness both to minimize replacement parts and ensure crew safety when a quick return to earth is not possible. Current efforts are focused on improving the current state-of-the-art systems utilizing fixed beds of sorbent pellets by seeking more robust pelletized sorbents, evaluating structured sorbents, and examining alternate bed configurations to improve system efficiency and reliability. These development efforts combine testing of sub-scale systems and multi-physics computer simulations to evaluate candidate approaches, select the best performing options, and optimize the configuration of the selected approach, which is then implemented in a full-scale integrated atmosphere revitalization test. This paper describes the carbon dioxide (CO2) removal hardware design and sorbent screening and characterization effort in support of the Atmosphere Resource Recovery and Environmental Monitoring (ARREM) project within the AES program. A companion paper discusses development of atmosphere revitalization models and simulations for this project.

Knox, James C.↗

NASA NTRS2013

Additional Developments in Atmosphere Revitalization Modeling and Simulation

NASA's Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) program is developing prototype systems, demonstrating key capabilities, and validating operational concepts for future human missions beyond Earth orbit. These forays beyond the confines of earth's gravity will place unprecedented demands on launch systems. They must launch the supplies needed to sustain a crew over longer periods for exploration missions beyond earth's moon. Thus all spacecraft systems, including those for the separation of metabolic carbon dioxide and water from a crewed vehicle, must be minimized with respect to mass, power, and volume. Emphasis is also placed on system robustness both to minimize replacement parts and ensure crew safety when a quick return to earth is not possible. Current efforts are focused on improving the current state-of-the-art systems utilizing fixed beds of sorbent pellets by evaluating structured sorbents, seeking more robust pelletized sorbents, and examining alternate bed configurations to improve system efficiency and reliability. These development efforts combine testing of sub-scale systems and multi-physics computer simulations to evaluate candidate approaches, select the best performing options, and optimize the configuration of the selected approach. This paper describes the continuing development of atmosphere revitalization models and simulations in support of the Atmosphere Revitalization Recovery and Environmental Monitoring (ARREM)

Coker, Robert F.↗

NASA NTRS2013

Additional Developments in Atmosphere Revitalization Modeling and Simulation

Coker, Robert F.↗

DOE OSTI2022

High Rate Sodium Storage Mechanisms in Non-Graphitic Carbons

Lithium ion batteries (LIBs) have been commercialized as electrical energy storage devices in many common applications. Unlike lithium, sodium (Na) is both easy to find and is inexpensive, with wide supplies of precursors available on land and from salt water through desalination. Hybrid sodium ion capacitors and dedicated high power sodium ion batteries (NIBs) are emerging extremely fast charge time systems that employ two-dimensional carbon electrodes to store the charge. They are finding use in regenerative braking energy storage for cars, busses and public rail. To date, fast charge storage mechanisms in two-dimensional carbons are not understood. This combined experimental – simulation research will provide new fundamental insight into these unexplored but essential aspects of Na storage. A range of carbon structures and chemistries will be analyzed using advanced methods, including neutron scattering and first principles simulation. This work will yield the first new series of scientific insights on where in the carbon structure the Na ions reside and on their transport characteristics.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

DOE OSTI2023

Resource Characterization to Estimate Potential for Electricity Co-Production at Blackburn Oil Field, Nevada

The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that an annual average of 25 billion barrels of hot water are produced from oil and gas wells within the United States. The thermal energy available in the co-produced water stream is usually discarded, as the produced waters are considered an inconvenience by the operators and are disposed of using injection wells. However, utilizing organic Rankine cycle (ORC) generators, a vast amount of thermal energy can be captured and converted into electricity (albeit at relatively low efficiency due to the low temperatures). The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), in collaboration with Transitional Energy and Grant Canyon Oil & Gas, evaluated the feasibility of geothermal co-production of electricity by utilizing existing oil wells in Blackburn oil field in Nevada. The once prolific Blackburn oil field is located in Pine Valley, approximately 45 miles east-southeast of Elko, Nevada. Currently, the wells targeting the highly fractured Devonian Nevada dolomite reservoir are operating at a water cut ratio of more than 99%, with individual fluid (oil and water) production rates reaching 7.4 L/s (4,021 BBL/day). Analysis of publicly available data showed that the combination of the suitable wells' maximum historical production rates reached 22.90 L/s. The production from these wells occurs naturally and the wells are choked (and even shut down) by the operator to mitigate excessive water production, indicating a strong reservoir recharge and future opportunity to increase the water production for geothermal electricity generation. The main goal of this study was to evaluate the productivity of the existing wells, the performance of the reservoir, the surface network, and the operational constraints in order to achieve 1 MWe of electricity production from the field's water production. Utilizing the GEOPHIRES tool, we have determined that a twofold to threefold increase in the total fluid production, compared to the historical production under artificial restraint (choke), is required to reach a 1-MWe net target output for a low-temperature ORC system with air-cooled condensers. Lower flow rates would be required when utilizing water-based condensers instead of air-cooled condensers. However, that would require a constant supply of cold water, which may be challenging given the arid environment of the project site.

Blackburn↗

NASA NTRS1992

The orbital record in stratigraphy

Orbital signals are being discovered in pre-Pleistocene sediments. Due to their hierarchical nature these cycle patterns are complex, and the imprecision of geochronology generally makes the assignment of stratigraphic cycles to specific orbital cycles uncertain, but in sequences such as the limnic Newark Group under study by Olsen and pelagic Cretaceous sequence worked on by our Italo-American group the relative frequencies yield a definitive match to the Milankovitch hierarchy. Due to the multiple ways in which climate impinges on depositional systems, the orbital signals are recorded in a multiplicity of parameters, and affect different sedimentary facies in different ways. In platform carbonates, for example, the chief effect is via sea-level variations (possibly tied to fluctuating ice volume), resulting in cycles of emergence and submergence. In limnic systems it finds its most dramatic expression in alternations of lake and playa conditions. Biogenic pelagic oozes such as chalks and the limestones derived from them display variations in the carbonate supplied by planktonic organisms such as coccolithophores and foraminifera, and also record variations in the aeration of bottom waters. Whereas early studies of stratigraphic cyclicity relied mainly on bedding variations visible in the field, present studies are supplementing these with instrumental scans of geochemical, paleontological, and geophysical parameters which yield quantitative curves amenable to time-series analysis; such analysis is, however, limited by problems of distorted time-scales. My own work has been largely concentrated on pelagic systems. In these, the sensitivity of pelagic organisms to climatic-oceanic changes, combined with the sensitivity of botton life to changes in oxygen availability (commonly much more restricted in the Past than now) has left cyclic patterns related to orbital forcing. These systems are further attractive because (1) they tend to offer depositional continuity, and (2) presence of abundant microfossils yields close ties to geochronology. A tantalizing possibility that stratigraphy may yield a record of orbital signals unrelated to climate has turned up in magnetic studies of our Cretaceous core. Magnetic secular variations here carry a strong 39 ka periodicity, corresponding to the theoretical obliquity period of that time - Does the obliquity cycle perhaps have some direct influence on the magnetic field?

Fischer, Alfred G.↗

DOE OSTI2023

Evaluation of supply air temperature control performance with different control strategies at air handling units

Due to its nonlinear feature, supply air temperature control systems at air handling units using single-loop fixed gain control frequently suffer unstable response under dynamic conditions. This paper is aimed at identifying a more effective control strategy to stabilize the valve control and achieve desirable supply air temperature response under various operation conditions by evaluating three control strategies, cascade, gain scheduling and cascade plus gain scheduling controls. Firstly, a control-oriented model is developed and calibrated through open-loop tests. Then, the control issues with single-loop fixed gain control are evaluated through simulations and field tests, which indicates that the system has more aggressive response or becomes unstable under lower load conditions when the chilled-water flow rate is less than 0.1 L/s. Finally, three control strategies are proposed and evaluated. Further, the results reveal that all three proposed controls can achieve better robustness with the integral square error of supply air temperature decreased to 16%, 47% and 5%, respectively, under lower load condition. However, since high-frequency oscillation of the control valve occurs with cascade and cascade plus gain scheduling control, the gain scheduling control is recommended considering a trade-off among the supply air temperature response, valve lifetime and implementation complexity.

42 ENGINEERING↗

NASA NTRS1972

Design of a convective cooling system for a Mach 6 hypersonic transport airframe.

The design of a convective cooling system for an aluminum alloy airframe was established to verify preliminary weight estimates and to define future development requirements. A water glycol coolant was circulated through a closed loop network of supply and return lines to absorb incident aerodynamic heating from structural skin panels with integral passages and to transfer this heat input to a heat exchanger where it is rejected to the hydrogen fuel. Partial shielding of the aluminum alloy structure reduced heat loads to levels compatible with engine fuel flow requirements.

Anthony, F. M.↗