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Large-scale metal strip for power storage and energy conversion applications by machining-based deformation processing
Machining-based deformation processing is used to produce metal foil and flat wire (strip) with suitable properties and quality for electrical power and renewable energy applications. In contrast to conventional multistage rolling, the strip is produced in a single-step and with much less process energy. Examples are presented from metal systems of varied workability, and strip product scale in terms of size and production rate. By utilizing the large-strain deformation intrinsic to cutting, bulk strip with ultrafine-grained microstructure, and crystallographic shear-texture favourable for formability, are achieved. In conclusion, implications for production of commercial strip for electric motor applications and battery electrodes are discussed.
In situ/operando soft x-ray spectroscopy of chemical interfaces in gas and liquid environments
Many energy storage and energy conversion systems are based on the complexity of material architecture, chemistry, and interfacial interactions. To understand and thus ultimately control the energy applications calls for in situ/operando characterization tools. Over the years, in situ/operando soft x-ray spectroscopy has been developed for the studies of gas molecules, molecular liquids, catalytic, and electrochemical reactions. Soft x-ray spectroscopy offers electronic structure characterization of materials in energy conversion, energy storage, and catalysis regarding functionality, complexity of material architecture, and chemical interactions. It has been shown how to use the powerful in situ/operando soft x-ray spectroscopy characterization techniques of interfacial phenomena and how to reveal the mechanism of charge transfer and chemical transformation of solid/gas and solid/liquid interfaces of energy storage and catalytic materials in a realistic environment. It has been demonstrated how to overcome the challenge that soft x-rays cannot easily peek into the high-pressure catalytic or liquid electrochemical reactions. Finally, the unique design of in situ/operando soft x-ray spectroscopy instrumentation and fabrication principle and examples of experiments are presented.
High-temperature thermal energy storage with thermophotovoltaic energy conversion (Final Report)
This project began with a simple concept: that thermal energy storage paired with thermophotovoltaic power conversion could be a cost-effective solution to the challenge of renewables variability. Renewable energy sources such as solar and wind energy are clean, affordable, and abundant worldwide, but their variability presents a major problem for the incorporation of a large amount of these resources in global power systems. Systems with high penetrations of renewables frequently see periods of overproduction, where renewable energy is thrown away, and periods of underproduction, where expensive and polluting fossil fuel resources must be used to fill in the gaps. While energy storage technologies such as lithium ion batteries can help store energy from times of overproduction to times the energy is needed, current and projected future prices for these technologies are not low enough to support very renewables-heavy power grids. The research also focused on the techno-economics of using thermal energy storage and thermophotovoltaics to store the energy from solar and wind energy sources when they are available and release this energy back to the grid when it is needed. One of the biggest outcomes of this research was the conclusion that battery prices must drop 10x from their current values in order to meet this need, and this is unlikely to happen with current technologies such as lithium ion batteries.
Predictive Battery Lifetime Modeling at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Overview of the development of algebraic battery lifetime modeling efforts within NREL's Electrochemical Energy Storage group within the Energy Conversion and Storage Systems Center. Traditional approaches to developing battery lifetime models are compared with a new methodology incorporating machine learning to autonomously identify parsimonious model equations.
Computational Investigation of MAX as Intercalation Host for Rechargeable Aluminum‐Ion Battery
Abstract Layered carbides and their analogs with MAX phase (general formula AM n+1 X n ) have emerged as promising candidates for energy storage and conversion applications. One frontier for energy storage is using MAX as an Al‐ion intercalation electrode. Given that many MAXs have Al as the A sites, the structure can potentially serve as a stable host for Al intercalation. Here in this work, 425 ternary MAX Al‐ion battery electrodes are computationally enumerated. Specifically, first principal phase diagram calculations are performed on the combinatorial space of 17 types of typical transition metals, five types of anions (C, N, B, Si, and P), three types of stoichiometries (n = 1, 2, and 3) and two types of layered stackings (α and β). Among all the ternary MAX materials, 44 candidates show reasonable synthetic accessibility, and six with extraordinary performance are predicted to be promising Al‐ion battery electrodes. With the phase stability, and electrochemical performance (average voltage, theoretical capacity, energy density, and Al diffusion barrier), the work provides a comprehensive computational assessment of the great opportunities behind MAX‐based Al‐ion batteries.
Solid State Ionics: Materials Development by Multiscale Modeling and Advanced Manufacturing Techniques
Solid-state ionic materials are an important enabling technology for energy conversion and storage. Solid-state batteries would be a safer and higher energy density alternative to commercially available lithium ion batteries (LIB), however their implementation requires ion conduction in solids at room temperature to occur on the same level as the current generation of liquid electrolytes. Microstructural modifications have been demonstrated to play a major role on ion transport through the control of grain boundary interfaces, which traditionally serve as “blocking” layers. Ultimately, these materials will be fabricated in thin films form as electrolytes in order to minimize ohmic losses in electrochemical devices. This work uses advanced manufacturing techniques in combination with theoretical modeling to implement a science-based approach in the deposition of thin films ion conductors with controlled microstructures used in ceramic energy conversion and storage devices.
Basic Energy Sciences Roundtable: Foundational Science for Carbon Dioxide Removal Technologies (Brochure)
Basic research to identify and understand the fundamental principles governing carbon dioxide removal processes of capture, conversion, and storage is essential for achieving zero carbon emissions by 2050. In March 2022, the Office of Basic Energy Sciences (BES)—in coordination with the US Department of Energy (DOE) technology Offices of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, and Nuclear Energy—held a roundtable titled, “Foundational Science for Carbon Dioxide Removal Technologies,” to discuss the scientific and technical barriers for CO 2 capture, conversion, and storage. Five priority research opportunities were identified to address these scientific and technical challenges and accelerate progress toward the realization of zero carbon emissions. The PROs are as follows: 1) Master Interfacial Processes of CO2 Transport and Reactivity Across Multiple Length and Time Scales; 2) Create Materials that Simultaneously Exhibit Multiple Properties for CO 2 Capture and Release or Conversion; 3) Discover Unconventional Pathways for Energy-Efficient CO 2 Capture, Release, and Conversion; 4) Control Multiphase Interactions Required for CO 2 Conversion into Minerals and Materials; and 5) Achieve Predictive Understanding of Coupled Processes in Complex Subsurface Geologic Systems for Secure Carbon Storage.
A trade-off between plant and soil carbon storage under elevated CO 2
Terrestrial ecosystems remove about 30 per cent of the carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emitted by human activities each year, yet the persistence of this carbon sink depends partly on how plant biomass and soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks respond to future increases in atmospheric CO 2 . Although plant biomass often increases in elevated CO 2 (eCO 2 ) experiments, SOC has been observed to increase, remain unchanged or even decline. The mechanisms that drive this variation across experiments remain poorly understood, creating uncertainty in climate projections. In this study we synthesized data from 108 eCO 2 experiments and found that the effect of eCO 2 on SOC stocks is best explained by a negative relationship with plant biomass: when plant biomass is strongly stimulated by eCO 2 , SOC storage declines; conversely, when biomass is weakly stimulated, SOC storage increases. This trade-off appears to be related to plant nutrient acquisition, in which plants increase their biomass by mining the soil for nutrients, which decreases SOC storage. We found that, overall, SOC stocks increase with eCO 2 in grasslands (8 ± 2 per cent) but not in forests (0 ± 2 per cent), even though plant biomass in grasslands increase less (9 ± 3 per cent) than in forests (23 ± 2 per cent). Ecosystem models do not reproduce this trade-off, which implies that projections of SOC may need to be revised.
Economically Viable Intermediate to Long Duration Hydrogen Energy Storage Solutions for Fossil Fueled Assets
This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management of U.S. Department of Energy under Funding Opportunity Announcement Number DE-FOA-0002332 “Energy Storage for Fossil Power Generation”. The work aimed to explore and advance an innovative hydrogen energy storage system – the synergistically integrated hydrogen energy storage system (SIHES) – that has the following characteristics: • Compatible with existing or new coal and gas fuel electricity generation units, • best suited for intermediate to long duration energy storage, from 12 hours to weeks even months, and • capable of storing energy at the utility scale – hundreds of MWh to GWh energy storage with power output level in tens to hundreds of MW. Preliminary front-end engineering design (Pre-FEED) studies was carried out to develop and refine a site-specific SIHES as peaking power generation units (so named as HyPeaker) as the first market entry point, to demonstrate both the technical feasibility and the economic viability to integrate the HyPeaker “within the fence” of a fossil power plant. This specific site was TVA’s Johnsonville Combustion Turbine Plant. The HyPeaker was designed and engineered to integrate with a 60MW aeroderivative gas turbine unit already available at TVA’s Johnsonville site. This site-specific HyPeaker consists of an alkaline electrolyzer to produce hydrogen from CO 2 free electricity sources, an innovative low-cost high-pressure hydrogen storage system (Big-Ton) and the aero gas turbine to generate electricity using blend of hydrogen and natural gas. A holistic system level technoeconomic analysis tool specific to HyPeaker was developed to optimize the engineering design of the Johnsonville site-specific HyPeaker for cost and performance. The optimal design and specification of the Johnsonville site-specific HyPeaker are the following: • Alkaline electrolyzer: 3MW • Big-Ton storage vessel: 11,000kg H 2 at 3000psi. • 4-stage diaphragm hydrogen compressor: 55kg-H 2 /hr from 150psi to 3000psi. The HyPeaker is designed to provide sufficient hydrogen for 90% continuous operation of the HyPeaker. All major components have design life of 30 years. The capex of HyPeaker is estimated at $\$$7.1M. This included $\$$1.5M for the electrolyzer, $\$$5.6M for the storage vessel and compressor. The cost of aero gas turbine was included as it is already available at the site. Key findings are: • HyPeaker can be designed, manufactured, installed and integrated with the fossil power plants, with sub-systems and components commercially available on the market today, even when it is scaled up to an order of magnitude larger than the one at the Johnsonville site. HyPeaker is a technologically viable solution to cover a wide range of energy storage duration needs, from daily peaking operation to seasonal shifting for fossil fueled assets. • The cost advantage of SCCV based Big-Ton H 2 storage vessel made it possible to “oversize” the H 2 storage subsystem to achieve overall system level cost optimization. The benefits are two-fold. First, it allows to significantly reduce the capacity and cost of electrolyzer by spreading H 2 production over a much longer period of time when the fuel cost for electricity production is low. Second, it allows to balance the hydrogen production and usage shift over weeks to months to meet the peak demands. As such, the capital cost of HyPeaker system using the Big-Ton was less than half of the cost of a system with today’s steel tube based H 2 storage system. The HyPeaker has even better cost advantage Li-ion battery based energy storage system. The estimated capital cost of Li-Ion battery system would be at $\$$38M, under the same projected 20-year electricity generation profile of the Johnsonville site. This is over 5 times more expensive than the HyPeaker system. • Since industry scale energy storage systems do not have 100% energy conversion and storage efficiency, energy storage systems using fossil fuel generated electricity would increase the CO 2 emission. This is particularly the case for HyPeaker due to its low round trip efficiency. Therefore, a more sensible solution would be to the excessive or curtailed electricity from CO 2 emission free sources such as solar farms, wind farms or nuclear power plants, to produce hydrogen, and integrate them with the HyPeaker. Electricity from TVA’s nuclear power plants was used for the Johnsonville HyPeaker. • The economic viability of HyPeaker is expected to be further improved when global supply chains are taken into consideration. For the same Johnsonville site specific HyPeaker, the capex would be reduced to ~$\$$3.6M from ~$\$$7.1M, and the added LCOE is reduced to ~$\$$85/MWh. With the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the cost of domestically produced HyPeaker sub-systems would be at the level of today’s global suppliers. Since the peaking units generally operate at peak usage period, thereby demanding higher price, the projected $\$$85/MWh LCOE would be within the realm of financial viability for utility operators.
Unveiling Morphology and Crystallinity Dynamics in Ni x Mn 1– x CO 3 Cathode Precursors through Batch-Mode Coprecipitation
This study delves into the synthesis and control of Ni x Mn 1–x CO 3 , a critical class of Mn-rich, Co-free precursors vital for cathode-oxide materials in energy storage and conversion technologies. Employing batch-mode coprecipitation, we systematically generated samples with varying Ni concentrations (x = 0, 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 0.7, and 0.9) and conducted a comprehensive analysis of their compositions, crystallinities, transition-metal distributions, and particle morphologies through both experimental and computational methods. A significant variation in particle size and crystallinity was observed, contingent on the Ni content. Further, a pivotal transition emerged at Ni concentrations above x = ~0.5, transforming uniform morphologies, such as spherical, monodisperse, pseudo-single-crystalline particles, into bimodal, polycrystalline structures. Furthermore, the study highlights the role of Ni–ammonia complexes leading to Ni-deficient precipitates and underscores the importance of ammonia concentration in achieving precise Ni content control. This study unveils critical reaction conditions governing Mn-rich precursor properties that are vital for cathode-oxides, emphasizing the need for meticulous synthetic control and offering the potential for practical applications in advanced energy storage and conversion systems.
Porin-Inspired Ionomers with sub-nm Gated Ion Channels for High Ion Conductivity and Selectivity (Final Project Report (2026))
The physiological functions of living systems heavily rely on biological ion channels, whose malfunction can lead to disease. These channels enable selective and regulated transport of water, ions, or small molecules across membranes. Analogously, ionomers used in energy conversion and storage technologies govern ion transport within membrane separators and catalyst binder layers. This DOE Office of Science Early CAREER project aimed to achieve molecular-level control over ionic conductivity and ion permselectivity by translating the functionalities of biological, gated ion channels into a novel class of ion-conducting polymers (ionomers) incorporating macrocyclic calix[4]arene-based repeat units. The overarching goal was to establish fundamental design principles and elucidate proton conduction mechanisms through strategic design of macrocyclic calix[4]arene-containing ionomers, with close relevance to energy conversion and storage devices, including proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). The project leveraged sub-nm-sized macrocyclic pores to facilitate exceptionally fast ion transport (beneficial to addressing sluggish ORR kinetics of PEMFC electrodes) and achieve functionalities of ionic diodes under applied electrochemical fields, beneficial for selective transport/separation.
Thermal conductivity measurement using modulated photothermal radiometry for nitrate and chloride molten salts
Molten salts are being used or explored for thermal energy storage and conversion systems in concentrating solar power and nuclear power plants. Thermal conductivity of molten salts is an important thermophysical property dictating the performance and cost of these systems, but its accurate measurement has been challenging, as evidenced by wide scattering of existing data in literature. The corrosive and conducting nature of these fluids also leads to time consuming sample preparation processes of many contact-based measurements. Here, in this work, we report the measurement of thermal conductivity of molten salts using a modulated photothermal radiometry (MPR) technique, which is a laser-based, non-contact, frequency-domain method adopted for molten salts for the first time. By unitizing the advantages of front side sensing of frequency-domain measurements and the vertical holder orientation, the technique can minimize the natural convection and salt creeping effects, thus yielding accurate molten salt thermal conductivity . The MPR technique is first calibrated using standard molten materials including paraffin wax and sulfur. It is then applied on measuring pure nitrate salts (NaNO 3 and KNO 3 ), solar salt (NaNO 3 –KNO 3 mixture), and chloride salt (NaCl–KCl–MgCl 2 ). The measurement results are compared with data from literature, especially those obtained from laser flash analysis (LFA). Our results demonstrate that the MPR is a convenient and reliable technique of measuring thermal conductivity of molten salts. Accurate thermal conductivity data of molten salts will be valuable in developing the next-generation high-temperature thermal energy storage and conversion systems.
Introduction to (Photo)electrocatalysis For Renewable Energy
Humanity is facing a significant and growing energy demand, necessitating a new energy paradigm built on clean and abundant renewable energy.1 Within this context, electrocatalysis and (photo)electrocatalysis hold great promise for enabling renewable energies such as solar and wind power to overcome the transient nature of their energy output.2-6 Developing catalysts that operate efficiently and selectively, and that are also robust, has been the focus of much research. This special issue brings together the latest advances in the fundamental and applied science addressing the synthesis, characterization, mechanisms, and performance of (photo)electrocatalysts for energy storage and conversion of small molecules into useful specialty and commodity chemicals and fuels. The electrocatalysts and (photo)electrocatalysts highlighted in this issue include metalloenzymes, homogeneous and supported molecular catalysts, and diverse heterogeneous nanoparticulate and thin film systems. The reports span across basic and applied studies and encompass both experimental and theoretical investigations.
Oxides and Nitrides with Asymmetric Pore Structure from Block Copolymer Co–Assembly and Non–Solvent Induced Phase Separation
Materials combining an asymmetric pore structure with mesopores everywhere enable high surface area accessibility and fast transport, making them attractive for e.g., energy conversion and storage applications. Block copolymer (BCP)/inorganic precursor co-assembly combined with non-solvent induced phase separation (NIPS) provides a route to materials in which a mesoporous top surface layer merges into an asymmetric support with graded porosity along the film normal and mesopores throughout. Here, the co-assembly and non-solvent-induced phase separation (CNIPS) of poly(isoprene)-b-poly(styrene)-b-poly(4-vinylpyridine) (ISV) triblock terpolymer and titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) sol-gel nanoparticlesare reported. Heat-treatment in air results in free-standing asymmetric porous TiO 2 . Further thermal processing in ammonia results in free-standing asymmetric porous titanium nitride (TiN). processing changes alter structural membrane characteristics is demonstrated. Changing the CNIPS evaporation time results in various membrane cross-sections ( finger-like to sponge-like). Further, oxide and nitride material composition, crystallinity, and porosity are tuned by varying thermal processing conditions. Finally, thermal processing condition effects are probed on phase-pure asymmetric nitride membrane behavior using cyclic voltammetry to elucidate their influence, e.g., on specific capacitance. Results provide further insights into improving asymmetric and porous materials for applications including energy conversion and storage, separation, and catalysis and motivate a further expansion of CNIPS to other (in)organic materials.
Advances in Alkaline Conversion Batteries for Grid Storage Applications.
Abstract not provided.
Chemo-Mechanically Driven In Situ Hierarchical Structure Formation in Mixed Conductors (Final Technical Report)
This document is the Final Technical Report for the Early Career project DE-SC0018963. Essential materials for energy technologies tend to exhibit “hierarchical” functions – they perform multiple, inter-related tasks at different locations, across disparate length and time scales. To best support this heterogeneous function, there is a fundamental need to understand and direct formation of corresponding tailored hierarchical architectures. In particular, a wide variety of applications, from energy conversion and storage to sensing and gas separation, rely on oxide mixed ionic and electronic conductors (MIECs). These critical ceramic materials catalyze reactions at their surfaces and selectively transport both ionic and electronic species in the bulk. Ideally, MIECs should adopt hierarchical structures with 1) high surface areas, 2) surface compositions exhibiting high catalytic activity, and 3) microstructural connectivity in the direction needed for fast mass and charge transport. In practice, however, MIECs.